Today, the bloggers at The Broke and the Bookish have asked us to list the Top Ten worlds that I’d never want to live in, or characters I’d never want to trade places with.
This was so easy to put together, people! Of late, I realize I have read so many books about unpleasant places and people in unpleasant situations that I could write a whole book on them. A blog post is nothing!
- The first place I never want to live or visit or do anything other than obsessively read about it is Westeros/Essos from A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R.Martin. Obviously, who in their right mind would want to live in a world where winters last for years, and the danger of being killed by weird frozen zombies? And that is just the tip of the iceberg and please excuse the bad pun.
- I also don’t want to travel back in time to any era from the past. I definitely don’t want to do a Claire Randall and jump into 1700s Scotland like she did in Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Apart from the obvious dangers, I am not jumping into any era without in my opinion adequate personal hygiene. No chamber pots for me. This automatically rules out any era before the 1900s.
- But of course, I wouldn’t want to live during World War 1 (or 2 for that matter) like poor Alfie from Stay Where You Are and Then Leave by John Boyne.
It just struck me while I was writing this post that this is a particularly horrible era to live. In case you somehow dodged the tragedy bullet from World War 1, within the next 12 years, World War 2 was out to get you. - I don’t know what exactly happened in The Road by Cormac McCarthy and why the whole of America was covered in dust and filled with roaming cannibals, but I want none of it.
- I don’t want to visit the sewers of Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman either.
- I would never want to attend the school that Nau goes to in Tokyo in A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.
- Nor would I like to live in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe or be an illegal immigrant in America like poor Darling had to in We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo.
- Being a slave in the cotton plantations must have been a hellish place to live. I would never want to trade places with Sethe from Toni Morrison’s Beloved.
- Nor do I envy Namima’s fate (from The Goddess Chronicle by Natsuo Kirino) forced to live in an eternal undying with a wrathful goddess in some dark, dingy cave
- And last but not the least, oh, the poor, poor narrator in The Handmaid’s Tale. I can’t imagine having to abandon my children and live in as a handmaid in another family. Worst fate ever!
I don’t plan to get a visa to Westeros or Essos anytime soon
Definitely very pretty, but in the 1700s? No thanks
Places and Times I Never Want to Visit
Pretty covers but such horrible incidents and guess what all the protagonists are women. Guess we really have it tough in literature, huh?
So, that’s my list people. Of late, I haven’t been feeling the top ten tuesdays. I’ve skipped quite a lot, but this one was just too fun not to take part.
Which are the top ten literary places you’d never want to visit or characters you would never want to trade places with?
