No great characters to be made out of checkout operators as opposed to mine-workers or tillers of the land. Interestingly, however, Hollywood and TV very much portray these characters– checkout operators, waiters and waitresses etc. Which brings us to another point: working class people don’t read (which also means they don’t BUY) books, they rather patronize the movie, TV, Cable, internet based entertainment industries, which in turn cater to their needs.

In contrast, book reading, especially fiction, itself is becoming an elitist activity for people who need to have not only the literacy but also the amount of concentration and Sitzfleisch to finish an absorbing book.

I myself don’t care which class is written about as long as it is an interesting work of art and literary entertainment. Among the writers mentioned in this article I am a great fan of John Steinbeck, and some of Ray Carver’s stories. But I love their work, their art– their class is immaterial. Mr. Carver’s struggles, however, were legendary, but more legendary was his achievement as the master of his art.

PS.- I find it interesting that no one has bothered to comment on this fine and exhaustive essay. This also proves how interested people (web surfers) are in this literary concern.