[lbo-talk] working class fiction

Tayssir John Gabbour tayssir.john at googlemail.com
Tue Jan 9 06:34:01 PST 2007


On 1/9/07, joanna <123hop at comcast.net> wrote:
> Any thoughts/ideas/definitions about this topic would be welcome.
>
> Please don't point me to books; I have a deadline of January 14th.
>
> Just interested in what your thoughts and experience has been with
> "working class fiction."

I know of "blue-collar sitcoms," like Honeymooners, Roseanne, and King of Queens.

Roseanne Barr mentioned on "Real Time with Bill Maher," last November: "The television show I did, the characters in that television show, Roseanne and Dan Connor, they were working class people too that worked around the minimum wage. [...] You know, Roseanne and Dan Connor owned a home and tried to save money to send their children to college. And in fact, that entire class of people has been dismantled by this government."

Personally, I find HBO's Lucky Louie to be an awesome advance on the genre: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9OAuO5mDQw>


> --What does the category denote?
>
> -- Is it a useful category? How?

I'm guessing it means fiction which both portrays working-class people and targets them as a main audience.

In the case of TV, I don't watch enough to know, but I suspect there's the class bias where the lead males are typically less physically attractive than wealthier ones in other shows. Usually fat or something.

It's unclear to me whether the high cost of HBO subscriptions means that shows like The Wire and Lucky Louie are aimed at more upscale audiences.

Tayssir



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