4 ms·

This reads like an example of the classic genre of writing "nostalgia for how a place used to be which is really nostalgia for the life the author used to have"

This reads like an example of the classic genre of writing "nostalgia for how a place used to be which is really nostalgia for the life the author used to have" You grow up; you stop going out to bars; you stop bouncing between different groups of friends who introduce you to interesting new experiences and start hanging around with parents; you spend your life in nicer restaurants and nicer neighborhoods and you wonder 'how did the city get so boring?' The only way you can reach a conclusion like "Boston ... which used to be a city of a thousand nooks and crannies, back-alley restaurants and shops, dive bars and ice cream parlors ... is now one long, monotonous wall of modern skyscraper" is if the last time you visited Boston you visited a college friend who lived in Allston, but now whenever you visit the city it's to stop in at a client's office in the seaport.

chimeracoder 8y ago
> This reads like an example of the classic genre of writing "nostalgia for how a place used to be which is really nostalgia for the life the author used to have" Yeah, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this, but it's practically a New York tradition to publish essays like this[0] every so often - about why New York isn't what it once was (the "Why I'm Leaving New York" essay). Typically, it's an exploration of the ways in which contemporary New York doesn't match up to the New York of nostalgic memory. Usually, the essay ends on an ambiguous note, with the sense of discovery and adventure, but ultimately results in the author either returning to or remaining in New York. It's so common that it's almost a literary genre trope, with predefined criteria and stages, similar to the Hero Journey[1] concept first formulated (but not invented) by Joseph Campbell. And, like the Hero's Journey, the journey usually (though not always) ends where it started, but with the participants ("hero") changed somehow in the act of exploration. The first[2] was Joan Didion's, which she wrote back in 1968. While she took a short break while raising her daughter in the suburbs, she's lived in New York City for 35 of the last 60 years and still lives here today. [0] usually better-written than this one, but on the same topic and format [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey [2] Not necessarily chronologically, but seminal[3] to the genre [3] It's influential enough that a recent essay on the genre even opens with a nod to Didion's work: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/fashion/From-Joan-Didion-to-Andrew-Sullivan-some-writers-leave-behind-letters-when-they-leave-new-york-city.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/fashion/From-Joan-Didion-...
radiorental 8y ago
And to peel another layer off this nostalgia trip. Ok, lets suppose rats aren't dragging pizza home in the city anymore [1] While the people that ran and frequented the "back-alley restaurants and shops, dive bars and ice cream parlors" might be busy raising kids and saving for retirement, there's a new generation of people doing the same carefree shit we all did when we used to be cool. What was Harvard Sqr became Davis which is now Malden. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPXUG8q4jKU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPXUG8q4jKU
raldi 8y ago
On a similar note, this amazing thread from 1993 about how "Silicon Valley is dead" -- written not by a bunch of schmucks, but, e.g., the co-creator of Altavista: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.folklore.computers/bvE0Ka5nCnM/NAIOQnrEyCAJ https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.folklore.computers... "From what I understand, the shine is rubbing off. The cost of housing is ludicrous, and companies are fleeing to places like Arizona." If you hid the dates and reformatted it as a reddit thread, everyone would believe it was written today. "The place has a much different, more ossified feel to it than it did seven years ago."
- tnecniv 8y ago
  > If you hid the dates and reformatted it as a reddit thread, everyone would believe it was written today. Maybe cut out the bits about Sun, PARC, NeXT, etc.

chimeracoder 8y ago

> This reads like an example of the classic genre of writing "nostalgia for how a place used to be which is really nostalgia for the life the author used to have" Yeah, I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this, but it's practically a New York tradition to publish essays like this[0] every so often - about why New York isn't what it once was (the "Why I'm Leaving New York" essay). Typically, it's an exploration of the ways in which contemporary New York doesn't match up to the New York of nostalgic memory. Usually, the essay ends on an ambiguous note, with the sense of discovery and adventure, but ultimately results in the author either returning to or remaining in New York. It's so common that it's almost a literary genre trope, with predefined criteria and stages, similar to the Hero Journey[1] concept first formulated (but not invented) by Joseph Campbell. And, like the Hero's Journey, the journey usually (though not always) ends where it started, but with the participants ("hero") changed somehow in the act of exploration. The first[2] was Joan Didion's, which she wrote back in 1968. While she took a short break while raising her daughter in the suburbs, she's lived in New York City for 35 of the last 60 years and still lives here today. [0] usually better-written than this one, but on the same topic and format [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey [2] Not necessarily chronologically, but seminal[3] to the genre [3] It's influential enough that a recent essay on the genre even opens with a nod to Didion's work: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/fashion/From-Joan-Didion-to-Andrew-Sullivan-some-writers-leave-behind-letters-when-they-leave-new-york-city.html https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/24/fashion/From-Joan-Didion-...

radiorental 8y ago

And to peel another layer off this nostalgia trip. Ok, lets suppose rats aren't dragging pizza home in the city anymore [1] While the people that ran and frequented the "back-alley restaurants and shops, dive bars and ice cream parlors" might be busy raising kids and saving for retirement, there's a new generation of people doing the same carefree shit we all did when we used to be cool. What was Harvard Sqr became Davis which is now Malden. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPXUG8q4jKU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPXUG8q4jKU

raldi 8y ago

On a similar note, this amazing thread from 1993 about how "Silicon Valley is dead" -- written not by a bunch of schmucks, but, e.g., the co-creator of Altavista: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.folklore.computers/bvE0Ka5nCnM/NAIOQnrEyCAJ https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.folklore.computers... "From what I understand, the shine is rubbing off. The cost of housing is ludicrous, and companies are fleeing to places like Arizona." If you hid the dates and reformatted it as a reddit thread, everyone would believe it was written today. "The place has a much different, more ossified feel to it than it did seven years ago."

tnecniv 8y ago
> If you hid the dates and reformatted it as a reddit thread, everyone would believe it was written today. Maybe cut out the bits about Sun, PARC, NeXT, etc.