Exile
Although I’m not sure as to where I stand on the theory of a “cultural dictionary� I feel that it is important for people living in the United States to know some basic history and cultural aspects of life here. The whole theme behind the USA is “melting pot� which means that we can constantly add things, so if other cultural traditions or ideas or being accepted, then there is no problem with a book defining such things. An excerpt from the introduction to the first edition states that “Cultural literacy, unlike expert knowledge, is meant to be shared by everyone. It is that shifting body of information that our culture has found useful, and therefore worth preserving. Only a small fraction of what we read and hear gains a secure place on the memory shelves of the culturally literate, but the importance of this information is beyond question�. To me this is quite true, cultural literacy should be shared by everyone, but how is that possible. To distribute this book to everyone? To allow everyone to have access to this website? It is almost as if every person is responsible for experiencing cultural literacy for themselves, if this is possible. And what of those people who do not have the opportunity to experience or even hear about these things? For example, the dictionary lists: appendectomy, balsalt, kitsh, along with many other words foreign to “literate� Americans. Perhaps this book is trying to separate the Americans from the ones who aren’t worthy of our golden streets.
Comments
I don’t think the cultural literacy dictionary intends to divide Americans, the purpose of the dictionary is to be a tool to understanding cultural literacy. You bring up a good point when you ask are people responsible for experiencing cultural literacy for themselves, because at first glance it seems that individuals are responsible for themselves but what about those who are prevented from having the same access…But the dictionary is only trying to bridge this gap, not make it worse. The creators of the dictionary do not have the responsibility to distribute their dictionary to every school or home in America. I have never seen this dictionary or heard about it before reading it online and I am still considered literate but now knowing it exists can make me more culturally literate, where there is no one source that exists where I could find this same information. The terms the authors include are a wide range, they are not meant to make us feel inferior if they are foreign to us, that is why it is available to us to learn the terms. I looked up the words you listed, and I did not recognize any of them but when I read them, appendectomy is important because I have known many friends who have had their appendixes removed and did not know the medical term, basalt is useful for learning about earthquakes and kitsch is completely new and now I am aware of what it means if I hear it used. As I scrolled looking for these words, a lot of the terms I was partly familiar with and these did stand out but this dictionary is more effective than if I were to open up Webster’s and try to skim those entries…
Posted by: Caitlin Priem | October 2, 2006 10:33 AM