Heuristic cultural question

[muckefuck]

I'm not sure quite what I'm asking, so please bear with me. The recently flurry of entries about regional stereotypes (Digression: Now that's my kind of meme! Not the same dull list of questions propagating from blog to blog but a discussion that causes each person to ponder the same issues but post about different aspects of them) got me thinking about local culture and sparked the question:

Who do you think of as your culture-bearers?

Of course, this already begs many more questions, most significantly what constitutes "culture". The arts, particularly performance, come immediately to mind, but foodways or even modes of thought certainly qualify as well. Even a person who simply embodies a particular mindset that seems locally prevelant might fit the bill.

I admit, when it comes to my own background, I'm kind of stumped. Mark Twain was born only a few miles away from where I once lived, but I don't read his works to learn about my culture as much as to get a taste for one that preceded it. None of the modern writers I've read has given me the experience of thinking, "This is it; these are the people I belong to (or came from)"; the closest I've come is the petit-bourgeois northern German family described in Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks.

But I feel I've already said to much to prejudice the question. Don't rely on my interpretation; take it however you will.

Comments

[febrile.livejournal.com]

I know for a fact that I'm flattering myself terribly, but...

...I'd say a strange cross between Oscar Wilde and Woody Guthrie.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

I must not be understanding this - how is it self-flattery to acknowledge people who conveyed culture to you?

[febrile.livejournal.com]

I may perhaps be interpreting the question too narrowly.

I was trying to take it from the perspective of regional self-identification, and was attempting to marry my Yorkshireman grandfather and librarian mother (Wilde) with my Okie roots (Guthrie). If the question was simply meant as "What cultural figures do you like," it would yield a bigger list and different discussion.

I think it is self-flattery in a sense to list either of those gentlemen because it seems to impart a certain similarity, and I've not the genius of either of them.

That said, I will amend my list and also add Thomas Jefferson into the stirabout. Again, it feels self-flattering to mention him as well.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

I would think it was an act of honouring the people who were influential in your life, and giving credit where it's due. But again maybe I'm not getting the idea.

[febrile.livejournal.com]

Again, if it were a simple matter of which cultural figures I like, I think it would be different. But by answering the question, "Who are *my* culture-bearers," it somehow feels like 1) I am claiming a greater ownership of them than others (non-Anglophile, non-Okie, non-American) can, and 2) like I'm insinuating a similarity to them, which my caveat had meant to acknowledge.

I did not list Bob Dylan, Lenny Bruce, Dante Alighieri, etc., because I don't feel I have a regional/ethnic link to them. But really, do Italians own Dante more than Oklahomans?

[felipemcguire.livejournal.com]

See...already the conversation has gotten interesting...

I guess for me, my environment and background have little to do with what I perceive as 'MY' culture.

In fact, I didn't even post about 'MY' culture as I perceive it, rather as a representation of the kind of culture I would LIKE to live in.

But then, I have always had difficulty identifying with the 'culture' I perceive...kinda makes my skin crawl to be honest.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

Ah OK I see what you mean now - it implies that you've done great things in the tradition of these great people.

I guess my take on it is that everyon has culture of some kind and it had to come from somewhere. Which is why I'm curious that people don't list family members, usually the primary source of cultural info.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I think that might have something to do with recognisability. It's like if someone asks you what "type" you're into, you're far more likely to list "Brian Dennehy" than "my sister's high-school science teacher", even if the latter represents a far closer approximation of your ideal. No one who didn't grow up with you (or your sister) is going to know who the latter is, whereas there's a good chance anyone you're talking to might have seen the former on t.v. or in a movie.

Obviously, I'm more culturally influenced by my mom than by Lisa Birnbaum or They Might Be Giants, but just saying "my mom" won't say anything to someone who hasn't met her.

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

So what this is about, is communicating to other people what culture you're part of, by way of a third part referent. Or maybe it's an analogy or even a metaphor.