Bugs Bunny (Do I really have to tell you?)
We’re going to make this simple today. Maybe I’ve been pulling too many late nights with the writing, which is not a bright idea. You eventually cause yourself to reduce your daytime writing periods and throw your body off. Then you don’t think straight. I should be done by Friday as long as I don’t overdo it today. Anyway that isn’t the point of this post.
- What is one of the fondest objects/shows/pieces of your childhood?
- What from your childhood do you still or would you happily indulge in?
- Do you think nostalgia is a useful tool for authors to connect to readers or is it a nasty/dangerous trick?
Legends of Windemere 
1. Show: Ninja Turtles defo, object: a small stuffed pig toy, promptly named Sporky(cause Porky was taken!), which my dad gifted to me after he found it on the street, It is the most precious thing he ever gave me. Pieces are tricky, cause all of them are bad, so I consider them shards of something broken I threw into the bin and moved on.
2. My grandma making me a cup of hot chocolate when I wake up at 2 am after a nightmare.
3. I think it is a great tool, set to make a bridge between the reader and the character,
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1. I put pieces only if there was something that didn’t fall into object or show like a location. Ninja Turtles is definitely a fond memory.
2. Hot chocolate at 2 am to soothe the fears away? That’s genius.
3. Good point. Though I think we do see it abused a bunch these days. I’d say the name of a famous perpetrator, but I think he’s like Beetlejuice that he’ll turn up if said enough time.
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1. This probably isn’t what you’re looking for, but mine is family. I came from a huge family that included great aunts and uncles, second cousins, etc. I was related to half the town, and we did a lot of things together. Sadly, it isn’t like that any longer.
2. Trudging up the middle of a stream in a brush choked draw to catch the big brook trout. I’d also love to do almost anything with my grandfather one more time.
3. I think nostalgia is a great author tool. I used a ton of it in Wisp.
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1. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how family has changed in the last few generations. Even seeing my own, there isn’t much close contact. We’re scattered about the country and there’s this idea that social media and texting is enough.
2. Now I’m curious about how big the brook trout get.
3. Very cool. I use pop culture reference in the Bedlam stuff, which I guess is a form of nostalgia. Honestly, it doesn’t come up that much in fantasy now that I think about it.
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In a area with 8 inch brookies, I knew a place where 15 inchers were possible. I caught a few of them. This same valley produced a Nevada state record, but the poundage has faded over the decades.
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Sounds like the fluke and flounder fishing here. Fish aren’t as big as they used to be.
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Ha! “When I was a kid…”
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Yeah. Weird being at the age when that’s a usable phrase.
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1) I have always been a Ninja Turtles fan (and Batman). And I still have this one stuffed duck I’d had since I was really young.
2) Cartoons. Though really, I think I’ve developed more of an appreciation for animation as an adult. Part of it is finding those references that flew over my head as a kid.
3) I think nostalgia is a useful tool that could help to bring a reader a bit closer to a work.
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1. Getting the feeling that TMNT is going to be a popular answer. They’re the fandom that never fades away. 🙂
2. It’s a shame Saturday Morning Cartoons are no more. Totally agree on going back and seeing the adult references.
3. Agree. Works as a hook in a way.
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What is one of the fondest objects/shows/pieces of your childhood? I always loved Bugs Bunny. My dad served in WWII as a naval aviator. He passed when I was ten and left his flight jacket which had as an air group symbol a patch picturing Bugs Bunny who was the group mascot. I seldom missed a show since when bugs came on TV I felt a little closer to my dad.
What from your childhood do you still or would you happily indulge in? I still love penny candy. We have a store in town that has all the old favorites. It should be called dollar candy now.
Do you think nostalgia is a useful tool for authors to connect to readers or is it a nasty/dangerous trick? I think nostalgia is tough to do. The hardest part is hitting some piece of nostalgia that everyone will get. A period book seems to be the best way to get into the nostalgia moment.
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1. Wasn’t there a Bugs Bunny cartoon where he was dealing with a gremlin? It’s very interesting to see what cartoons and comics were doing during the WWII days.
2. Not sure I know what penny candy is. Like loose stuff that you buy for a penny? Might have been quarter candy by the time I came around.
3. Excellent point. Nostalgia would have no effect on people with no connection to the subject. So you have to find a way to hit the mark just right to pull other people in.
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1) What is one of the fondest objects/shows/pieces of your childhood? TV shows and movies from my childhood are probably my fondest memories. Whenever I watch one, it rekindles (at least for a short time) my memories from the time when I first watched it. Like how I stood in line for hours at a certain theater with these people to see Return of the Jedi. What we were doing. That sort of thing.
2) What from your childhood do you still or would you happily indulge in? Sitting in front of a heater on a cold day and reading a book. I loved doing that when I was a kid. Still do.
3) Do you think nostalgia is a useful tool for authors to connect to readers or is it a nasty/dangerous trick? My initial thought is that its a useful tool for a writer. Something which instantly sucks a reader into the story. After reading “Ready Player One” earlier this year, I now think a little nostalgia goes A LONG WAY. Honestly, in that book, the author beat me over the head with 80s nostalgia to the point I was sick to death of it by the ending of that book.
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1. Very cool. Wish I was old enough to go to Return of the Jedi. My generation only has the re-releases of the 90’s. 😦
2. I haven’t done that since high school. Do people really still do it? I see my friends doing more of the ‘wait at computer with finger on mouse’ method.
3. Ouch. That makes me think of ‘Pixels’, which many people said was where nostalgia went to die. I guess some people take it too far, which seems easy to do if you’re really into what you’re doing.
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I saw Pixels with my kids, and we all enjoyed it. Sure, the nostalgia got a bit deep in the theater, but it was more stupid, funny nostalgia, not serious nostalgia like in “Ready Player One” where the 80s are presented as the best time ever and everything since sucks.
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I know people that act like that. Others who are from the 80’s and act like it was the worst period in human history. Figure this is proof that humans are strange. One of my friends saw Pixels and just got angry, so I guess you have to be ready or a fan of the humor. Adam Sandler is an acquired taste.
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1) I still have my teddy bear from when I was two.
2) Watching a movie that is no longer shown because of its racial overtones: Song of the South. I love Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear and the song Zippity Do Dah.
3) I think nostalgia is a very useful tool for authors – I have used it in all three of my books with restaurants, names of places and activities I know from my childhood. I hope my feelings for these things come through in my writing. And speaking of nostalgia, my first car was a Model A Ford Phaeton (no, I’m not THAT old!) – I’m planning on buying one to run around in.
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1. I think I have mine too. Thing was bigger than me.
2. I remember the Brer stuff being on TV once in the 80’s. Then it was never seen again and I didn’t learn why until adulthood.
3. Feelings from the author. Never thought about that having to come through being so essential to the reader/viewer. Makes complete sense though.
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I love these questions, Charles! Here are my answers:
1. One of my fondest memories of childhood is coming home from school for lunch and watching The Flintstones on TV, then scooting back to school humming the theme. Seriously, those were the days I loved being a kid! I feel a blog post coming on!
2. I still love milk and cookies at night. Yes, I’m that strange. Ahoy! Chocolate chip cookies and milk, and I’m asleep in no time.
3. I use nostalgia in my writing all the time. It’s a way to dig deep into my psyche in order to bring up feelings of warmth, joy and separation from the past that I need as a way to relive certain events that I went through while growing up. It’s my way of learning and sharing with others.
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1. Awesome. To go home for lunch would have been great. Never knew cartoons were on during the day though.
2. Chips Ahoy! just put out a hot cocoa flavor for the season. I bought a box, but everything was a blur after that. I remember eating the first one and then the next morning with crumbs in the bed.
3. Great usage. 🙂
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Well, I’m very stubborn, so I just didn’t give up my hobbies like comics, gaming and anime. As to nostalgia, it can be useful but you have to be careful. The majority of the book-buying public are younger. They have time and free income. I know many twenty-somethings who love TMNT and that is nostalgic for them, but if you go back too far — say, the Lone Ranger — younger readers don’t know what that was. You might sell a project to an editor, since they tend to be older, and then it falls flat with readers.
So says the children’s writer.
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Money is the main reason I gave up several of my hobbies. When having to decide between diapers for the baby and the newest game consoles, I always went for the diapers. Don’t really regret it either. I do mess being up to date on anime though.
Good point on the Lone Ranger possibly being too old to get a good hook into modern audiences. There has to be some continued presence that can help bridge the generations. Also a respect for the original. Take a look at the ‘Jem and the Holograms’ movie that just came out and was pulled 2 weeks later. It bombed because it had nothing, but nostalgia and no connection to the original.
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Sometimes you wonder what they’re thinking in Hollywood.
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They’re appealing more to the movie goers and assume the original fans will go anyway. When you have nostalgia then you tend to put a lot of stock in it and direct more attention to drawing in those with no connection to the source material.
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