This is gonna be the thread where we talk about stuff

One of my favorite things about Iain Banks's books is that he manages to make compelling plots based around a utopian society while still making it seem like a genuinely ideal place to live. Most utopian fiction tends to be about a seemingly ideal society... WITH A DARK SECRET *horn sting*. But with the Culture it's more like nope, this place is great, but the rest of the universe is still pretty awful and they feel like they have a moral responsibility to deal with that, which is where things start getting Tricky. The Culture is like that kindly old lady across the street who feels compelled to meddle in everyone's business. The Culture is Mary Worth, is what I'm saying.

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