My Tastes Aren’t Cultured, and I Don’t Care
February 14th, 2009 | Published in Art and Design, Books & Reading, Culture, Quotes | 7 Comments
Much of my early intellectual life was trying to like things others said I should like. And I would often get frustrated at myself, because I usually wouldn’t like what they said I should.
Some of the classics are outstanding — but most of them I’ve found dull, drawn-out, and unsatisfying. And unfortunately, I’ve read hundreds of them.
It’s been that way with art, too. I’ve been to art museums and tried to like the classics of art. I tried to reform my unruly tastes. But I found most of them unmoving and unimpressive.
So it’s a relief to hear that someone else that I respect felt similarly. Here’s Mark Twain:
Wherever you find a Raphael, a Rubens, a Michael Angelo, a Caracci, or a da Vinici (and we see them every day), you find artists copying them, and the copies are always the handsomest. Maybe the originals were handsome when they were new, but they are not now….
[People] stand entranced before [a da Vinci] with bated breath and parted lips, and when they speak, it is only in the catchy ejaculations of rapture:
“O, wonderful!”
“Such expression!”
“Such grace of attitude!”
“Such dignity!”
“Such faultless drawing!”
“Such matchless coloring!”I envy them their honest admiration, if it be honest… But at the same time the thought will intrude… How can they see what is not visible?
I’ve stopped caring that my tastes are not what some people considered “cultured.” I’m not going to delude myself into liking something just because others do.
Tastes are subjective. Life is too short for reading books I don’t enjoy. It’s too short for old movies with bad acting and bad editing. It’s too short for art that was once moving, but now is mediocre at best.
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested,” said Francis Bacon. And some, I’d add, are to be shut and put back on the shelf for someone else who enjoys them.
February 14th, 2009 at 2:06 pm (#)
Nice. Few have the courage to say something like that.
February 16th, 2009 at 11:33 am (#)
I believe that’s something that we all have to come to grips with. I find myself trying to like music that I really don’t like. Do I really like LCD Soundsystem, or is that me trying to like them to say that I’m in “the know?” If your not in the know these days in terms of clothing style or movies or music or television shows, you might get behind, whatever that means.
But I must say, that I like your website because you put good quotes on it by Wendall Berry, Mark Twain, Steinback, Dillard. I mean, seriously, how many websites, quote authors these days? Or literature. So I hope that your distate for too much taste doesn’t mean your going to stop putting thinkers up. I know it’s hard to put up good quotes every day. I know that I would have a hard time doing that.
Twain’s point is a good one. We can’t become snobby people with our ‘tastes.’ There is certainly a divide that I see in my own small North Carolina town that I live in a divide between the educated readers and the easy going non-readers. Is there a way to make those educated people less snobby enough to the point of gently helping their friends read a bit? And vice versa, perhaps the artists coming out of their world of ideals into the real?
February 16th, 2009 at 1:34 pm (#)
Yes, yes, yes. Sounds like we’ve had similar experiences and have come to the same conclusion. I know there is a place for self-discipline and acquiring a taste for things that aren’t immediately enjoyable. Nevertheless it is still true that “life is too short for reading books I don’t enjoy.”
February 16th, 2009 at 5:01 pm (#)
You are cultured, really, Josh, but cultured in your own way. We can’t have other people’s tastes, much as we might try, especially when we are young and impressionable. One of the joys of maturity is in finding one’s own tastes and developing them.
February 16th, 2009 at 11:40 pm (#)
The Bacon quote reminds me of another by Dorothy Parker: “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”
February 20th, 2009 at 3:22 pm (#)
Knowing yourself and being comfortable with that, even in the face of criticism, is more important than being “cultured”. But I must say, we need to be both careful to allow others to have their opinion, and to allow ourselves to enjoy aspects of “popular culture” that we may risk being criticized for. A good example would be a person who will not admit to liking a popular song because it is not ‘classical’ or ‘indie’.
February 20th, 2009 at 8:05 pm (#)
Yes, I try to read John Owen because that’s who you’re supposed to read. But your post makes me want to read Huck Finn and drink a beer.