By uncultured I simply mean that if you asked a random person on the street or in the store, aged seventeen to twenty-five, who Gregory Peck was, they would probably ask if he was the weatherman on channel 16 at six o'clock. Not to mention Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Audrey Hepburn, Vivien Leigh, and Katherine Hepburn. (Among others.) Has no one seen Casablanca, Sabrina, Roman Holiday, The African Queen, Gone with the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, or Breakfast at Tiffany's?
I realize this is quite the leap, but this same person, when asked what children's authors they are aware of is still completely clueless when it comes to the classics. Bill Peet, William Steig, Arnold Lobel, James Marshall, Brian Jacques? I don't know who you're talking about, they say. At least they know Dr. Seuss. Perhaps this lapse in their parents ability to provide them with decent literature as a child has spilled over into their adult lives?
One can only shudder when contemplating the other things a person like this might be unaware of. Baroness Orczy? Robert Louis Stevenson? George Eliot? Oscar Wilde? Perhaps even current authors like John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, and Louise Erdrich.
If the generation of the moment is unaware of things at a cultural level, then is it such a leap to assume they might be unaware of things at a global level? And which is worse?
Dear reader, if you have not heard of these people, I implore you, go to a library and look them up; go to your video store and have a movie night. A little culture never hurt anyone.
(photo credits~ a: <http://atavism.radnauseam.com/browse/by-name/vivien-leigh/>
b: From The Pinkish, Purplish, Bluish Egg by Bill Peet <http://www.spertus.edu/exhibitions/past/everypicture.php>)
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