For this one I’d say pretty much any world from a sci-fi or post-apocalyptic novel. Even some fantasy worlds, like the various landscapes in The Lord of the Rings, are not ones I’d want to spend time in, fraught as they are with unexpected danger. I sometimes even have trouble reading about them because the threatening landscapes feel threatening in my mind as I read. The same goes for a lot of historical times and places. It’s tempting to romanticize at least some of the bygone eras – Austen’s England, the London of so many great classics. Particularly when I was young I used to love poring over books of clothing from different periods, fascinated by the sweeping gowns and jewels. But now I also know that these times were full of horrible things. Those long, elegant dresses often dragged through all kinds of mess in the street. They also came with restrictive corsets that caused damage to women’s bodies. And that’s the upper class – class divides were huge back then, and a vast majority of people were scraping by on very little, often living in horrible conditions. Malnutrition was common, along with infections from animal and insect bites and poor hygiene. There were all kinds of horrible beliefs in medical care as well – some of the “treatments” were worse than the ills they tried to treat, and I can’t even imagine having surgery before the importance of cleaning instruments and hands was known, and without anesthetic. And that’s not even bringing in the issues women had to deal with – no legal rights to speak of, being literal property, depending on male relatives or husbands for everything and having no control over pregnancies or birth – which often didn’t go well for the mother or infant. No, I definitely wouldn’t want to go back to pretty much any point in history, since things now aren’t great but are much better even in just the past hundred years for women, in particular. So basically I don’t want to go to any other made up worlds, and I don’t want to go to ours in any other period. I don’t think I’d last long in either.
What about you guys? Are there any worlds you particularly wouldn’t want to visit?
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I like reading about history but I’d never want to live back then!
I’m with you on that one! Except that I don’t usually like reading about it that much either…. lol
Corsets didn’t have to be laced up tight enough to do any harm, unless a fashion victim wanted to brag about her sixteen-inch waist, but yes, lots of bacteria, no antibiotics. If I were going to live before the mid-twentieth century I’d want to be in a very remote rural area near the top of the highest hill in the vicinity…Heidi’s world, maybe.
Women got men to do more for them by not being allowed to do it themselves, but still, ick.
There is a lot to be said for “home is best.”
Oh god, the sixteen-inch waist! Yikes! Yeah, that’s one of the things that I hadn’t though of until reading Station Eleven – that without modern infrastructure and medicine we would die of things that seem like no big deal to us now, like bacterial infections. I agree – a very, very remote high hill! Yeah, I think where it falls apart for me is I’m really uncomfortable with that scenario – I’d rather not have men doing as much and, you know, be free to own property and vote and all that! Home is definitely best for me, because for all its faults, at least it’s familiar!
Great list. Post-apocalyptic was popular this week. I also wouldn’t want to live in Colonial America or during the Civil War for some of the reasons you stated. Thanks for sharing.
Yeah, I think it’s likely there’s a lot of similar responses, because it’s not hard to see why we chose what we did! I wouldn’t have wanted to be here during those time periods either. Especially as a woman, as I suspect it was unpleasant and dangerous!
You make some greats points. Victorian England would be an interesting period to visit in theory, but in practice it would be awful due to all the reasons you pointed out. I imagine the air wouldn’t smell too great either, depending on which version you’re reading.
Oh god, I didn’t even think about the smell!!!! Hell no. Not for me. Though that might solve the mystery as to why ladies back then kept on swooning (aside from the corsets, of course)!