QotD: Cultured

So, here’s the Quote of the Day:

“A man should be just cultured enough to be able to look with suspicion upon culture at first, not second hand.” - Samuel Butler

I believe Butler is saying that in order to critically evaluate contemporary culture, one needs to have a proper understanding of culture up to this point in history. One must be a “cultured” person to express an opinion on culture.

I certainly have some degree of culture. I have a good working knowledge of comic books, Warner Brothers cartoons, horror films, and Christian films (or, one could say, “horror films and horrible films”). I’m perhaps not as knowledgeable about High Culture – you know, THE ARTS. I’m not sure I’m what Butler would have considered sufficiently cultured.

Over the next two weeks, I will strive to become more cultured. A friend has recently become passionate about opera. I have never been much of a fan—I’ve considered the sopranos particularly painful to the ear. But my friend is more cultured than I am. He’s a New York Times best-selling author, for Pete’s sake. So, next week, we’re going to a production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

Obviously, it will take more than an opera to make me a Cultured Man. Which is why, over the next two weeks, I’m endeavoring to become a fully cultured guy. Tomorrow I’m going to the cinema to see a French-language film. Thursday I’m going to the Seattle Symphony for some John Adams and Beethoven.

Next week, my wife and I plan to catch a play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, one of the performances during the Healdsburg Jazz Festival; and then, of course, the San Francisco Opera. We will be listening to Dostoevsky on the drive South and looking for museums to visit.

But I have a confession to make. (We’re all friends here.)

I Googled that quote. I’ve never read anything by Samuel Butler.