Culture is Extraordinary!

While I can understand that Raymond Williams is using ordinary as a way of saying that everyone has culture, I think that the word usage doesn’t give the reader a real sense of the meaning of culture. Everyone does have culture, but the word ‘ordinary’ is often associated with something being mundane and boring. Culture is definitely not boring. Some cultures may not seem to be too exciting on the surface, but there are always quirks that make each little culture fascinating. Saying that culture is just ‘ordinary’ takes away some of the importance of it; it’s almost like saying that the newspaper comes out everyday, so the news is average and not very important. I agree that culture is everything in an environment and is constantly growing, but the way that Mr. Williams went about telling the reader this is confusing. Judging by the beginning of the excerpt, I thought that he would have used stories to explain how different cultures are extraordinary. Instead of doing so, Mr. Williams proceeded to explain to the reader that culture is merely ordinary; and while it’s different and has “individual meanings,” it also has merely “the most ordinary meanings (p.5).” I would agree with some of Raymond Williams’ basic ideas; but I can’t agree with his ‘ordinary’ word usage, that one word takes away from the point of the excerpt. If he had stated that everyone has culture or that culture belongs to everyone, his ideas would have been much easier for the reader to understand.