Nostalgiaception in Adventure Time

Adventure Time.  Set in the magical land of Ou, and its many kingdoms, home to candy people, animals and cast of weird characters (Personal favorite, Gunther the penguin). The popularity of Adventure Time, as one may point out is the thrust for adventure.  The stars of the show, Finn the human and Jake the dog are two best buds who gone all sorts of adventures that one may call strange and out of the ordinary. They fight monsters, overcome fears, save princesses and most importantly, have a hate against all-sorts of evil. Adventure Time is very popular with kids; however, adults also demonstrate the love for Adventure Time.  The hidden core appeal of Adventure Time is nostalgia, a feeling of wanting to go to a better time in the past.

Nostalgia is something that we all have experienced. The feeling of wanting to go back in time to a better place is believed to be the reason behind Adventure Time’s success. As an Adventure Timer, this topic automatically appealed to me when I saw it on the PBS Idea Channel on YouTube. “”It because at the same time audience are experiencing nostalgia, so to are the characters in Adventure Time.” It is nostalgia within nostalgia or “Nostalgiaception”. Just as the characters in Adventure Time, I too, seek to go back in time when life was much simpler.  Nostalgia is also a persuasive technique many commercials and ads company make to cause people to buy their product. For example, New York Times recently published an article, “In Super Bowl Commercials, the Nostalgia Bowl” which is about how the recent Superbowl used nostalgia to attract costumers.  However, nostalgia in Adventure Time brings out confronting emotions, happy and sad, or otherwise known as ambivalence.  For example, when I think about my past friends and homes, I am happy that I was able to cherish those memories, however, sad at the same time, because I know I can not go back into that time. Thus causing a wide range of emotions. Adventure Time has the ability to hack into the nine year old in me with “exciting sites, magical objects, and impossibly terrifying things.”.  However, young people do not only experience these emotions.  Adventure has become a hit with adults all over the world because of the ability the show has to bring them back to their childhood. Adventure Time is about “Rescuing princess, fight giants monsters, protecting the innocent and have a strong dislike of evil dudes,” and brings people back to a much simpler time in their lives.

Adventure Time’s subtext calls upon another comic, Calvin and Hobbes. Through friendship and adventures, the characters in both Adventure Time and Calvin and the Hobbes deny what has/had happened in the surrounding word. In Adventure Time case, it is about forgetting that Finn is the only human left on the plant and that the world almost came to an end in the Great Mushroom War. In Calvin and the Hobbes, the characters crack jokes even at a time when nothing could possibly be funny anymore.

By watching Adventure Time, you participate in the show.  The show is as important as the people who watch it. As an adventure time fan, I still believe that television stills has the ability to persuade audiences even though, it has been around since the 20^th century.  Television is a type of mass media that I believe will never go away even has years pass by.  Adventure time has been a hit for Cartoon Network and there will be more adventures to come.

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The Run From Lies and the Chase For Truth

Lies and the truth. We all are confronted by these two words day to day. However, in the end, lies all always will catch up to you. Always.

                      WARNING******SPOILER ALERT******WATCH OUT *******

In the resolution of the novel, The Kite Runners, by Khaled Hosseini, Amir and his father (Baba) had fled from all they had known to America. “Baba loved the idea of America,” (125). Loved. “America was different. America was a river, roaring along, unmindful of the past. I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far. Someplace with no ghost, no memories and no sins. If for nothing else, for that, I embraced America,” (136). Years pass by, Amir becomes a writer, marries the daughter (Soraya) of a decorated general in Afghanistan and Amir’s father dies of cancer. Before his father death, Amir’s father told the truth of Hassan. He was Amir’s half-brother.

The text to self conflict has been present from exposition to the rising action, however, in the resolution, the text to self conflict is finally being resolved. ” A week later I sat on a window seat abroad a Pakistani International Airlines flight, watching a pair of uniformed airline workers remove the wheel chocks, (194). Amir was going back to his homeland.  The reason Amir left back to Pakistan to find his long lost friend and brother, Hassan. Amir had an empty place in his heart because of lies he had been told.  He wanted the truth to be told, however, hiding away in the shadows of America for decades, had made it to late to save his friend. Hassan and his wife had been killed on the street in front of their child, Sohrab. Amir journey’s to Afghanistan only had one goal. To find Sohrab, Hassan child. Eventually, he did. In the old house he had grown up in with is father, the same street were Hassan’s blood was spilled and the annual Kite championship was held.  However, it wasn’t his house anymore. It was Assef’s. An old childhood bully and one of the Taliban’s leaders. Assef would only give Sohrab to Amir if they finished the unfinished business of their childhood. A fight.” I don’t know why at one point, I started laughing, but I did. And the harder I laughed, the harder he kicked me, punched me, scratched me… For the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace, I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in a corner of my mind,  I’d even been looking forward to his,” (289). In the end, only two people got out of that room. Amir and Sohrab.

                                                     ****SPOILER OVER****

In the resolution of the novel The Kite Runner’s,  I was satisfied and unsatisfied with the resolution. Khaled Hosseini left the reader on a cliff hanger, on what would happen in the future. Though, Amir and Sohrab were able to flee from Afghanistan and eventually back to America, it had scared Sohrab for life. In the end, I would have wanted to know what would happen to Sohrab in America, however, the book ended, with the reader having to assume what happens after the end of the novel. The resolution of the novel proved that even the lies you tell in your childhood can catch up to you and when they do, nothing can stop you until the truth is revealed. Nothing.

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The Entertainment Generation

Star Wars, Punch Buggy and Evian Roller Babies, Three Ads That Resonated With Me

Commercials. You love them and hate them. Watching your favorite TV show or a movie when out of nowhere a commercial comes on just when an important thing was about to be unraveled. Commercials can be viewed as many things. Down right random (Roller Babies), humorous (Punch buggy) and inspirational (Microsoft Superbowl Commercial). Over the hours and hours I have watched TV, I have seen a countless amount of commercials and have finally come down to three that I have found the most interesting.

 

The Force: Volkswagen 2011 Super Bowl Commercial

As a veteran Star- Wars fan, this commercial was something I have always remembered. It is always the first thing I think about when the word “Commercial is used”. When I was young I used to also walk around in outfits from Batman to Darth Vader, and this commercial was something that I could relate my early childhood too.

 

Evian Roller Babies: Evian Commercial

The first time I saw this commercial on YouTube, I could not believe my eyes. Babies roller skating doing back-flips of ledges at Central Park. What could be more random? The most peculiar thing about this commercial was that it was for the water brand Evian. However,  I know that it grabbed my and the 74 million other peoples attention that have watched the commercial.

Punch Buggy: Volkswagen 2010 Superbowl Commercial

Punch Buggy. A long lived tradition by many people around the world. The reason I chose this commercial was because of how I could relate to it, just as in the first commercial, The Force. I don’t know if it just me, however, most Volkswagen commercial have always had a way to remind me something of my past. In the case of the Punch Buggy, I used to play this game with my friends and was something I really enjoyed doing on road trips across the United States (By the way, when I was young we used to have a Volkswagen, and I guess from that you know what happen).

The End has Come