"The City of Robots"
Firstly, mind blown. It has always been of knowledge to me that Disney is a construct which is built into reality as an escape or fantasyland. Having grown up in Orlando, I was always constantly bombarded by the presence of Mickey Mouse and the millions of tourists that visit every year to go to the various parks. My parents were never huge fans of Disney and thus did not really over-indulge my sister and I in the Disney blanket. We watched the movies, went to the parks once a year, and sometimes would play Sleeping Beauty-dress up when our cousins from Texas came to visit.
As I grew up, the notion that surrounded me was to let go of Disney. "Disney's not cool." "Disney's for little kids." "Ohmygod, that again? Disney is so overrated." These were the thoughts of my grade school classmates all the way through high school because we live in such an overtly Disney-centered place.
However, when I came to college, I found something entirely different. Students embraced Disney. They were no longer ashamed to admit their love for Disney if they lived here or they simply loved it because Disney was something exciting and foreign yet close to them because they came from the Northeast, West Coast, or MidWest.
Furthermore, upon traveling with my parents my early teens, I learned that foreigners were obsessed with Disney and the idea of visiting the parks that recreated the worlds they loved through film:
"Where are you from?"
"America."
"Oh! Have you been to Disney?"
"....goodbye."
It seems rude, but seriously. It would just get on my nerves. No one actually cared about where we came from, they only wanted to know if Mickey Mouse came round for dinner regularly. The only thing that even trumped that conversation was the question of whether or not we still had cowboys in the U.S.
Umberto Eco cleared it all up for me. I was sure that Disney overpowered people's minds and sucked the life out of them. Don't get me wrong, I love Disney. Mulan and Tangled are and always will be my favorite Disney movies and yes, I had crushes on the princes and still the songs. But I never considered Disney as a constructed hyperrealism. It was always simply...there. Now that I think of it, it really is 'A whole new world. A dazzling place I never knew.' It is this unrealistic realism that is injected into our lives, presented as realistic representations of fantasy that are such on-point imitations of realistic things that our minds embrace it to the point of belief.
"Disneyland tells us that technology can give us more reality than nature can." (Eco, 203) No longer is reality better than fantasy. Fantasy is the real reality. Reality can never be as good as this reality because in this imitation we can get whatever we want. We anticipate this excitement that we receive from this hyperrealism that we cannot get out of everyday reality. It is the perfect alternate reality without ever having to actually leave the real world. But what happens when the lines blur and we can no longer make a distinction between reality and fantasy?
With that said.... Halloween Horror Nights anyone?
Firstly, mind blown. It has always been of knowledge to me that Disney is a construct which is built into reality as an escape or fantasyland. Having grown up in Orlando, I was always constantly bombarded by the presence of Mickey Mouse and the millions of tourists that visit every year to go to the various parks. My parents were never huge fans of Disney and thus did not really over-indulge my sister and I in the Disney blanket. We watched the movies, went to the parks once a year, and sometimes would play Sleeping Beauty-dress up when our cousins from Texas came to visit.
However, when I came to college, I found something entirely different. Students embraced Disney. They were no longer ashamed to admit their love for Disney if they lived here or they simply loved it because Disney was something exciting and foreign yet close to them because they came from the Northeast, West Coast, or MidWest.
Furthermore, upon traveling with my parents my early teens, I learned that foreigners were obsessed with Disney and the idea of visiting the parks that recreated the worlds they loved through film:
"Where are you from?"
"America."
"Oh! Have you been to Disney?"
"....goodbye."
It seems rude, but seriously. It would just get on my nerves. No one actually cared about where we came from, they only wanted to know if Mickey Mouse came round for dinner regularly. The only thing that even trumped that conversation was the question of whether or not we still had cowboys in the U.S.
"Disneyland tells us that technology can give us more reality than nature can." (Eco, 203) No longer is reality better than fantasy. Fantasy is the real reality. Reality can never be as good as this reality because in this imitation we can get whatever we want. We anticipate this excitement that we receive from this hyperrealism that we cannot get out of everyday reality. It is the perfect alternate reality without ever having to actually leave the real world. But what happens when the lines blur and we can no longer make a distinction between reality and fantasy?
With that said.... Halloween Horror Nights anyone?
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