the pursuit of nostalgia vs. living in the present 6 6

[1Cool]

I tend to defer to nostalgia if I feel it's better.  I pretty much only listen to 80s and 90s music since it just sounds better to my ears then recent music.  I concentrate on new shows and movies since the technology and stories seem better (with a few exceptions).  Living only in the past would be pretty dull especially if you have lived it and experienced it already.

[Dr. Balls]

On 8/6/2023 at 11:08 PM, factory sealed said:

I am just curious; especially for folks with OCD type personalities such as myself, how do you balance your own pursuits of nostalgic bliss and collecting goals vs. an appreciation for living and enjoying in the present moment. 

I have two modes of living: enjoying elements of the past and thinking about the future. The present does nothing for me. Sure, it's probably unhealthy or boring or uneventful - and I'm sure a great many feel that living this way would not be preferable. 

Just today, we had free time to go to the thrift stores and bought things for the house like old planters, an old waffle maker (that we'll use) and a antique nightstand - the reason we buy these nostalgic things is because the quality of new items is so poor, we simply don't justify spending money on it. I'd rather pay $10 for a 50 year old galvanized steel planter that is 2-3X thicker in gauge than a brand new one for the same price that's thin-walled.

This week, we watched four episodes from the first season of Love Boat. It's surprisingly well-written, simple and not filled with heavy-handed virtue signaling and poor writing. Two weeks ago, I had to give up watching Secret Invasion after four episodes because it was so badly done.

I buy comic art from the 90's and older because the craftmanship is different and more interesting. I'd rather buy a piece with erased pencils on the board than something that has been drawn, photocopied and then inked over. Not that there is anything wrong with newer comic art - I just prefer the older works.

I just got into an "internet argument" today over AI with a person who thinks that using AI to create a comic book is the same as people taking photographs. Spoiler alert: it ain't.

My long, rambling point? I use what is going on in the present to help me plan for the future or reminisce about the past. It goes much farther than nostalgia - the past contains things we cannot get in the present such as: craftsmanship, tolerance, quality, and inspiration. Just by random coincidence, in the past 24 hours I was shown - in practically ever aspect of life - that our society was more unique, innovative, creative and useful 40 years ago than it is right now at this very moment - despite all the "enlightenment" we have from being "interconnected on the information superhighway". Nostalgic bliss is now a way of life, and millions of people are living it that way - that's why it's so popular. I'm not the only person who feels this way about our society as a whole.

Feel free to blast me for being negative or a "boomer" (born in 1973) - I wouldn't blame you. I totally can see why after reading what I wrote, but that's just how I feel about "the present". The present stinks.

[Ryan.]

On 8/7/2023 at 2:33 PM, themagicrobot said:

When the world ends/Martians invade they won't care less about Incredible Hulk 181.

That's a bummer. I was planning on using my comics to barter for my freedom from our new Martian overlords.

[Dr. Balls]

On 8/7/2023 at 12:55 PM, Gonzimodo said:

I used to have grand designs of being a big hero and passing off an amazing collection of comics and toys to my appreciative kids when I go, but they don't seem to have any interest in any of it.  

I hear that. As long as I'm not suddenly hit by a Mack truck and I have a few years forewarning that the End Is Near, I don't plan on leaving anything to anyone - I'll get rid of it on my own terms. But, I also don't collect this stuff to leave to my step-kids. I collect it for me. When the desire is gone, it'll be time to move on - and therein lies the Sales Thread.

[Dr. Love]

On 8/7/2023 at 2:31 PM, Dr. Balls said:

born in 1973

GenX, young Padawan

[Dr. Balls]

On 8/7/2023 at 5:02 PM, Dr. Love said:

GenX, young Padawan

Gen X is the new Boomer - I get mistaken for the Baby Boomer generation frequently online. 

Edited August 7, 2023 by Dr. Balls

[themagicrobot]

I thought Gen Z were youngsters but it seems there is now a Generation Alpha born since 2010 (which is practically yesterday). When it comes to music I will admit to living in the past. But I'm not as bad as a former friend and his wife who re-created the interior of their terraced house to imitate 1958 (even down to the old copy of Melody Maker on the coffee table). They wore the fifties fashions and drove a 1960 Ford Zodiac.

 

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 8/8/2023 at 3:55 AM, themagicrobot said:

I thought Gen Z were youngsters but it seems there is now a Generation Alpha born since 2010 (which is practically yesterday). When it comes to music I will admit to living in the past. But I'm not as bad as a former friend and his wife who re-created the interior of their terraced house to imitate 1958 (even down to the old copy of Melody Maker on the coffee table). They wore the fifties fashions and drove a 1960 Ford Zodiac.

 

Bungle in the Jungle!  

[Ken Aldred]

It's quite difficult now to reminisce about my teenage years without recalling the appalling time I had at school, and I'm at a point where I really don't want the warm comfort blanket effect of nostalgia to obscure that reality.  It seems too delusional.  One reason I moved on from buying physical copies of comics from the Bronze and Copper Age.  Of course, I have fond memories of those exciting times, rushing to the newsstand each month for my 100 pagers, the ever-upwards evolution of discovering book exchanges, then dedicated comics stores, then going further afield to conventions, but realising now that because of health issues I can't commit myself to such an intense, energetic and time-consuming hunt any longer.  Thankfully, when I reached a breaking point at which all of this became quite unsustainable, I started getting comics digitally and found that I liked this alternative approach even more; devoid of the stress of travel, no OCD overkill in my case about condition, and far cheaper.

So, I still have my old school physical copy raws and slabs, my Archives, Masterworks, trade paperbacks and Omnibus Editions, but I've also now moved on into a more modern day comics world as well, still reading these wonderful stories, but in a way that feels safely detached from the obsessiveness of the past, and acknowledging what was really going on back then, darkly, under all the subsequent, fallacious nostalgia.  Still a comfort blanket, I suppose, but one more in touch with my actual experiences over the long term, and something I find myself more at peace with.

Edited August 8, 2023 by Ken Aldred

[Ken Aldred]

On 8/7/2023 at 6:52 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

+1

Finding Doctor Who cards down the side of the Weetabix box was thrilling beyond measure 

Beat me to it.  Put together a full run of those.

And a completed PG Tips 'Race Into Space' tea card book.

[AC Skywalker]

On 8/7/2023 at 2:55 PM, Gonzimodo said:

.  I used to have grand designs of being a big hero and passing off an amazing collection of comics and toys to my appreciative kids when I go, but they don't seem to have any interest in any of it.  

Exactly this.  

[factory sealed]

On 8/7/2023 at 1:52 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

+1

Finding Doctor Who cards down the side of the Weetabix box was thrilling beyond measure 

In the 70s Wonderbread had some incredible non-sports trading card promos. You could sneak a peak through the plastic wrap too so at least avoid getting duplicates. We would eat through the bread as fast as we could to move onto a new loaf. 

[lostboys]

100% nostalgia for me.

Im lucky though, I collected in the late 80s / early 90s, a few years before Image was formed so it wasnt too expensive to rebuild my childhood collection.

I did start building a decent ASM collection of books I never owned as a kid but that got too expensive so I had to stop.

I also bought a few other things that I just couldnt afford as a kid like the Wolverine and Punisher limited series'.

but Im done buying now.

I have everything I want.

The books make me smile at the end of a long day and I have something fun to leave for my kids when I die.

[Get Marwood & I]

On 8/8/2023 at 4:25 PM, factory sealed said:

In the 70s Wonderbread had some incredible non-sports trading card promos. You could sneak a peak through the plastic wrap too so at least avoid getting duplicates. We would eat through the bread as fast as we could to move onto a new loaf. 

Same here. Never ate so much Weetabix. If I shut my eyes I can still smell the inside of the box. There was always that split second of despair that the cards might be missing. But they were always there. Just some pictures on a bit of cardboard they were. But nonetheless, magical.

See also, Super Heroes cards 

[B2D327]

On 8/7/2023 at 6:50 PM, Ryan. said:

That's a bummer. I was planning on using my comics to barter for my freedom from our new Martian overlords.

That’s funny. I’m waiting for Galactus to arrive so I can offer my services as a herald and watch him devour this god-forsaken planet

[justadude]

Aldo Leopold, the first conservationist in the United States, described hobbies as acts that try to deny the natural passage of time. I think the definition works pretty well with collectors because the very act of buying old stuff and storing it away is to make sure it exists for the future. Nostalgia is clearly a big part of that for many and I'd argue the very act of refusing to live in the present and holding the idea that the past had better X, Y, Z is what makes you all great collectors.

That said, it doesn't mean you're right. What I find most ironic is this clear frustration with the next generation's lack of interest in your, often nostalgia-driven, interest, and yet a total lack of desire to engage in newer forms of media, the very media the younger generations are engaging in. While superhero readership declines, Manga, indies, and trade paperbacks are clearly on the rise. It seems pretty obvious why your children wouldn't want anything to do with your collection if you basically devalue their entire reality. "X was better in my day." "Everything today is garbage." "Nothing could live up to X." Why would they want to engage under such dismissive pretenses?

This kind of rhetoric is especially off-putting for younger collectors, the collectors many older collectors need in order to keep the hobby going. Reading this gives me second thoughts about collecting because there seems to be very little joy in it for many people with an obvious disdain for contemporary comics readers and just younger people in general. There are lots of good comics being printed today, some better and some worse than in the past. It's just a shame to see how short sighted so many people are because if they would be willing to meet the younger collectors/generation halfway, there would be a much higher chance of instilling the very love many of you clearly have for the medium.

It seems the cure is in the disease.

[themagicrobot]

If 13 year olds could still easily get reasonably priced Marvel and DC comics from every corner shop and newsagent as things were for me in the UK from the 1960s to the 1990s there would have been three more generations into comics still. And as for music all I can say is

 

[Limited66]

I similarly had those joyful childhood experiences of the spinner rack and comics at the PX (raised on a military base), but I also grew up during the rise of the direct market so I also had early memories of old school comic shops and secondhand book store cubbies filled with comics (when I think today what I could have purchased then for next to nothing!). I collected and read as a kid the same way I collected baseball cards or even rocks  

But it was the Cochran reprints of EC comics that brought me deeper into the history of comics (and really the TFTC show on HBO) and got me back into the hobby in my early thirties. I never thought I’d ever be able to find let alone own an original EC book. And now I have many and love them dearly.

But it’s not just nostalgia, because I also love art and the way comic stories can be told and retold or varied.  I was reading moderns and enjoying it but I’m just too busy with work and kids to keep up. It’s also history - I’m too young to be nostalgic for the golden age, but any early Action with Superman beating on Nazis or Captain America Comics with a Schomburg cover just transports you to the home front in WWII. War, racism, generational changes in values, they’re all reflected in the comics. They are amazing historical documents in a way.

I think that young collectors still yearn for the big books but they’re so far out of range for most, given today’s prices. And I don’t think it can possibly be nostalgia because there are plenty of collectors who are collecting books from before their time. 

That’s a long way from the balance question - living in the moment doesn’t have to be exclusive of the hobby. Anytime I’m on the hunt or visiting a new store seeing new books or books in person for the first time, I get a thrill that is very much present tense. 

 

Edited August 8, 2023 by Limited66

[bobotski]

Nostalgia comes and goes. I collect interesting stuff because I wasn't able to afford them before or I (or parents) threw them away. Comes in phases -- I did star wars, gijoes and transformers, japanese robots, legos, nintendo game & watches,  etc. -- almost everything reached a point where I thought "I bought too much" and "what was I thinking" and that's were I hit my "balance". I trim the collection to keep what is dear to me and sell off the extra to fund the next nostalgia. Then lather-rinse-repeat. 

[Ken Aldred]

On 8/8/2023 at 8:03 PM, justadude said:

Aldo Leopold, the first conservationist in the United States, described hobbies as acts that try to deny the natural passage of time. I think the definition works pretty well with collectors because the very act of buying old stuff and storing it away is to make sure it exists for the future. Nostalgia is clearly a big part of that for many and I'd argue the very act of refusing to live in the present and holding the idea that the past had better X, Y, Z is what makes you all great collectors.

That said, it doesn't mean you're right. What I find most ironic is this clear frustration with the next generation's lack of interest in your, often nostalgia-driven, interest, and yet a total lack of desire to engage in newer forms of media, the very media the younger generations are engaging in. While superhero readership declines, Manga, indies, and trade paperbacks are clearly on the rise. It seems pretty obvious why your children wouldn't want anything to do with your collection if you basically devalue their entire reality. "X was better in my day." "Everything today is garbage." "Nothing could live up to X." Why would they want to engage under such dismissive pretenses?

This kind of rhetoric is especially off-putting for younger collectors, the collectors many older collectors need in order to keep the hobby going. Reading this gives me second thoughts about collecting because there seems to be very little joy in it for many people with an obvious disdain for contemporary comics readers and just younger people in general. There are lots of good comics being printed today, some better and some worse than in the past. It's just a shame to see how short sighted so many people are because if they would be willing to meet the younger collectors/generation halfway, there would be a much higher chance of instilling the very love many of you clearly have for the medium.

It seems the cure is in the disease.

I concur.

As stated in my post earlier, outside of reading comics and listening to music, I have very little to look back on with genuine, realistic fondness. Aching, warm nostalgia, for me, anyway, gets in the way of confronting the cold and painful reality of that time. In my case, the detachment induced by nostalgic reminiscence is actually quite toxic and counterproductive.

The older generation, like myself, can move on, and I prefer living in the present with a greater level of technological facilitation rather than desperate regression to a more primitive, less tolerant time.

As you said, there are a lot of good modern comics just as, in contrast, there was a lot of carp published in the ever so wonderfully rose-tinted past. Hardly surprising that there’s a move towards video gaming, a far cheaper, more immersive and cathartic pastime.