Ola: A while ago we’ve grandly announced the coming of a new segment to our blog: posts about significant pop-cultural elements of our past. Well, it took us a while indeed, but here we go 😉
Piotrek: It’s not exactly a pressing matter. We might have been late with some of our Marvel reviews, but there is always time for some nostalgia…
Ola: Nostalgia is a phenomenon of astonishing power and influence, not only economical, though this is what we usually see, but also, maybe even most importantly, cultural. Things we loved as kids we all seem to cherish – and usually we do so in no relation to their real value. They are bound in our past in many various ways, related to our past experiences and emotions, they had an impact on who we are, and they can influence our future decisions and preferences.
Piotrek: It used to be an important generational experience, culture people experienced in their formative years provided a point of connection with strangers of similar age decades after the end of their childhoods. It’s also a part of inter-generational dynamics, to share your favourite shows and books and observe how they impact – or fail to – the youngsters in your life. There are books grandfather can share with grandchildren, and there are shows that that annoy me very, very much*, but will probably be nostalgic for my nieces in a decade or two…
*I hate Peppa the Pig with a cold, murderous hatred. My failure as an uncle, to get rid of this creature, pains me deeply.
Ola: I know exactly what you mean 😉
We plan to cover different pop-cultural phenomena from our past in short, separate entries. TV series like Batman: The Animated Series, Robin of Sherwood, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or those old – and really weird – anime series like Tōshō Daimos, movies such as E.T., Labyrinth, Willow or Krull (who remembers this one? It was a horror movie to my six-years-old self) or even The Thing and the original Jumanji, if we’re at horrors… Or Sneakers and Back to the Future 😉 And books, of course, some of the forgotten (or not) treasures of our youth: The Secret Garden, Winnie the Pooh (did you know that Winnie in Poland is a he?), White Fang, Lassie Come-Home…
Piotrek: I admire most of the above, but let me add Once Upon a Time… Life, Ulysses 31, maybe a post on several Polish cartoons… I’ll have to talk to my sister and compare notes, there will be more 🙂
We plan to shape it in a series of short two-shots, indexed in a master-post created after we prepare several entries. Might become a funny series of nostalgic, perhaps slightly embarrassing, confessions 😉
Ola: Oh my goodness, Ulysses 31… What a crazy idea that one was. And Once Upon a Time… Life! Still remember the main theme from this, and the intro 😉 There you have it, waxing about something from 20 or 30 years ago!
So the plan is to start slow, maybe a dedicated post once a month, and we’ll see how it goes. There’s a lot of stuff to be covered 😉 And if you have any ideas you’d want us to discuss, or you’d like to join our little initiative, you’re very welcome to pitch in!
Re-enchantment Of The World 
I’m of an older generation so my nostalgia is not for the Batman animations but the camp and kitschy Adam West TV series, for dubbed stopped animation The Magic Roundabout (both from my student days), Tom & Jerry and Mighty Mouse, The Lone Ranger, Johnny Weissmuller as Jungle Jim and Gordon Scott as Tarzan, all from my pre-teens. And that’s just on celluloid and the small black and white screen…
DC Comics in the 50s (and again in the 70s); the smell of coal fires, paraffin stoves and lead-laden car exhaust fumes (not that I’d want a return to those days, with a fug of cigarette smoke permeating every room and public area, and your clothes at the end of the day); Hong Kong trams, and Indian curry like my mother used to serve up, and pirozhki like my Russian piano teacher used to make…
As the comedians say, ‘Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be”!
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Oh my goodness, I’m watching the movies from 70s and 80s and can’t believe the cigarette smoke in the airplanes! 😉 50s in Poland looked very different to the 50s in West, the Iron Curtain had been much stronger then than in the 70s or 80s… I’ve got a lot of respect and fondness for the pop-culture of 70s, it seems so much better to me than what the 90s had to offer, but it’s difficult to feel nostalgic for something you haven’t lived through, unfortunately 🙂
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And I just did something and lost my whole phracking comment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRR.
Ok. Looking forward to this series. It sounds very comment’able.
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Thanks! Hope to read the whole lost comment one day 🙂
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Nah, I don’t have the patience to write it out twice. And by now, I’ve forgotten most of it anyway 😀
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I’d like to join the club of Peppa Pig haters if I may… 😀
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Everyone’s invited! Hopefully, one day, my nieces will also join 😉
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One niece, fortunately 😉
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All three would be welcome 😛 We just need to hide the existence of Peppa from the youngest one…
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Definitely! I dearly hope Peppa won’t wake nostalgic feelings in anyone in thirty or more years… Or that would be the sign of Rome falling to barbarians 😛
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I definitely look forward to this. I mean.. I’m only in my early 20s and I too have nostalgia for so many great shows/movies from the 90s, including a lot of those that you two mention here hahahah And as someone who likes to watch things that have also been released way before the time I was born, I somehow attach “nostalgia” to those things too! 😀 Will these be once a week or something too?
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Thanks!
Rather once a month, I’m afraid… I know there are lots of things to talk about, but, you know, life 😉
We have about a decade on you, then 🙂 The Polish experience was also quite unique because some things came late to our country… And there weren’t so many of them anyway, so they made a much bigger impact on the hungry minds 😉
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Love the sound of this!
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