Connoisseur—one who understands the details, technique, or principles of an art and is competent to act as a critical judge—one who enjoys with discrimination and appreciation of subtleties.
**When speaking of connoisseurs we generally think of gourmets, food, wine, wealth, gout and diabetics. I want to add something new to your connotations—I want to talk about ‘connoisseurs of words’.
To become a person who enjoys the discrimination and appreciation of the subtleties of words and thus of reality one needs to become a reader of books.** Don’t run away—this may be more pleasant and less painful than you think.
To become wise of the world, to become a connoisseur of words, it is advisable to be a card carrying member of a large library. Many small city libraries do not fully qualify but most people are close to a small college that has a relatively large library. Most college libraries have a ‘Friends of the Library’ card that is available to any state citizen for a small yearly fee of like $25.
Becoming a card carrying member of the ‘connoisseur of words’ club is easy, delightful, inexpensive, and profoundly interesting; and occasionally, as Carl Sagan said, “understanding is a kind of ecstasy”.
There are other ways to discover the nature of reality beyond the superficial but reading books is one of the easiest and best, in my judgment. One cannot comprehend the depths of reality without comprehending the words that communicate that depth and one cannot comprehend the words without reading books of quality. Pulp fiction does not qualify as being books of quality.
What Duke said, plus reading 100 books about anything doesn’t mean that you “understand the details, technique, or principles” of words and/or language. I’ll agree that you have to be a reader in order to be a connoisseur of words, but being a reader does not make you a connoisseur of words.
And what does being a connoisseur of words have to do with “discovering the nature of reality”?
Also, what is your definition of a “book of quality”? And by “pulp fiction” do you mean just pulp magazines, or are you including mass market paperbacks?
Sure, you can read books about how to prepare your garden, how to improve your techniques, etc. To be a connoisseur, you still have to dig in the dirt. To win the blue ribbon for the prize rose, you have to grow roses, not just know everything there is to know about growing roses.
Reality is like an onion. We spend most of our time on the surface dealing with surface matters but there are deeper levels that form the foundation of our life on the surface. It is through reading that we can become acquainted with the other layers of reality and learning the meaning f words represents a ticket to that new domain of comprehension.
A book of quality is one that brings to our mind matters beyond the day-to-day reality of our life.
Comprehension is a hierarchy, resembling a pyramid, with awareness at the base followed by consciousness, succeeded by knowing, with understanding at the pinnacle.
There is a great difference between knowing and understanding. Everyone can answer “yes” when asked if they know music. We receive answers that go on forever when we ask a teenager if they know music. We awaken instant and sentimental memories when we ask an older person to tell what they know about music.
Silence and puzzlement is our response when we ask a person “do you understand music?” Occasionally the question “do you understand music?” receives an expression of delight and a verbal outpouring. The person who understands music–they are few and far between–has studied music in a way very few of us have. I suspect such a person is not only a lover but also a student of music. I do not understand music but I do understand the meaning of “understanding music”.
I create this musical metaphor for the purpose of illuminating a state of affairs of which we are seldom conscious.
Our formal educational system teaches us the knowledge required for making a living. Our formal education does not teach us the understanding required to live well. The development of understanding is something each of us must create on our own. If we do not recognize this fact we will not pursue this understanding and if we do not pursue this understanding we will remain intellectually naive.
We start our formal education experience as intellectually naïve children and end it twelve to eighteen years later as well informed intellectually naïve grown ups.
After formal education ends our understanding begins. The task of understanding is a private enterprise by me and for me. Understanding begins with this recognition and continues as one creates a process for the solitary activity of self-learning. I think a person could look at self-learning as a hobby, it could be one of your hobbies like tennis or golf, just a few hours each week and I suspect after a while it will become a very important part of your life style. Developing a sophisticated intellect is a solitary study lasting a lifetime.
Awareness–faces in a crowd.
Consciousness—smile, a handshake, and curiosity.
Knowledge—long talks sharing desires and ambitions.
Understanding—a best friend bringing constant April.
Carl Sagan is quoted as having written; “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”
Pulp fiction is generally some standard behavior of some types of people getting into trouble or getting out of trouble in pretty superficial manner. But in a sense you are correct. Perhaps we might say that pulp fiction can not be defined but like pornography you know it when you read it.
I am not sure of the point, I guess. I agree with Duke of Rat - in terms of music and guitars - areas I invest a lot of time in - I tend to say “Art is the Mastery of Craft” and “Quantity begets Quality” - in other words, practice.
When I am trying to help a person pick a guitar or amp I have to use connosieur words - “wine words” as I call them. The usual first step in helping them is to describe a word, but then to demand that they figure out a way to *experience * the word. So when I describe the concept of “hairy” - a very common term amongst tube guitar amp afficionados, it describes the moment when you push the tubes from clean signal into overdrive (“I like to find that line right when the tone gets hairy” is common parlance amongst amp geeks) - I then need the person to play a few amps, find that line and understand the implications for their playing and preferences…
“In a sense?” According to your own definition of a “book of quality,” it would seem that I’m entirely correct in refuting your original statement that pulp fiction doesn’t qualify. I know that my day-to-day reality certainly doesn’t involve getting into and out of trouble, but perhaps YMMV.
