The rapture of nostalgia

Why nostalgia is at once an acknowledgment of death and a quiet reassurance that it is not final

1950s family watching TV.
(Image credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo)

When he was a child a family friend asked the future historian and biblical translator Mgr. Ronald Knox what his favorite thing to do was. "I lie awake and think about the past," the 4-year-old replied. I used to be reminded frequently of young Knox's comments by a perfectly unmusical "song" I used to hear in cabs that went "Wish we could go back / To the good old days."

These are, however frightfully expressed, sentiments to which, as Dr. Johnson once neatly put it, "every bosom returns an echo." Or rather nearly every bosom. The fierce loathing of the past typified by Elon Musk and other grandees of Silicon Valley is an interesting topic beyond the scope of this article. The rest of us are hopelessly enthralled by the past.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.