swearswords

they're both working class. that's. that's the premise. Rimmer has been in the lowest ranks on the ship for 14 years and received exactly one promotion in that time. It took him 10 years to save up 24 grand. That's not middle class guys. Just because his family was well off doesn't really mean he was well off, considering he only had hand me downs and had to basically sue them into actually getting money via aliments

I think this part from Bodysnatcher illustrates it best:

Lister: The reason you hated those academy guys so much was because you wanted to be one of them.

Rimmer: Why would I want to be one of them? They're despicable, magnificent beasts who look down on us!

Lister: They don't look down on us. It's you who looks down on us.

Rimmer: Of course they look down on us, we're scum! We're the flotsam of life!

to me, my own relationship with class is that the hardship was so much i couldn’t separate my identity from it. i kind of did end up flaunting it and avoiding pretentious things like lister does. so, rimmer growing up with more things and trying to appear posh doesn’t feel like my experiences of working class, and that it why i keep on overlooking that fact and dumbly simplifying it down to lister is working class, rimmer is not.

i am also very familiar with poverty myself. i have never ever been anything close to well off, and i still am not really. i fully support Lister's view on it, being working class and proud of it and also your job not completely defining your identity and self-worth is very very good actually! but also Rimmer is a very believable take on someone from poverty/struggling with physical needs being met too imo.

i'd never seen red dwarf and knew nothing about it. and then on a whim i read the two grant naylor books. and then something sick and evil happened to me. and now i'm midway through season 4.

the closest thing to real soulmates you can find

we fought in the same trenches and have a warrior's bond that carries over into every stage of life

friend i sit next to in every class and pass notes to/whisper to constantly

academic peer/colleague that i respect and have a little intellectual crush on

neighbour in the same apartment block that i say hi to on the stairs

neighbour across the street who i wave at every morning and evening

we're regulars at the same bar