Activity

I find it slightly amusing, to be honest, that in America(the land of social correctness and animal welfare plus… well, politicians trying to be preachers) we find more class that we do not. Let me put it this way – class defines a person’s perceived social or economic category. And America is very much defined socially in the borders of Dem vs. Rep or Pro Life vs. Pro Choice, etc. We’re also economically defined in the areas of poor vs. the 1% or union vs. self employed, govt. job vs. self sustaining. We strive for a world without social, racial, cultural, or economic barriers, but in doing so we trap ourselves behind new walls – walls made of social justice, walls made of the “perfect ideal” and walls made of what we think we are. I’ve found that people are rarely what they say or think they are.

Moving on to class again – in fantasy class can be both good and bad. I’ve seen it used as a sort of “magic system” in which the challenge of the MC is to rise as high in the system as he can, gaining power as he goes until he’s the ultimate warrior. (Ex – A Knight’s Tale.) Other times, it’s used to merely point out a social or economic issue(or something that neither but is inserted into class anyhow) – like pointing out the peasant’s fate, or pointing out supposed “archaic” women’s roles, or pointing out racism. Typical easy writing that lets you show a supposed moral issue without really pointing out why it’s there, why it is still there, and what it causes. Another thing it can be used for is pointing out what class really is – a divide in social or economic circumstances/beliefs. Slavery was a thing back in pre-Civil War America because it had started long before then as a social issue, then morphed into an economic issue of profit. Having workers you don’t need to pay is terribly profitable, you see.  Class is best used when it is used as class, in my opinion.

Gender is…. an interesting subject. I don’t think it really fits in the area of class, however, for one reason – it cannot be changed. Gender is one of those things that is absolute, no matter what people would like to say, and unlike that class flows on change. Economic uprising and downfall feed the masses, my darling. Systems like the caste system in India, which appears not to change, still deals with change. It merely prohibits it. You cannot have a class that’s based on something that never has and never will change really, because then you’re just creating a stereotype or social construct – but not really a class. We could say all women are below men in this one fantasy world, but what about within women? Is the governor’s wife any better than the peasant’s daughter, or all they all at the bottom of the barrel together? There’s no fluctuation of prohibition of fluctuation like we see in a good class system. Let’s take Harry Potter’s class system, just because it’s easy to remember and understand – “purebloods” are above “muggleborn” because they believe their magic is… well, better. A right rather than a privilege. They are the VIP’s, and no one is changing their mind. However, within the purebloods there is fluctuations in power, status, money, and standing. It’s not just pureblood = upper class and muggleborn = lower class. Things change. 

Maybe you could build a class solely based off gender, but I’ve really yet to see an interesting or thought-provoking attempt.

Classes based off power are interesting(check out old England, back when they married off their babies for land and money), because they’re also easily changed. Fate is a fickle creature, I believe some would say. (Chaucer, probably. He’d like that line.) Constantly shifting alliances, powers, and control makes a class system based on power interesting because it’s never absolute. People can fall, people can rise. Makes my day a little more entertaining as a whole. The man who values money will likely rise higher than the man who values family, until he threatens the man who values family and promptly gets erased from history. A value may get you somewhere, but it won’t get you everywhere.

I also love the idea of adding in different worldviews and politics when thinking of class – for example, when speaking of economics – would a rich man or a poor man favor trickle down economics? The upper and the lower classes often have wildly varying worldveiws, so if you place that in a fantasy setting where Good King George wants to have a ball but his coffers are sadly empty, so he decides to tax the people, who promptly get upset and start the next peasant revolution – think about it. Good King George has lived in the lap of luxury his whole life, and likely never seen(or smelled) the conditions his peasants work in. He’s also likely being fed whatever lies his nobleman think will benefit them most over the state of the land(e.g. – it’s prospering so well, we need to tax it more to store up in case of bad years, my lord.), so he really honestly doesn’t know any better. His nobleman will likely tell him the people are trying to overthrow him because they’ve become powerful and rowdy in their prosperity – and the king, knowing he’s brought such wonderful prosperity to the land will not hesitate to crush them beneath his boot heel for their ungrateful impudence at him having one silly little ball. It’s rather fascinating, what you can do with a few economic principles and some greed.