Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Memory vs Nostalgia

Also gleaned from the 'Debutants Ball' blog: "We might call the use of the past, in conjunction with the present, memory; the rejection of the present for an imagined past, nostalgia."

There is a lot of truth in this and it rings particularly loudly with the protagonists in my novel-in-progress which deals with the 40th reunion of a Detroit rock band from the Sixties. So, while memory serves to remind us of both the mistakes and successes of our past and thereby enhance our present condition, nostalgia serves to pretend that life was always better in the 'good ole days' ...something we all know is not necessarily true and which can lead to emotional and intellectual paralysis.

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