Those goals are perfectly achievable by writing Culture fanfiction. You can write about a communist society where everyone is completely free and has all the agency they want, where trans people are completely normal and people who get to their 200th birthday without at least trying a sex change are seen as primitive.
The fact that some people want to achieve those things with slavery and imperialism is deeper than that. And the fact they don’t want to talk about why they want it that way is sus.
Or maybe multiple works/bodies of work can exist and demanding everything meet some standard of ideological purity is a boring way of engaging with the world. I read the original because of the memes, it was kinda comforting in some ways, a little off putting in others, overall a worthwhile use of the time spent. It’s not any deeper than that to me.
Here is a fanfic that gives me the warm fuzzies. It’s about the best most communist space civ meeting the worst most fascist one. The power differential isn’t anywhere near close, but what gives the fic stakes is the Culture’s ethics. They do not under normal circumstances kill, indoctrinate, or enslave, unlike some people. Can the ultimate commies reform the ultimate fascists and fix their horrible galaxy? And can they do so without being corrupted?
Those goals are perfectly achievable by writing Culture fanfiction. You can write about a communist society where everyone is completely free and has all the agency they want, where trans people are completely normal and people who get to their 200th birthday without at least trying a sex change are seen as primitive.
The fact that some people want to achieve those things with slavery and imperialism is deeper than that. And the fact they don’t want to talk about why they want it that way is sus.
Or maybe multiple works/bodies of work can exist and demanding everything meet some standard of ideological purity is a boring way of engaging with the world. I read the original because of the memes, it was kinda comforting in some ways, a little off putting in others, overall a worthwhile use of the time spent. It’s not any deeper than that to me.
Is there much culture fan fiction? Now I am intrigued.
Here is a fanfic that gives me the warm fuzzies. It’s about the best most communist space civ meeting the worst most fascist one. The power differential isn’t anywhere near close, but what gives the fic stakes is the Culture’s ethics. They do not under normal circumstances kill, indoctrinate, or enslave, unlike some people. Can the ultimate commies reform the ultimate fascists and fix their horrible galaxy? And can they do so without being corrupted?
https://archiveofourown.org/works/649448?view_full_work=true