The good "nostalgia"

                Reminiscences back to the good old times and the countless de ja vu.  Remember when you were still a kid and nothing else matters but the chocolate inside the wrapper, when it is a hot summer and you are at the river with a bunch of friends or perhaps your very first kiss with your  first crush? But wait, what about the toothache you had after you eat the chocolate, the sun burn you got from staying out in the sun for too long or the first break up with your very first crush? Some of us would think back to the past and only remember the good times and completely disregard the negative things that also occur. Recalling back to the past is called nostalgia.

                I am sure that we all do this all the time without noticing it. Just sitting by the TV and saw something could actually trigger us to unconsciously recall to our own past, being either the good or bad times. One thing for sure for most of us will usually recall to the good times. A reasonable explanation for this case is the comfort of our past is greater than our comfort in the future. Some would actually want to live in the past where life is remembered to be better. A perfect example is the “heart” shape key chain you kept after the break up, the photo of your long lost friend on your wall or all the letters from your past that you have kept in your shoe box.

                Ono, narrator and main character of “An Artist of the Floating World”, carries past events on his shoulder. Everything he is now is defined by his past which he would recall more then he should. There is times when Ono is at Mrs. Kawakami’s bar, he would “find himself reminiscing about the Migi-Hidari and the old days” (pg. 75). Ono and Shintaro would purposely put themselves in a “nostalgic mood” trying to recall to the past and “before long we will try to get Mrs. Kawakami to recall the man, and our attempts to jog her memory, we will find ourselves remembering more and more amusing things about him” (pg. 75). I cannot really say that reminiscing about the past is a bad and dangerous thing because everyone does it.

                What can be dangerous is trying to bring back the past into the future. There is this one occasion between Ono and Shintaro after them both recalled about their past, they agreed that it is a good idea to “try and persuade friends to start coming back to these parts. In fact, perhaps each time we see an old face from those days, we should be stopping him and telling him to come here to this little place. That way we could start rebuilding the old days” (pg 76). Later we learn that Ono has lost contacts with a couple of people, especially Mr. Kuroda, who wish to never see Ono again. This means that Ono only recall the good times that he had with that person and disregard the bad past.

                What kind of harms could come from remembering the good old times? No harm can be done if all you do is reminiscing. It becomes dangerous when you decide to reach into the past and bring it into the future. What you remember to be fond and warming may be tough and cold to others. The best thing now is to recall back to the past and think “like things now, it is perhaps as well that the little world has passed away and will not be returning” (pg 127).