Childhood and (The Limits Of) Nostalgia in Stranger Things St1.Png

H-Amstdy Childhood and (the limits of) Nostalgia in Stranger Things

Discussion published by Filipa Antunes on Monday, October 23, 2017

I’ve been thinking about Stranger Things. I’ve been thinking about it for quite a while, in fact: first because I couldn’t wait to see it, then because I didn’t enjoy it, and now, after some reflection on why that was, because I think I’ve stumbled upon something interesting. st1.png

If you’re unfamiliar with the show, here’s the brief. Stranger Things (2016) is a Netflix original series that follows a group of pre-teen boys and their families as they investigate the mysterious disappearance of a friend. Along the way they meet Eleven, a strange girl with superpowers, who helps them in a journey to unveil the “Upside Down,” a dark parallel world, and defeat the monster therein. The series is set in 1983 and plays heavily on nostalgia -- there are lots of references to ‘80s pop culture. This is, in fact, the heart of the show as perNetflix ’s own description: “This nostalgic nod to 1980s sci-fi/horror classics pays homage to ‘E.T.,’ ‘Poltergeist’ and the novels of Stephen King.”

This nostalgia is my focus here. It has been praised by several critics, but I found it to be the root of all my frustrations with the show. Though I did enjoy some of the references, more often than not I found myself wondering what exactly they were meant to accomplish. They never seemed to go anywhere substantial, instead appearing to be content in simply nodding to the past, with no clear notion of the present. In this blog post I want to unpack these impressions – not for the purposes of ranting but rather as a thought in progress. How exactly does Stranger Things connect childhood and nostalgia? What is it nostalgic for?

Citation: Filipa Antunes. Childhood and (the limits of) Nostalgia in Stranger Things . H-Amstdy. 08-16-2018. https://networks.h-net.org/node/2602/discussions/186846/childhood-and-limits-nostalgia-stranger-things Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Amstdy

In the interest of full disclosure, I should begin by saying that I am probably to blame for the intensity of my disappointment with Stranger Things. I know its inspirations too well (a perk of the job) and I expected this show to be like them. Aesthetically and narratively, Stranger Things does the job, sure, but intellectually it feels like a missed opportunity: why was there no attempt at a commentary on the ways childhood has changed since the 1980s, and on what this might mean? Admittedly, this was never mentioned as a goal by the filmmakers or even hinted at in the marketing; but, in my defense, this kind of social commentary is exactly what the inspirations behind Stranger Things were all about.

E.T., to take the most obvious example, was about preserving the innocence of childhood at a time when the family unit was changing. Firestarter, another obvious reference, likewise problematized the notion of childhood innocence, connecting it to a time of sharp technological advancement. We also don’t have to go far to compareStranger Things to the likes of Eerie, Indiana or even Goosebumps, television series which not only acknowledged children’s affinity with the horror genre (somewhat radically, I might add), but also used it to explore the anxieties of oncoming puberty.[1]

These interpretations are, of course, based on the well-researched notion that depictions of childhood are rarely just about childhood. On the contrary, the ways we represent children and talk about them are indicators of how we feel about other things in our culture. As a result, childhood is often a battle ground – what it “should” or “shouldn’t” be is code for cultural ideals, power struggles and paradigm shifts. So when in my research I examine the '80s films loved by Stranger Things, what I find is much more than simple, uncomplicated childhood – these films, and the way people talked about them at the time, are accounts of what childhood meant then and of what the dominant and emergent cultural values were. In other words, films like Firestarter or The Gate are a window into the struggles of their period.[2]

References to 70-80's movies in Stranger Things from Ulysse Thevenon on Vimeo.

This is why the homages in Stranger Things are awkward. The show is successful in recreating that Amblin “feel” (think Spielberg), because its visual and narrative cues are designed to send the viewer back to the ideals of films like E.T.. But beyond this reminiscence, there is no attempt to update or comment on these memories, or on what their place is in the pop culture of 2017. This is a point Willa Paskin also makes in her review in Slate:

Spielberg captured something about growing up in that era—suburbia, bicycles, latchkey kids, distracted parents, an untrustworthy government but a hopeful universe—that is so potent and iconic it does seem, from our current vantage, as if he filmed nostalgia itself. But neither these movies nor Star Wars are period pieces, part of the reason they spoke so deeply to so many of the kids who grew up on them, presumably the Duffer brothers among them. Someone who really wanted to pay homage to Spielberg might consider taking his themes and tics and tropes and transporting them to the present, so young people watching could see themselves in the results and not the creators’ own youth. What are cellphones but the best walkie-talkies ever made?

Here, Paskins highlights the reductive influence of strict nostalgia:Stranger Things doesn’t really

“get” what made its reference points tick — it has nothing to say to or about children today. Through the lenses of nostalgia, these films of the ‘80s are entirely detached from a lived context, reduced from cultural objects to a collection of famous shots and plot points. Indeed,Stranger Things even breaks the golden rule of ‘80s entertainment by not explicitly targeting young audiences. The problem, of course, is that young audiences are what provides an anchor to contemporary childhood, whether this refers to the “real” culture of “actual” children or to an idealized version of it. Without this anchor, Stranger Things is stuck in a world of references with no referent. boys.png

And yet, this must make perfect sense. How else can the success of the show be explained? There is clearly something about Stranger Things that resonates strongly in contemporary culture. Indeed, the show’s indifference to “actual” childhood may very well be why it was successful – not wasting time on these details certainly leaves more time to wax nostalgically about what it might have been like to be young in the ‘80s. Childhood here is not a socio-cultural issue, or even a “real” concept, but rather a self-absorbed symbol of something else, something of greater meaning to the Millennial adults who comprise most of its audience.

I noticed similar hunches in certain critical reviews of this show. Paskins, for instance, comments on the way Eleven “is a symbol, not a person,” an observation that easily extends to all the other child characters in the series. And if these characters, or rather symbols, are “the biggest draw of a decidedly adult television show,” (Joshua Alston, A.V. Club) we must question what it is they are standing in for and why it suddenly seems so pressing.

Beyond this point I have few answers. These thoughts will certainly develop into something more weighty in due time, but until then I'm intrigued to hear your thoughts. DidStranger Things strike you as commentary on childhood or otherwise? How did you read its nostalgia? Comment below, or reach me elsewhere: @horrorkids // [email protected]

[1] Antunes, Filipa (2014) “Children beware – you’re in for a scare! Goosebumps and the horrors of puberty” paper presented at Kid Culture Study Day, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.

[2] See, for instance, “Children Beware! Horror, ratings and the making of pre-adolescence” (McFarland, forthcoming), for my account of how children’s horror media of the 1980s and 1990s charted the "discovery" of pre-adolescence and other cultural shifts in the USA.