#There is no way the Addams would be pro-gentrification
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officialbotanicalinterest · 1 year ago
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Actually as much as having insane quantities of money has been a reoccurring trope among the Addams Family, I can't help but think that you would be thinking about it wrong to assume it's the Addams defining trait.
One of the major concepts with the Addams is that it never is explicitly stated what exactly they are, with enough of a plausibly human looking appearance/outward traits, but still some decidedly "not normal human" traits to keep an audience guessing as to what their deal is. Certainly, having suspiciously large amounts of money may help emphasize this factor, but it isn't what creates the near uncanny valley/how human are these people/are they even human or just really human looking cryptids feeling that is integral to the show. Furthermore the Addams also never seem to care about exactly what they are or aren't as long as they are a part of, or otherwise friends of the family.
Another key component is that they never seem to regard the things they engage in as odd, or fully realize that most people would consider the way they live not to be normal; and while that does fit with the concept of rich elites being out of touch with society, it could also be used as a metaphor for what working class people have to do in order to survive being unthinkable to the elites. (Namely in a-the wealthy, contrary to what they say, can't handle everyday jobs like what they claim to have started out as-kind of way.)
In reality a working class version of the Addams Family might look like a family who all live in the same house/apartment/rental due to practicality as opposed to ancestral family home reasons. Who have a hard time finding the right place to live, spending alot of time trying to find the appropriately haunted, dismal, mold infested place that hasn't been condemned or had its neighbourhood gentrified yet. If needing new furniture they'd probably go shopping at dodgy back alley thrifts stores, yardsales or even picking up pieces left by the side of the road hoping that what they find might be haunted/cursed. For meals they might regularly be making use of roadkill, foraging poisonous garden weeds /snails/frogs/toadstools, or even at their local abattoir purchasing offcuts of meat (think the eyes, trotters, ears, tongue, brains, blood, bones etc). They would still regularly consume various poisons albeit slightly less exotic ones such as your bleaches, drain cleaners or rat poison. Perhaps if they lived close to a fruit canning factory they might be able to purchase/take home large quantities of cherry/peach/apricot stones for cheap and eat them similar to how we eat nuts. They may not have a family graveyard, but they would probably routinely go for walks around any local ones the way we go for walks around public parks, allowing kids to play over at cemeteries/abandoned churches while the elders might feed the local crows/ravens. The kids might still keep pet spiders albeit rescues as opposed to thoroughbred (such as the banana spiders you might sometimes hear rumours of lurking in the fruit isle) along with leeches or a large (escaped/abandoned) poisonous snake as a family pet. They may still have carnivorous houseplants, just more ones rescued on the brink of death from the local walmart/grocery store bargain section or found in a local back alley, that after some coaching, began consuming things other than flies. Even if they didn't have the money for florists or enough room to grow roses they still could pick the large thorny stems of wild roses and brambles growing in ditches. Furthermore they still could genuinely love most forms of gothic literature, even if their books might be a bit weather beaten or smelling faintly of mildew.
For bonus points they might use hostile architecture such as anti-homeless spikes the way we use park benches. (Heck, I think even the regular Addams Family might do that.)
You couldn’t do a working class version of the Addams Family without turning them into something else entirely, because the fundamental ambiguity of “okay, are these people, like, vampires or something, or are rich people just Like That” is absolutely essential to the bit.
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