A.O. Eco

In Umbert Eco The City of Robots, Eco describes Disney as fake/message city; “…A message city, entirely made up of signs, not a city like the others, which communicate in order to function, but rather a city that functions in order to communicate. (Eco 200)” In this case, I assume that Eco is reffering to communicating th.  Eco goes on and on describing Disney as a land of illusions that works so well because we, I guess, give into this myth that it is in a sense real. At one point Eco says that once the total fake is admitted, it has to be as realistic as possible for it to be enjoyed (Eco 202). When coupling Eco’s examination with Baudrillard’s idea that Disneys’ multimedia empire isn’t much more than a machine designed to enforce ideologies in youth and subsequently adults, the “Happiest Place on Earth” title starts to seem rather disingenuous.  

 So all of this said, There’s something I’m thinking here. Unless you’re a young child (Disney’s intended audience), or an adult in need of dire psychiatric care, anyone could tell you that Disney is 100% fake, but that’s ok (for now, I’m sure I’ll be proven wrong soon). The “real world” is a scary and tiresome place and, in my personal opinion, sometimes an escape is nice, especially when reality is apparently just an empty old desert, so where's the harm in spending some time in a fake city. Don’t get me wrong, I by no means believe that Disney should be used as a means of escapism, but as a form of a break from dealing with it all.  Furthermore, I don’t believe that Disney is some precious child that can never do wrong, but I felt that Eco may have been a bit too harsh on the general consumer as in the phrase:

“The pleasure of imitation…is one of the most innate in the human spirit; but here we not only enjoy a perfect imitation, we also enjoy the conviction that imitation has reached its apex and that reality will always be inferior” (Eco, pg 204)

Yes, people love a good imitation, look at how many voice imitations there are on YouTube, but I don’t really know if it would be fair to say that people would see it as reality being inferior to it. I’m certain if people were given the honest choice of going to a Polynesian restaurant designed exactly like its referent or ACTUALY going to Polynesia, I think people would take the trip. Perhaps it is just me being optimistic, but I’d like to give people the credit that, while they can’t see past everything, they can see past Disney land and not get swept up in its imagery of being a city.