I’m teaching this semester the core subject ‘Contemporary Anglophone Literature: 1990 to the Present’, which we introduced last year in the fourth year of our English Studies BA. I was presenting the introduction to the first unit, 1990-1997, with a survey of the main political, social, and technoscientific events, when I noticed that most persons I named were total unknowns for my students. I’m used to students not recognizing the names of Victorian authors or the titles of their books, and I never expected them to remember who Benjamin Disraeli or Thomas Huxley were. Yet, I’m more concerned about their not recognizing key figures of recent decades. Margaret Thatcher did not ring a bell. So, I’m writing this to prepare what I need to say to my students next week about why it’s important to acquire a solid general knowledge and how this is done.
I mentioned to my class as an example of the pleasures of allusion a sentence in the book by Robert MacFarlane that I’m currently reading, Is a River Alive? MacFarlane is describing the astonishing process by which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly (the whole body is dissolved and rebuilt), and writes that this is “a metamorphosis Ovid would be proud of.” If you don’t know who Ovid is and that he collected in his book Metamorphoses (ca. 8 AD) over 250 myths and legends about bodily transformations, then you miss the clever allusion. On the other hand, if you’ve never heard of this author and his book, MacFarlane’s sentence might make you feel curious, prompt you to check Wikipedia and help you to acquire general knowledge, perhaps even read Metamorphoses.
Curiosity, you see?, is the key to acquiring general knowledge but must be accompanied by the will to work on it. I gave my class a list of the best literary fiction in English 1990-1997, highlighting a few books (I used the book covers, always a good prop), but reading a list of unknown novels and authors (for them) does not automatically enhance general knowledge. You need to want to memorize names and titles, for which writing them down usually works; if possible, read the books. You have to study, in short, because even though we acquire bits of knowledge passively through allusion in what we read, watch, or hear people mention, there is a difference between something that ‘rings a bell’ and something we know for sure. An individual’s general knowledge is no doubt composed in part of many items that are not known for sure, but a true education depends on being certain about the knowledge you acquire, which requires study.
Education is supposed to provide young persons with a sound general knowledge, but formal education is always limited. To begin with, school education depends on programmes devised by authorities with a narrow idea of what culture is. Besides, these authorities need to make sure that their programmes can be taught within a limited time. Whenever something is included, something else is excluded. Sometimes to a large extent. To give you an example, still today in 2025, cinema is not part of the general knowledge acquired in school, much less television, pop music, comics, or videogames. If you’re interested in any of these areas, you need to educate yourself, assuming an active role. Even so, general knowledge is organized in ranks, so that, for instance, not knowing about videogames is considered to be less important than not knowing about cinema. Gamers might disagree, but I’m speaking here of general knowledge, not of fandom.
So, how do you actually acquire general knowledge beyond what teachers make you learn in school and you need to study? (quite another matter is how memory acts once you have passed a subject and need not retain the knowledge acquired to pass it). You use your spare time wisely, that’s the answer. What happens if you don’t have any spare time? Well, you fail to acquire general knowledge. However, depending on your job you might manage to acquire some, either because the job requires it, or because you can access culture as you work: for instance by listening to music, audiobooks, or podcasts.
Suppose, however, that you have between one and three hours a day for leisure, after work and study. How do you use them to acquire general knowledge? Most young people use their leisure time for social media, but this need not be an obstacle to acquire knowledge: it depends on who you follow. You may spend your social media time following empty-headed influencers, or following persons that recommend books, art, films, series, comics, videogames, etc. It’s also a good idea to follow persons who post about science, technology, climate change, politics, society and so on. A small dose of gossip is always healthy, but don’t overdo it! It’s fundamental to read at least one newspaper (I always recommend The Guardian), check websites that offer information about books and current cultural topics (Lit Hub is great), and that you read books (apart from the ones you need to read in class).
As I have explained here many times, Spanish television used to be a main instrument to enhance general knowledge thanks to its constant broadcasting of older films and series (and of documentaries), and the popularity of shows in which contestants had to demonstrate a strong general knowledge (the main survivor today is Pasapalabra). From 1990 onward, with the start of the private channels, black and white films disappeared from the TV screen, and in general, all films made before 1980. Then Netflix started operating in Spain in 2015, and streaming services changed again the way we consume TV: mainly with a fixation on novelties, with a preference for series over films, and with a generally unexceptional quality.
Streaming platforms do carry classics in their catalogues, and the online services of public channels, such as RTVE, also carry older films and series, but here’s the problem: in order to want to see, for instance, Gone with the Wind, you need to know first that it exists. Public libraries, from which you can also borrow DVDs, comics, videogames and other types of texts, apart from books, work on the principle that you browse the shelves and take home whatever calls your attention. Yet, nobody does this totally randomly: you need to have some personal organizing principle (streaming platforms and online services like YouTube, in contrast, offer to you pre-selected content based on an algorithm). Or not. Perhaps the best way to acquire general knowledge today is jumping from one Wikipedia page to the next. Begin with, I don’t know, Spice Girls, and see where this leads you.
I’m a naturally curious person who loves to learn totally useless facts just for fun, so acquiring general knowledge is not a chore for me. When I think back to what I have done to enhance this knowledge, the usual activities come to mind: read a lot (books, newspapers, magazines); watch films (both TV and cinema), series, and documentaries; visit exhibitions; go to the theatre; go to concerts; listen to pop and rock music (I know nothing about classical music…); attend book festivals and presentations; attend lectures. I know this is not popular with students now, but when I was a student it was not so uncommon for us to pop into teachers’ officers for a chat. In fact, this still happened in my first years as a teacher. Indeed, conversation with those who know more (a teacher, a classmate, friends, family) and want to share their knowledge also helps. By the way, I come from a working-class family for which going to the cinema was ok, but not going to the theatre, visiting exhibitions, and much less attending lectures. I learnt from a very dear middle-class friend that I was missing a lot, and had to overcome my own prejudices, for which I thank him.
Now: the lists. I keep lists for the books I read, the films I watch, the exhibitions I visit… everything that helps me to be better educated and a bit wiser. In this way, I aid my memory to retain names and titles. I’m also constantly making lists of books I want to read, films I want to watch, exhibitions to visit, which requires keeping track of novelties through the conventional and the social media. And I’ve read many introductions and guides. The late Miquel Barceló, a teacher at UPF, wrote a very popular introduction to science fiction that created a whole generation of new SF readers in Spain. Browsing books in bookshops also helps, of course. Visit Gigamesh, please!
I understand that there is so much information out there that it is hard for a young person to know what kind of knowledge is worth acquiring. If you’re not naturally curious, then enhancing your culture and general knowledge involves making an effort that might not be rewarding. Some persons are satisfied, for instance, by acquiring a vast knowledge of a small field to discuss what interests them, with no incursions into more general knowledge (this is as valid for football as for haute couture). Yet, I find that the larger a person’s general knowledge is, the better suited that person is to understand how the world works.
In the end, the purpose of a general knowledge is multiple. It may give you personal satisfaction, but it also equips you to protect yourself from manipulation and abuse, and it is essential to preserve a clear-eyed understanding of past lives. These days I have been reading, of all things, a book about Elena Francis, a fictional character (though people believed she was real) who, between 1950 and 1984, became a sort of influencer combined with an agony aunt, to whom mainly low-class women addressed their doubts; she would then reply to a selection of these letters on a very popular daily radio show. The letters cited in the book Las cartas de Elena Francis: Una educación sentimental bajo el franquismo by Armand Balsebre and Rosario Fontova (2018) are very painful to read, as they reveal an extremely low general knowledge, that is to say, a great ignorance. Comparing my life to the lives of those women, I must thank them for having made the effort of acquiring the knowledge that has allowed us, their daughters and granddaughters to study and face a much better future.
So, in short, we need a strong general knowledge so that nobody can treat us as many people kept wilfully ignorant by their exploiters have been treated and are being treated. The knowledge we need to acquire can have as many trivial facts as you wish, but it needs to absorb, above all, the notions that make us critical of manipulation, abuse, and exploitation. And of disrespect.
Now, continue educating yourself.