Reader Reactions: Retro Culture

Catching up with comments from you.

Photo Credit: sparklestroke.

I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. Ohio feels a bit like Amazonia right now, with oppressive humidity that makes me miss the dry heat of California summers.

Anyway, I wanted to get to reader reactions to “Retro Culture” sooner, but I had to clear my plate of a few things. I asked people for their thoughts about the article, and the responses in the comments and chat were great!

It even attracted the attention of a company called LAN Party Technologies on Twitter.

Martina Markota also chimed in on Twitter, writing that she has started collecting VHS tapes for her kids.

If you don’t follow her, you should. Martina has a fascinating story as a New York City nightlife star who was canceled before cancel culture was even a thing. Her husband, Jack Buckby, also has an interesting story as someone who was immersed in radical politics before becoming disillusioned with it all. Jack recently wrote a book about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

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Now, for reader replies.

Brenton writes:

I love the term "digital soup." So much nostalgia thinking about these things, especially hours at Blockbuster picking the right movie for the night. The digital experience isn't nearly as engaging as there is no hunt to it, no tangibility. But there is something supremely nefarious about it. It's strange to think that rebellion is now just doing things like we used to.

The Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia persecuted people who wore glasses because to be bespectacled suggested habitual reading, which meant you probably knew what life was like before Year Zero—before Pol Pot’s revolutionary forces attempted to enact a total cultural reset of society, much like the Jacobins before them, from whom they drew inspiration.

Merely wearing glasses, in other words, was an act of rebellion in a society that had declared war on all things past. Sometimes, it doesn’t take much to be a rebel.

Charles wrote in the chat:

Great piece. I love the concept of guardrails. That's exactly what has been installed in our culture and what is also allowing self-inflicted chaos in people's minds when they stumble in life without them.

You really don’t see how much of a crutch autocorrect, predictive text, and so on have become until you sit down with a typewriter, analog or digital. You find yourself obsessing over little mistakes, suddenly very self-conscious about what you’re putting on the page, and that is awful. What is creative is messy. The swarms of tools and tech that surround us make us fearful of the mess and embarrassed by imperfection. In other words, they stifle us.

Cat Lover writes:

I yearn for the non-tech days when people actually communicated in person at meetings instead of staring at their phone. I’ve joined an old school book club where we read (not listen to audio) and then discuss in person. Progress is good in so many ways and not so good either.

Can’t do audiobooks. I’ve tried, but my mind tends to wander, and I find myself constantly rewinding and starting chapters over. I also like to mark books and make notes.

That said, one of the best books I’ve listened to is “Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy SEAL” by Chuck Pfarrer.

Chuck narrates it himself and has a voice like a soothing sage, which is perfect for the contents of his memoir. Joining the Navy over a broken heart, being on the ground during the Marine barracks bombing at Beirut and making the cut for one of the most elite units in the world before moving on from the military and writing some hilariously awful Hollywood screenplays (“Navy SEALs”) and some pretty great ones (“Hard Target”). I highly recommend it.

I’ve considered floating a Contra book club for readers. We’ll see!

American Psycho writes:

I consider myself a “young GenXer,” born in 1980 and graduated high school in 98. When I was in junior high I would build remote control cars with friend during sleep overs. Whoever fell asleep first got lubricant poured on their face. I have fond memories of grabbing scrap wood from construction sites to build ramps for our bikes and rollerblades. In high school I worked at a video store and on weekends would go to $5 all ages punk shows held in dive bars, bowling alleys, or the random farm.

I was born in 1990 and had a very similar experience growing up. But instead of constructing ramps, it was dirt clod fights and building forts in the hills of San Diego, blissfully carefree despite the mountain lions and rattlesnakes.

I think the sleepovers stopped with the LAN parties, where we’d stay up all night playing games and then tuck into sleeping bags scattered throughout the home of whichever parent was kind (and patient) enough to host.

Daniel Helkenn writes:

I think this kind of got started with the return of vinyl records. I had about 700 of them and was wondering what to do with them. I didn’t think my kids would ever want them. Who knew that the record collection would be one of the more valuable possessions I could leave them.

That’s a good point about vinyl! I totally forgot to mention in “Retro Culture” that I recently picked up a record player. It’s nothing fancy, but I like it a lot. There’s a warmth and richness to vinyl music. It’s also much more aesthetically pleasing to play music out of a turntable than an iPhone perched atop a stack of books.