Class, Heroism and mobility

[MinDonner]

No-one's mentioned Abercrombie yet, which does feature a popular uprising that is cynically manipulated and put down by the royalty. The end result is, of course, a Popular King, but we are given more than enough indicators that this is actually a fairly shitty outcome for the populace, and hardly the glorious monarchy that you might expect from a normal fantasy.

[Artas]

Of course, there's Cincinnatus, who went back to his farm after his term as dictator of Rome... but he was an aristocrat to begin with.

[MinDonner]

Yeah, Cincinnatus is rather too often held up as an example of the sort of benevolent dictator that many right-wingers would like. I don't think we can really use him in this context.

[LugaJetboyGirl]

I just wanted to let you guys know that I've really enjoyed reading this thread, so thanks. Parts of it are probably above my head, but, well.

Anyways, I'm struck by the general irritation that the structure of the fantasy genre more frequently than not takes on a monarchic/feudal shape, with the heroes being rich/nobles with the luxury to 'do stuff.' Mostly I think the whole thing emphasizes to what extant authors are constrained by the genres in which they write, and how rarely they move beyond the boundaries of their genre's tropes. But. I find the interesting part of the issue that class is so intimately and fundamentally tied to genre, that most genres consistently have heroes in one class-type or at least work within one class system. I wonder why this is the case. What about particular genres (westerns, space opera, urban fantasy) connects them to certain classes?

I wonder how much this is a product of the historical eras in which the stories are set or the narrative concerns of the genre? For example, science-fiction is hugely concerned with revolution and involves heroes of many classes (whether Gully Foyle, Mannie of the Lunar Colonies, or Paul Atreides), who often challenge the social order. Why is that? Because it the future and anything can happen?

Someone a while back mentioned urban fantasy, which has an entirely different social structure than regular fantasy, with the hero rarely being some upper-class nobility type and usually being, in fact, lower/working class. (Often that hero does work for change, but it is a social change that has little to do with class and more to do with social prejudices involving gender or species/race. This may be because those stories are usually set in an American-type society where there is a much greater concern with social equality than with class equality. Of course, I haven't read all urban fantasy ever published, so it may be otherwise.)

Incidentally, since we're bringing up various examples, I think a Spidey-rific example is GRRM's The Great and Powerful Turtle. The Turtle is a superhero who really suffers because of his monetary situation, which dramatically affects his ability to save the world and do right. He is truly a working class hero, ultimately living in a junkyard in NJ. He's a sharp contrast with many of the other Wild Cards Aces who get rich and famous through their powers, or who are supported by the US government. But Wild Cards is a different beast anyways, and deals with heroes of all social classes. That's GRRM for you.