Here's a common response I get from friends and fellow writers who read 40 Towns: "Well, to be honest, I thought it was going to be, you know, 'Look at the poors.' But it's not!"
Of course, in some cases, it is. There are poor people depicted on 40 Towns because there are poor people in these 40 towns. They're neither more noble nor more abased. The main difference between these poor people and other people is that they have less money and fewer resources. That's about it. They're not out of Charles Dickens, they're in the Upper Valley.
What many readers expected -- or feared -- is poverty porn. Cheap thrills and empty indignation stoked by decontextualized images of poor people. Poor people as exotics. Poor people as either saintlier or more sordid than other people. That is, poor people as props for the privileged viewer.
Here's an excellent example: Jalopnik's excellent guide turning Detroit's bankruptcy crisis into your very own poverty porn documentary, "Batten Down the Hatches, The Next Storm of Detroit Documentaries is Night."
--Jeff Sharlet
Of course, in some cases, it is. There are poor people depicted on 40 Towns because there are poor people in these 40 towns. They're neither more noble nor more abased. The main difference between these poor people and other people is that they have less money and fewer resources. That's about it. They're not out of Charles Dickens, they're in the Upper Valley.
What many readers expected -- or feared -- is poverty porn. Cheap thrills and empty indignation stoked by decontextualized images of poor people. Poor people as exotics. Poor people as either saintlier or more sordid than other people. That is, poor people as props for the privileged viewer.
Here's an excellent example: Jalopnik's excellent guide turning Detroit's bankruptcy crisis into your very own poverty porn documentary, "Batten Down the Hatches, The Next Storm of Detroit Documentaries is Night."
--Jeff Sharlet