I'm a very firm believer in a balanced media diet, and that a story or character can be revisited. I think if, as an adult, you like thing you liked as a child *in exactly the same way you did then*, then, yeah, you're probably Doing It Wrong.
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interesting, say more? I think there are some things I like in surprisingly pretty much the same way. eg: (randomly looking round the room) a Jacob's Ladder toy can still give me that same feeling of delight at the illusion en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob's...
aug 29, 2025, 7:23 pm • 1 0 • view
I sat down when I was about 10 or 11 and took one apart and then made my own with ribbon and cardboard to figure out exactly how it worked. I just found it *so pleasing*. similarly: much of my games narrative knowledge comes from mapping out & reverse-engineering Fighting Fantasy gamebooks
aug 29, 2025, 7:24 pm • 4 0 • view
I find it quite reassuring how much of myself - my enthusiasms, interests, even my intellectual methods - is recognisably the same as I was at 12.
aug 29, 2025, 7:25 pm • 7 0 • view
Oh my god, seriously, I just bought two Wonder Woman comics, some Lego, a Queen album, a Dr Who season I bought twice already, and Nemesis the Warlock. I have literally never grown out of anything.
aug 29, 2025, 7:32 pm • 1 0 • view
What I'm saying is that now I'm older - often than the people who made them were! - I rewatch, reread with a different perspective. I'm situated differently. And I'm not *just* reading and watching repackaged things from my childhood.
aug 29, 2025, 7:35 pm • 0 0 • view
I watched The Sound of Music every day (yes) when I was seven. And yes, now I perceive it mostly as a story about Captain Von Trapp, about what it take to face down Nazism and as an adult after loss and tragedy to continue to allow yourself to be moved by love and kindness.
aug 29, 2025, 7:37 pm • 2 0 • view
That reminds me, I keep meaning to make some hexaflexagons.
aug 29, 2025, 7:27 pm • 2 0 • view
ooh yes
aug 29, 2025, 7:27 pm • 1 0 • view
OK. So. I'm 54 next week. I just watched an episode of The Avengers, and even given that Patrick Macnee looked older than he was, I'm so much older than Steed, now. Older than Connery's Bond, Indiana Jones/Han Solo, most of the Drs Who.
aug 29, 2025, 7:27 pm • 1 0 • view
None of these were father figures to me, per se, but they were all 'my dad's age'. If seeing them now as 'all younger than me' doesn't change my perspective, I think I'm probably not engaged enough in what I'm watching.
aug 29, 2025, 7:29 pm • 2 0 • view
ah I see, you're talking about recognition of your place in the lifecourse. don't keep seeing yourself as a child when you are 54. yeah. also don't get super-competitive with an eight-year old at a game.
aug 29, 2025, 7:34 pm • 0 0 • view
My place in the lifecourse, yes, but part of that is 'knowing more', and reading and seeing stories for adults.
aug 29, 2025, 7:37 pm • 0 0 • view
'What scares me' now is not the same answer as it was when I was ten. That's not the complete answer, anyway. Rinse and repeat for the various other motives and emotions.
aug 29, 2025, 7:39 pm • 0 0 • view
This is an example that hopefully doesn't end with me on a register, but ... I am the same age as Jennifer Connelly. I saw Labyrinth when it came out. I found Jennifer Connelly sexy. I still find Jennifer Connelly sexy. I do not, though, now, find Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth sexy.
aug 29, 2025, 7:42 pm • 1 0 • view
yes that stuff for sure has to move as you get older or something has really gone wrong.
aug 29, 2025, 7:45 pm • 0 0 • view
Yes. That's what I'm getting at. And I think it applies to all the franchises - or facets of franchises - that are 'for kids' but not really, they're for middleaged nerds. And it's an issue because, sure, Andor's 'grown up Star Wars', but I would prefer more Muppets and space battles.
aug 29, 2025, 7:50 pm • 0 0 • view
Now I see a film that's *about* how 15/16 year olds are kids but don't think they're kids, specifically there's this liminal thing around 'sexy' where there's a deeply uneasy thing around, well, y'know, David Bowie's right there and he's into you, so ...
aug 29, 2025, 7:45 pm • 1 0 • view
I think it's a movie that speaks differently watching it when you're Jareth's age, not Sarah's. That it would be the textbook definition, for many reasons, of a problem if you watch this when you're Jareth's age but react like you're Sarah's.
aug 29, 2025, 7:48 pm • 0 0 • view