I have become somewhat of an expert at living in the past. One decade in particular fascinates me most: 1993-2003. I have a large collection of NASATV footage, both on VHS and digital hard drive recordings from that period. I also have a large collection of mostly VHS Mystery Science Theater 3000, from that period, much of it with the original promos and commercials. Finally, I have many complete evenings of Adult Swim from the early 2000s with no edits, unfortunately mostly in 320x240 mpeg1. Much, if not most, of the VHS content has since been captured to digital.
I have a high capacity SD card dedicated to days worth of this programming encoded as mp4 in 320x240, and a tiny little set-top box that will play a selected directory in a continuous loop.
With my gradually failing eyes, at a distance of some 10 feet from the 32" LCD screen, it doesn't look much different than it did on the NTSC CRT screens on which it was originally viewed.
I also inhabit times in which I never lived. The 1920s fascinate me in particular, and I have a pretty good collection of short avant-garde and epic scale motion pictures from that period, as well as a lot of the symphonic music of that time. And the golden age of Warner Brothers cartoons, minus the most racist shorts, is as much a part of my life as if I had lived when they were made.
The practice of living in the past is often maligned as being intrinsically, fundamentally, wrong. A weakness.
Let me be weak. Let me fail at contemporary life in peace. I am old.
I see little about the present that elevates in from the past. I see very little difference of substance in the entire sweep of human history. In varying places and varying times, cultural freedoms and excesses, adventure and discovery, which we regard as exclusively contemporary, thrived with an intensity that puts today to shame.
I have lived long enough now to remember several iterations of "people were so dumb back then; we are so much more enlightened now", and I look at these times and this culture and I wonder, really? Have you really come so far? Some things have jumped ahead, while others have fallen behind. Where, for example, did optimism go? Where did any form of futurism other than the post-apocalyptic variety go?
Enough overly tired ranting from this old man. I need sleep, and dreams.
I regret and apologize for my assertion that there are no substantive improvements in the present over the past. The rights women, people of color, people with non-binary gender identities, and those with non-traditional sexual preferences, have all made significant improvements in their standing, acceptance and inclusion, although it remains a struggle that still experiences losses as well as gains. The civil rights movement for the disabled has essentially yet to begin in any significant way, however. The social and professional advancement of some physical disabilities have had progress, but perceptual disabilities, psychological disabilities, and others are all living under the shadow of the colossal ignorance and fear of the "normies".
ReplyDeleteThat second sentence is a mess. I think you can figure out what I was trying to say. And I own the fact that I am too lazy to fix it, since editing of comments is not an option, and I would have to completely delete and re-write it. A tiny speck of pride surviving in my psyche just wanted you to know that, while I am an idiot, at least I am smart enough to be somewhat aware of my idiocy.
ReplyDelete