When I was a kid, the year 2020 was a date in science fiction novels. But here we are in the future鈥攁nd yet remakes, reboots, and revivals are still wildly popular across all forms of entertainment media. There鈥檚 even a convention called NostalgiaCon Ultimate 80s Reunion now running in its second year and growing in attendance.
As I鈥檓 an old school Star Wars fan, it was the original films that captured my imagination and symbolize my childhood. Recently, The Mandalorian on Disney+ has recaptured the magic of those original stories and has critics calling it the best Star Wars yet.
Other shows like Stranger Things and the upcoming Wonder Woman sequel are transporting us back in time, and audiences seem to be loving it. Netflix documentaries such as The Toys that Made Us share the behind-the-scenes drama of an industry we grew up with. The list of nostalgia-driven entertainment is endless.
So why are we stuck in the past? Why is retro so cool? My parents said don鈥檛 dwell on the past. Focus on the future.
As an educator, I spend most of my time preparing students for the road ahead. Even Star Wars鈥� esteemed First Order leader Kylo Ren said, 鈥淟et the past die. Kill it if you have to. That鈥檚 the only way to become what you were meant to be.鈥�
A stroll down memory lane is good medicine, just like mom鈥檚 old cooking, rich and savory and always making you feel better.
Unsurprisingly, there鈥檚 a ton of research on nostalgia, and if you can imagine the good old days of actually stepping foot in a library, then go one step farther and picture rows of shelves buckling under the weight of this work. Suffice it to say that thousands of researchers (or at least four whose articles I read) agree that nostalgia can boost creativity, evoke inspiration, increase optimism, and even combat loneliness, boredom and anxiety.
Nostalgic memories shared by couples and friends bring them closer. Apparently, a stroll down memory lane is good medicine, just like mom鈥檚 old cooking, rich and savory and always making you feel better.
So this is why we cling to our old clothes, photos, record albums, jewelry, coins, baseball cards, and most importantly in my case, Star Wars action figures. These are the talismans of our youth, the magical objects that remind us we are still the kids who owned them way back when. And sure, they are valuable and we could sell them for a profit, but sometimes you can鈥檛 put a price on your past.
In an article for The New Yorker entitled 鈥淭he True Meaning of Nostalgia,鈥� Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon defines the feeling as something that 鈥渙vercomes you when some minor vanished beauty of the world is momentarily restored.鈥�
Chabon alludes to a Latin phrase sic transit gloria mundi: thus passeth the glory of the world. Consequently, every time I dust off and admire my original Star Wars figures from the 1970s, I am 12 again. My parents are still married. When I grow up, I will be Luke Skywalker.
My action figures鈥攐r your photos or films or songs鈥攈elp you recall the wonders of your half-remembered, half-imagined childhood. You need them because you鈥檙e afraid to lose yourself to the future. And we鈥檙e reminded of that secret when we play with our old Legos or buy new ones for our children鈥攂ut we do most of the playing.
This is all OK. We鈥檙e not slackers stuck in the past. In fact, photos or songs or other objects from tougher times are important to remind us how we overcame that adversity. In this case, nostalgia becomes a defense mechanism to reassure us that those painful moments are only temporary. The past can, indeed, coexist with the present and give us courage to face the future.
But beware the dark side. Collecting pieces of nostalgia can turn into an obsession, into hoarding, a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
There鈥檚 an adrenaline rush I get when I鈥檓 able to score a hard-to-find action figure and add it to my collection, but if I take it too far and start down the dark path, forever will it dominate my destiny. I don鈥檛 want to wind up half-man, half-machine wearing a breathing mask鈥攂ecause that鈥檚 what my wife will do to me if I blow our life savings on little pieces of plastic.
Nostalgia is a powerful force. It鈥檚 the house we grew up in, the toys we played with, and the TV shows we watched. It鈥檚 the smell of hot dogs cooking on a barbecue grill and that song your mom sang before tucking you in at night. It鈥檚 everything we were, everything we still are, if only we remember.
And so a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was a little boy playing with Star Wars figures. And now, all these years later, I鈥檓 still knocking on your door and asking, 鈥淵ou wanna come out and play?鈥�
Peter Telep is a senior instructor in 麻豆原创鈥檚 Department of English. He can be reached at Peter.Telep@ucf.edu.
The聽麻豆原创 Forum聽is a weekly series of opinion columns from faculty, staff and students who serve on a panel for a year. A new column is posted each Wednesday on 麻豆原创 Today and then broadcast on W麻豆原创-FM (89.9) between 7:50 and 8 a.m. Sunday. ) Opinions expressed are those of the columnists, and are not necessarily shared by the 麻豆原创.
