: Re: Writing a character who is going through a civilizing process without overdoing it? In my planned novel the main character is essentially from a less technologically advanced society and is learning

@Pierce369

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Your scenario reminded me of two movies; Time After Time and The Gods Must be Crazy.

In Time After Time, H.G. Wells takes little time adapting to the technological marvels around him, though he makes a few mistakes. He is intelligent and curious.

In Gods Must Be Crazy, a bushman is on a quest to rid the world of an evil. The technologically advanced culture he encounters (us) he takes for gods, but they are lazy, greedy and speak strangely. He is not impressed with these people who become impediments to his quest.

Your character could come from a society that, as Amadeus and Galastel say, has things that your other culture traded away. Societies make choices, what is important to learn, what is not. In technologically advanced cultures, survival is not something we are encouraged to learn.

It is said that if you have a city dweller who gets lost in the woods - or almost any other natural environment, they are unlikely to survive. They know what bus will get them where they need to go, how to shop for items they need, but they do not know how to build shelter, find food and probably hunt it and recognize what is good to eat and what is poisonous.

If you have a homeless person who this other might have passed by with a thought of pity in this same situation, he is much more likely to survive because he is already foraging for food, seeking shelter that does not have a key and is much less likely to panic.

Your character might see these people as less than his culture - helpless and unable to hunt. He might wonder at the great hunter and gatherer who filled the grocery stores and wonder at their skill. He will be impressed by some things and vastly disappointed by others. The separation of people, the way our lives are ruled by clocks could have him pity these people and need to go home where the world makes so much more sense.

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