Ep 14: Hauntology: Nostalgia, disquiet & lost futures ft. Bob Fischer

The Sense of Place Podcast

When you were a child did you ever have feelings of yearning, melancholy, or a wistful dreaminess to the way you perceived the world around you? If you did, you’ll be pleased to know that a movement called Hauntology explores these feelings in great detail!

Hauntology originated as a philosophical concept introduced by Jacques Derrida in his 1993 book Spectres of Marx. Put simply, it refers to the persistence of our past presenting itself in the future, in the manner of a ghost. However, in recent years it has expanded far beyond that and the term explores feelings of nostalgia, childhood disquiet and lost futures through music, art and writing – with a heavy focus on a 1970’s childhood.

In today’s episode I have a chat to Bob Fischer - author of the book Wiffle Lever To Full! writer for The Fortean Times, Electric Sound Magazine and creator of the blog The Haunted Generation (https://hauntedgeneration.co.uk/).

Here is an overview of some of things me and Bob chat about:

• What hauntology Is and where the idea originated.
• The effect old film and photographs have on you as a child.
• A child’s perception of time and its hauntological effect.
• Do 70’s children have a different perception of nostalgia compared to children of today?
• When Bob realised his childhood feelings related to hauntology.
• Some 90’s/ 00’s kids show that gave me hauntological feelings.
• The influence Alan Garner had on Bob growing up.
• The changing ideas of ‘lost futures’ from the 60’s up to the present day.
• Different era’s bleeding into each other creating a multi layered hauntological effect.
• Hypothesising hauntological feelings of the future.

Episode Extras: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40537106

(Recorded August 2020)