I think the best we can do is assign based on where the raw materials are and the similarity of the skill sets required to do the manufacturing. Yup, pretty much. I mean, I don't need to know where the plastic comes from for the stories to make sense, but once I start thinking about this stuff my obsessive-analytical brain switch kicks on and it starts bothering me. (maybe plastics in 5? Because petroleum by-products? Unless Panem has mastered making plastics out of corn, which is also a thing people do, not particularly well at the moment but the potential is there)
(so it might be easier to have the seam/merchant divide without having to replicate that kind of divide in 3/6/8)? Fwiw I see race in 6 and probably a lot of parts of Panem as being more like what I've heard it's like in Brazil: a lot of mixing, more a continuous function than a categorical classification. And so while there may be a correlation between racial/ethnic background and social class the dynamic is different. (oh good lord that's so math-nerd-tastic but whatever) You don't necessarily need people to physically look different to have divisiveness in a population (not that you were claiming that necessarily, I'm just saying).
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2015-02-26 07:00 pm (UTC)Yup, pretty much. I mean, I don't need to know where the plastic comes from for the stories to make sense, but once I start thinking about this stuff my obsessive-analytical brain switch kicks on and it starts bothering me. (maybe plastics in 5? Because petroleum by-products? Unless Panem has mastered making plastics out of corn, which is also a thing people do, not particularly well at the moment but the potential is there)
(so it might be easier to have the seam/merchant divide without having to replicate that kind of divide in 3/6/8)?
Fwiw I see race in 6 and probably a lot of parts of Panem as being more like what I've heard it's like in Brazil: a lot of mixing, more a continuous function than a categorical classification. And so while there may be a correlation between racial/ethnic background and social class the dynamic is different. (oh good lord that's so math-nerd-tastic but whatever) You don't necessarily need people to physically look different to have divisiveness in a population (not that you were claiming that necessarily, I'm just saying).