Nostalgia

How is it possible to be so achingly nostalgic for an era you didn't live through? It's clearly not terribly rare considering that there are hundreds of annual medieval festivals called "Renaissance Faires" throughout the United States of America, money to be made in the field of historical re-enactment, and hordes of dedicated Classical and Greek historians.

What makes people tick in this strange, potentially counterproductive way? For me personally the magic era is the 1980s. All joking about silly hair and Madonna's conetits aside, the 1980s hold some kind of mystical, irreplaceable charm in my mind and heart. It's the silhouette of a wiry man with big hair and little pants, the unashamed sound of synthesizers happy to be synthesizers, the allure of coke binges and Club Kids in filthy New York City. I've seen the Penn & Teller episode of "Bullshit" about '80s nostalgia freaks and was hugely unconvinced that my fascination with this time period is unjustified.

I will continue, then, moaning miserably every time I hear the Placebo bastardization of Robert Palmer's "Johnny and Mary" or see the lovely black and white hair-skin contrast of Siouxsie Sioux worn "ironically." And my irresponsible pop culture worldview will continue glorifying the use of nose candy in a club somewhere in Glasnost Russia where they play New Order and Kino on the jukeboxes.