I guess i got to read them more. I only read Player of Games and Consider Phlebas and my take away was that they have what’s almost a paradise but it’s still fucked up.
A common mistake readers make is that they believe the Vavatch orbital is Culture. It’s very definitely not, so all the unsavory stuff going on there isn’t a reflection of the Culture. Not Damage, not the Eaters (they hate The Culture!), and so on.
Use of Weapons, Consider Phlebas, and to a lesser degree Player of Games are mostly outsider perspectives of The Culture, so that warps judgement a little too.
IDK if Iain Banks could have made it clearer that Vavatch is non-Culture. I guess us only knowing drones and orbitals from The Culture made some readers conflate the two societies despite their extreme moral differences.
I guess i got to read them more. I only read Player of Games and Consider Phlebas and my take away was that they have what’s almost a paradise but it’s still fucked up.
A common mistake readers make is that they believe the Vavatch orbital is Culture. It’s very definitely not, so all the unsavory stuff going on there isn’t a reflection of the Culture. Not Damage, not the Eaters (they hate The Culture!), and so on.
Use of Weapons, Consider Phlebas, and to a lesser degree Player of Games are mostly outsider perspectives of The Culture, so that warps judgement a little too.
IDK if Iain Banks could have made it clearer that Vavatch is non-Culture. I guess us only knowing drones and orbitals from The Culture made some readers conflate the two societies despite their extreme moral differences.