Chris and Nostalgia

  • 🏰 The Fediverse is up. If you know, you know.
  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
Status
Not open for further replies.
Considering he still wishes he was back in high school, yes, Chris is nostalgic to an unhealthy level. He's so obsessed with the past that it's left him unable to enjoy the present (though to be fair, his present is pretty shitty).
 
i don't think chris is as nostalgic as he just hates his life and wishes it was different from what it is at that moment
 
i don't think chris is as nostalgic as he just hates his life and wishes it was different from what it is at that moment
Yeah, this. I think it's not so much nostalgia as the cold hard fact that every year in Chris's life is worse than the year before. Of course he misses the past.
 
I think he's very aware of his own mortality, and his mother's mortality, having realised that the Grim Reaper doesn't keep his promises. And as such, he's just doing whatever the fuck he likes.

"I am a manchild with no such beliefs. I know that we are born, then we die. I intend to make the best of my pitiful adult life by tard raging on the internet for all the twolls and weens to see until they either die from lulz or throw me with enough Legos to build a new high school."
 
It's correct to say that he never left childhood, but he is nostalgic for the gal-pals and sense of purpose that high school gave him.

D'you think he realises those days are gone forever, or does he think that there's some way to get back to that happy state?

That stuff with shaking the 'Megan' Lego figure suggests he has a strong belief in sympathetic/imitative magic, maybe the Lego high school is some kind of ritual object for him?
 
I wonder how his perception of high school changed after he found out the truth about his gal-pals.

Either way he definitely longs for the days where he could just stay holed up in his own room all day and play with toys/vidya or draw comics and no one giving a shit.
 
I wonder how his perception of high school changed after he found out the truth about his gal-pals.
He's still building Lego High Schools populated with Gal Pal minifigs. That should tell you all you need to know about his perception of High School.

Either way he definitely longs for the days where he could just stay holed up in his own room all day and play with toys/vidya or draw comics and no one giving a shit.

He can (and does) do that now.
 
I think there's also another factor that needs to be considered: his perception of time is fucked up relative to others. So mentally he doesn't believe that much time has passed since he was a kid.

Remember when you were a kid how time seemed to go by so much slower? Half an hour in the car seemed like an eternity. Now you probably don't notice as much because your brain is constantly occupied with many thoughts at a time - what you need to finish at work, who you need to call in the morning, whether you need to stop for gas and groceries, the latest family drama or friend happenings, plans for the weekend, etc. All this while paying attention to the road and listening to the radio. It makes time fly. Same for work, family life, etc.

Chris's brain can only be occupied with two or three things at a time. Typically, a) Sonichu b) the quest for love (china) c) legos d) dang dirty trolls. Hell his entire brain operates much slower (listen to the Father call and pay attention to how long it takes him to formulate a thought). So naturally he can't understand how everyone else around him has evolved much faster than he has. I'd be willing to bet that he considers playing with legos and little ponies as a normal, youthful thing that every 32 year old does. Because he has nothing else occupying his time and thoughts and he has no real frame of reference. His parents were ancient and slow and retired for most of his life, it's not like he got to see his dad super busy with work all the time.

Every day for Chris is a repeat of the last for the most part, so they all tend to blend together and have since he was a kid. So it's not so much nostalgia as a lack of evolution.

I think this is also the reason he still considers himself a "young adult" or even a "teenager".
 
i don't think chris is as nostalgic as he just hates his life and wishes it was different from what it is at that moment

I think you got it half right, CatParty. He definity wishes his life was different and probaby hates it as well. But he is nostalgic for his high scool days and prior to that. Why? Because his life then as happier, less complicated, and less sad and scary. He had two parents who ( kind of) doted on him, he didn't have to worry about the future, and he still believed that he would have a future as a succesful man with an "office job" ( a la George Jetson or Peter Griffin) with a smokin' hot stepford wife. That time is gone and will never come back.

I can sort of relate to Chris on this. I kind of miss the '90s, when the world (and my own life) seemed more free of sadness and hardship. It of course was not the case, so I don't get too carried away with nostagia.
 
I think you got it half right, CatParty. He definity wishes his life was different and probaby hates it as well. But he is nostalgic for his high scool days and prior to that. Why? Because his life then as happier, less complicated, and less sad and scary. He had two parents who ( kind of) doted on him, he didn't have to worry about the future, and he still believed that he would have a future as a succesful man with an "office job" ( a la George Jetson or Peter Griffin) with a smokin' hot stepford wife. That time is gone and will never come back.
Chris thinks it will be.
 
Whats your basis for this? His facebook posts have not had hope in them at all really..
Well, in the past six months or so, not so much. But when he first found out his galpals from high school were hired friends, he kept trying to get them to come "back" to him. He kept on that point for awhile.

I think nowadays, he's been sidetracked by the fire, Barb and reality. He might go back to his galpals, he might not.
 
Well, semantically, there's not much difference between what nostalgia actually is and Chris' mental state, I guess. However, I don't consider him a nostalgia addled individual as much as I see him as just developmentally stunted due to bad parenting.

Add in the fact that any actual nostalgia he does suffer from is of the type that is a longing for something that never really existed and he was just too naive to notice at that time it never was as he wished it to seem, and I'm inclined to say, no, ultimately, to OP's query.
 
I wouldn't call it nostalgia. He likes to say things like "I wish I weren't so naive about dating in my high school years". Well this is not the most intelligent or self aware thing to say, it is a rare occurrence of Chris saying that he should have done something differently. This makes me think his living in the past is caused by a couple things

1. His unhappiness with his current life. This makes him want to live in the past, not necessarily because the past was so much better, but because he thinks there are things he could have done differently that would make his current life better.
2. As people have pointed out, a good approximation of his mental age is his age divided by two. So right now he is right in the middle of his high school years. I think he has the vague feeling that he wasn't quite ready for his teenage years when he was living them, but that if he could go back and live them now with his current level of maturity he would appreciate them more.
On a more basic level, this also means he is going to act like a high-schooler in some ways that aren't just him trying to recreate his highschool days but are him acting his own mental age.

I suppose this is close to nostalgia. I think the main difference is I would say nostalgia is looking back on good times from not as good times. He is looking back on bad times from worse times and thinking that the bad times were not so bad and he should have appreciated them more and done things differently. There is a lot more regret in it than most nostalgia, and Chris is not a man prone to regret.
 
Add in the fact that any actual nostalgia he does suffer from is of the type that is a longing for something that never really existed and he was just too naive to notice at that time it never was as he wished it to seem, and I'm inclined to say, no, ultimately, to OP's query.
Heh, really, like, Chris thinks he could've bagged all the ladies, if only he had known about sex when he was younger. So when we talk about this, I think "well, what if we could magically send him back in time, just to kill that view of his. maybe give him a little bit of humility".

But if you could do that, he'd come back, and have new excuses about why he didn't get laid. His new excuses would be "if only I had approached more girls, quick, send me back again! I'll get it right this time!"

He'll just be dredging up new excuses about why it's not his fault, or if only blah blah blah, he'd be a total ladies man. Ad infinitum.
 
Heh, really, like, Chris thinks he could've bagged all the ladies, if only he had known about sex when he was younger. . . .

He'll just be dredging up new excuses about why it's not his fault, or if only blah blah blah, he'd be a total ladies man. Ad infinitum.

Exactly, all his longing for the past that I've seen is based in total delusion as to what would be possible, if only he wasn't so stunted as a developing adult. Now if there's some hidden cocks of him wishing that it was 14 years ago because then at least he'd get to hear those rocking Brittney tunes on his favorite radio station in regular rotation or something like that, sure, nostalgia for the early aughts is the obvious diagnosis. But since there's not even a lot of instances we can find of Chris wishing his dad was still with him, outside of LEGO showdown fantasies and an appearance at a melted rendition of his high school, it just doesn't seem like he wants to be in the past because it was 'better' than now, he just wishes he had another shot at all the china that showed up for his 18th birthday party, which gets back to your point that he's obsessed with missed romantic opportunities, not the actual time and culture he missed those opportunities in.
 
My answer is going to be a little more complex, but it kind of bridges the two options so bear with me here. I think that Chris does have a tragic case of nostalgia, but... I don't believe that his current obsession with Lego and vidya are part of that. Amongst other things, Chris is a manchild. He's never grown up. There was never a point where he STOPPED playing with Legos. His toys are just a continuation of his childhood, as other posters have said. Indeed, he almost certainly has no concept of time (partly because his cognitive processes are delayed, partly because he's ignorant/just doesn't care, and partly because he doesn't have any job or responsibilities).

However, Chris is a deeply depressed individual, and it comes across increasingly in his few later videos and his equally sparse FB updates. His life sucks, and he wishes for happier times, which (for him) would be high school. Having absorbed so much of American popular media, especially books and TV shows aimed at teenagers and young adults, Chris fetishes high school. He views himself as younger, thinner, more attractive, and (most importantly) smooth with the ladies. I'm not entirely sure his gal pals confirming they weren't friends with him has sunk in. Likely he's still in denial about it. Can't say as I blame him, because (like so much in his life) it is pretty depressing. So yeah, he's definitely nostalgic, but not everything is an expression of that.

The place where nostalgia and his continuing childhood spergatory overlap, however, would be his replica MHS Lego model... which looks nothing like the school, and is apparently built over a Cherokian burial ground, because it's haunted by crude, hedgehog faced abominations, angels, and Chris as a tomgirl (a "trend" of one which Chris didn't adopt until well after Count Graduon, but like I said, Chris likely doesn't have much of a sense of time).
 
Speaking of Chris reminiscing about high school. I wonder if his high school had a reunion and Chris just didn't know about. He really wanted to go to that. It would be great. Just imagine: Chris all dolled up in his best Tomgirl attire and pretty much the most famous person there.
 
Chris is nostalgic for the days were the American educational system forced him to enter a place where people threw pennies at him and some nice girls pitied his poor autistic self enough to actually not get sassy with him.

Clearly, those were the days.

474px-0002-BabyChristopher.jpg


Oh and even as a babby he looked like Dr. Evil. That should tell you something.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom