Stranger Things-induced nostalgia for the 80s doesn’t tally with my memories |
Nostalgia for the 1980s is everywhere, most potently in the Duffer brothers’ epic series, Stranger Things.
I understand and share the enthusiasm for the series. It is a Valentine to nerdy outsiders and fans of 1980s music and films. But if you happened to live through the 1980s in Ireland, it’s hard to feel much nostalgia for them.
Some aspects of the 1980s as portrayed in Stranger Things ring true. Children and teenagers really did roam around all day without much adult supervision. Depictions of this simpler, less scrutinised existence have an intense attraction for younger people today.
The Greeks even had a word for it: anemoia, which is nostalgia for an era that you have never experienced. In Stranger Things, brutal bullying exists but the characters go home from school and leave it behind – instead of receiving 300 notifications on social media overnight about how it is playing out.
Stranger Things mines an era where music could be formulaic and forgettable, but also produced incredible bangers. Any series featuring