I think the delicate point is :
Jaime: That said, some things do stand the test of time and that may be a sign that we're dealing with true art.
Implying that still appreciating childhood stuff is not "arrested development" on the condition that this stuff is "true art" - which may be quite arbitrary (because it's evaluated on too many parameters). I had today a discussion with a friend who happens to re-read Bob Morane novels. I was mentionning how I feared to re-read them not that I have a more critical look. His point is that the novels don't change when he re-reads them : it's him, who change back to the mindset of the time where we were reading them. I don't think it's a wrong thing. You can see it both as dumbing onself down, or going back to some fundamentals. Of course you can try to break things down into their multiple components, but also arbitrarily focus on some and give them importance (the reasons why something was appreciated, versus the reasons why it can't be as much, it's often a matter of perspective and contextualisation - and things don't have to be "real art" as a whole to provide genuine reasons for appreciation).
And yes, there is all the unrelated interconnected things, that are brought back, and play a big indirect role. You should not diss "lower forms" of art, they have their legitimate function. Even if, as Resnais would put it, it's the same old song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGvHkFvW8vc (We were immobile, silent statues, we were not smiling, the one who smile loses.
You laughed and I won, and so I lived on your lips, you were laughing and I was winning - I would lose you afterwards.
And even though I grew up, even though I would get angry with life
When you would come, into your eyes I would fall, I would become
A child again
We were immobile, unmovable by time
We were undefeatable, we both lost
And even though I grew up, even though I would get angry with life
When you would come, into your eyes I would fall, I would become
A child again)
Needless to say, I still appreciate a lot of things that are not high art, either because they have qualities that better, more "adult", fashionable or pretentious things lack, or simply because they fit better who I was and -necessarily- a large part of what I am. I just distrust those who shield their nostalgia behind "but mine was REAL art" as much as those who are too prone to throw mud at their former selves...
Telika: No no no, I'm sorry, but people who're in their 20s or 30s and didn't outgrow videogames DISGUST me !
Nirth: This sounds like sarcasm but if not, please explain why. :)
(It's sarcasm. Also, it's posted on GOG.)