Nostalgia

Gaear · Jul 9, 2013

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Interesting article about nostalgia here. Among other things, I was not aware that it was ever considered a particularly bad thing.

Nostalgia had been considered a disorder ever since the term was coined by a 17th-century Swiss physician who attributed soldiers’ mental and physical maladies to their longing to return home ...
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So are you nostalgic, or not so much? And if so, do you consider it valuable and/or positive, or is it moreso an exercise in whimsical longing for other times (and the implied associated loss of those times)? I imagine we all have 'old times' that may or may not have been objectively better than the present, but the twist would seem to be in what you make of them, and how objective the process of looking back really is.

I always figured it was sort of neutral and involuntary, being as if you have a past, sooner or later you will think about it (in other words, I don't think you choose to be nostalgic), and those feelings can be both pleasant and painful, but I never saw the process as either very damaging or especially uplifting. But apparently it can be good for most people.

Splunge · Jul 9, 2013

I miss the days when I used to be more nostalgic...

Master of Nuhn · Jul 10, 2013

"Nostalgia isn't what it used to be"

Oh... I see this joke is being used in the text as well. Probably a very common joke, then.

I agree with your last paragraph, Gaear, except for the (personal) fact that those feelings can only be pleasant.

I don't necessarily think that things were better. I just remember good times, and believe that they most likely won't come back. I do create new good times though, so I'm quite neutral or rather positive towards nostalgia, I suppose.

coineineagh · Jul 11, 2013

The past sucks. Mine does anyway. I don't miss it.

T2Bruno · Jul 11, 2013

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:Aye, very passable, that, very passable bit of risotto.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:Nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah?
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:You're right there, Obadiah.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:Who'd have thought thirty year ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chasselas, eh?
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:A cup o' cold tea.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:Without milk or sugar.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:Or tea.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:In a cracked cup, an' all.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:Because we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness, son".
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:Aye, 'e was right.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:Aye, 'e was.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor!
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:Well, when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:We were evicted from our 'ole in the ground; we 'ad to go and live in a lake.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:Cardboard box?
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:Aye.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.
ALL:They won't!
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... and I had to watch this on a black and white TV filled with dozens of tubes ... it took nearly the entire program to finally warm up and turn on....

Blades of Vanatar · Jul 11, 2013

I love hanging with the boyz, drinking a few beers while telling old war stories. Nostalgia is where it's at. In the end, it's all you got.

Dice · Jul 19, 2013

I never really considered this topic before it was posted, but after thinking about it I realized that nostalgia makes me uncomfortable. Often when I'm remembering a sweet memory from a lovely place in my past it just reminds me of a loss that I will never regain.

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Nostalgia

Gaear ★ SPS Account Holder Resourceful

Splunge Bhaal’s financial advisor Adored Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

Master of Nuhn Wear it like a crown Veteran Pillars of Eternity SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!) Torment: Tides of Numenera SP Immortalizer (for helping immortalize Sorcerer's Place in the game!)

coineineagh I wish for a horde to overrun my enemies Resourceful Adored Veteran

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