that sounds less like snobbery to me and more like just being provincial and a bit of a bumpkin. i think that was more the vibe rowling was going for with suburban relatives, too. the suburbs don't really connote 'snobs' in british culture; they're signifiers of small-mindedness and insularity. lower-middle class oblivion rather than upper-middle class disdain. (although, of course, the lower orders in the UK love to affectedly adopt the snobbishness and superiority of the upper orders.)
not eating any food from foreign cuisines or listening to music beyond your high-school greatest hits is low class behaviour, first and foremost. it's rube coded. chauvinists and elitists can at least travel somewhat and try new things. just sticking to where and what you've been raised with is small town, small horizons stuff.
@mac: and yeah, fair enough. if you can't work remotely or if you're used to an above average american wage, particularly on the east or west coasts, obviously nowhere in the world outside of a few enclaves like hong kong/singapore/switzerland/etc. are going to compete with that. but you would be seriously surprised how far your dollars could go, even in 'first-world', s-tier cities like tokyo or seoul. you could live
very comfortably in both places on $50-60k USD a year.
Last edited by uziq (2025-02-05 13:32:05)