Media Recycling

In the contemporary era of endless technology, the possibility of learning about, appreciating, and reliving the past is easily possible. This cultural recycling is clearly demonstrated in Ghost World. Enid’s nonconformist attitude and cynicism is just her unwillingness to adapt to the reality of her world. Instead, she searches the garbage pin of the cultural past for new identities in order to put off her need to grow up.
Just as Enid collects past styles like 1970s punk and all retro clothes, Seymore collects blues records as a way to protect himself from actually creating his own life with another person. Enid prefers records instead of cassettes or CDs, and constantly criticizes contemporary popular music, illustrating her insistence on living in an era that existed before she was born. This nostalgia is not confined to the collective cultural past, but also her own past. For instance, she runs away from home while packing up her room and listening to a small children’s record, which she found in her closet. This record illustrates her own discomfort with the present, and her taking comfort in old music as a coping mechanism. Unlike Rebecca who works at a coffee shop and actually rents an apartment, Enid is afraid of starting a new life, and looks to the past as a way to avoid it.
This fear is also illustrated by Enid’s inability to develop her artistic talent. Just like Seymore who collects the past to avoid life with another person, Enid is afraid to create art that reflects her identity. Her art’s inspiration is of old media icons like Elvis and Don Knotts illustrate the recycling of the past into the present. Although the art’s inspiration lies in the past, it is something completely new and shows how influences from the past are always recycled into the present. Media is constantly being recycled and adapted, and can transform into something completely new.