Only if you focus too much at the edges. The first book is almost completely outside the Culture. Much of the other books deal with "Special Circumstances". But the underlying society is one that sounds rather blissful. Do anything, anytime. Become anything as you wish. A hyperintelligent AI at your call every minute.
I imagine stories of endless parties, people switching genders, getting high and playing a myriad of amazing games, pursuing arts of any form, screwing aliens or AI avatars -- it just wouldn't make terribly interesting reading, for the most part. Hence you've gotta add tension and some nastiness to make it a fun space opera, despite such things happening to less than a billionth of your citizens. Sorta like ST:TNG - sure a lot of the universe sucks, but for the most part, life seems pretty rosy if you're not the subject of an episode. TNG also provided that positive feeling in me, apart from hating the Prime Directive.
Oh, sure, it sounds like most of the people in the Culture live really wonderful, fulfilling lives. But the books I read were never about those people. And, yes, you need some conflict and unpleasantness to make the plot go; but Banks, in everything of his that I've read, really enjoys writing these intricately, lovingly detailed scenes of baroque cruelty and grotesquerie that (it seems to me) are very much intended to provoke a sense of horror, revulsion, and alienation in the reader. He's a great, skilled writer, but uplifting he definitely is not.
I always viewed those parts as demonstrating why The Culture / SC needs to get involved and fuck stuff up. That is, why the Prime Directive and non-interference are bunk, why we should get involved. The world/universe is a shitty place, so we need to make it better. And most of the protagonists have a stop on a GSV for fun, so they could choose to nod off into bliss if they wanted. (And probably, most civilizations could decide to be wholesale brought into the Culture on a per-person basis (i.e. giving up all their local government, culture, etc.)). It's like saying that, at the end of the day, when shit calms down, you're gonna be OK. (Unless you happen to be an unfortunate pawn... but hey, can't save everybody for some reason.)
Maybe I'm just projecting how I'd live in such a universe and that's why it makes me so happy. :\
>I imagine stories of endless parties, people switching genders, getting high and playing a myriad of amazing games, pursuing arts of any form, screwing aliens or AI avatars -- it just wouldn't make terribly interesting reading, for the most part.
I imagine stories of endless parties, people switching genders, getting high and playing a myriad of amazing games, pursuing arts of any form, screwing aliens or AI avatars -- it just wouldn't make terribly interesting reading, for the most part. Hence you've gotta add tension and some nastiness to make it a fun space opera, despite such things happening to less than a billionth of your citizens. Sorta like ST:TNG - sure a lot of the universe sucks, but for the most part, life seems pretty rosy if you're not the subject of an episode. TNG also provided that positive feeling in me, apart from hating the Prime Directive.