woody allen

Longing for another time or place isn’t a concept singular to the twenty-first century, but we have definitely mastered it. Nostalgia is everywhere: In our music. Our movies. Our television shows. Our clothes. Our books. We seek the retro fashion of the 1960s or ’80s. TV viewers are mesmerized by award-winning dramas like Downton Abbey and its depiction of Britain’s servants and elite of the 1920s—or Mad Men’s business executives of the ’60s. We dream about the beautiful culture of Paris in the 1890s. Books take us to cities and times that are not our own. In a time when war and political conflict are common, we often yearn for the earth’s simpler “golden” ages.