Memory is a strange and confusing concept, infinite, and vast. It can be utterly toiling and confusing, as well as devastatingly important. In this course, the reader has been presented with 3 texts closely related to the concept of memory and more specifically, the theme of nostalgia. In her article “Nostalgia”, Maiko Bae Yamamoto presents a modernized concept of nostalgia and an insight on her life growing up as a second generation Japanese woman, daughter to immigrants from the Japan. Her life and experience, as well as opinions and definition of nostalgia can parallel certain themes in the texts studied thus far. She illustrates the difficulties and hardships experienced by those who have been uprooted by hardship, and cast of to the place that we, and now they call home.
Yamamoto gives the reader an insight onto the familiar struggles of identity and conflicting associations with “home” and where that truly is. Yamamoto speaks specifically on the topic of “nostalgia” relating it to sound, taste, smells, and touch-the human senses. She describes nostalgia as “bittersweet”, combining emotion and sense to create a form of memory. Since nostalgia and memory are such complex concepts to define in only written word, Yamamoto has included a series of video clips, to try and further develop and define her feelings of longing. Feelings that to some, may be completely unknown.
Yamamoto first chooses to discuss the film “Grave of the Fireflies”, focusing on a key symbol from the film- a tin of candy- that serves as both a figurative and a literal sense of nostalgia in the film. Yamamoto describes the scene in which the can is reduced to it’s last piece of candy, rattling at the bottom of the can.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIjjGXrbjDw
“In that moment, when we hear the rattling of that tin, we feel the entirety of this boy’s loss. Somehow, we understand all that he has been through.” (Yamamoto)
Yamamoto has given Nostalgia a sound to the reader, the sound of the final piece of candy that these two orphaned children had from a better time. She continues with this symbol, next linking nostalgia to the sense of taste
“We hear that sound, and we can taste the sweetness of that candy, of times past. Joy and sorrow intermingle to form an even bigger feeling. It is like a heavy stone on our chests.” (Yamato)
Yamamoto provides a clear concept that nostalgia and memory can be directly related to, or triggered by our human senses. The slightest smell, sound, name, taste, or touch can become a figure of memory. The tin of candy serves as a key connection to the children’s home and parents, though it becomes bittersweet as the can empties and the memories begin to fade.
Yamamoto’s use of video and sound reference, are very modern tools of identifying with the youth and audience of today. We live in a technological age, and our brains are constantly searching for the next surface, the next device, the next video link. The videos and film and television references Yamamoto has selected, come from both Japanese, and Canadian/American descent. This parallels the concept of immigrants attempting to merge and make new life in Canada. And the mixing of race and culture that is found in the second generation.
These themes and definitions Yamato has provided can directly parallel certain texts studied in “New Writing in Canada”. The fact that she is a Canadian, half Japanese with immigrant parents, her life and growing up that she describes- can be related to the narrator from Soucouyant. Yamato discusses the difficulty growing up as the “privileged” generation,
“Happiness had to immediately be offset by the shadowy reminder of how lucky we were. We were lucky that the sacrifices of those who came before meant that our suffering was much less.” (Yamamoto)
These quotes can be related to the turmoil experienced by the characters in Soucouyant. Haunted by his and his families past, he and his brother have a very difficult time growing up as mixed children in Canada. The themes of memory and nostalgia are both strong and reoccurring, though deeply altered and distorted by the confusion of Adele’s condition. Adele is constantly lost in a state of longing for her home, spurring out old stories and fairy tales, fragments of memories that she can no longer piece together. Adele is desperate for a connection to her home life, constantly running water and overflowing the sinks in her home. Adele’s use of the tap causes it to serve as a source of nostalgia that she clings too. Here we see a sense of touch, and sound serving as a trigger of memory, much like the tin can used by Yamamoto.
The tin can is an important symbol Yamato focuses on, as it represents a source of visual, auditory, and taste trigger of memory for the two orphaned children in “Grave of the Fireflies” Yamato specifically identifies with this film, as it is a Japanese animated film depicting the hardships in Japan during these times of war. She comments on the bittersweet nature of thinking about home, because of all the difficulties and harsh memories that usually reside there for immigrants. Similar themes can be seen in the story “Drift” from Radio Belly. In which Lena feels conflicted about her “motherland” and anything to do with her past, because of how Ama had brushed off the topic for so many years. This story also features many aspects of sound, and how that serves as a sense of memory and nostalgia. As Lena talks to her mother on the phone, she hears sounds that remind her of “old country”, though she has difficulty believing it.
Conclusively, Yamamoto provides an enjoyable piece on nostalgia, explaining that it can be defined by many things-specifically the senses.
“Here is Proust describing the power of taste and smell: “…when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, taste and smell alone, more fragile but more enduring, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, remain poised a long time, like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unflinchingly, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.”
Yamamoto quotes author Proust, who writes on the subject of taste and smell in relation to nostalgia. If Yamamoto is trying to say something specific, it may be that nostalgia can strictly be defined by human sense, which thus triggers human emotion. Thus nostalgia is the combination of sense and emotion to create memory. In Yamamoto’s sense nostalgia is more of an equation- a bittersweet equation that no one can really solve yet.
Article Source: Yamamoto, Maiko Bae. “Nostalgica.” Ryeberg. Ryeberg Curated Video., 1 Mar. 2013. accessed 15 Oct. 2013. Web. <http://ryeberg.com/curated-videos/nostalgica/>
Written by: Rachel Lee-Thomas
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