newport was supposed to be l.a.???? never crossed my mind…and not only because i played tlj and saw the city when it was a hip and happening place. the fact that the person who sent the email automatically assumed newport to be l.a. fictionalized simply because of a) vague north american location details and b) the fact that it was a city rife with crime and gangs says more about his limited perception than anything else. who said l.a. is defined only by its gang population and high crime rates? and who’s to say that its future may not be filled with an influx of the previous anyway? whatever happened to appreciating the art of fictionalization?! geez. i don’t think the backstory was implying any american cultural decay anyway – rather more of an interesting view of human behavior and all its idiosyncracies. with always a fabulous backdrop with which to poke and prod the inhabitants.
the only culture i felt to be prominently commented on was the nipponese-ness of waticorp wonderland. i’ve read enough scifi projecting from a nipponese cultural base that waticorp seemed more a comment of an inevitable future lifestyle than any criticism per se on the japanese. david wingrove wrote an scifi entire series based on the brilliance and the devasting extravagance of the chinese — doesn’t mean that he was projecting the image of the chinese as overly indulgent, sex-starved maniacs. all stories are based on something but that’s not to say that these stories are ever implying any specific prejudiced views of its subjects.