What's your take on cressida? Portia, Venice etc? Capitolites like them in general
I feel quite neutral about them all. Cressida, individually, and post-SOTR canon details, is a nice addition to hammer the "you don't need to have a majestic library like Plutarch to be against a totalitarian regime even when it mostly benefits* you" point.
My academic field isn't history but I see their characters as representations of the numerous studies around voluntary submission to autocracies, coercion and consent in the 20th century (Italy, USSR, Germany, Japan-Korea, US-Korea, US-Vietnam, Zimbabwe, the latter started in the 80s and only ended in 2017!). Arendt focuses on structural coercion, which I think makes sense when discussing Capitol and Capitolites. Personally I think this proves it's a political spectrum within a totalitarian society (eg. Portia and Cinna would be more in the middle compared to Cressida), just like it is a spectrum within any society and their Overton window.
I added a * to "benefits" because while all Capitolites reap (not intended) material benefits from the districts and are given the privilege of not being reaped for the games, Capitolites live in a surveilled state. If they're caught saying the wrong thing, poisoned oysters and their families killed and torture follows. The propaganda works not only to convince Capitolites the games are for the greater good but also beyond the games it works to convince each Capitolite that they all think the same, believe the same, are happy in the same way about all of the horrors. Do they? There wouldn't be any need for poisoned oysters if the propaganda that all Capitolites believe in Snow's agenda was true. So it can't be true. Logically, there has to be at least one Capitolite who's against the regime. Statiscally, it's more than one.
All it would take for someone like Cressida to start questioning the regime would be having witnessed a neighbour who made a joke about Snow and turned out poisoned and gotten rid of in the middle of the night, alleged "moved to district 1", never seen again. I just invented this but it's not that different from KGB stories.
Winston's POV in 1984 is a great baseline for anti-Snow Capitolites. Because we always have the outside-the-Capitol perspectives, this creates an inclination to see the Capitol from Snow's POV, from Caesar's POV only. That's not the whole picture. Similarly, is Maysilee's District 12 the same as Haymitch's District 12? On Reaping Day, yes. Every other day? Haymitch struggling with food and Maysilee having a bike? No. Same for Capitolites that aren't Coriolanus Snow (will save commentary on the Snows/Marie Antoinette if someone wants to ask about that specifically). Winston is very useful here to understand the mundane lives of Cressida and alike (Orwell is always useful when discussing THG).
And, finally, when I say I feel neutral, I don't mean "I have the same opinion about all Capitolites", what I mean is this: I'm at the airport in Zurich tonight. One of you USAmericans sit next to me and say "hi, I'm from the US", nothing else. What do I know about you with that information?
Do I know if you're MAGA? A Harris voter? An independent? KKK member? Mormon? Silicon Valley tech polycule member? Gay from North Carolina or straight, pro-life, 4 kids in Connecticut? Neocon or liberal about war in Iran? Atheist potential voter for Vance or Catholic potential voter for Newsom?
Do I know if you voted for Trump? Maybe you didn't, you voted Harris. But the fact is: the majority of the US voted for Trump. Does that majority represent you? Is it fair for me to look at you, just knowing you're USAmerican, and assume you're MAGA? Antivax? Fan of Hegseth and Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes? Why not? That's the majority, right, so surely you agree with all of them. Would that be an accurate perception on who you are and what you think? Probably not. It would be a really ignorant perception. Same logic for Capitolites. Knowing someone is from the US says nothing about their morals. Knowing someone is from the Capitol says nothing about their morals. You can try to guess based on stats or intuitively (people in the US watch more basketball than rugby -- it has to be true, right; more people in the Capitol support the games than are against them -- likely).
So when I say neutral, it's because we need more information on all these Capitolites to know who they are as individuals and then be able to form opinions -- we'll probably never get more information so we can only make headcanons. I think that SC wanted to write a totalitarian regime realistically and that's why we have the Capitolites in the rebellion (Cressida and her Winston's POV), others displaying their discontent in other forms (Cinna, whoever protested the games post-baby announcement), others indoctrinated by the propaganda (Effie, Proserpina), others going down with the ship (Caesar, Claudius).
I'm very interested in thinking more about the Capitol and its Capitolites. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share a bit, anon!
