"[Fussel] believes America has one of the most hypertrophied class systems in the world, that its formal equality has left a niche that an informal class system expanded to fill - and expanded, and expanded, until it surpassed the more-legible systems of Europe and became its own sort of homegrown monstrosity."
So did De TocqueVille, who observed that absence of set class boundaries, Americans continually aimed to use whatever vague symbols they could find to assert their position, given this uncertainty.
Btw, Fussell's Class is a fabulous book, well worth the read.
I encountered this book at work in the early 1990s, where a remote and rarely-used conference room had a shelf full of paperback copies of it. I guessed that it had been used as a text in some sort of management seminar, as a practical guide for people who expected to be moving up in the world. I assume they either didn't perceive its satiric/critical tone, or didn't care and thought it to be informative enough regardless.
Anyway, I pilfered a copy and read it, mostly because I was already familiar with Fussel from his classic work _The Great War And Modern Memory_, about the damaging long-term psycho-social effects of WWI. I don't think the underlying anger and disdain of _Class_ can be readily perceived unless you've read that book.
I had also just read Douglas Coupland's _Generation X_, and Fussel's "X Class" seemed like an eerie prophetic vision of the 90's hipster.
I read the book perhaps 35 years ago. What struck me then was that perhaps a fair bit of what I took for intelligence in others (and what others took as intelligence in me) was a gift for mimicry of whoever it was set the standards.
The reviewer is correct to point out the weakness of the Class X bit; but then most of even the direst eschatologies leave someone to be saved. Why not the people that Fussell liked, worked with, wrote letters of recommendations for?
In the context of Fussell, I suppose the comments on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26351053 read that "having office hours for your open-source project because you have the leisure time" is upper-middle, whereas "having office hours for your open-source project because you have a growth mindset" is lower-middle...
Agreed. And of course the upper class wouldn't have anything to do with an open-source project at all, as that would imply they have something to prove, which they don't.
This is a timely comment as I struggle with understanding why I don't want to hustle, why I can't just relax in spite of having a tremendously interesting and well-paying job.
I've had an ongoing internal conflict because I am doing projects for the sheer fun of it with no predetermined outcome, but I feel like I should be #growthhackering instead. I hustled for years, and now I don't need to. I should just let myself be a dilettante. Thank you.
I read this book on assignment in a college interpersonal communications class as part of an engineering undergrad curriculum in the late 90s. It really blew my mind as someone who came from a solidly working class background from a tiny, rural town and was for the first time immersed in a world of people whose parents went to college or were academics or were my age but already had money. The fact that class wasn’t just about money but also about privilege, expectations, ability & willingness to take chances, but also anxiety and fear and insecurities really resonated with me. I started to see the world in a different way and to a large extent was able to empathize (both for non-self-interest as well as for my own practical code-switching reasons which I was able to subtly incorporate into my interactions). Today, there is a bit of friction at times between my family and I because of how I view art or food or many other aspects of daily living (as well as what things I consider _part_ of daily living). I’ve never felt that it’s because I was trying to put on any airs or be anything other than myself, but I sense a distinct class conflict in a variety of areas of my life and I think a college education at a diverse school, and in no small part this book, are a lot of the reason. Perhaps the biggest impact was to think earlier in my life about what I actually wanted out of life, instead of assuming that college was a way to “level up” my income, and to not fall into a trap of thinking that money == class ascendancy == problems going away.
i had that eye-opening experience in college around class and privilege, but i came away thinking it shallow and boring. i guess that puts me in fussell's class x, whatever that is.
i didn't read the book or read scott's article (because his writing tends to be affliatively biased, ironically similar to the middle class signaling fussell critiques). but based on some quick reviews/summaries found via search, the simplest critique of fussell is that he's trying to will his class system into being, attracting acolytes through its writing so as to coalesce sociopolitical power for himself. in short, it's self-serving and that makes it unlikely to be enlighteningly representative. people are constantly trying to segregate and one-up each other (around things like taste, a primary marker of class for fussell), and a static class system like his is just not flexible or fluid enough to represent a highly chaotic and idiosyncratic dynamic.
we have entirely too much of this kind of bullshit to wade through already, obscuring and dispersing the entirely-too-few real pearls of wisdom. sure, it can provide fodder for further, genuine consideration, but that seems to be largely eclipsed for most by identitarian cheering/booing.
I've been meaning to reread it for a long time — I'm curious how it will appeal to me now and what weaknesses I will find. I will also admit to, at that age when I first read it, not being a very good critical thinker.
> this was another one of the sections where I had trouble figuring out where Fussell was and wasn't joking
Judging from how many apparently-jokey parts where I was in a position to judge their accuracy were entirely accurate, I'm inclined to believe he's rarely joking in the book. What he writes may be funny, even intentionally so, but I think only a very little of it, if any, is misleading or substantially exaggerated.
Fussell’s primary objective with this book is neither to inform or entertain, but to tease the readers about their class and attendant insecurities. Teasing well of course requires more accuracy than simple satire because the readers have to recognize enough of themselves to feel targeted.
The teasing was also true of Mmm-mmiss Mmitford's "Noblesse Oblige: An Enquiry into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy": excessive worry about U vs. non-U is decidedly non-U... (compare Orwell's [middle class] notion of "Crimestop")
It's a much better review than Scott Alexander's, although that's an unfairly low bar given he doesn't appear to have caught on the book is supposed to be funny, a "cocktail-party-ready argument" as Sandra Tsing Loh puts it.
thanks for that article. her critique was as funny as it was biting, but maybe that's more a critique of my own class consciousness =)
having been to this dog park, i can't help giggling at this description:
> "This is not the brand-new Ramones T-shirt sported so conspicuously by needy soul-patched 50-ish alternadads at the Silver Lake dog park."
to be fair, (nearly) everyone at the dog park is nice and friendly.
and on ego fragility as it relates to urbanization:
> "In the relatively affluent post–Cold War era, the search for self-expression has evolved into a desire to not have that self-expression challenged, which in turn necessitates living among people who think and feel just as you do. It’s why so many bohemians flee gritty Los Angeles for verdant Portland, where left-leaning citizens pride themselves on their uniform, monotonously progressive culture—the Zipcars, the organic gardens, the funky graphic-novel stores, and the thriving alternative-music scene. (In the meantime, I’ve also noticed that Portland is much whiter than Los Angeles, disconcertingly white.)"
and quoting gyourko:
> "The city’s new product was lifestyle."
exclusive lifestyle is in exceedingly high demand, so the pressure is to limit immigration and inflate prices in desirable cities.
and finally,
> "All I had to offer was babysitting. Inquired the Wellesley girl: “Can you send me a job description?” I wrote back: “BABYSITTING! $12 an hour!” She took it."
wonderfully terse. strunk and white would be proud.
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So did De TocqueVille, who observed that absence of set class boundaries, Americans continually aimed to use whatever vague symbols they could find to assert their position, given this uncertainty.
Btw, Fussell's Class is a fabulous book, well worth the read.
Anyway, I pilfered a copy and read it, mostly because I was already familiar with Fussel from his classic work _The Great War And Modern Memory_, about the damaging long-term psycho-social effects of WWI. I don't think the underlying anger and disdain of _Class_ can be readily perceived unless you've read that book.
I had also just read Douglas Coupland's _Generation X_, and Fussel's "X Class" seemed like an eerie prophetic vision of the 90's hipster.
The reviewer is correct to point out the weakness of the Class X bit; but then most of even the direst eschatologies leave someone to be saved. Why not the people that Fussell liked, worked with, wrote letters of recommendations for?
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I've had an ongoing internal conflict because I am doing projects for the sheer fun of it with no predetermined outcome, but I feel like I should be #growthhackering instead. I hustled for years, and now I don't need to. I should just let myself be a dilettante. Thank you.
i didn't read the book or read scott's article (because his writing tends to be affliatively biased, ironically similar to the middle class signaling fussell critiques). but based on some quick reviews/summaries found via search, the simplest critique of fussell is that he's trying to will his class system into being, attracting acolytes through its writing so as to coalesce sociopolitical power for himself. in short, it's self-serving and that makes it unlikely to be enlighteningly representative. people are constantly trying to segregate and one-up each other (around things like taste, a primary marker of class for fussell), and a static class system like his is just not flexible or fluid enough to represent a highly chaotic and idiosyncratic dynamic.
we have entirely too much of this kind of bullshit to wade through already, obscuring and dispersing the entirely-too-few real pearls of wisdom. sure, it can provide fodder for further, genuine consideration, but that seems to be largely eclipsed for most by identitarian cheering/booing.
Judging from how many apparently-jokey parts where I was in a position to judge their accuracy were entirely accurate, I'm inclined to believe he's rarely joking in the book. What he writes may be funny, even intentionally so, but I think only a very little of it, if any, is misleading or substantially exaggerated.
https://mattasher.com/2020/09/01/ep-18-sandra-tsing-loh-on-a...
Sandra wrote what is imo the definitive book review of Class.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/03/class-d...
It's a much better review than Scott Alexander's, although that's an unfairly low bar given he doesn't appear to have caught on the book is supposed to be funny, a "cocktail-party-ready argument" as Sandra Tsing Loh puts it.
Haven't read it myself but he sounds right. Jokes like that aren't funny if they don't have a lot of truth in them.
having been to this dog park, i can't help giggling at this description:
> "This is not the brand-new Ramones T-shirt sported so conspicuously by needy soul-patched 50-ish alternadads at the Silver Lake dog park."
to be fair, (nearly) everyone at the dog park is nice and friendly.
and on ego fragility as it relates to urbanization:
> "In the relatively affluent post–Cold War era, the search for self-expression has evolved into a desire to not have that self-expression challenged, which in turn necessitates living among people who think and feel just as you do. It’s why so many bohemians flee gritty Los Angeles for verdant Portland, where left-leaning citizens pride themselves on their uniform, monotonously progressive culture—the Zipcars, the organic gardens, the funky graphic-novel stores, and the thriving alternative-music scene. (In the meantime, I’ve also noticed that Portland is much whiter than Los Angeles, disconcertingly white.)"
and quoting gyourko:
> "The city’s new product was lifestyle."
exclusive lifestyle is in exceedingly high demand, so the pressure is to limit immigration and inflate prices in desirable cities.
and finally,
> "All I had to offer was babysitting. Inquired the Wellesley girl: “Can you send me a job description?” I wrote back: “BABYSITTING! $12 an hour!” She took it."
wonderfully terse. strunk and white would be proud.
Miss Tsing Loh has a small advantage here by not having been in diapers in the period that probably offers context for Fussel's musings.