I personally am wrapped up in nostalgic cool. I spend my weekends reading about times past because I find them interesting. On an average day my mind soars from Greenwich Village, New York when Bob Dylan first came there in 1961 to being on the set of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid . The next moment I may be nose deep in my favorite comic, Legends of the Dark 
Knight, that I started collecting as a kid. I have also started collecting the dishware Royal China Blue Currier & Ives that my mom once collected because it holds sentimental attachments when I collect it. I am hung up on the nostalgic cool. One of my favorite hobbies is the king of nostalgic cool: Antiquing. Oh yes, it is an art! I spend my time sorting through what others have once treasured and have now decided to pass on for a price. I come across things that were once marketed for their coolness such as a NO. 91 DC Green Lantern Comic or a record of Pink Floyd's The Wall. Each of these treasures holds the possibility of nostalgic cool depending on a person’s background. Some might think that antiquing is the nowhere close to being cool, but I bet that if they went and saw a treasured item from their childhood that they would change their tune quickly. I may be a little biased because only the collecting of certain things can be considered cool. I assume that most of what I collect such as old 
comics (mainly DC), vintage vinals, and classical country dishware of the 50's is cool. The main stream may relate this to older generations, but I believe there will be a change in tone in the next few years.
Knight, that I started collecting as a kid. I have also started collecting the dishware Royal China Blue Currier & Ives that my mom once collected because it holds sentimental attachments when I collect it. I am hung up on the nostalgic cool. One of my favorite hobbies is the king of nostalgic cool: Antiquing. Oh yes, it is an art! I spend my time sorting through what others have once treasured and have now decided to pass on for a price. I come across things that were once marketed for their coolness such as a NO. 91 DC Green Lantern Comic or a record of Pink Floyd's The Wall. Each of these treasures holds the possibility of nostalgic cool depending on a person’s background. Some might think that antiquing is the nowhere close to being cool, but I bet that if they went and saw a treasured item from their childhood that they would change their tune quickly. I may be a little biased because only the collecting of certain things can be considered cool. I assume that most of what I collect such as old 
comics (mainly DC), vintage vinals, and classical country dishware of the 50's is cool. The main stream may relate this to older generations, but I believe there will be a change in tone in the next few years.A great example of cool that I do truly enjoy is the MTV series Daria. She was a character that was wrapped in sarcasm. Her delightful point of view made her an outcast or a “brain” as they called her at school. She was a transcendent cool; she was so far from the norm. Her commentary alone helped me to understand what good sarcasm was. She was my hero in high school.
Nostalgia is a tricky thing. Think about why nostalgia ads cool to the things you mentioned. Is it because they have since become cool for being old or because they were cool when they first existed?
ReplyDeleteAlso, Daria as you hero in high school. Not sure I would have guessed that.
Comics always had a certain appeal to me because I could not read very well and they had pictures. I was and am utterly in love with the story line of batman. Now that I am in college I am able to find others with such enthusiasm. I have recently started to jump into the other more famous now popular DC Comics such as V for Vendetta and Watchman. So my liking for comics has two sides one is to understand cool and the second is nostalgia.
ReplyDeleteDaria was my hero because she could say all the things that were wrong with high school. Her comments and sarcastic humor brought to light all of the ideas that were lingering in the back of my throat but I had not the nerve to say. Watching Daria was a social commentary on what high school had become for many other students such as me a cliché. It really analyzed how high school had its own barbaric and maybe even victory aristocratic feel. I was a poor kid at a rich kid’s school so that is just how I saw it.
It's funny that you use a comic with the character the Green Arrow on the front. Talk about dissident cool! The Green Arrow is one of the more interesting comic book characters because he was diametrically opposed to some of the ideologies of other superheroes. He was a socialist in his most benign moments, and was actually socially aware. He was all of this at a time when mainstream culture did not agree.
ReplyDeleteAntiquing... can be cool, I guess. You've got to be in the right crowd, I s'pose.