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This Bothered Me So I’m Fixing It
In media, I’ve noticed that characters that grew up poor don’t seem to act like people that actually grew up poor. This is because they’re largely written by people that grew up middle class, or even more wealthy than that, and have no concept of how growing up poor fucks your mental health. The poor characters are usually angry, jealous, a bit self-serving, and while he’s this can happen it’s been over represented as how poor people act.
I grew up poor. And I mean some of the stuff I had to sacrifice because of this didn’t bother me because I thought it was very normal. Not getting a birthday party every year, having to use the same uniform three years in a row, just ripping out old pages and continuing to use my old school book, finger foods night, bodgie night, never being able to get super into video games. Being poor affects more than just the types of items you own and how often you can get groceries. And this is something other people can’t understand and struggle to write.
Poor people have a very strange concept of what is privilege and what they can expect when they go to someone else’s house. The house has stairs? That’s so fancy! The house has a kitchen island? A bar? A pool? That’s all fancy shit. And when a poor person comes to your house, even if they know you’ve got a pool, they’re probably not going to bring bathers. Upkeep of the pool is expensive isn’t it? Why would I expect to swim in the pool and cost you money? (Doesn’t know how pools work). They’ll try to eat as minimal food as possible and drink as little water as possible at your house because it costs money that they’re not used to having.
I have decided that this reality of growing up poor, or worse, growing up in poverty, needs to be shown more realistically. I’m writing a bildungsroman-fantasy book series, and you can find out more about its genre by clicking on the tags. I’ve made multiple posts about it already. But our protagonist, Draco Vitterbyrn, is a character that has grown up in poverty. He lives in a house that is falling apart, his family can’t afford groceries, he has to wear an old school uniform that doesn’t fit right, he doesn’t get proper birthday or Yule gifts from his family, he can’t afford to go out with his friends, he’s never made a big deal about his birthday, he feels like he only ever takes from people that show him kindness.
The Damned Trilogy, as it is called, tackles a lot of systemic issues such as classism, ableism, racism, xenophobia etc., and all through the systemic oppression of vampires within this magical society. Vampires cannot access food to survive, they cannot access housing, they cannot access jobs, they cannot access most of the things we need to survive within capitalist society.
If this kind of story sounds like it might interest you, please comment or reblog. If enough people want to see this story published I may start a venmo or gofundme to actually get it published. Also, look through the #the damned trilogy if you want to learn more about what I’ve included in this story.
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander.
The Chronicles of Prydain is a masterful book series full of magic and chills (The Horned King and Annuvin).
Give it a try!
Because the sunset, like survival, exists only on the verge of its own disappearing. To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Because the sunset, like survival, exists only on the verge of its own disappearing. To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
Because the sunset, like survival, exists only on the verge of its own disappearing. To be gorgeous, you must first be seen, but to be seen allows you to be hunted.
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous