If you could live in any fictional society...

Skritcakes

Chieftain
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Which would it be? Honestly I find the society from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury to be so cool, I would love to live in it.
 
Which would it be? Honestly I find the society from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury to be so cool, I would love to live in it.

:crazyeye:

Since, like Fahrenheit 451, most fictional future societies are dystopian, this is a hard question. Similarly fictionalized historical societies, like their real counterparts, might be great, but only if you get to specify your position. Middle Earth might be a very interesting place for Bilbo Baggins, but for the average hobbit it was just a hole in the ground.

I opt for the society in Nano by John Marlow.
 
:crazyeye:

Since, like Fahrenheit 451, most fictional future societies are dystopian, this is a hard question. Similarly fictionalized historical societies, like their real counterparts, might be great if you get to specify your position. Middle Earth might be a very interesting place for Bilbo Baggins, but for the average hobbit it was just a hole in the ground.

I opt for the society in Nano by John Marlow.

oh yeah definitely fictionalized historical societies count.
 
I suppose The United Federation of Planets, from Star Trek, is almost too obvious, but I think that's probably my top answer. Like Tim said, there aren't a ton of optimistic visions of society in fantasy and sci-fi. Star Trek offers a lot of people and planets to explore, without burying you in misery, oppression and violence. Star Wars, circa The Old Republic, up until The Phantom Menace, is similar.
 
Star Trek is the obvious answer, but too easy.

If Star Trek is off the table, I would probably go with Neuromancer. Gibson never considered it dystopian and whenever we are shown people who aren't living on the fringes of society it isn't any worse than life today.
 
Star Trek has got too much sixties baggage, unless you dismiss TOS as uncanonical.
I'd prefer the Culture from Ian Banks' books. That's as utopic as it gets. The only problem is that life might feel a bit pointless if everything is taken care of by Minds.
 
Star Trek has got too much sixties baggage, unless you dismiss TOS as uncanonical.
I'd prefer the Culture from Ian Banks' books. That's as utopic as it gets. The only problem is that life might feel a bit pointless if everything is taken care of by Minds.
I haven't read the Culture books, so I can't comment on those specifically, but I think the reason so many fictional worlds are dystopic is because you need conflict to drive drama. In American mythology (maybe other cultures', too, I'm not saying it's purely American) we're really enamored with the survivor and the outlaw, so casting a protagonist against a backdrop of oppression and/or catastrophe is sweet, sweet honey to the American psyche. A world that's too utopian could easily come across as just boring. :lol: I think Star Trek and Star Wars strike pretty good balances between optimism and conflict.
 
Star Wars, though not necessarily on Coruscant.
There would always be a chance of being force sensitive.
And the lightsabers oooh!

I think I'd also find my way in the Fallout universe.
 
I'd find the Star Trek universe fun for awhile, but TOS is too dangerous and TNG is too snooty and overly groomed. I never liked DS9, and while Voyager is my favorite non-TOS series, I do not want to be at the mercy of a captain whose conflict solutions include ramming the ship into whatever alien enemies she runs across.

I'd opt for the Time Patrol (Poul Anderson's version). The Service is a culture all its own, with over a million years of human history to roam around in and longevity treatments to enable them to enjoy it. Granted, it can get dangerous, but not everyone involved is involved in those aspects. Local researchers would be right up my alley, and I'd get to finally know the answers to a lot of questions that have annoyed historians for a very long time.

Only problem is that I'd have to learn to ride both horses and motorbikes... :hmm:
 
Naruto. Being able to train as a ninja and then eventually become the Hokage would be amazing:)
 
Port William, from Wendell Berry's books, even though his novels about the community's decline through two world wars and the rise of agribusiness.

Outside the real world, either the Shire or StarTrek. Probably TOS-era, otherwise we'd run into the Borg and the Dominion.
 
"The Highest Possible Level of Development" civilization in Stanislaw Lem's, The Cyberiad - Fables for the Cybernetic Age.
 
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