Department of Good Reads - Sandra Tsing Loh's Class Warfare

March 17, 2009 Samuel Fromartz

Instead of linking to news items for the sake of stuffing your mind with more and MORE information, I'm going to start occasional links to what I think are particularly good reads (whatever the subject). After all, I know cooks and farmers who are aspiring writers ... and many writers who are aspiring farmers and cooks.

Sandra Tsing Loh is neither, but what the heck. Last night I was lying in bed laughing out load about her piece "Class Dismissed" in The Atlantic. She's a performance artist who does NPR rants and has a book, Mother on Fire: A True Motherf%#$@ Story About Parenting! (interview here) that trusted sources (OK, my wife) tells me is hilarious. It's on my list. Here's the lede of her Atlantic piece:

Some 25 years have passed since the publication of Paul Fussell’s naughty treat, Class: A Guide Through the American Status System,and I think this quarter-century mark merits the raising of either a yachting pennant, an American flag, or a wind sock with the Budweiser logo (corresponding to Fussell’s demarcations of Upper Class, Middle Class, and Prole). For readers who somehow missed this snide, martini-dry American classic, do have your assistant Tessa run out and get it immediately (Upper), or at least be sure to worriedly skim this magazine summary over a low-fat bagel (Middle), because Fussell’s bibelot-rich tropes still resonate... (read more)