The Awkward Transitions of Disneyland

August 30, 2016 7:13 AM

"Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place where it happens to be. This unique existence of the work of art determined the history to which it was subject throughout the time of its existence." Walter Benjamin, Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

This is our point of entry today: to take old chestnuts and try to crack them to see what pops out. Our subject is Disneyland. Our topic: charm.

FoxxFur, a former cast member who writes about the design of Disney's parks, considers the minutia of Disneyland's transitions.

I was contemplating all of these things last week while in Disneyland doing nothing in particular, searching for the word that describes that special something. As Benjamin states, what is the ineffable, vaporous stuff that Disneyland has and the Magic Kingdom lacks - the "unique existence at the place where it happens to be"? The word I hit on was naive. I don't mean it in a negative way - I mean it in a way more closely resembling the original term for what we call folk art - naive art. It doesn't mean ignorant, it means something as it existed in it's pure, natural, untutored state.

posted by gilrain (20 comments total)

Passport to Dreams is one of the best blogs I've ever read. Foxxy is ridiculously aware and insightful, able to describe art and design and experience in a way that resonates like no other discussion of the parks (or, for that matter most art discussion).

Read everything on here, especially if you enjoy the parks.
posted by Brainy at 7:59 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

He waves it off pretty easily, but Disneyland was the vision of Walt Disney and Disney World was the vision of The Disney Corporation. I can get a little more sentimental about ONE of those entities.
posted by hwyengr at 8:00 AM on August 30, 2016 [5 favorites]

I logged in just to say that this is my favorite blog of all time. She's SO smart. I feel like if this were a just world she would be a tenured academic.
posted by the marble index at 9:26 AM on August 30, 2016

While I could do without ever seeing that Benjamin text quoted again, the post is great. I'm looking forward to reading more from the passport2dreams blog since I'm a sucker for that kinda of detailed analysis and interpretation.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:41 AM on August 30, 2016

This indeed is a great blog for anyone that does love minutiae of a designed environment discussed and analyzed. I in particular like the posts that explore how a particular part of the park or ride has changed over time.
posted by mmascolino at 9:53 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh boy! I'm going to be lost in this blog for a while. Whenever people ask me what ride I like best at Disneyland, I have to tell them I like the walking around part best.
posted by queensissy at 10:57 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

While it has been a long while since I've done my Benjamin, my memory is that the article as a whole is ambivalent as to the value of what he also terms the "aura" of a work of art. Given that he was operating in an anti-fascist and at least Communist-sympathetic frame, reproducible art had value to Benjamin (and I believe he was arguing for its value against theorists like Adorno & Horkheimer) because it "exploded" the aura, which was a kind of weighted, authoritarian encrustation (think of historic masterpieces owned by the Catholic church). In other writings, again IIRC, Benjamin was pretty interested in Messianic theories, so art's value was in its ability to offer a mystical glimpse of a possible end to a history of suffering. In WoAitAoMR, or "Whammer" as I called it in my undergrad studies, Benjamin seems more optimistic about the potential for then-new media like film to spark mass consciousness because film cameras could show the proletariat things that otherwise could not be pictured.

All of this is to say that Benjamin is a very, very... droll? ... pairing with Disney studies.
posted by Slothrop at 10:58 AM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

I was in DW at the beginning of the year, and left with an overwhelming oppressive feeling of too much muchness. There's madness in it, in a way I can't quite describe.
posted by blue_beetle at 11:22 AM on August 30, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm literally in Disney World this very moment, so this post couldn't be more relevant. FoxxFur's blog is truly extraordinary, and well worth a read whether or not you are a Disney fan. That's some seriously high quality research right there. Her recent post about Epcot was particularly good and worth reading.
posted by Guernsey Halleck at 11:47 AM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Dear lord, the nostalgia... the history... the memories...
As a life long Disney fan, I pretty much want to live inside this blog. At least for a while.
A very big tip of the mouse ears to FoxxFur for this truly amazing blog (and thank you gilrain for this post).
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 12:04 PM on August 30, 2016

Yesss, I love Passport to Dreams! I had yet to read the post about the transitions in Disneyland though, so I'm glad gilrain pointed it out.

I second Guernsey Halleck's recommendation to read FoxxFur's recent posts about Epcot:

The Ideology of Future World, Part 1
The Ideology of Future World, Part 2

I have deeeeply fond memories of visiting Epcot as a kid in the early '90s. It was my favorite park. Those posts made my innards churn with nostalgia. Couldn't stop reading.

But I also couldn't stop reading the posts about the history of the Contemporary Resort (1, 2), and I've never even stayed there.
posted by roboppy at 12:27 PM on August 30, 2016 [4 favorites]

This post, "Seeing/Not Seeing the Parks and Fan Typology," delves into the audiences that go to Disney and how that spills into their online interactions. I really enjoyed her take on the four types of parkgoers and what informs their experiences. I wish I had read it back when I was rubbernecking my way through Disney blogs before our first family trip to Disneyland this past spring; I would have looked at many of the bloggers through kinder eyes.
posted by sobell at 12:47 PM on August 30, 2016 [4 favorites]

I visited Disneyworld first, in the late 70s, before getting my first and last taste of Disneyland in the early 80s. I remember thinking how crammed together everything felt at Disneyland. I theorize whichever is your first experience assumes the role of your best experience by default.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 1:56 PM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

DrAstroZoom, I was raised on the East Coast & visited Disneyworld four times before I was 18. I visited Disneyland for the first time in my 20s, after I moved across the country and settled in California. I honestly prefer Disneyland over the Magic Kingdom in Florida. I had wonderful family memories at Disneyworld and Epcot -- we had a family tradition of eating one "dinner" per trip that was nothing but a hot fudge sundae from the Borden's cafe, that food pavilion ride through the gardens is directly responsible for my love of gardening and my nerdery over agriculture, some of my warmest recollections are based around sharing different experiences or having different conversations with my family.

I went back to Disneyworld in my 30s, with my brother (who is a local and a season passholder), and the whole experience felt so big and stressy and uncomfortable and overwhelming, and I literally could not reference any of my childhood experiences there. That only added to the feeling of profound stress. I went through the whole night wondering, "What is WRONG with me? My visits here used to be FUN!"

But Disneyland is more simpatico to me as a person, if that makes sense. The scale feels more manageable, the profusion of details more fun to notice and dissect with someone ("look how they designed this experience to reference [x]!"), the experience more relaxing.

I wonder if the shift in preference reflects a shift in focus and perspective from child to adult. The last time I went to Disneyland (March 2016), I was introducing my kindergarten-age child to the park and honestly? That was the best time I've ever had at any Disney property. Seeing what she loved and watching her lose herself in the experience was immensely joyful. I'll never have that particular experience again, and I wouldn't expect to, so it'll be interesting to see what our next Disney trip -- if we take another one -- will be like.
posted by sobell at 2:44 PM on August 30, 2016 [3 favorites]

It's hard to put my thoughts into words about EPCOT Center ( now just "Epcot"). I was the perfect age to be susceptible to its original message. I was 8 years old when it opened in 1982, I first visited in June 1983. It was amazing.

The whole "World's Fair" vibe of the original Future World resonated with young me HARD. To the point where I feel saddened by the current state of things. I feel like I'm stuck in Biff's alternate 1985 timeline, and Biff is running for president. I should be living in the space station from Horizons. Instead, I'm working a dull corporate job under fluorescent lights.

We are visiting Disney World in October with Fleebnork Jr. this October. He will be almost 5, and I hope he can enjoy some of the magic before reality sets in.
posted by Fleebnork at 4:17 PM on August 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

It's hard to put my thoughts into words about EPCOT Center ( now just "Epcot"). I was the perfect age to be susceptible to its original message.

I'm five years older than you, but the first time I got on an EPCOT video call for park information, I might as well have been 8 (or younger), because I went all slack jawed. It was my first personal experience with science fiction becoming reality.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 7:08 AM on August 31, 2016

This blog is the best thing I've read about Disney since Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:15 AM on August 31, 2016

"The operating metaphor is a copy machine, a later 20th century modern convenience,"

I like this writing.
posted by Hicksu at 7:03 PM on August 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh, I love this. Bookmarked!
posted by SisterHavana at 12:19 AM on September 1, 2016

TFA contains a buried link to this piece on the show buildings which I really loved. "Why are you looking at a blank wall?" indeed.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:51 AM on September 1, 2016