Nostalgia

On the politics of longing and other bath-time revelations

Back when people dressed well, looked one another in the eye, weren’t in love with their mobile phones, and racists didn’t need euphemisms. (Gustave Caillebotte, Rue de Paris, temps de pluie, 1877. Public Domain.)

Old city videos and the dream of whiter streets

«Can nostalgia be anything but reactionary?»

The question comes to me while I’m having a bath. The question actually ruins my bath, because fearing I’ll forget about it — as I often forget interesting ideas when I save them for later — I leave my warm sanctuary prematurely, to come and sit here in front of the computer. I shouldn’t complain: the whole reason I ran a bath to begin with was not knowing what to write about this week. I was starved for ideas, worried I’d have nothing to tell you, when the ghost of Archimedes’s wife visited me and I ended up running a bath; it was this wise lady, after all, who once advised her guy to take a bath, advice that led to his “EUREKA!” moment, so I followed her counsel.¹ But I digress. «Can …