Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature/meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s topic is Top Ten Worlds I’d Never Want to Live In.
As usual, these are in no particular order:
- Mordor. Volcanoes. Ash, dust, rocks, and hardly any vegetation. Constantly overcast. Orcs. The Great Eye. Need I say more?
- Panem, the world of the Hunger Games trilogy. I haven’t even read these, and I know I don’t want to live there.
- Arrakis and the Dune universe generally. I don’t like Sahara-like deserts, I don’t want to get addicted to spice, the sand-worms sound terrifying, and I’m not particularly fond of cutthroat politics, so… No.
- The world of John Christopher’s Tripod series. Mind control? A chilling thought.
- The world of Logan’s Run, or anywhere else where your life is arbitrarily cut short at a specified age.
- The wizarding world in either of the periods when Voldemort was ascendant. I’d love to live in the wizarding world (provided I were a wizard), just not when Voldemort’s power was strongest. Yes, I’d probably fight (quietly) against him, because it’s the right thing to do. But I’m not cut out for war and constant fear.
- The Star Wars universe under Emperor Palpatine. What I said about the wizarding world pretty much covers this one, too.
- Any world with zombies in it. If they were real, zombies would completely terrify me. I don’t even want to read about them. The mindlessness makes them scarier to me than most other supernatural critters.
- Any world with vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural beings that prey on human beings. I don’t mind reading about these, depending on how they’re presented. But I sure as heck wouldn’t be comfortable living around them.
- The world of Planet of the Apes. Humans as slaves to apes (or to anyone, for that matter)? Yeah, not so much. In fact, steer me clear of anywhere that thinks slavery is a good idea.
- Pretty much any dystopian world. They’re called dystopian for a reason: they’re not nice places to live. And I’m not a big fan of heavy government repression, secret police, the disintegration of society, or any of the other ills depicted in dystopian fiction. Our world has its problems and more than a few repressive regimes. (I wouldn’t want to live under them, either.) But at least we’ve also got a number of countries that strive to advance human rights and the human condition, even if they don’t always succeed.
Did I leave out anything? Which fictional worlds would you hate to live in?
Elisa @ Leopards and Dragons
Dune almost made my list too. And I had forgotten all about The White Mountain Books – I definitely wouldn’t like that either. I think there are way more worlds in fiction that I wouldn’t want to live on than I would. There are so many dystopian, war-torn, zombie-infested worlds out there – makes a great story but a lousy life.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Yes, exactly! Even for the worlds I would enjoy living in (Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar, or Middle Earth, or Narnia), there are times in which I wouldn’t want to live there. I prefer things to be relatively calm and stable — which makes for a better (and safer) life but not necessarily a great story!
Wendy Darling
I think The Hunger Games made everyone’s list today–I think it’s hilarious it made yours, even though you haven’t read the series yet! BUT WHY WHY WHY. *pants very hard*
I agree with the zombie world or dystopian worlds, too. I love reading about zombies, and sometimes dystopians too, but it’d be a bummer to be fending off attacks all the time.
Wendy @ The Midnight Garden
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Why haven’t I read The Hunger Games? I was a bit put off by the descriptions of all the violence — I understand that the book doesn’t glorify the violence, but I was still a bit leery. I don’t tend to talk about this much on my blog, but I deal with anxiety (as a medical diagnosis, not just “oh, I worry a lot.”) I do pretty well most of the time without medication, but when The Hunger Games came out, it wasn’t a good time for me to read it. Maybe someday!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Greg
Logan’s Run! I have a soft spot for that movie! Must be childhood nostalgia… 🙂 I didn’t care much for the book, which is odd since usually I vastly prefer the book to the movie, but not in this case.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
I actually read the book, but never saw the movie. I read it twice as a teen, but haven’t gone back to it. Still, the concept made an impression!
Cheryl @ Tales of the Marvelous
With you on Mordor! I almost put Middle Earth down just because of the apparent complete lack of opportunities for women to do ANYTHING…but the Shire and the elves’ countries are so pretty that I didn’t quite have the heart to rule Middle Earth out. Maybe there are women busy doing all sorts of things that Tolkien just didn’t bother to write about…
nessili
Well, Galadriel was awfully busy keeping Sauron’s evil from taking over her neck of the woods, seeing how she was the strongest (and oldest) Ringbearer in Middle Earth at that time (unless you count Gandalf, but he had to give up a lot of his power when he became one of the Istari).
And Shire-life sounds nice and dull. I’ve discovered the hard way that I don’t do excitement and adrenaline well, so that kind of lifestyle would probably suit me just fine.
But I do understand your point 😀
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Cheryl, I’d love to live in the Shire, or Lothlorien (well, if I were an elf) or Rivendell/Imladris, or even Gondor, but NOT while Sauron’s a big threat. Mordor, on the other hand, is right out. 😉
Nessili (hi, Vanessa!), you’re absolutely right about the Shire. And it’s based on rural/village England, which is very high on my list of ‘places I love’, so that’s another point in its favor.
kimbacaffeinate
I agree with all but Harry potter’s world..muggle or not I wanna go to Hogwarts!
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Oh, so do I! Just not during the two time that Voldemort had a lot of power. Any other time, I’d be delighted to be there. I wish I could have gone to Hogwarts, too!
Lady In Read
agree with you on Mordor.. and dystopian does not do it for me.
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Well, that’s rather the point of dystopian. [grins] I don’t think any of us would want to live in one. Of course, there are countries in our world that are a bit dystopian, too.
nessili
I agree–I do not see the whole attraction of dystopian fiction in the first place, so any of those places would be good to avoid. Others? The worlds of the Wheel of Time; Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn; Pern during a Fall… Yeah…I guess most fantasy worlds would be absolutely terrifying to live in 😛
Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard
Pern during a Fall wouldn’t be that bad, as long as you followed directions and weren’t a dragonrider. I mean, as dangers go, it’s pretty avoidable for the common folk. But I take your point; most fantasy worlds have their terrors and dangers, just as our world does. And they wouldn’t be very interesting to read about if they didn’t!