I buy fully, wholeheartedly, and unashamedly into the nostalgia industrial complex. That is, I LOVE Star Wars, I’ve been to every Marvel Premier, I’m forced to watch Harry Potter every time my wife gets sick, and I eat it all up. And of course it’s not just the movies, I dive head first into the universe - all the while supporting an entire economy of independent graphic novelists, video commentators, cultural critics, twitter power users, tik tok cosplayers, chefs, and podcasts hosts who live to serve me up more content about content. My Youtube algorithm is a work of art. But more and more, I’m finding myself a bit tired of hanging out in these worlds.

Over the holidays I really started to feel this disillusionment, opting to consume multiple installments of retreaded cinematic universes instead of taking a risk and trying something new at the box office. Nowhere was it more apparent than while watching Lana Wachowski’s latest installment of the Matrix. I didn’t enjoy it. Full stop. But one clever thing the film did (albeit not subtly) was re-insert its main character back into the namesake system of computer control, except this time, our hero was living in a simulation where he was the creator of a massively successful video game trilogy called…The Matrix.

In the first act, Neo is approached by his business partner and notified that the studio who owned The Matrix, Warner Bros. was requiring a fourth installment of the game be released and that the studio will go ahead with or without the participation of its creators. “So you may as well get on board”. This actually happened in the movie. I thought the characters were going to look at me and wink.

While a bit too on the nose, Lana Wachowski’s point was pretty salient. And it got me thinking, why is it that I’ll purposely buy things I don’t need from stores in my community to keep the local main street bustling, but I can’t be bothered to allow myself to be entertained by anything that doesn’t exist in a universe that I’ve already visited 1,000 times as a child? Let alone, a universe controlled by a major media conglomerate. I am the metaphorical human battery in the movie.

Do I think this is a massive problem? Probably not. Am I exaggerating a little? Of course. But I do believe that stories are the RNA through which culture is transmitted, expressed, and evolved. The stories we consume create the lens through which we see the universe around us. So when we limit the types of stories that are told, we limit the breadth through which our culture can evolve. On a personal level, when I limit the stories I consume to such a narrow set, I limit the ways that I can relate and interact with the universe around me. There has to be more to life than the seedy underbelly of Tatooine.

So in 2022, I’m going to vote with my wallet and my attention. I only want to consume and create new and original IP. While this blog post was mostly about movies, I’m applying this lens to everything. New books, new music, new concerts, new documentaries, new art, new ideas. It’s a small New Years resolution, but it matters to me. When the new Spiderman movie brings back all three actors who played Spiderman and you roll your eyes because this was already done in a more clever way in a cartoon version of Spiderman that came out 5 years ago, it’s time to make some changes.

If you have recommendations, then you have my undivided attention.