"Culture is Ordinary"

     The word culture is one of those universal words that can have so many different meanings to humankind. Each individual relates to a specific culture in a special way (perhaps) following his/her family traditions and has the ability to relate to other cultures as well, as he/she is more exposed to different surroundings. In this text, "Culture is Ordinary" by Raymond Williams, the author exemplifies what this word meant or means in Marxism and goes on to say that he does not agree with this view on culture: "...culture must be finally interpreted in relation to its underlying system of production..." Williams states that we cannot create culture because it is made on a daily basis, "we cannot know in advance" what will shape culture and it is made by living. So for this reason, it is "ordinary in every society and every mind." All in all, I have to agree with Williams and his view on culture. It is what unites us to traditions but at the same time something that has the ability to change with time, it has no "system of production" like the Marxists view states in this text, and that is what makes it ordinary. Through culture, we find a way of life and decide how we want to live it, thus creating our own cultural experiences. One of the most intriguing and interesting parts of this text (for me) was when Williams states the we don't have to travel to find our culture because it is simply ordinary. This part automatically reminded me of a short story I just read by Alejo Carpentier where his character is in search of his identity and feels the need to travel from Latin America (Mexico) to Europe (Spain and Italy) to find himself. In the end, he realizes that although he has European blood, he is indeed Latin American, that is where his cultural ties belong and where he feels "home". Therefore, he travelled expecting to find this cultural identity and experience yet his identity was always with him in his personal culture and if anything, his bond grew deeper with this travel and all he wanted to do in the end was go back home. So even though I give an example of a person/character travelling to find culture, I think this is a perfect example of the notion that one does not need to travel to find culture (or at least one's culture) because it isn't created with travel and it is changing all the time through different methods, such as art and learning.