Remember those die-cast metal Transformers action figures? Friday night TGIF? How about how great Star Wars was before those horrid prequels? They bring back memories, don't they? These childhood items and events are the treasures that make us sigh and help us remember a simpler and better time of yesteryear.
Now stop for a second. Recall the last time you were with someone a few years younger than yourself. Maybe you were with a sibling, sitting on the couch with them watching a Friday night episode of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." While they giggled at Salem the Cat, how many of us can honestly say we weren't wishing to catch the antics of the annoyingly loveable Steve Urkel?
Nostalgia is a bittersweet emotion. Our parents constantly tell us about their childhood. Grandparents remind us how it used to be a luxury owning a television. I'm sure we all groan and roll our eyes whenever an elder starts a sentence with "I remember back in my day . " But watch out, because very soon, if you haven't started already, you'll be telling the same stories of the good old days.
I for one have already started thinking about how much better things used to be. Comic books have recently been brought to my attention. I happened to catch the premiere of "Birds of Prey" on the WB, and I was rather curious to see what this show would be like, especially with the snippets of Batman and Catwoman seen during the commercials. Sadly, I can strongly say that this was the most disappointed I've been in a very long time. "Birds of Prey" boasts a superhuman daughter born from two normal humans, trained by a crippled Batgirl and joined by a small town girl who can read minds. The use of the Caped Crusader is at a minimum and will clearly be phased out of the show in exchange for the typical WB teen dramatics that is so despised by the general public (WB dramas have consistently been at the bottom of the ratings charts for years).
It is sub-par efforts like this that make me miss the things I've grown up with. Tinkering with 50-year-old concepts and American icons to make a few bucks will usually spell disaster, but straying from this tampering is what allowed the recent "Spider-Man" film to gross over $400 million. Director Sam Raimi didn't change the "Web-Head" to make him a new and improved hero; all he did was remind us exactly who Spider-Man is. A majority of the audience was middle-aged adults, because Raimi didn't simply make the target audience us young adults, but he focused on our parents, who grew up with Peter Parker as well. They filled the theater with us, watching their childhood hero come to life, with thoughts of 50-cent issues and campy 1970's cartoons oozing out of the depths of their ancient minds. Many of them may have liked watching Spidey in action even more than we did.
I had similar feelings as I watched the film, remembering the amazing day when I snatched up a reprint of Amazing Fantasy No. 15, the first appearance of old Web-Head, and recalling the wonder of actually reading about his origin. Those were some magical days.
However, nostalgia distorts memories and messes with your head. Find a reproduction of Amazing Fantasy No. 15 and actually sit down and read it. It's full of horrid art and corny dialogue that truly makes the spine shiver due to its sheer badness.
We grew up with Thundercats and GI Joe, which are flawless staples of our childhood, yet we don't remember the stiff dialogue, crude animation, and childish storylines. It isn't only television and comics we imagine being better than they really were. Clothing, hairstyles, food, teachers and even family memories are distorted each and every time we bring these thoughts to light. Pick up an old photograph and cringe as you see what you looked like a few years back. Not what you remembered, is it?
Today, we have 6-inch-thick, 50-inch-wide plasma televisions and DSL internet access. Would anyone in their right minds say that the days of the 28.8k modem and blurry tube TVs were better? Everything today is sharp and clear, and it is our emotions and memories of the past that are a slow and fuzzy haze. When we all become parents and start rambling to our children about "back in our day," try to think about how clear that particular memory is. Can you truly pick out the details from the depths of your mind, or are you simply homing in on the moment of pleasure that memory produced? It's confusing, but think hard and remember one thing: In this world full of apparent change and uncertainties, memory is the only thing that is truly indefinite.
