Sunday 13 March 2011

Nostalgia

I just feel old and futile among the enthusiastic fools of the future.
                                                 Jack Kerouac, Selected Letters, Volume 1

I have been surfing - some may say 'creeping' - the blogosphere for the past week, using my lists of favourite movies, music and books to find like-minded bloggers.  Searching based on music and books brings up a wide variety of people; but I've found that my searches based on favourite movies tend to bring up a more homogeneous group - nostalgics.  Whether it's the clothing & decorating styles, the acting, the dialogue or the stories, these bloggers obviously prefer the past masterworks of film.  This makes sense for me.  While I've always sought out new music and books I tend not to like many new films.  I usually come to like current films only after they've been time-tested.  So it was interesting to tune in today to TV Ontario's show Big Ideas which featured University of Toronto professor Nick Mount's lecture on the graphic novelist Seth's 'It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken'.  The book is primarily about nostalgia for another, seemingly better time.  So I guess I know what I'll be up to this week - black and white movies and graphic novels.

2 comments:

  1. Unless you have seen it already, you might enjoy this short documentary about Seth

    http://www.tvo.org/TVO/WebObjects/TVO.woa?videoid?798951053001

    It begins in black and white, because everything in black and white has longevity stamped onto it.

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  2. Wodek, thanks for taking the time to send me the link. I enjoyed the video. And I think I'll watch Professor Mount's lecture again. Cheers!

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