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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
reading that article i realized the "first world problems" thing. I AM NOT THE IN-GROUP. and when they don't transcend their in-group, or just rehash the same ideologies, i am out.
in this case, while i live in america, i do not share the preoccupations or cultural touchstones of the american middle class.
so, i can only connect w/ the stuff that reaches beyond those confines.
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Because you're working through an issue, I won't give you too much shit. But this doesn't make sense to me.
You only read about your own group? How boring. Anyway, what group might that be? Personally, I'm white, American, on the lower end of middle-class. Yet before all that I identify as Jewish (less than 2% of the US population) or even vegetarian (about 6% I think). Am I in or out? Especially at CHRISTmas time, I feel a bit out.
But the real answer is there is some unsettled tension. Hey, drama! (See Philip Roth's short story "Defender of the Faith")
You also haven't explained why one sort of human pain is more legitimate than another. If the love of your life to whom you have been married for 20 years decides they want to leave you forever, this is no less devastating just because you have a belly full of McDonald's.
(And on a personal level, you're saying any pain I might experience "doesn't count" just because I am not hungry and politically oppressed. Yeah, the kid who didn't get what he wanted for Christmas can go fuck himself, but anyone who dismisses anything I felt after the sudden death of my father, for example, can go fuck themselves as well. )
As far as rehashing ideologies, I don't see this happening much in serious literature. The point, often, is to critique. Anyway, this isn't simply a contemporary American issue. Perhaps you've noticed there are virtually no Sovet-era Russian novels worth reading?
I read short stories almost exclusively, and the great advantage of that is variety.
I take your point to the extent that after ten stories in a row set in American suburbs, I get restless. I want to read about other people and places. Then, eventually, I think to myself, "If I read one more story about some docile Asian chick from a harsh patriarchal culture who learns to self-actualize, I'm gonna join the KKK," and I thirst for a story about a wealthy college graduate who, darn it, just doesn't know what she wants. Then I'll get tired of that and read some Nadine Gordimer stories about South African aparthiet. Get tired. Move on. Etc.