Nostalgia: a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past.
There is an odd phenomenon at work in the works of fiction we observe today. Many of the most popular works tell some story of injustice amended, or calamity averted. The means to effect this is a cause of great trial to the protagonist and requires great heroism. Indeed this is the classic story line for the genre of computer games know as Role Playing Games (RPG).
J.R.R. Tolkien elegantly describes this phenomenon with
But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seemed to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end.
–Samwise Gamgee
The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Chapter: The Stairs of Cirith Ungol.
Tolkien goes on further to point out that stories in which every thing is “fine and dandy” are not much to listen to:
Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.
–J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hobbit.
Chapter: A Short Rest.
However Tolkien does not offer any explanation as to why this is the case. One possible explanation of this is offered in the film The Matrix. There it is proposed that we continuously depict suffering and misery because that is how we define our reality. Indeed Mr. Smith puts it succinctly as
Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery.
–Agent Smith 1
The Matrix.
We (Stella Veljoen and myself) propose an alternative to this which seeks to explain not only the frequency of trail and hardship in popular fiction, but also the need to attain justice or avert disaster. Stella has given this the name Moral Nostalgia.
We propose that this inbuilt need for justice comes from two sources. Firstly from an inbuilt understanding that there is something wrong with the world. Secondly as a reaction to modern relativism which muddies right from wrong. People desire a simple description of good and bad. Namely people have nostalgia for morals.
This first point is posed eloquently by George Orwell with
And though, of course, it grew worse as one’s body aged, was it not a sign that this was not the natural order of things, if one’s heart sickened at the discomfort and dirt and scarcity, the interminable winters, the stickiness of one’s socks, the lifts that never worked, the cold water, the gritty soap, the cigarettes that came to pieces, the food with its strange evil tastes? Why should one feel it to be intolerable unless one had some kind of ancestral memory that things had once been different?
–Smith Winston
1984. By George Orwell.
We know that there is something wrong. We have a built in understanding that justice should be done, and that suffering and oppression are unnatural. We long after the garden which was perfect and hope that one day justice will happen. Indeed we spend a great deal of time portraying justice. We do it Naively in Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings where good triumphs in the end. And we do it more severely in movies like Gladiator and Braveheart. In both of these films the hero dies in the pursuit of justice and freedom. They do not attain it themselves but the movie does not end with their deaths. Rather it continues a little longer to show that what they are fighting for was achieved.
I propose that we seek justice because we know it to be right. We know that evil is wrong, and we hope that it will be paid for. The Bible describes this in Romans with
Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.
-Romans 2:14-15, NIV
Moreover God says that there is something wrong with the world.
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
-Romans 8:19-23, NIV
However what He says is rather difficult, He says the problem is us.
There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.
Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.
The poison of vipers is on their lips.
Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
-Romans 3:10-18, NIV
So where does this leave us? What should we do with this knowledge that there is indeed something wrong with the world. That justice should be done, and often is not. Where can we go to find justice, in what can we take comfort? Trinity articulates this question for Neo:
Trinity: I know why you’re here, Neo. I know what you’ve been doing... why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night, you sit by your computer. You’re looking for him. I know because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn’t really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It’s the question that drives us, Neo. It’s the question that brought you here. You know the question, just as I did.
Neo: What is the Matrix?
Trinity: The answer is out there, Neo, and it’s looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.
–Trinity and Neo 2
The Matrix.
I want to tell you something. God is our comfort, He will find us if we let Him. He says this in Revelations:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
-Revelation 3:20, ESV.
Indeed God will come and judge the earth, and justice will be done. The evil will be repaid and good will be rewarded. And those who have trusted in the LORD will be saved. What shall we say about this?
Praise God for His mercy: Even the works of our hands show His great plan.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
- Psalm 139: 7-12, NIV
How merciful and terrifying He is that we cannot escape Him. To those who seek Him He will show Himself. Those who love Him cannot be removed from Him. And those who do evil will get what they deserve!
Which are you? Have you rejected Him? Be warned even the works of your hand will testify against you on the day of judgement.
Do you want to know Him, the great God who loves, who has made know His good plan in every conceivable way?
He is waiting to be found. Do you know Him? Take heart in the face of this evil world. Our God will bring justice! He will renew the world. All the stories will be brought to completion.
was written between 1937 and 1949.
The international Fantasy Award in 1957. It became very popular in the USA in the 1960’s and is now ranked as one of the most popular works of fiction of teh twentieth century.
It was rated the most popular book in Briton in 2003 and in Germany in 2004.
It was turned into series of movies released from 2001 to 2003. It is one of the highest grossing films of all time. Moreover it has one 17 Academy Awards. (And being nominated for 30).
First one released in 1977 latest in 2005.
Star wars is one of the most financially successful movies of all time. Adjusted for inflation (for 2011) it has earned over $2.5 billion.
The first three are considered one of the best trilogies in history. It has since become a successful set of comics and has been expanded into a TV series.