I read somewhere that nostalgia is a weapon. Maybe I inferred that. Does it matter? Think about it: a whimsical craving for the past poisons one's present and makes one vulnerable to appeals to 'return to the past.' Politics is only one angle—art does the same thing. Perhaps they intersect, as Kundera suggested, in the form of kitsch? And if nostalgia is the past and kitsch is the present, then what is the future but fantasy? A realm that never connects to our present—a floating point that is always somewhere beyond the not-quite-obtainable near-future. So even if nobody said nostalgia is a weapon, that's one of my takes on it. You probably have a different one.
Free-for-all rules apply for this combat, which means if you don't like the main topic, go and riff off another combatant's composition.
Combat Expiration: 12am PST, 4/4/2011
Critique Expiration: 12am PST, 4/6/2011, with a rolling grace period of 24 hours to allow for critique rebuttals. Addendum: Based off the LAST critique in the thread.
Bonuses/Penalties: +2 if posted by 6pm PST, 4/1/2011, +1 if posted by 2am PST 4/2/2011, -1 if posted by 6am PST 4/4/2011, -2 if posted by 12pm PST 4/4/2011.
The Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html
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