Rich Bedrooms For Kids
Rich Bedrooms For Kids
"She had everything she wanted, but she still felt, at times, that there were other things she might want if she knew about them."
― Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country
Usually in books about money and class, we are faced with an outsider or interloper: think Harrison Burns in A Season in Purgatory, Gatsby's Nick Carraway, Wharton's Undine Spragg, or any Wharton or Henry James character, for that matter. Class differences can be highlighted best when we encounter someone who does not belong, who is navigating the mores of class unlike his own. At the outset of Rich Kids of Instagram, it's clear that this is not that kind of book. After all, in the face of Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram, is class really that transparent? Each online user carefully curates and airbrushes the images he or she chooses to share with the world. Recent RKOI posts include a young woman in a short dress standing on the wing of a private jet, with the tag: "Don't mess with the #blessed," and another of a young man post-tennis match, lounging in his velvet slippers, downing Champagne, with the tag: "Don't hate the player, hate the game! #gamesetmatch." You look because you can't look away.
Author Maya Sloan does not dwell, as Nick Carraway did, with the acquisition of wealth; old versus new money is not a concern for these kids; what matters is that they have it. There are flaws: the plot feels rushed at times, and Sloan may have cast too wide a net. We are able to ultimately root for Undine Spragg despite her petulant nature because we get to know her so intimately. In RKOI, everyone is Undine. When Desdemona Goldberg, the "bombshell Broadway heiress" lands on Page Six for wild, inappropriate behavior involving drugs, clubs, and sexual acts, she's thrilled: "They called me a bombshell! A sex kitten! It was like a dream come true." The Dutch son of a count, points out that his European lineage puts any American Mayflower descendant to shame. Though Emily Post is oft quoted, her maxims are followed by obscenities debunking Post's etiquette. Another rich kid, the heiress of a media mogul, continually puts herself back on track by asking: "What would Kate Middleton do?"
Towards the end, the chorus – a gaggle of "ladies who lunch," lament these days of overexposure, and all those who laud the limelight: "Perhaps we are old-fashioned, but this is what we were taught, and we live it to the letter: when you have everything in the entire world, flaunting it is unnecessary." This statement along with the novel's coda, that I won't reveal to spoil the plot, both offer up a pre-Millennial view on money and class: these kids do not seem to have the inner-struggle with authenticity that afflicted older generations. They change identities as easily as outfits, and though each seems to suffer in his or her own way, there is a resilience that undercuts thesupposed entitlement. They don't waiver in their determination, and unlike the Wharton or Jamesian protagonists, there are no tragic fall-outs for their actions.
Buy the it HERE.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io
Source: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/news/a2654/why-you-should-read-the-rich-kids-of-instagram/
Leave a Comment