Nostalgia

Alice in Wonderland is one of my favorite books, mostly because the whole thing feels like a dream, both when you're reading it and when you're remembering it. Looking back, I remember it in tiny fragments of talking plants and careless running and unlucky hedgehogs and nonsensical dialogue. Very much like the memory of a dream that you can't fully piece together.

The Tim Burton movie, which was more like a sequel, was awesome because it gave everything a darker feel, which you can expect with Burton as the director. I went to his exhibit when I was in LA, and the dude has a weird, twisted, fantastic mind. His version of Alice made me want to revisit that world, a heavy dose of nostalgia hidden under the mad hatter's hat.

Nostalgia. It's like watching Hey Arnold or Rugrats reruns if you're a 90s kid. If you were introduced to it when you were older, you would probably wonder why Arnold's head is shaped like a football, but because it made sense to you when you were a kid, you think his football head and very unfortunate hair are adorable sentiments.

There's something unnameable about nostalgia that is entirely perfect.

Another favorite of mine, maybe my favorite favorite (that's similar to like-liking someone in elementary school, except in this case with words instead of candy hearts,) is The Secret Garden. Every time I see an ornate fence or unruly rosebushes, I think of this book. The combination of nature and horrid/fantastic characters, and the similarities between both - it's kind of brilliant. I have never disliked a character so much as the main character of that book, and for that reason I loved it. It was nothing like I had ever read before as a kid, and I wanted to go and find that secret garden more than anything. Even the thought of it now makes me want to be a kid again.

That's why when Where the Wild Things Are came out in theaters, I knew I had to see it. (Aside from the fact that they used my favorite Arcade Fire song on the trailer.) Because I could slightly remember the smile on my face when I was falling asleep with the pictures of giant fuzzy creatures in my head.

If you could buy nostalgia on the black market, I'd be so unlawful.

My post tomorrow has to do with a certain book that a lot of readers will find nostalgic to visit again: A Wrinkle in Time. I'm going to be talking about one of my favorite characters from that book for the 50 Year Anniversary tour. So check out the link, read some of the other posts, and revisit it again (or, if you haven't already read it, now is a good time to start some nostalgia for the next decade.)