Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
There's nothing wrong with looking at a book though a 21st century lens, so long as that's not the only lens we use. It can be illuminating in a way not open to contemporary readers.
I think the power imbalance in the exchange between Peter and Bunter which I quoted above is deeply disturbing from a modern vantage point. [...]
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CRussel
[...] Or, in today's world, the minimum wage earner in a company where the CEO makes 8 figures. Or even the elite of the working class, in a factory or other union scale job. [...]
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This contrast is one of the reasons that I especially like reading some older texts. The class disparity from 100 years ago stands out as obvious to us now, but by standing out as it does it makes it easier to look to current times and identify similar issues (issues that are otherwise so easy to overlook because "that's just the way things are").
Bunter's loyalty to Lord Peter is presented as being partly due to having been his sergeant during the war: directly implying that Lord Peter must have been a very good leader of men to have inspired such loyalty, and typically also carrying the assumption that it takes people of this class to be such good leaders.
This excuse for disparity continues into modern times with the expectation that entrepreneurs and business leaders are entitled to respect and loyalty (and money) for merely doing a job. And, as it was with the aristocracy, once you are in the class you don't even have to be particularly good at the job in order to be entitled.
(The argument that such positions of responsibility should be
worth more is appealing, but I'm not sure it whether this is a good argument or merely one that I'm built to find appealing. Whichever it may be, it still begs the question: how much more?)
The disparities and excuses also carry into modern fiction - especially in fantasy: lord and ladies, knights and warriors, heroes and their loyal sidekicks. It seems we have some built in affinity or desire for class systems (though I presume the attraction is only for being on the right side of such class systems).