I'm not sure I understand what you're saying correctly, but I think it's something along the lines of "Your culture isn't what makes you YOU and doesn't play as big a role as a person's individual personality." I agree with that to an extent, but you can't contrast the character's personality against his surroundings unless you firmly and consistently establish what the surroundings are. The culture is the standard that the character is being judged against. You can't make any measurements until after you define the inch. I also ditto Terry's and Cog's comments. That's a big part of what gives a story weight. Besides, it's always fun when the lightbulb goes off in your head and you say "Oh, so that's why he did that."
Of course, I was just thinking that maybe somewhere, a fictional place, you could let humans carry out their lives without a noticeable culture present. Would be interesting no?
I like Terry's point about the 90% hidden part. I think it goes along with what I said about making sure you know what the culture's core values/beliefs/ideologies/whatever is. It'd be pretty pointless if you bluntly say in the story "And the Yagagaga Culture believes in individualism", but you still need to know that, anyways, to make sure you understand how the Yagagaga people behave.
I like the 90% hidden idea too. Although, depending on how one writes, culture can be displayed through the story as either shown to the reader or told to the reader through a character. You can show how a particular race feels about another race through that race's actions, words, etc. Or you can have a character vaguely explain it. Of course, I kinda like it when authors place information about the cultures they create somewhere in the back of the book. That way you learn the stuff the story might not have told you about the culture(s) and, imo, they're often really interesting to read. Maybe that's what I like about the Inheritance trilogy/quartet....
I've never been a proponent of building a world to details beyond what is needed for the story. But Terry's point is making me rethink that somewhat. I still don't believe you need to nail down every detail, but it may be worthwhile to pre-develop more of the cultural basis than is strictly needed for the story. Just don't make it an excuse to delay the start of the actual writing. Some of the submerged 90% can grow during the first draft, and be the basis for some of the adjustments during the revision phase.
This is an interesting question for me because I tend to disregard culture entirely. I am an American, and not too proud of American culture, so I tend to leave a big blank where culture might be. Instead, the culture I turn to is more of a spirituality suggested by writers. Rilke's sentiments on spirituality, the individual, and life in general were one of the most in-depth readings I've done that provide me with a sense of culture - but he was far from an American. Thus, I'd say that my own sense of culture comes from literature, which tends to represent all places. In my writing, the culture that I write about is this culture, which has a sense of spirituality to it that doesn't really exist in the present but comes from all the writers I've read from generations that never lived at the same time. American movies, however, influence me quite a bit. And Rock 'n' Roll. But, again, that's art.
As long as you have a basic picture in mind, you can always figure out the details as you go. It's a perfectly viable method, and a lot of writers do just that. I started working on my current project with only about 30 minutes of brainstorming. So far the ideas are flowing smoothly, and it seems to be working out much better than all the meticulous planning that went into my previous endeavors. At the very least it's a great way to keep details relevant. You can't write what you don't know yet. Either approach can work out fine, but consistency is key. All you really need is a decent foundation, which can materialise in a flash of inspiration. But once you pour the cement you've only got so much room for alterations and second thoughts.
I'm the opposite. I spend months reading before I ever begin to plot, and then, before writing, I spend months plotting. The writing comes after the story is almost entirely in my mind. If anything changes, then I abandon that element and turn to the unplanned method, planning nothing, writing what's coming to mind, until arriving back at the plot once again. But, I also enjoy plotting out a novel, just as much as writing it. So, I suppose, in some sense, it can be a form of self-indulgence.
One thing to keep in mind is that culture isn't the tepees or the siestas or the nesting dolls or going to church on sundays. Those things are the trappings, the results. Culture is to large groups of people what personality is to individuals. It's the way they think. It's an average of the quirks and excentricities of millions of people at once. Just like any personality, it can do some unexpected things because what we see is usually only the results, not the train of thought that led to the actions. Also, just like any personality, it is shaped to a very large extent by it's environment. A culture from a desert is going to be quite a bit different than one from say, central europe. That difference isn't going to stop at water rights policy either. An environment where you have to go upstream and either talk or beat your neighbor into tearing down that dam he put across the creek in order to plant your crops and survive the next winter is going to breed a different sort of people than one where you stick some seed in the ground and wait six months for your food to come along. Individuals take the attitude required for one aspect of survival in their environment and apply it to all of their decisions. That way you end up with people who use their views on irrigation to determine what kind of pranks they pull while hanging out with their buddies.
