Tea at Trianon: Nostalgia Is the Past Made Powerless

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, October 30, 2026

Nostalgia Is the Past Made Powerless

From The Wardrobe Door:

Any TV show or movie that was remotely popular in previous decades is being rebooted, remade and re-marketed to old and new fans. An IMDb list highlights upcoming sequels, prequels, remakes and spinoffs. It currently sits at 426 projects in some stage of development.
Of the top 10 domestic grossing movies of 2025, four were sequels, two were live-action versions of animated movies, two were adapting some of the most iconic comic book characters of all time, and one was a video game adaptation. Only one was an original movie. Many of the same types of movies are dominating the 2026 box office so far.
Filmmakers and studios assume, most often rightly, that someone who grew up watching a character will pay to see them again, even though significant time has passed and there’s no guarantee it will live up to the previous incarnation.
But why do we buy the tickets? Why are we not clamoring, as we do in most other avenues of life, for something new? Why is nostalgia ruling our entertainment?
It’s the only place we feel it’s safe to allow the past to visit the present. (Read more.)