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Post by nucleusofswarm on Jan 21, 2017 1:19:49 GMT
Of course, we all feel nostalgia. Towards something, someone or somewhere. We romanticize the past to make ourselves feel better, perhaps even validated in our thoughts or tastes.
That said, when does it go too far? When does affection become regression? Take this any direction you wish.
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shutupbanks
Castellan
There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you.
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Post by shutupbanks on Jan 21, 2017 13:20:06 GMT
Clive James said something that has stuck with me for many years. It goes along the lines of, "Wanting to recapture your youth is a sign that you wasted it." Like any generalisation it isn't perfect, but it sums up how I feel about the past. I did a lot of stuff that I loved and am proud of and remember fondly but I also remember a six-month period where I was horribly depressed and on the verge of a breakdown and my family and friends didn't have the skills or experience to recognise it or help me with it. You can apply that to a culture as well. I'm a middle-aged professional white guy (that doesn't mean that I'm white for a living, just that I get paid for work that I do that I have qualifications for): I'm pretty sure that any period of Western history is going to be okay for me. Naturally, I'm going to look back fondly at any time in the past because things, while tough in places, have been pretty good for me.
But I have friends from other backgrounds - female friends, immigrant friends, indigenous friends, LGBTARDIS friends, disabled friends - who look back differently and don't have the same sort of nostalgia that I have for the same periods of time because their lives were much worse then.
Nostalgia by itself is ok. Nostalgia that informs your lifestyle can be fun. Nostalgia that influences public life and policy is not good because it harks back to a time when things were different and harder for a big chunk of people.
I love 50's music and movies. I'd hate to have lived in the 50s though because I'm aware of many of the social problems that were hidden or dismissed as happening to people who "didn't matter" or "weren't our sort." The rampant nostalgia that politicians in a lot of first world countries are appealing to at the moment looks back to a time when things were easier for them as mostly upper-class white men but for nobody else.
Looking back and remembering is fine: it can inform our present and influence our future. Mythologising the past as a golden age or a time when things were better, or "great," is dangerous because it simplifies things that don't fit into neat boxes - or that we think don't fit into neat boxes.
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Post by muckypup on Jan 21, 2017 17:11:29 GMT
i hunger for my past, not because as mentioned above it was wasted, but because I just don't feel I fit in today anymore.
I miss my less jaded views, the optimistic outlook & the feeling that I could do anything given half a chance.
also I miss my friends & the fun we had, laughing at the most stupid things and discovering stuff together for the first time.
life for me feels less of everything, I cannot remember when I had a real proper laugh but the last time I cried is never far away.
I don't think things were better in the past, just better for me.....I would happily go back 30 years.
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Post by nucleusofswarm on Jan 24, 2017 16:51:26 GMT
Grass is always greener
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2017 17:24:56 GMT
Original actors always better than recasts etc. |
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Post by doctorkernow on Jan 24, 2017 17:40:18 GMT
Hello again.
I once saw this carved into the pavement in Romsey, Hampshire, though it is a quite well-known saying.
"The past, is history. The future, is a mystery. Today is a gift, which is why it's called the present."
Present circumstances easily overwhelm us so that our history seems more appealing. Future worries can paralyse us into procrastination. It is not easy to live in the now particularly when you have difficult work ahead of you.
Nostalgia as a sweet venom? An interesting simile, Nucleus, and to my mind an accurate one. Nothing wrong with it in tiny doses to bring a bit of rose-tinted glow into a dull, grey day...
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Post by ulyssessarcher on Jan 24, 2017 17:54:40 GMT
I know I mostly watch black and white tv shows, and always stop on the Golden Girls when it's on, loved growing up watching it with my grandmother. That, Murder she Wrote and Matlock.
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Post by Timelord007 on Jan 25, 2017 8:54:37 GMT
Nostalgia is wonderful, i can remember films & songs i watched & listened too wayyyyyyyy back & remember exactly what i was feeling.
My first horror film i watched Halloween aged 7, my first kiss & holiday romance to Wham's Club Tropicana.
I was a fun loving guy back then unlike the shell of a man i since become.
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Post by fingersmash on Jan 26, 2017 18:35:32 GMT
When I think of nostalgia and how bad it can be, I think of this 45 year old clunker from Disneyland youtu.be/fTb-D8ypVr0Now I grew up going to Disneyland and this was the first parade I ever saw but no matter how nostalgic I get, I'll always hold some bitterness and hope it gets sent off to the dumpster for how many 'What Could Have Beens' that came out of keeping it for so long. On the other hand, nostalgia as a good thing is why comic book movies are so popular and why we've seen Renaissance style Disney films like Tangled and Moana out recently. It's just a fine line between overdone and just right that needs to be found. |
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Post by nucleusofswarm on May 5, 2017 23:11:50 GMT
Still, money talks. The market is there.
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Post by TinDogPodcast on May 8, 2017 7:12:58 GMT
I wastep my chance to have a wasted youth. I worked hard and tried and it didn't help. I didn't do freshers fairs or get drunk more that a couple to times.
I was a boring boring person
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