Sag Harbor - Memory Lane Sittin in da Park
Memory Lane (Sittin in Da Park)
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"Because times is changed and life has changed, the glorious days is gone and now everybody's doing bad."
To end of the school year, I wanted to about the idea of nostalgia in the book. During one of our discussions, we went over whether or not nostalgia was considered good or bad. Some examples of nostalgia used in the book was when we discussed the song "Roxanne, Roxanne". Back when Benji was a teenager listening to this on the radio. At the time, he was able to fully relate to the innocent lyrics about the song because it conveyed his life at the time where people his age enjoyed living simple lives before being exposed to the harsh realities of growth such as responsibilities. Looking back at the song, when listening to the lyrics, while there was some semblance of nostalgia, he did find the song to be corny. This part really makes me realize the importance of nostalgia. While there are some people who may not like to reflect on certain memories due to how embarrassing they are, it also helps you remember how much you've changed compared to now. For other experiences, it can translate back to much more simple time where you didn't have to worry about expectations or feeling pressure. In a way it almost feels like your envisioning yourself living that life in the past almost like a simulation. However, nostalgia is not something that simply focuses on reflecting on times from years but it could even be recent. For instance, when I'm watching a long TV show, while I do think its a good show, its also incredibly long and at times I just wanna finish it as fast as possible so that I can be able to move on to the next show. However, when I finally finish the show, it does feel cathartic, but later on I end up thinking "Man, i just spent my time being committed to this one show and it's just gone like that, what do I do know". It's that feeling of uncertainty that turns into nostalgia because I start to reminisce about my favorite parts of the show and what made me enjoy it. In a way, it also makes you sad that the moment/moments have passed and sometimes you just wanna relive the moment.
Elliot, I really liked your blog. I can relate to the feeling of nostalgia, sometimes even when a that thing that you did wasn't really enjoyable. You still had the feeling of nostalgia, you were still able to look back enjoy that thing that in the beginning you didn't like. I also liked all of the examples that your added in you blog post, they were great for you dive into nostalgia in the novel. Nice blog post!
ReplyDeleteWow Elliot, what a beautiful blog to conclude the school year! Speaking of nostalgia, I wonder how much of that we will feel when we graduate next year. Do you think you'll be the type of person to tear up as you think about the 5 years you've spent at Uni? Have a great summer break!
ReplyDeleteHi Elliot. I like the point you make about how nostalgia doesn't have to necessarily be for a moment in the distant past. You can feel nostalgia for something that literally just ended, like a TV show in your example. I will say that using nostalgia for reflection can be useful but also misleading at the same time. Our brains tend to distort memories of the past; what we remember as a simpler time was almost certainly not one in the moment. However, I agree with you that there are ways that remembering the past, even a distorted version of it, can be beneficial for the purposes of understanding how you have developed and how you should best move into the future. Great post!
ReplyDeleteNice post Elliot I really liked your TV comparison. That feeling right after finishing something you poured a lot of time to is an unusal type of grief for me. It's not even about the show being good, it's just that the routine of it is gone. Leaving highschool in a way is similar, no more bells, passing periods! I think that's what the book is getting at, the nostalgia isn't really about the specific memory being great, it's about the loss of whatever that time felt like in general.
ReplyDeleteI agree that nostalgia can hit very quickly once an experience or time in your life ends. Now that the adrenaline of a very busy semester has worn off, I feel like I'm seeing everything more objectively than I did before. Things that I worried about during the year don't feel very important anymore and things that I found unpleasant seem kind of fun now.
ReplyDeleteI love how you explained nostalgia here! It’s very relatable how looking back shows you how much you've grown, even if some of those old memories feel a bit corny now. That part about finishing a long TV show and immediately missing it is something I've definitely experienced.
ReplyDeleteI definitely think it's possible to have a nostalgic relationship to something we now find "corny." As someone with personal experience as a 13-year-old UTFO fan in 1985, who hasn't listened to this stuff since, I can relate to Benji's appraisal--listening to "Roxanne, Roxanne," I cringe, but I also note that there are some good lines in there, and the song is well put-together. Either way, it puts me back in 1985, and let's be honest, it's impossible for me to think of anything about myself at that time that doesn't make me cringe. But let's not go into too much detail about that.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that you chose Nas as the visual image for this post, with a reference to his nostalgic song (written at the very start of his career, when he was like 19!) "Memory Lane." Coincidentally, did you notice the reference to the Roxanne Wars on "Illmatic"? Roxanne Shante came out of the same Queensbridge Houses as Nas did, and he remembers watching her ciphers in the courtyard as a young kid. In "Represent," Nas refers to "the BDP conflict with MC Shan, around the time Shante dissed the Real Roxanne." And of course, he is representing Queensbridge by using this as a significant timeline marker.