Autodidacts Who Know More than I Do

In of Montreal songs, Kevin Barnes makes all sorts of obscure artsy references to things that I've never even heard of (just read the lyrics to "Art Snob Solutions"), as well as plenty of literary references, such as those to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf or A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man and Jacobean drama (my hope is that it's Jacobean drama through the medium of Eliot, since "The Waste Land" is how I know that quote, at least). Meanwhile, not only did Neil Hannon write "The Booklovers" (you should watch that video if you have never watched it), he also literally set Wordsworth poetry to music (in fact, this song is the only thing that has ever been able to make me take Wordsworth seriously). What's interesting about this is that neither of them ever went to college/university. It's hard for me to even imagine because I'm so used to having learned things from my college and even graduate school experiences. I have to admit to having a lot of respect for audodidacts.