Three Approaches To Life

Poul Anderson's sf shows Conflicting Cultures.

In The Night Face/Let The Spacemen Beware, a joint expedition visits Gwydion. Thus, the characters compare three cultures:

a bustling Namerican gets his work - whatever it is - done, then get his recreation done;

an aristocratic Lochlanna tries to make both his work and his leisure approach an abstract ideal - but relapses into brutishness if he fails;

the Gwydiona regard work, leisure and life as a single harmonious whole so. e.g., they fish from elaborately carved and symbolically designed sailboats to musical accompaniment, thus combining work, pleasure and art.

Gwydiona society is simple in some ways but complex in others. Like the crew of the Enterprise, the explorers must find out why. There are environmental clues like steel doors and shutters and thick walls of reinforced concrete. Science fiction approaches detective fiction.