2d ago

We need more media with lower-class characters (proletarian, lumpen, even petit-bourgeois, tbh)

cross-posted from: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/7056175

Seems every character is a noble or rich dude.
I'm playing Dynasty Warriors Origins. I love the game so far, a return to form for the series. That said, most of the characters are nobles. It's good that the main character is a commoner, of sorts. And Zhang Jiao was clearly commoner. But your sidekick makes a comment about how "Isn't it CRAZY that the Empress is a COMMONER?! Gee, that sure is strange!" and it reminds me that a lot of media nowadays has the ASOIAF / Game of Thrones problem where the main POVs are generally noble or not of humble birth or means. I mean, okay, Dynasty Warriors is based off of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is notorious for this issue, but that was a book from the feudal era of China. I mean, come on, it's not just ASOIAF / Game of Thrones, it's also all the TV shows we have nowadays about rich dudes or rich serial killers.
This is especially true for fantasy novels, even now. Forget bloodlines and mystical mumbo-jumbo, it's not just that. They're literally nobles or some bastard noble. I was in a forum where they outlined all the fantasy nobles that year that came out where everyone was specifically not a commoner (again, it wasn't just the "mystical bloodlines" stuff, it was their very status in politico-societal order). Brandon Sanderson has this problem where the prose and descriptions come off as classist too, despite dealing with the subject of class head-on (I read up to book 3 of The Stormlight Archive and then stopped 'cause the books were taking too long to come out). Classism is just rife, it's not just the racism (and sexism, let's not forget that) or the transphobia (like in Book 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire, near the end).
Granted, some of the novels reflect the "times" that they're set in (like Dynasty Warriors) but I wish we could have a discussion about class representation. Even the BIPOC representative characters seem to be rich at times. And whites are specifically rich in a lot of these tales.
Anyway, I'm working on a guide that I can show you all here (and if you have recommendations for what to add to it, please tell me so I can add stuff).
But that's for specifically communist and socialist and other leftist literature and media.
I now want media or literature that's anti-classist or non-classist in any way at this point.
It's like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate where the majority are sword users (and white and pretty much non-Black).
(Also, again, please tell me what to add to the guide that I'm making through the hyperlink above, kthnxbai)
Okay, but seriously, I can't be the only noticing and I'm going to say that line that's usually not true anyway, but whatever, I'll say it: NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT THIS!!
(There, I said the line, happy now?)
(...Ugh, I hate it when Uyghur genocide believers say that shit.)

7 comments

i'm sorry that you live in burger lands, because you don't know the popular heroes of latam:
el chavo del 8
a kid living in a poor neighborhood, he's friend with a single father who works ocasionally and he's always owing the rent, the kid lives hungry and sleeps in a barrel, and the bourgueoise and pmc are subject of pranks
condorito
a lumpen cartoon condor who has worked in any job under the sun, living in a slum with his proletarian friends

In the US literary canon, I would argue that Mark Twain is the most prominent author among all American authors historically. The vast majority of his stories deal with working class and less-well off individuals. John Steinbeck and Zora Neale Hurston were other American authors who also primarily wrote about working class individuals. I definitely agree with you about this in general but I also think there are a fair amount of Yankee authors who dealt with this. That’s certainly not always true and not accompanying of all cultural output but I figured that it is worth mentioning.

Hey, I’ve seen a ton of comedies that all center “middle class people [who have moderately sized businesses and never struggled a day in their lives.]” http://smbc-comics.com/comic/frigid

I mean, stories that are meant to emulate the old romances would follow nobles simply because that's the medium. But I definitely agree that more stories set current day need working class (or just not owning class) protagonists. I think revolutionary stories in the style of epics would be amazing, but unfortunately I have met with difficulty writing such a thing.

I mean most people have pretty boring lives, at least withing the context of making a story out of them. Tell u the truth if im experiencing a story set in a medieval fantasy world im not really all that interested in the life of some random farmer, not unless they are about to become world shaping important.
Also how do u feel about a character starting out in a low socioeconomic position and then becoming a noble or the like.
Also also i think this is more of u thing or maybe its less of a thing for me, cuz i just looked thru the last 20 or so fiction books/book series i read and most of them have either lower/middle class mcs or a literal fantasy monster as mc so idk it may not be as uncommon as u perceive.

You read enough books in which people like you are disposable, or are dirt, or are silent, absent, or worthless, and it makes an impact on you. Because art makes the world, because it matters, because it makes us. Or breaks us.

people just do nothing