Nostalgia In Pirsig's Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance

Memories from the past are shown throughout our environment. Sometimes, recalling memories from surroundings are simple, like looking into the eyes of your father. As people proceed in their lives, they encounter moments that affect them deeply. Sometimes, a discharge of memories occur, showing a recognition of righteousness in people. In a short story called “Aero Bars” by Robert Hilles, the narrator acknowledges his father’s love through recalling the past. By reminiscing memories of remarkable values or behaviours, one is able to develop a moral conscience.

Chuck Klosterman, in the article “Nostalgia on Repeat,” there is two sides of nostalgia, how it can be good and bad for you. Klosterman, gives examples from both sides. Memories are the past, it is ok to remember them and think about them, maybe even smile from them, just don’t live there. Looking at the past can hinder growth, if a person cannot move on from it and wants to keep reliving that part of their life. The Authors purpose is to shine light on both sides of nostalgia, it is not all bad to remember the past and even flash back to it. However, trying to relive the past is not all good either. It stunts growth and keeps a person from living their life in the now. Chuck Klosterman, writes in a casual tone for those readers that are too

We go through our life and we experience this as children and we leave school thinking it’s far behind us, but it follows us into adult life and I don’t know about you, but for me it can be more so in adulthood then in our teenage years.

defined as “a repudiation of present day social, economic, and cultural realities for a ‘past’ that may not reflect reality” (Suarez, Walt Disney Lecture). Henceforth, the politics of nostalgia is an individual’s concept and memory of past realities while rejecting all other ideas. This concept can be applicable to several locations, events, and individuals, but the two locations I want to focus on is Walt Disney’s Disneyland and Christine Sterling’s Olvera Street.

When an individual’s perception of someone significant to them changes, their impression and outlook on life does as well, thus resulting in their character and interaction with their environment to be altered.

The term ‘retro’ carries a pervasive, if somewhat imprecise meaning; gradually creeping into daily usage over the past thirty years with few attempts to define it: usually used to describe cultural predisposition and personal taste, carrying nostalgic associations. Scientific literature on nostalgia usually refer to nostalgia regarding the personal life. Smell, touch and music are strong evokers of nostalgia, with recollections of one’s past usually being important events, people one cares about and places where one many have spent time. Nostalgic preferences, the belief that the past was better than the present, has been linked to partisanship in memory. The definition of nostalgia has changed massively over time, as it was once being considered a medical condition similar to that of homesickness. However, nostalgia now is considered to be a maverick and

This constant reminiscing begins to affect him negatively and blinds him from the reality he is faced with. These occurrences in the novel make it evident that dwelling on memories and past tragedies can obstruct one’s individualism, their relationships, as well

Some experts used to believe that nostalgia was a mental illness, related to depression and anxiety about the future. In recent years they have changed their opinion, saying that nostalgia is natural and actually can increase happiness. Even Odysseus in The Odyssey was nostalgic about his life he left behind when he went of the the Trojan War. Dr. Sedikides, a professor from the University of Southampton, said “Nostalgia makes us feel that our lives have roots and continuity. It makes us feel good about ourselves and our relationships.

Every person have different traits along with their different feelings. But sometimes feelings like fear can change their minds. It is a natural fact that whenever a person flashback with tensed past memory, fear will arise in their minds, And same conditions appear when a person is about to kill someone but unfortunately, a criminal finishes his/her infraction. Ernest van den Haag who was an American sociologist and writer once said in his article “One abstains from dangerous acts because of vague, inchoate (beginner), habitual and, above all, preconscious fears". This shows how it allows future teenagers because they look forward towards their parents traits and gains from bad experiences with previous lessons. Fear does change people and

We as humans all cope with our memories in varying ways, to varying degrees of success. The detrimental effects our memories have on us is by no means easy to explain, but is the central issue of Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved. The novel goes into the two main ways we deal with our pasts and how each affects the person’s mental well being. You could be a Paul D, who locks his memories and pain in his “tin tobacco box heart” so he almost doesn’t even remember them, or a Sethe who deals with and moves on from her pain, remembering the past but also getting caught in it. She demonstrates that while it may be initially easier to just forget the past, everyone must come to grips with what they have seen and what they have done.

In past life regression they talk about a resting place between lives, at one point the therapist took me there and directed me to ask my guide or guardian angel what I could learn in this place. I discovered that we need to learn specific lessons in order to further develop our souls and that we’ll keep coming back here and facing the same situations in different forms until we learn. It is exactly as Pema Chodron said, "Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know”. This is true across past and present lifetimes.

The story “Young Man on Sixth Avenue” stresses how the symbolism of youth and the happiness it can bring to someone, but when the old man finally noticed how the essence of time was; it was too late. “In this pseudo-present he blinks at a glimpse of that young man on Sixth Avenue, young man as if still out there.” That was his final interpretation of how he should have lived everyday like it was his

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, Nostalgia is defined as a pleasure and sadness that is caused by remembering something from the past and wishing you could experience it again. When people get nostalgic, they are living in the past. During these flashbacks, the past seems more positive than the present. Nostalgia can be induced by thinking about the past, by going to places you have been before, or even by hearing a song that brings back memories of past events. Even the least sentimental people are nostalgic at certain moments.

Today, nostalgia is defined as a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to one’s home or homeland, or to one’s family and friends; a sentimental yearning for happiness of a former place or time (nostalgia). There are very different views on nostalgia stemming back in history to the 17th century to today. For those unfortunate souls that embraced nostalgia from the 17th century to the 19th century, their nostalgia was viewed as a disease in which harsh treatment should be given; however, today’s nostalgia is embraced to its fullest through objects, music, and my favorite, through pictures and video (Beck). It is quite typical today to look around and see someone capturing a picture or filming a video of something; all of which primarily are using their mobile devices to do so. Today, technology has allowed society to capture something at a moment’s notice. If you are anything like me, my phone’s memory card fills up pretty quickly as I capture images of our son, our family outings, our home, or our less than frequent vacations. These images and videos become an important part of my life, as I want to capture these moments now to savior for a lifetime. Whereas, some people in today’s society believe that people are simply taking a picture or video of something or some place just to say they have been somewhere or done something. In my mind, there is no better way to capture the warm, fuzzy feelings of nostalgia than through a photograph

No improvements from which it can build upon, no history to look back on, no foundation of trust or understanding. What makes the idea of nostalgic advertisements so beautiful is that they employee all of these things to ensure that the customer will have an enjoyable experience with the product or service. Companies with good, long-standing relationships in a market should use their status to boost the sales of all future products. Nostalgia is a creative construct of the mind; a tool of distraction and of desire that can be used in, and be essential to, a successful marketing strategy.