Skip to main content

The Nostalgia Monocle

We often speak of “wearing nostalgia glasses” when we look at things from our pasts. I suppose the etymology comes from the phrase "wearing rose-colored glasses." Regular glasses should make your vision clearer, but nostalgia glasses, rose-colored or otherwise, tend to render things softer and easier to palate. This may mean we need some sort of revolutionary Nostalgia Monocle, allowing us to focus one eye on nostalgia while keeping the other out for... less than savory aspects. Earlier this year, Bugsy took a look at the subject of nostalgia in the context of his 40th birthday. As I turn 40 myself, I look to do the same, through the lens of fatherhood and with the help of my two young boys. Hopefully, I can build on Bugsy’s answer on What to do with Childish Things.

If you haven't have a chance to read Bugsy’s nostalgia post, his conclusion was that it's okay to like the stuff that you like, even the things you liked at a young age. This is something I think we all need to remember when we look back at our past enjoyments - that it's not only okay that we used to like them, but also okay if we still do. You don’t need to defend yourself to anyone. As long as you've grown and developed your tastes, there's nothing wrong in appreciating where you started. That being said, occasionally the works we enjoyed when we were younger can feature some... troublesome topics. This can present a difficult landscape to traverse when you're sharing your own formative media with children.

This is a road I've taken a few times now. The media in question can even remain quite popular. Star Wars, for instance seems pretty tame. There isn’t a great amount of violence, and it's not particularly bloody. Even when Obi-Wan dies, he just fades into the Force leaving his cloak and lightsaber behind. None of that seems overly problematic. You can, though, get into the politics of Star Wars. You can struggle to explain the need for Princess Leia being in a metal bikini. Or, if you’re doing the prequels, perhaps the horrors of genocide and murdering younglings. It's likely a lot of this will fly right over your own youngling’s head, but it can still be important to discuss these things and make sure they understand, even if only in a cursory way, the contexts and reasons for what they're seeing, both within the story and the circumstances in which a work was made.

Many times though, you’ll find media with issues that are much more problematic than the finer points of the Star Wars franchise. Things from my childhood include media like the Muppets, the Smurfs, Scooby Doo and the Gummy Bears. While all of these things may have had their heart in the right place, that doesn’t mean there aren't still issues lurking in the relics of our youth. Past whatever fuzzy memories we might have, there is often underlying racism and sexism. It can even be bad enough that streaming companies incorporate warnings about some of their content, as Disney has done for many episodes of the Muppet show and various animated movies. (Which, regardless of what you may hear, is not "cancelling" or banning them outright.) It's important to remember when we used to see the FBI Warnings before our own Beta and VHS tapes at the start of the movie or cartoon. Likely, your kid is paying about as much attention as we were - if they are, they probably don’t care or even understand what the messages really mean. Be sure to wear your nostalgia monocle and use these warnings to pay attention to the issues that might crop up. You can point out the problems to your kids, and make sure they don’t keep copy those mentalities or incorporate the -isms into their own personalities, all while still recognizing the joy of your youth in the rest of the content.

The issues can even be found in digital and tabletop games. Cards, rules, and cases can all feature distasteful art, or have completely problematic content overflowing with racism or sexism. (I hesitate to name them or include images. It shouldn't be hard to find your own examples.) The same can be said with video games, too - classics like Mario and Zelda center around rescuing the damsel in distress, after all. You can still appreciate the fun you had when you played these games (and may still), even if you’ve grown in your beliefs and worldview. When sharing them with children, it may be better to find modern-day equivalents or similar alternatives. At the very least, put the games into context the same way you would for a movie or show. Either way, hopefully you can still make some new nostalgic memories with your kids while keeping one eye unclouded by that rosy nostalgia color.

That doesn’t mean you're guaranteed to keep on loving all of your old favorite media, even when it's (relatively) free from social issues. Some of the jokes and special effects in these ‘classics’ can seem lame or cringeworthy to you today. Your children may laugh their heads off at them, though, just like you did as a kid. It can be okay to still like these less than stellar shows. This is one form your nostalgia monocle might take, and you consume some media for not for your own enjoyment, but to enjoy your children enjoying it. Giving them the kinds of experiences you appreciated as a kid. Maybe that isn’t something I should be chasing at 40. I’m certainly going to, though. If my kids will enjoy something I used to love, as long as they have some proper context around it, I’ll be happy to see it.

 Send comments and questions to neversaydice20@gmail.com or Tweet them @neversaydice2.


 

Popular posts from this blog

Be a Grinch! (in a Tabletop RPG)

The Holidays may be almost over (for a while), and we hope you’ve all enjoyed your seasonal music and movies/specials. We here at Never Say Dice have covered the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special and the new LEGO edition a few posts ago. A common thing many of us into tabletop RPGS like to do is incorporate media into our games. After all, many of us have grown up with the blending of media and the holidays as a given. It provides us a framework to build on and a common touchpoint to the people at our tables, virtual or otherwise. One classic character featured in holiday specials and commemorated in his own song is the Grinch, the avocado-green villain with strange cardiac growth problems apparently linked to his personality. The Grinch, villain though he may be, has a slew of characteristics that would make the character an excellent one at the gaming table. Those of you not familiar with Suess-lore may really only know the Grinch from the How the Grinch Stole Christmas animated

An Introduction to Risus

While roaming the internet in the late nineties/early noughties, I came across a TTRPG that was rules-lite and called itself “the anything RPG.” Want to play a high school cheerleader/samurai-in-training part-time goth enthusiast fast food cashier? The hot pink stick figure art glared back at me. Nah, not interested. But I was wrong. The stick figures were actually purple, and Risus is a surprisingly versatile, handy and down right fun TTRPG. I wouldn’t figure that out though till I discovered it again several years later. Even though it was written as a comedy system (and somewhat lighthearted response to GURPS) you really can use it for just about anything: space opera, high fantasy, pulp, vampires,western, any movie setting you could think of...seriously anything. You can read a far more detailed and interesting history in a number of other places should it strike your fancy. It is time for your Risus indoctrination introduction. Risus really is versatile and fairly easy to learn

Devouring "Roll for Sandwich"

Good timezone to Never Say Dice fans, adventures in Aardia, TikTok and beyond. No, I’m not the Roll for Sandwich guy (neither of us is), but if you haven’t heard of him already (or especially if you have), this week I wanted to talk about the TikTok/YouTube show Roll for Sandwich hosted by Jacob Pauwels. The premise is exactly what it sounds like: every episode, the host rolls dice to determine the various items that comprise a sandwich (except when the episode is about s’mores). He assembles the sandwich, then actually eats and critiques his random creation. If it sounds pretty niche to you... it is. You should  probably be both a bit of a foodie and a TTRPG fan in order to truly appreciate both the strange layered creations and the roleplaying references. My eldest son has been so interested in the web series that he decided he wanted to try doing it for himself. So, for the last week of summer this year, we took stock of our cupboards, made our own charts, and proceeded to consume

Willy Wonka - Cartoonish Supervillian or Time Lord?

Every spring, in at least some of the religions practiced in the States, brings yet another holiday full of varied confections: Easter. For some reason, perhaps it’s the candy content or the garish colors associated with the holiday here, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory seems to be the movie that most often comes to my mind. While there are other pieces of media that are more “classically Easter” entries, Willy Wonka just seems to belong here. Perhaps there’s something to those giant eggs, as well. Whatever the reason, it’s in our common consciousness around this time of year, and that has had me thinking about a couple of common internet theories. One common thought is that the titular character Willy Wonka is an incarnation of Doctor Who ’s (only semi-titular) protagonist, the Doctor. The other would have you believe that Willy Wonka is a cartoonish supervillian originating in the DC universe, most likely one of Batman’s adversaries. For this post, let’s go over the arg