Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I'm curious. A question for those who never re-read: do you also never listen to a piece of music more than once? If you do, what's the difference with a book?
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For me, nostalgia is dangerous. I like to keep my favorite books, movies, and video-games shackled to the feeling of wonder I had when I first experienced them. I grew into an extremely critical person and typically the things I loved when I was younger just can't stand up to my present-day criticism.
Most of my attempts to answer the call of nostalgia only end up bleeding through and tainting the original memory or feeling. There are of course some exceptions but for the most part I believe that nothing will
ever be better than I remember.
Music is different because it works in reverse for me. I don't like most songs when I first hear them but they grow on me with each subsequent listening. This probably happens because I don't know much about music, and that leaves my critical mind standing there with nothing to do--but dance.
Here are a few of the memories I've hosed while trying to recreate them:
Robert Aspirin books
The Never-Ending Story
The Dark Crystal
AC/DC music
Most Commodore 64 and Amiga video-games
In-N-Out burger (first experienced as a drunk Best Man)
Dairy Queen's Grape Mr. Misty (now called Arctic Rush or something like that)
Sno-Cones from the ice-cream truck
Peeps
The Oz Series of books
Sometimes it works out and my present-day experience is different, evolved, positive, and able to co-exist with an untainted memory, but most of the time entertainment from my past is skewered by my present-day mind. So my favorite works are kept in jars of formaldehyde and I'm always out hunting for new things to preserve--or a Hollywood offering to lop off at the knees.