The Paradoxes of Nostalgia | Hacker News Reader

The Paradoxes of Nostalgia

ravenmagazine.org

46 pointsprhrb18 comments

IMO nostalgia is like the DRAM refresh for my own memory. I think nostalgia feels good to incentivize me to do it, like how sex feels good to incentivize the perpetuation of humanity as a whole. I suspect that when I “remember something” I’m actually remembering the last time I remembered it, not directly remembering the original event. Some day I would like to try building a filesystem like that where storage and access are the same operation.

Source: drugs

> when I “remember something” I’m actually remembering the last time I remembered it

I remember reading the title of a TIL (Today I Learned) post on Reddit roughly a decade ago[0] that was worded almost verbatim like this. Just a note that this suspicion seems to be grounded in reality, assuming the veracity of that claim. As an additional data point, since being introduced to that idea I've been anecdotally "confirming" it (with the usual potential for bias) through observation of my own recollections.

[0] The absolute pinnacle of journalistic integrity. No salt grains needed. /s

at some point there were rumors of a psychological study where some chemical that somehow disallowed making new memories also seemed to erase previous memories that were consciously recalled

"What we really seek in our nostalgic reveries, I want to suggest, is the inertness of the past." Extremely well said. I have never thought of nostalgia in this way but I think it's true.

Can you elaborate on the "inertness"? Like the fact it doesn't change or pose an an existential threat to you unlike everyday life in the world?

I think so. It's an anchor. It's always there, always the same. Even if things weren't perfect it's comforting in that there's nothing surprising there.

Another way of putting this is that the present is full of doubts and fears, while the past is done, settled; it has no risks.

The fundamental problem is that the way we live in modern society is full of uncertainty that stems from unbridled change. It's driving us all mad because can't stop it, and we don't know what is the next casualty.

Nostalgia is also particularly strong for things we know we've lost and can never get back. Modern life is all about erasing--overwriting, really--both past and present, with new, shiny, utterly cheap coats of paint. Or knocking down and paving over.

And if there is no change they call it stagnation and people will find it unbearable as well.

Universal human condition, I guess. If we're going to persist in being miserable, might as well keep to ourselves and not screw it up for the other forms of life on this planet.

They likely don't find it unbearable if it's normal. Stagnation was the largest part of human history. Only since the Renaissance has progress accelerated substantially. Before then, the life of the children was about the same as the life of the parents and grandparents. Life was governed by tradition. Everyone had their predictable role to play. Being unhappy about "stagnation" wasn't an option, as anything else would have been outlandish science fiction, which didn't exist.

wait what?

it doesn't feel like it is really stagnation if armies are rampaging through your lands and you have new rulers/warlords/famine/pandemics all the time

Sometimes I spend time remembering how nostalgia used to be.

A few questions went through my as I read this being incredibly nostalgic this past year as well:

1. Do post-life altering events like a pandemic stoke hidden nostalgic behaviors at a higher degree of a population?

2. What percentage of great creative works (any kind) were the result of revelry of that nostalgic wave of thinking?

Obviously this work is a meta result.

As someone wise said to me once "the past is a nice place to visit, but I won't want to live there." I'll extend this thought "If I'm there, I'll harness it to produce art."

Back to the Future, as exciting as it was when it came out, is essentially a movie of Nostalgia. I remember in the 80s how big the 50s and 60s nostalgia was. Now we are going through a similar thing by looking back on the 80s and 90s.

I do agree with the author that nostalgia is not just about remembering when times were 'good'. I sometimes get nostalgic about times I was sick. However, I do think its more than just 'the inertness of the past'. I imagine nostalgia serves many purposes, including ones that are orthogonal to each other.

This is a fantastic essay. As someone who went through a rough divorce and estrangement from my kid (I don't even really know why), I know nostalgia well. This essay does a great job of investigating what is going on there.

Jello Biafra Nostalga For An Age That Never Existed:

https://youtu.be/wx5XS6uXP-g

"...after a while I am still exhausted but have a closet full of kitsch."

That sums it up.

nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

I loved this piece; sometimes I think of reviewing past memories as akin to rewatching a familiar show. There are no surprises, so even the hardest plot-twists have less anxiety associated with them.

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