We got this email from Basketcase Jorie:
I just picked up a copy of “Panati’s Parade of Fads, Follies, and Manias” by Charles Panati. It’s a book examining the last 100 years of pop culture, everything from fads to tv shows to books. There will undoubtedly be things mentioned in the book that will be mentioned in Mad Men in the coming seasons, so you might want to pick up your own copy at the library or used bookstore.
While Don Draper says that “nostalgia” means “pain from an old wound,” Panati claims that it comes from the Greek “nostos–to return home” and “algia–a painful condition.” Literally, it is “a painful yearning to return home.” That is exactly what Don tried to do at the end of “The Wheel.” Panati also goes on to say that the term was coined by Swiss physician Johannes Hofer in the late 17th century to describe a condition he was seeing among Swiss mercenaries who were working far from their homelands. Until the 1880’s, it was classified as a disease and its “symptoms” included despondency, melancholia, bouts of weeping, anorexia, and suicide attempts.
I thought you would find this interesting, since you like to go into depth about concepts on the show. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, Jorie, we definitely find it interesting. And by the way, here’s a link to Panati’s book. I bought it for myself.
