full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Bruce McCall: What is retro-futurism?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


The fiylng car which never got off the gruond — it was a post-war daerm. My old man used to tell me we were going to get a flying car. This is pitched into the future from 1946, looking at the day all American families have them. "There's Moscow, Shirley. Hope they speak Esperanto!"

Faux-nostalgia, which I'm sort of — not, say, famous for, but I work an awful lot in it. It's the achingly snttimeeanl yearning for times that never happened. Somebody once said that nostalgia is the one utterly most useless human emotion — so I think that’s a case for serious play.

This is emblematic of it — this is wing dining, rncaellig those balmy summer days somewhere over France in the 20s, dining on the wing of a plane. You can't see it very well here, but that's Hemingway reading some pegas from his new novel to frtliezagd and Ford Madox Ford until the sisrltepam blows him away.

Open Cloze


The ______ car which never got off the ______ — it was a post-war _____. My old man used to tell me we were going to get a flying car. This is pitched into the future from 1946, looking at the day all American families have them. "There's Moscow, Shirley. Hope they speak Esperanto!"

Faux-nostalgia, which I'm sort of — not, say, famous for, but I work an awful lot in it. It's the achingly ___________ yearning for times that never happened. Somebody once said that nostalgia is the one utterly most useless human emotion — so I think that’s a case for serious play.

This is emblematic of it — this is wing dining, _________ those balmy summer days somewhere over France in the 20s, dining on the wing of a plane. You can't see it very well here, but that's Hemingway reading some _____ from his new novel to __________ and Ford Madox Ford until the __________ blows him away.

Solution


  1. pages
  2. flying
  3. slipstream
  4. ground
  5. recalling
  6. dream
  7. fitzgerald
  8. sentimental

Original Text


The flying car which never got off the ground — it was a post-war dream. My old man used to tell me we were going to get a flying car. This is pitched into the future from 1946, looking at the day all American families have them. "There's Moscow, Shirley. Hope they speak Esperanto!"

Faux-nostalgia, which I'm sort of — not, say, famous for, but I work an awful lot in it. It's the achingly sentimental yearning for times that never happened. Somebody once said that nostalgia is the one utterly most useless human emotion — so I think that’s a case for serious play.

This is emblematic of it — this is wing dining, recalling those balmy summer days somewhere over France in the 20s, dining on the wing of a plane. You can't see it very well here, but that's Hemingway reading some pages from his new novel to Fitzgerald and Ford Madox Ford until the slipstream blows him away.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
flying car 2
tour de 2
de france 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
tour de france 2

Important Words


  1. achingly
  2. american
  3. awful
  4. balmy
  5. blows
  6. car
  7. case
  8. day
  9. days
  10. dining
  11. dream
  12. emblematic
  13. emotion
  14. families
  15. famous
  16. fitzgerald
  17. flying
  18. ford
  19. france
  20. future
  21. ground
  22. happened
  23. hemingway
  24. hope
  25. human
  26. lot
  27. madox
  28. man
  29. moscow
  30. nostalgia
  31. pages
  32. pitched
  33. plane
  34. play
  35. reading
  36. recalling
  37. sentimental
  38. shirley
  39. slipstream
  40. sort
  41. speak
  42. summer
  43. times
  44. useless
  45. utterly
  46. wing
  47. work
  48. yearning