Nostalgia, Morality, & Mass Entertainment

Adam Kaiser finds a fine case of mass existential longing.

- ADAM KAISER

The box office has of late been dominated by remakes, sequels, comic book adaptations, live-action remakes of Disney films, and other spinoffs all aiming to help us relive those innocent thrills of our youth. If one word should be used to describe this trend of mass entertainment, nostalgia would seem the most appropriate. This nostalgia reverberates in different forms across media and subjects. In music, playlists are increasingly dominated by pop ‘throwbacks’, dating back a decade or more. Meanwhile, in the fine arts, abstract expressionism and postmodern art are under attack from both directions: one side calls for a return to the more traditional artistic ideals of the Western canon, while the other side has spawned a score of ‘-isms’ (‘Toyism’, ‘Stuckism’, ‘Remodernism’, etc), all attempting to reclaim a sincere sense of authenticity and meaning in their work. The Tate Modern in London recently ran an exhibition re-examining the work of early twentieth century German Magical Realists. Nostalgia has even infected politics, for example in a certain figure’s campaign slogan to ‘Make American great again’ (emphasis added). This apparent nostalgia is ubiquitous. But what is it, and why is it manifesting now?