A question for UK listers

[Ande]

Middle class people live in working class neighborhoods??----Not so much 
in my experience on the U.S. West Coast--I applaud David Gentle in his 
quest to get this right--it is so important for a character to read 
right--may I suggest Black Swan Green--the father in this story would be 
late 70s and the protagonist a little young---but the milieu--the subtle 
and not so subtle differences between working class and middle class, 
between "new" and old...or perhaps a suggestion is the Flashman 
example--find a character with an established  background in an existing 
story  and "age" your character forward to include him in your novel....

A.


Paul Mackin wrote:

>
> On Oct 16, 2006, at 3:14 AM, Mike Weaver wrote:
>
>> To add to Paul's comments:
>> David Gentle is correct to ask what class you have in mind Dave,  
>> though I think he's a tad mechanical in his description of class  
>> differences. Remember economic and cultural class differences are  
>> not the same thing. Plenty of people come from and are, culturally,  
>> of one class while their economic situation and outlook is of another.
>> To be realistic you would need to decide what situation this  
>> character was born into - class origins, the economic fortunes of  
>> his parents throughout his childhood - rising, falling or stable -   
>> Then there is where in the UK he grew up - I'd say there are big  
>> regional differences in working class culture, less in middle class  
>> and less again in upper class. However the local dominance of  
>> particular class cultures are a variant cross current acting on the  
>> regional differences.
>>
>
> In the U.S. the idea of "class" or other ways of ranking economic  
> status seems to apply mostly to  neighborhoods.
>
> The newspapers will speak of "working class suburbs" "blue collar  
> subdivisions" "areas of modest homes" "prosperous neighborhoods"  
> "leafy neighborhoods West of the Park" etc. etc.
>
> There don't seem to be any "middle class" neighborhoods.
>
> "Middle class" as applied to people seems to be very broadly defined-- 
> not on welfare but unable to pay Harvard level tuition for their kids.
>
> Middle class people  mostly live in working class neighborhoods I  
> rather imagine.
>
>
>
>