Thank you! I feel like I've been screaming into the void for the past two decades. Children don't need nostalgic movies about childhood, they're busy living it.
Thank you! I feel like I've been screaming into the void for the past two decades. Children don't need nostalgic movies about childhood, they're busy living it.
I haven’t quite thought about it that way, but I think you’re right. It’s another burden on this hyper burdened generation. They all feel it. My kids have that preemptive nostalgia, as do many I know. I didn’t realize that it might have come from this cultural soup.
What do you think about nostalgic books about childhood? House at Pooh Corner, Peter Pan…I feel like I grew up with this motif looming over me (I guess I like it better now?).
I always found Peter Pan very disturbing, perhaps for that reason, although it also contains the message of the importance of growing up which is lost on us now...
The original books make it pretty clear that being Peter Pan isn't that great. In the end, he forgets everything—from Captain Hook to Wendy to Tinkerbell—because he's a child and doesn't have a mature memory. His Lost Boys leave him to be adopted by the Darlings. Tinkerbell dies because fairies don't live that long. Peter Pan is going to be a solitary amnesiac for all eternity.
Yes. Nothing Peter Pan does or ever will do actually MATTERS, because in the end it's all just play, and the next day will be just play, and then the day after that... He's trapped in a juvenile version of Groundhog Day.
What makes childhood so special is that it ends. (The same can be said of life in general.)
I loved WtWTA as a kid because I was a whore for monsters; maybe I like other things about it now.
Sendak's Outside Over There I didn't read till I was a grown-up with kids, and it definitely entered the rotation as a book I and not the children would pick. Talk about creepy and weird! But I loved it so, and the children humored me.
I first read Wild Things as an adult, to my son, and I can't say I liked it at all. It has a reputation as a beloved classic, but I suspect that's largely through a parental lens. The sense of adventure is disingenuous; the subtext casts a suffocating pall over the book.
It was also surprisingly slight. I can't imagine how a feature-length movie was extrapolated from the material. Madeline was another classic which also seemed much less substantial than expected. But my son loves Madeline, at least partly on the strength of its memorably tortured rhymes.
The Wild Things movie is…different? It’s very much in the “nostalgic movie about childhood” vein, and it is very weird and slow. It’s pretty typical Spike Jonze fare, actually—if you like his other stuff, you’ll probably like WtWTA. I was mostly bored by it, but I can imagine liking it if I gave it a second chance.
Thank you! I feel like I've been screaming into the void for the past two decades. Children don't need nostalgic movies about childhood, they're busy living it.
I haven’t quite thought about it that way, but I think you’re right. It’s another burden on this hyper burdened generation. They all feel it. My kids have that preemptive nostalgia, as do many I know. I didn’t realize that it might have come from this cultural soup.
What do you think about nostalgic books about childhood? House at Pooh Corner, Peter Pan…I feel like I grew up with this motif looming over me (I guess I like it better now?).
I always found Peter Pan very disturbing, perhaps for that reason, although it also contains the message of the importance of growing up which is lost on us now...
But Peter himself is soooo tempting...we could, perhaps, stay in Neverland forever...
Oh no, that never appealed. I guess I was always an old soul.
The original books make it pretty clear that being Peter Pan isn't that great. In the end, he forgets everything—from Captain Hook to Wendy to Tinkerbell—because he's a child and doesn't have a mature memory. His Lost Boys leave him to be adopted by the Darlings. Tinkerbell dies because fairies don't live that long. Peter Pan is going to be a solitary amnesiac for all eternity.
Yes. Nothing Peter Pan does or ever will do actually MATTERS, because in the end it's all just play, and the next day will be just play, and then the day after that... He's trapped in a juvenile version of Groundhog Day.
What makes childhood so special is that it ends. (The same can be said of life in general.)
Where the Wild Things Are, man. That thing's the ultimate nostalgic book about childhood, and I *hated* it as a kid. It was creepy and weird.
Obviously, I love it now that I'm an adult and a parent. The mom is low-key the main character in that thing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I loved WtWTA as a kid because I was a whore for monsters; maybe I like other things about it now.
Sendak's Outside Over There I didn't read till I was a grown-up with kids, and it definitely entered the rotation as a book I and not the children would pick. Talk about creepy and weird! But I loved it so, and the children humored me.
“Whore for Monsters” is the name of my Lady GaGa cover band
I first read Wild Things as an adult, to my son, and I can't say I liked it at all. It has a reputation as a beloved classic, but I suspect that's largely through a parental lens. The sense of adventure is disingenuous; the subtext casts a suffocating pall over the book.
It was also surprisingly slight. I can't imagine how a feature-length movie was extrapolated from the material. Madeline was another classic which also seemed much less substantial than expected. But my son loves Madeline, at least partly on the strength of its memorably tortured rhymes.
The Wild Things movie is…different? It’s very much in the “nostalgic movie about childhood” vein, and it is very weird and slow. It’s pretty typical Spike Jonze fare, actually—if you like his other stuff, you’ll probably like WtWTA. I was mostly bored by it, but I can imagine liking it if I gave it a second chance.
I liked Being John Malkovich and that Weapon of Choice video, but haven't seen any of his nine Jackass movies. Maybe I'll give WtWTA a chance.