Improving general knowledge

[Blarg]

First of all, realize that you can't have broad knowledge overnight. It's a project of years of effort -- though sometimes the effort is fun. So pace yourself. Give yourself bigger projects to do, like a huge book or a series of books by one author, and pepper it with things that are shorter or feel a little lighter.

You would do well to regularly read a few quality magazines, like Atlantic, Harpers, maybe the New Yorker. The first two generally have very well written articles on history and politics every month. And though the articles can impart solid knowledge, they are short projects that make welcome breathers between more major efforts. If you subscribe, they're dirt cheap, too.

Then you will probably want to stick to just one or two major subjects, at least for a good while. If you divert your energies in too many directions at once, you will probably forget a lot of what you learn, because there will be no way to constantly reinforce every new thing you learn by exploring it further. The world is just too vast. Better to gradually accumulate an ever more solid foundation in just one or two things at a time, and then, when you start to feel some small sense of command of a subject by dint of real study, to open the doors to wider learning. Building up this way, you will be able to relate each new book within a subject, each new subject, and each new book that spans or links multiple subjects, successfully with what you already know and therefore integrate it, rather than having it pile onto a haphazard foundation, finding no place to secure itself in your understanding, and then slipping off as if you had never made the effort or had the interest at all.

If you want general cultural knowledge, you will need to build up a base by reading about the roots of things. This may feel alienating at first, since you will be doing a lot of reading about people very long dead, and whose culture and situations may seem fairly foreign to you. But have patience, and spice it up with the occasional work of more recent authors and times, to keep your interest high. With time, you'll enjoy using your base of knowledge to see how much modern times echo their roots in history. This is a big part of the fun of learning -- things link up in your mind, and you start to have knowledge and understanding rather than feeling like you are just slogging through dead facts. When that feeling of ideas linking up and clarifying each other happens even across different subjects, study can become compelling. If your goal is to become an educated man who can at least understand a great deal of what you're likely to bump into even in educated conversation, you can get there, and almost certainly enjoy the process, if at least you do it with a bit of planning.

Two suggestions for subjects that play a huge part in cultural knowledge are history and mythology/religion. Others might be art and literature. Following are a few suggestions to get you started on a few subjects.

1. History -- well, many people really like John Keegan's books. They are highly readable and cover a broad range of history, from ancient times to present. Many of his books serve as sort of "samplers" of subjects which might spark your interest in one or more eras or historical subjects. Of course, you might just pick a time frame you are interested in, or a subject directly, rather than find any particular author writing about any subject.

2. Mythology/religion -- Joseph Campbell is a very interesting author whose lifework was about categorizing all religions and mythologies according to their surprising similiarities, and explaining them accordingly. He was very good at pointing out the structure of belief systems, which makes him an excellent key to a broad understanding of myths and religions. Since these are central to the human heart and at the core of culture, it's a great thing to know that you will find endlessly applicable. His most famous book is The Hero with a Thousand Faces. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have consulted with him about framing their own movies, and the book of the above name has been whittled down into a tiny guideline for screenwriters, as the essence of what Campbell talks about is what the human experience is all about and how people tell stories about it and make sense of it. His understanding of story itself is central not only to myth and religion, but to literature as well, so it can serve as a kind of skeleton key to all. Campbell also wrote a large work spanning three volumes which is an encyclopedic discussion of all the myths of the world. This is a bit dense and slow-going sometimes, but can be very interesting.

3. Literature -- Shakespeare and the Bible are constantly referred to in Western literature -- either directly, or by having their themes played on and thematically commented on and elaborated. Reading as much Shakespeare as you can stomach is a great start to understanding literature. Get it well-annotated, because while some of the dialogue sounds like somebody could have said it right next to you even today, some of the words are from English too old or particular to the times to get through easily. The Bible, well, read it if you like. If you don't, there will always be a hole in your grasp of many themes explored and bandied about in art and literature and philosophy.

4. Philosophy -- Try reading Plato. Many of his dialogues are quite entertaining, and Greek ancient culture can be pretty interesting. Plato is the start of so many other things that he is well worth reading. You might want to move on to some Aristotle, too. His writings on drama and rhetoric, among others, are also interesting and foundational. It has been said that Aristotle is probably the last man who knew, basically, everything there was to know in the world. Not that he really knew everything, but, excluding the knowledge of peoples who were unavailable to his part of the world, his knowledge was about as complete as a man's could be before the world became far too complex for anyone to have a chance to understand more than the smallest fraction of it. You can read a lot of Aristotle before running out of things he can do.

Which brings up another point -- never hesitate to just follow your interests as deeply as it intrigues and entertains you. You may find one author a key to your understanding of any number of subjects, and able to provide a lot of understanding of at least one. If you like, say, Hemingway, don't just read one book of his short stories -- read ALL of them. If you like something, keep your interest in learning high by pursuing it, even if it seems to divert you sometimes. A good idea is to have major and minor goals. While understanding a fairly broad subject may be a long-term goal you steadily commit to for years, it may feel like a chore sometimes if you don't leaven it with some exploration of a pet set of ideas or personalities within that subject. An important thing is that while some learning feels like work, if it ALL feels like work you will likely give it up, and become just another dullard like the rest of us. Remember to keep the fun of it up! Drill down into the subjects you enjoy, and try to get particular, memorable knowledge of them by pursuing some parts of any subject with a particular focus that keeps you entertained and intrigued. Broad knowledge needs particularity to pin it down and make it memorable, just like particular knowledge is fairly useless and chaotic without a broad understanding to fix it in place and perspective.

Finally, realize that what you are proposing doing is fairly unpopular, and you can actually expect active resistance from some people about it -- bizarrely enough, especially those closer to you. This is fairly common with creative people, too. Their friends can find their accomplishments unconsciously threatening and diminishing. Many artists are discouraged most of all by those close to them. The same can happen with anyone trying to bring himself up to a state of higher accomplishment of any sort. Be content with what you are doing, and don't particularly expect approval or understanding for it. You may get quite the contrary, but that's life. Don't be a boor by drowning people in your latest subject of study at every opportunity.

And make time commitments to study and review that you take seriously. Being someone with broad knowledge who knows what's going on doesn't get done all by itself. It takes time, which is always a sacrifice.

[Tartufo]

Trivial pursuit?

[BPA234]

Even though the internet is a good resource, I would recommend using a public or university library. Each subject is laid out in sections and arranged in logical groupings. Most importantly you can easily determine the caliber of any book, by reviewing the appendix, bibliography etc. safely eliminating the risk of becoming a Wikipedist.

Another option is adult education. Not to be confused with high school completion, adult education classes are usually not for credit, are relatively inexpensive and are usually taught by professionals who teach, not for the money, but out of a pure desire to educate.

[gamblore99]

Wikipedia is awesome for this. Type in something that interests you, than from there if something else catches your eye click on that link. Often times I am curious about one thing and end up reading 7-8 different articles.

[Blarg]

Wiki is okay, but it doesn't replace deep reading on a subject, and sometimes its contents can be a bit suspect or one-dimensional. It's best to think of it as an appetizer.

[BPA234]

Wow, excellent reply. I agree with everything you wrote.

I definitely think that you have to start at the foundation of each subject and then work your way forward; investing time and energy as your interests are raised.

Again, great reply to OP.

[NT!]

i have a buddy who just listens to lectures on economics and world history and all this random [censored] on his ipod all the time.

[theghost]

Good post.

[ QUOTE ]
3. Literature -- Shakespeare and the Bible are constantly referred to in Western literature -- either directly, or by having their themes played on and thematically commented on and elaborated. Reading as much Shakespeare as you can stomach is a great start to understanding literature. Get it well-annotated, because while some of the dialogue sounds like somebody could have said it right next to you even today, some of the words are from English too old or particular to the times to get through easily. The Bible, well, read it if you like. If you don't, there will always be a hole in your grasp of many themes explored and bandied about in art and literature and philosophy.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dante's Inferno is like this too - while I was reading it I kept seeing things I had seen referenced in lots of other work; like when you've been hearing a loop in a hip-hop track for the past 5-10 years and finally hear the original song.

[Blarg]

I know what you mean. That's how I felt reading Hamlet -- so many expressions came up that we still use today. Seeing that kind of thing is pretty cool.

[guids]

Two words: modern marvels. I also do the mp3 thing, I d/l podcasts, streaming media, etc on subjects Im interested in, and listen to them while driving.