> But one of my hobbies is “oppositional reading” – deliberately interpreting

> novels counter to the obvious / intended reading. And it’s not so clear to me

> that the Culture is all it is cracked up to be.

It's not clear to me that reading the Culture series as an "ambiguous" utopia is counter to the intended reading. There is a multitude of instances in the books that show clearly the downsides of living in a utopia where every possible want is met. The drudgery and boredom of living in a "perfect" world is a constant theme throughout the stories. In one tale, the entire crew of a spaceship deliberately infect themselves with the common cold just to feel something. In another story, people turn off their safeguards and go rafting on a lava stream, causing themselves intense pain and even dying, only so they can finally experience some real excitement.

> In Excession, it’s explained that Minds do rarely drift far enough to go rogue

> and are destroyed by the Culture. In other words, these superhuman minds have

> not solved alignment, and they cannot/will not inspect each other to determine

> misalignment before malicious action is taken.

The Culture doesn't even seem very interested in dealing with minds that do go rogue. In the same novel - Excession -, the GSV Grey Area openly violates Culture ethics, and nobody (or noship) seems to feel compelled to do anything about it.

In Surface Detail there is some discussion of "slap drones", assigned to follow troublemakers around and prevent them from getting into mischief. It is explicitly stated that even a misbehaving ship may receive this treatment. I think the Grey Area's hobby was regarded more as a repulsive violation of cultural norms than an actual crime.

> The drudgery and boredom of living in a "perfect" world is a constant theme throughout the stories.

You can of course interpret the novels however you like, but that absolutely wasn't Banks' intention when he wrote the series. See the quotes from other comments.

> In one tale, the entire crew of a spaceship deliberately infect themselves with the common cold just to feel something.

Or they just do it because why not? If you'd never been ill, you'd probably be curious as to what it felt like.

> In another story, people turn off their safeguards and go rafting on a lava stream, causing themselves intense pain and even dying, only so they can finally experience some real excitement.

I think in the story the lava-rafters were having a great time, and they were fairly unusual... and people in our culture risk pain and death doing sport just to feel excitement. In the Culture they just have additional options, such as rafting on lava.

Most of the Culture citizens were happy enough with their exploration, art, travel, genetically-enhanced sex, implanted drug glands, games, sports, and so they never got around to lava rafting.

I did a lot of thinking after that and now regret my actions.