Post Asd5ALokYI4wEpSGZs by fkaOctaviaKeats@wandering.shop
(DIR) More posts by fkaOctaviaKeats@wandering.shop
(DIR) Post #AsW1SERWwv0wej95ai by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-28T14:03:13Z
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Thinking about Miyazaki and the way that his animation uses nostalgia. A good friend who grew up in South Korea surprised me when she said she couldn't stand "Ghibli Stuff" from her perspective it was laden with all of these very Japanese nostalgic touchstones, brands, technologies, tropes. She said it reminded her of "Leave it to Beaver" or "Art Deco Denis the Menace" --And right away I could see exactly what she meant. It's just for me the cues didn't land because I didn't have the proximity.
(DIR) Post #AsW1kqYA0W0K3T7g8m by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-28T14:06:35Z
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But, this also helped me to understand how some American media that is overburdened with nostalgic triggers to the point of being annoying to me, can seem wonderful to people who don't recognize all of those triggers. They just see the wider vision of "a simpler time" and "a time of innocence" and all of the the things like white picket fences and KitchenAid blenders in chrome that speak to me of both innocence and violence are just strange and beautiful when abstracted.
(DIR) Post #AsW2CxqWTRLunA7SFc by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-28T14:11:37Z
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@Wyatt_H_Knott They are wonderful machines. Basically just a big old motor with attachments, but you can't beat that?However as an "aesthetic?" bad vibes. Well at least for me.
(DIR) Post #AsW2F9erWopm0Ni3xQ by ramsey@phpc.social
2025-03-28T14:12:01Z
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@futurebird I think his work also uses sound to evoke emotion. It’s not all loud and musical like a lot of animation. There are quiet parts, and a lot of attention is paid to sound effects, like doors creaking or setting a cup down on a table. It creates an atmosphere that isn’t found in a lot of other animation.But I agree the nostalgia is key.
(DIR) Post #AsW2NWvSu3UmUAT9OK by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-28T14:13:34Z
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@ramsey Nostalgia can become kind of magical when you don't really understand what it's referencing. "remember when we used to store rice in a box like that?" No I do not. But I feel like I remember anyways.
(DIR) Post #AsW2leJx3oNwN2QJcG by hopland@snabelen.no
2025-03-28T14:17:53Z
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@futurebird I think the reason you find some fascination with European architecture and style in certain anime is because it was imperialistic architecture and style. We are talking about Japan here.I'd say the same for early Disney stuff. It just smatts of national romanticisms that could have been perfectly at home in a German training camp circa 1930s.I always say Ghibli is the continuation of classic Disney, for better - or for worse. Great thing it isn't outright fascistic.
(DIR) Post #AsW3EV9AFRkUJe8Sg4 by ramsey@phpc.social
2025-03-28T14:23:08Z
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@futurebird I also imagine nostalgia is a good tool for implanting false memories, and especially false shared memories.
(DIR) Post #AsW5qiPXa3XeMm92xs by australopithecus@mastodon.social
2025-03-28T14:52:26Z
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@futurebird I think, having grown up in Japan, that in this case your friend is just wrong about Ghibli (American suburban fantasies are very much pro-status-quo and conformity, which Ghibli never is). She's entitled to her wrong opinion, of course, but don't take it too seriously just because she's "Asian".
(DIR) Post #AsW75nhsH0nz5YTfX6 by indigoparadox@mastodon.social
2025-03-28T15:06:19Z
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@futurebird This is such a great comparison. Ghibli seems like everything a conservative Japanese politician would be referring to if he came up with "Make Japan Great Again." "Themes" only in the most superficial sense. "Environment good. WW2 bad." Hollow.
(DIR) Post #AsW7Hz65kVmhtIcAbI by promovicz@chaos.social
2025-03-28T15:08:33Z
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@futurebird Interesting! I learned from a friend to separate nostalgia and the past. Why be nostalgic, when we can use some of the past in the present, and in a future that we can influence? This gets confusing around retrocomputing and steam railway enthusiasts... 😄
(DIR) Post #AsW7T2ZBBv4DpsUZXc by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-03-28T15:10:35Z
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@australopithecus This wasn't about the political message more the *way* that nostalgia is used. Maybe Norman Rockwell would be a better touchstone here.
(DIR) Post #AsWYSQMhv5Wc7SaaDA by ipxfong@mastodon.sdf.org
2025-03-28T20:12:55Z
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@futurebird Hah! I had never thought of it that way before. In a similar vein I was reading a translation of Bashō's haiku and the translator said that when we translate them directly, it gives haiku a very spare, modern sound but this is not how Japanese people read them and not how they were intended. It was pretty interesting. I can't remember the author's name 😅 but I'll see if I can't dig it up.
(DIR) Post #AsWvS0VyKULmtIh0hk by JoBlakely@mastodon.social
2025-03-29T00:30:37Z
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@futurebird @australopithecus I think they are like fairytales which have a timeless quality that merge an old eternal and ancestral quality and brings them into something very human and also very timeless. I think he draws a lot on Shinto which animates life with an eternal energy and you see it reflected in so much of his work. Also the craftsperson. I think he honors trades and skills and things a lot of people devalue today…but he doesn’t. He notices little movements that bring it to life.
(DIR) Post #Asd5ALokYI4wEpSGZs by fkaOctaviaKeats@wandering.shop
2025-03-31T23:39:56Z
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@futurebird yup, the continued thrall of Boomer consumers