Voice of the DBA

ringlorn – adj. the wish that the modern world felt as epic as one depicted in old stories and folktales – a place of tragedy and transcendence, of oaths and omens and fates, where everyday life felt like a quest for glory, a mythic bond with an ancient past, or a battle for survival against a clear enemy, rather than an open-ended parlor game where all the rules are made up and points don’t matter.

Lots of people yearn for a time gone past. Often I think the place they remember fondly exists in their mind and doesn’t really reflect what they lived, or what they heard about (or read about).

I find that I struggle with a lot of time periods of the past. Pre-1900, convenience and facilities were a mess. I wouldn’t long for that. I have never been much of a WWI/WWII person, and even the booming 20s, being a minority, I don’t know that I’ve have enjoyed that time.

Maybe the one time period I find enchanting, though I wouldn’t want to live then, was 1600s Japan, and the Samurai era.

If I were picking another time, then the late 60s in the US, the Age of Aquarius, the struggles of civil rights, the chance when people really stood up to make their voices heard. I find that interesting. I was born in that era, but to be a 18-30 yr old then would have been enchanting.

From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows