I think it's somewhat obvious that I tend towards the nostalgic. In general I think this is, to use the most dangerous and a most personally abhorred phrase, human nature to be so. A class assignment this past semester asked the simple question of whether or not we could be considered futurists. Not surprisingly, I sat there in various vintage accouterments and resoundingly said, “No”.
In recent weeks I've found this nostalgia to be stronger than ever. I've bought up piles of childhood books, pulled out my dolls and their doll-beds, investigated old toys and the like. This week I wonder if my nostalgic self is not growing up, since I bought a new pair of converse sneakers and listened to Something Corporate in the car (a big high-school habit), and entering adolescence and teenage-dom. This penchant for old things is nothing new, although of course since I'm not exactly ancient it's taken some time for all these things to happen, pass, and disappear in the recesses of memory before they can resurface in a personal nostalgic flood. It's also not something original; I find many of the blogs I frequent most often are increasingly in vintage treasures, in whimsical and strange visions and artifacts of the past. We look to older clothes, books, and stories. We take inspiration from films of the past and films of the present that seek to represent the past.
It is as though we are participating in “a deeper and more properly nostalgic desire to return to that older period and to live its strange old aesthetic artifacts through once again” (Jameson, 1966), illustrated not only in those insanely popular and addicting I Heart the Decade television shows, but in a desire to adorn ourselves with the past. I have an overwhelming love of all things doll-ish and which reference specific events and images from my childhood, which does not necessarily suggest that I want to be a child again, but rather that something about that nostalgic creation of the past is appealing and satisfying.
“[...] It does not reinvent a picture of the past in its lived totality;rather, by reinventing the feel and shape of characteristic art objects of an older period [...] it seeks to reawaken a sense of the past associated with those objects” (Jameson, 1966). Then, especially for those of us who were not anywhere near existence in the decades we so fondly associate with and romanticize and obsess over are able to achieve a sense of nostalgia for something we have never specifically experienced. To further complicate things there is the matter of film. Films that harken back to or are directly from (although not necessarily a direct reflection of) a specific decade or time period not only create an element of nostalgia within the images they are composed of, but the personal viewings create a new plane of nostalgia for the individual.
I think all of this is intensely interesting in terms of personal and cultural style. The Clothes Horse has touched on this twice which is also discussed in Jameson's article:
“There is another sense in which the writers and artists of the present day will no longer be able to invent new styles and worlds—they've already been invented; only a limited number of combinations are possible; the unique ones have been thought of already [...] in a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible, all that is left is to imitate dead styles, to speak through the masks and with the voices of the styles in the imaginary museum [...] the failure of the new, the imprisonment of the past” (Jameson 1965).
While I do find the idea that there are no new stylistic modes of expression to be discovered terribly disheartening and depressing, I cannot help but feel a certain amount of parallelism between this in literary theory and how our generation dresses themselves. When else has the emphasis on finding vintage been so strong? Perhaps in thrifting and wearing clothes from past eras we are participating in this 'speaking through masks,' manipulating those old pieces and attempting to integrate them with the 'failure of the new.' “We seemed condemned to seek the historical past through our own pop images and stereotypes about that past, which itself remains forever out of reach” (Jameson, 1967) and so even then the past which we are dressing ourselves in, in part anyway, does not even exist as it is not a representation of truth.
In any case, I am terribly fascinated by my own, and my contemporaries, nostalgic tides.
The Royal Tenenbaums, who dress themselves in their nostalgia, in the outfits from when they peaked in childhood as well as illustrating that very frustrating multi-layered nostalgia in film.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Memories and childhood PJs.
The Virgin Suicides and The Secret Garden; both satisfy a nostalgic craving for eras which have nothing to do with me, and yet have helped shape both my references for them and desire to experience them.
[Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconsious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act; Postmodernism and Consumer Society]
In recent weeks I've found this nostalgia to be stronger than ever. I've bought up piles of childhood books, pulled out my dolls and their doll-beds, investigated old toys and the like. This week I wonder if my nostalgic self is not growing up, since I bought a new pair of converse sneakers and listened to Something Corporate in the car (a big high-school habit), and entering adolescence and teenage-dom. This penchant for old things is nothing new, although of course since I'm not exactly ancient it's taken some time for all these things to happen, pass, and disappear in the recesses of memory before they can resurface in a personal nostalgic flood. It's also not something original; I find many of the blogs I frequent most often are increasingly in vintage treasures, in whimsical and strange visions and artifacts of the past. We look to older clothes, books, and stories. We take inspiration from films of the past and films of the present that seek to represent the past.
It is as though we are participating in “a deeper and more properly nostalgic desire to return to that older period and to live its strange old aesthetic artifacts through once again” (Jameson, 1966), illustrated not only in those insanely popular and addicting I Heart the Decade television shows, but in a desire to adorn ourselves with the past. I have an overwhelming love of all things doll-ish and which reference specific events and images from my childhood, which does not necessarily suggest that I want to be a child again, but rather that something about that nostalgic creation of the past is appealing and satisfying.
“[...] It does not reinvent a picture of the past in its lived totality;rather, by reinventing the feel and shape of characteristic art objects of an older period [...] it seeks to reawaken a sense of the past associated with those objects” (Jameson, 1966). Then, especially for those of us who were not anywhere near existence in the decades we so fondly associate with and romanticize and obsess over are able to achieve a sense of nostalgia for something we have never specifically experienced. To further complicate things there is the matter of film. Films that harken back to or are directly from (although not necessarily a direct reflection of) a specific decade or time period not only create an element of nostalgia within the images they are composed of, but the personal viewings create a new plane of nostalgia for the individual.
I think all of this is intensely interesting in terms of personal and cultural style. The Clothes Horse has touched on this twice which is also discussed in Jameson's article:
“There is another sense in which the writers and artists of the present day will no longer be able to invent new styles and worlds—they've already been invented; only a limited number of combinations are possible; the unique ones have been thought of already [...] in a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible, all that is left is to imitate dead styles, to speak through the masks and with the voices of the styles in the imaginary museum [...] the failure of the new, the imprisonment of the past” (Jameson 1965).
While I do find the idea that there are no new stylistic modes of expression to be discovered terribly disheartening and depressing, I cannot help but feel a certain amount of parallelism between this in literary theory and how our generation dresses themselves. When else has the emphasis on finding vintage been so strong? Perhaps in thrifting and wearing clothes from past eras we are participating in this 'speaking through masks,' manipulating those old pieces and attempting to integrate them with the 'failure of the new.' “We seemed condemned to seek the historical past through our own pop images and stereotypes about that past, which itself remains forever out of reach” (Jameson, 1967) and so even then the past which we are dressing ourselves in, in part anyway, does not even exist as it is not a representation of truth.
In any case, I am terribly fascinated by my own, and my contemporaries, nostalgic tides.
The Royal Tenenbaums, who dress themselves in their nostalgia, in the outfits from when they peaked in childhood as well as illustrating that very frustrating multi-layered nostalgia in film.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Memories and childhood PJs.
The Virgin Suicides and The Secret Garden; both satisfy a nostalgic craving for eras which have nothing to do with me, and yet have helped shape both my references for them and desire to experience them.
[Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconsious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act; Postmodernism and Consumer Society]
I've thought about this too. Sometimes I can't imagine that anything new could be created or invented, but I don't know if that's true. I don't think there's a limit to what we can do. It's just that so many of us are wrapped up in the past. I don't think that's a bad thing. I love being nostalgic, and I love seeing people wearing dresses from the 50s and still worshipping people like Louise Brooks.
ReplyDeleteI find myself in a Catch-22 of admiring the past and enjoying the freedoms of the present. Certainly I can look and admire style and lifestyle as well (things seemed simpler), but I also know that I look at the past with rose-shaded glasses. Would I really enjoy living in a period where I wasn't allowed to vote or seriously attend college? Or even to return to my own childhood, many good memories remain but if I look honestly bad ones too and I was so unsure of myself then...
ReplyDeleteOh and I thought it slightly ironic (in a good way) that your last post mentioned being texted about YSL's death right before this post. The technology and sheer speed at which information was transfered is stunning. The entire world could know on the day of his death he was dead whereas in the not-so-distant past it might have taken months and his sort of fame would be nearly unheard of.
I think your blog is incredibly well-written and I really enjoy reading it!
ReplyDeleteThat said, I think our love for nostalgia may be due to the mental and spiritual fatigue caused by the incredibly fast-paced environment of our modern times. It is soothing to slow down and reflect every now and then.
This is a great post. Sometimes is so easy to indulge in nostalgia, loving a decade you actually didn't live in... Movies, books, music and old things build a personal imagery in each of us, our personal space when we can hide ourselves, in a certain way.
ReplyDeleteI love Secret Garden the movie. It's the only book-adaptation film I hold no grudge against. I also agree with Sabrina; great posts :]
ReplyDeleteHello KateR
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry that you may have taken my comments on Flickr the wrong way. I didn't mean anything other than your outfits and shoes are very nice, and it would be nice to see close-ups of the shoes. My apologies if you thought that I meant anything other than that.
Best,
JohnLawrence46