I was listening to a cd from college this morning, and it reminded me of a period in my life that I'm glad is over. I was inspired to write this haiku:
Unrequited love
like a disease, saps your heart
empty of all else.
"Nostalgia" really isn't the right word to describe such a genre. There ought to be a counterpart word to nostalgia, a word to describe memories that evoke strong emotions about a time you really, really don't want to go back to.
Any suggestions? Nostalgia already starts with the word "no", so where does it leave you to go? Astalgia? Ickstalgia?
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2 comments:
Ickstalgia. That's perfect. Let's go with that.
From the Greek, nostos return [usually home] and algos pain and suffering, you would think the word "nostalgia" would actually refer to a sense of evoking strong memories of grief and suffering. But since "nostalgia" has come to mean a wistful longing for the past, I concur that "Ickstalgia" works just fine.
For me, Patty Griffin's Living with Ghosts is my ickstalgic CD. For a while, I couldn't even listen to it, the memories were so acutely painful. Now, I can listen with just a dull, throbbing ache in my heart and think, "Damn, that's good music," and "Damn, I'm glad things didn't work out as I had hoped at that time."
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