News headlines and social media feeds testify to a growing hunger to find relief from the pandemic in nostalgia through old-school activities such as baking and reading, says Dr Eleanor McLaughlin, Programme Leader, Postgraduate Programmes in Theology, Imagination and Culture.
‘This nostalgia for a fictional past hides the need for escapism that we all feel at times,’ McLaughlin writes in a blog post for The Stead Center, where she is InStead Editor-at-Large. ‘Escaping into books, films, or the satisfaction of curating the perfect 1930s living room gives us respite and recharges our batteries. The problem is, of course, that if we retreat too much into this fictional world, we lose our connection to the present, the real world. …We end up feeling swamped by ceaseless new information, and it’s important to step back and remember not to be entirely caught up in the cycle of news. But equally, we can’t ignore it.’
Read Dr McLaughlin’s full blog post Escaping or Being in the World?
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