Living the Past to Present

When I hear the word nostalgic, it often brings me back to my childhood years when my father used to take me out fishing and would tell me stories of how he caught fish back in Laos, where they had no fishing pole. Catching fish was all done either by catching them by hand, or netting. He would also tell me stories and lessons he learned from his younger days in hopes that I would learn from him. Times like these are hard not to reminiscent upon whenever I’m board. Especially when I am at home working on school subjects not of my interest.

I define nostalgic as dwelling in the past, in the current state of time. It’s like reliving a stored memory that you have saved somewhere in your head and experiencing the feelings you’ve experienced during that state of time. Kind of like watching your favorite movie when ever you want to and loving those scenes that make you laugh every time you see it.

A character name Masuji Ono from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel called An Artist of the Floating World felt the same way when he thought back to his good o’ days. Ono, a character who once was considered very noble in the pre-WWII era with his patriotic artwork as propaganda for imperial recruitment for the war, now faces a diminishing career as a new paradigm shift is engulfing the younger generation of Japanese people in the post war era. As he dwells into his thoughts in discussions of the new change, he sometimes finds himself lost in the ‘good o’ days’, reminiscing on how wonderful people and their attitude were before the change. However, throughout much of the book consists of fond memories that Ono revisits. From the very beginning Ono revisited an old memory of Mrs. Kawakami’s bar. He goes into how the atmosphere was different before the war and customers were abundant. And soon after that he had a major flashback on how long he had to wait for him to enter into his father’s guess room for guest rooms during that time are strictly for business only.

In fact, as my reading progress I am starting to see that Ono is trying to hold on to something precious. Much more like he doesn’t want to lose the great reputation and statues he had built up for himself, yet at the same time, is looking for a way to deal with the transition of pre war era mindset to post war era. Through out much of the readings I can see that Ono hints he’s rebelling from the new paradigm shift. From his constant nostalgic memories, his dislike of the changing young daughter Noriko’s attitude towards him (which represents the mindset of the new era), his questioning of his oldest daughter Setsuko’s husband dislike for funerals as rude, just to name a few, all yields the fact that he is momentarily resenting the change. And for what reason? I believe he realizes that along with the new paradigm shift, he knows that he has to leave a big part of him behind, which he holds most precious, is his reputation and respect for his artwork. By nostalgically revisiting his pre war memories, he can glimpse back in time to a time when he was hold noble as a person with great value to the community and his country.

Like Ono I too want to revisit those times where I feel that I am of value. Who wouldn't? Especially during dark times such as post war Japan, where the nation has dealt such a great loss, revisiting long time memories such as these may shed some light in dark times.