Past/Present/Future

P

Pestario

tell your friends
swears said:
Does anybody ever fantasize about going back to another age in their lives?
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Sometimes but more to relive great experiences than to be in that part of my life. Eg, I would love to relive things like family holidays, playing 4-player Goldeneye on N64, adventures in the woods etc. But to be back in the closet in an all boys school...pass

One thing I do like doing is revisiting places that trigger strong (and pleasant) memories just a means of escaping my present state of mind.
 
G

gek-opel

entered apprentice
Pestario said:
One thing I do like doing is revisiting places that trigger strong (and pleasant) memories just a means of escaping my present state of mind.
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How does this not slide into nostalgia--> then into maudlin reflection- in comparison to now---> into misery? Good past memories can be like a poison, can be absolutely corrosive- Swears seems a pretty good example of this, poor chap.

I'd rather posit even the good times of the past as concealed bad times, bad times which had yet to be understood as such in that precise moment, good times only to the extent that they are structured by ignorance.
 
mixed_biscuits

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
Pestario said:
playing 4-player Goldeneye on N64,
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Fun to see people having such vivid and pleasurable memories of playing computer games.

I feel nostalgic about the games in that I just don't seem to enjoy them much anymore. My brother is of the same mind and thinks it's because of a hard-wired developmental shift: installing the new 'maturity bundle' is how he puts it.

I feel nostalgic about being able to feel certain things that I think I cannot now - about having my horizons shortened against my will, or perhaps being aware of the extent of the unchanging horizon, but having poorer means of transportation.
 
STN

STN

sou'wester
gek-opel said:
How does this not slide into nostalgia--> then into maudlin reflection- in comparison to now---> into misery? QUOTE]

Easy. 'That was fun, good lord I'm rather a brilliant chap, I will probably do things that I will feel this way about again'. I enjoy a bit of wistfulness* - I think you have to make an effort not to let it be a sad feeling though.

*maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan
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swears

swears

preppy-kei
mixed_biscuits said:
I feel nostalgic about being able to feel certain things that I think I cannot now ...
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Yup! It's like I've had my brain chemistry downgraded, there just aren't as many strange new sensations... You get a flicker now and again, but it's not the same.
 
P

Pestario

tell your friends
gek-opel said:
How does this not slide into nostalgia--> then into maudlin reflection- in comparison to now---> into misery? Good past memories can be like a poison, can be absolutely corrosive- Swears seems a pretty good example of this, poor chap.

I'd rather posit even the good times of the past as concealed bad times, bad times which had yet to be understood as such in that precise moment, good times only to the extent that they are structured by ignorance.
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I can see how it could slide into nostalgia but isn't the prerequisite for that slide a loss of hope that the future will bring more great memories? You assume I hate the present/future.

When I said to 'escape my present state of mind' I meant that in a temporary sense, like the escape offered when watching a cherished film.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"I'd rather posit even the good times of the past as concealed bad times, bad times which had yet to be understood as such in that precise moment, good times only to the extent that they are structured by ignorance."
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Avoid feeling bad about today by convincing yourself that the past was just as bad? Why not try making today better?
 
mixed_biscuits

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
swears said:
Yup! It's like I've had my brain chemistry downgraded, there just aren't as many strange new sensations... You get a flicker now and again, but it's not the same.
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I think part of the problem is that as you get older it is more likely that you have done things to excess, meaning that the pleasure you would get from anticipating excess has gone, and, even worse, in the same swoop, the moderate and everyday has been upvalued.

So, you forget about edging the volume knob up towards the maximum with your happy hardcore tape packs (partly because there's no mum around anymore to annoy) and start listening to James Blunt instead, defeated and forlorn.
 
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G

gek-opel

entered apprentice
IdleRich said:
Avoid feeling bad about today by convincing yourself that the past was just as bad? Why not try making today better?
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Its part of the same motion, not to say the past was just as bad, but that the past is relevant only as a series of determinations which bring about opportunity within the present instance, or worse as an oppressive inert mass to be resisted via practical activity. The past is not to be fetishised, the past is to bve overcome. And the apocalyptic (meaning precisely the arrival at the absolute singularity/limit, in a Deleuzian sense) --if not the actual terminal catastrophic event of the elimination of life you might term the actual apocalypse--is better.
 
STN

STN

sou'wester
mixed_biscuits said:
.

So, you forget about edging the volume knob up towards the maximum with your happy hardcore tape packs (partly because there's no mum around anymore to annoy) and start listening to James Blunt instead, defeated and forlorn.
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Should one wish to annoy one's mum as an adult can I recommend going home for the weekend, waiting until she's trying to do something, then picking her up and moving her to a different part of the house? Repeat as necessary. This only works if you have a small mum.
 
Gavin

Gavin

booty bass intellectual
The future looks bleak from my vantage, but that's because my country is rapidly losing its empire and the advantages it confers upon its citizens, so the rich are making a grab for the whole pie. Don't see too much good coming out of it, although I guess things are more interesting than they were in the '90s. My best years are the same as Frank Sinatra's, 17 and 21, so I guess I have 35 to look forward to -- blue blooded girls of independent means yay!

I don't see why reminiscing about the past is categorically bad/pointless... Surely the past can be a strong motivating force as well. That whole Benjamin quotation about revolution coming from past wrongs more than anticipation of a glorious future... Nostalgia and regret, maybe with some resentment, should be a package deal.
 
mixed_biscuits

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
swears said:
"Oh, I could have done this, done that, etc..."
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On reflection, I usually conclude that my not doing something is explanation enough for not having done it. Proof happens when opportunities come round again and I choose exactly the same course of action.

Regret is never in full possession of the facts, being a retrospective process, and cannot be trusted.

I think a more sensible regret would be regretting 'not being the person who would have done otherwise.'
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"The past is not to be fetishised, the past is to bve overcome"
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Why not just enjoy it every now and again when you happen to think of it without fetishising it and then move on?
 
mixed_biscuits

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
STN said:
Should one wish to annoy one's mum as an adult can I recommend going home for the weekend, waiting until she's trying to do something, then picking her up and moving her to a different part of the house? Repeat as necessary. This only works if you have a small mum.
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And a big hand. :D
 
S

stelfox

Beast of Burden
communicating with working-class people without irony... fuck, next time you could maybe visit the zoo.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
stelfox said:
communicating with working-class people without irony... fuck, next time you could maybe visit the zoo.
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Pffft, I was thinking this when I saw it. I imagined m_b as a sort of latter-day Jane Goodall, trying to emulate their primitive grunts and scowling/gurning facial expressions...
 
G

gek-opel

entered apprentice
IdleRich said:
Why not just enjoy it every now and again when you happen to think of it without fetishising it and then move on?
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Interesting question-- I suppose because the purely sensory pleasures/emotions associated with a positive experience/period of time past are inaccessible, I am aware they existed, but the reality of them as a lived experience of pleasure, joy, excitement, contentment or whatever remains out of reach except as words by which I can categorise the experience. As such what remains is the memory of the situation in which that positive emotion arose-- which is difficult to enjoy, or which from my current perspective is impossible to enjoy, or is a mere husk in which the positive emotion arose. The essentially ephemeral nature of the experience makes it impossible to replicate via memory (and the same is true of negative emotional experience). So I just think it weird that somehow that reminiscence can trigger anything but frustration to the present me.

So its not really a choice per se-- I'm not able to derive happiness from reminscence of past happy experiences. And attempting to do so leads to the whole Swears style "if only I could go back" agonising.
 
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