The eeriness of theme parks

[RoseGoesToYale]

I've decided I would like to explain this. I am deeply disturbed by theme parks, and while I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels this way, I can't find very much by the way of criticism for them. If you're wondering if I've ever had a bad experience at a theme park... actually, no. Though I find the experience of them akin to experiencing repeated highs and crashes from drugs all condensed into a single day.

 

In my country, going to theme parks is a cultural staple. In Europe, families go to summer houses or visit cities in other countries. In the US, they go to Walley World Disneyland, Orlando Studios, Six Flags, etc. But the thing is, especially in terms of parks built 1950s on, theme parks are places of "unculture". Even parks that contain pieces of American culture, it is canned, contrived, condensed, and copied. American theme parks are weird facsimiles of culture, ones that suck enormous amounts of electricity, water, and land, and produce massive amounts of waste.

 

Culture part, case in point... Disneyland has an area called "Main Street USA" designed to depict a typical American street from the turn of the century. And I get it, non-architecture buffs wouldn't notice this, but if you've ever wandered through there and gotten this eerie feeling at the back of your head, I'll tell you what caused it... the architecture is all wrong. It's Queen Anne next to Italianate next to Gingerbread next to Gothic Revival next to French revival next to old west saloon next to colonial, all painted in random, garish colors that have nothing to do with the color choices of all respective eras. There's no flow, no cohesion, yet the buildings are all stuck together. To top it all off, they were built with cheapitecture techniques to save money. They in no way resemble what antique American streets looked like. And some might be thinking "It's not for you, it's for the kids!" Children can enjoy tasteful, non-garish architecture, influenced by art and math, just as much as adults do. In fact, when time and effort are put into spaces, children learn this as normal, and they grow up into architects that create beautiful, meaningful, non-puce colored buildings. When they grow up with instant spreadable Erect-a-Façade™, we breed architects who don't care and build horrors like McMansions.

 

When American theme parks start taking on non-American cultures, things get... ew. Take the theme park in my backyard, Busch Gardens Tampa. It's theme is Africa. If this already sounds problematic, let me assure you the park was started by a beer company founded by white guys of German decent, and is currently owned by the company that broke Shamu. Neither have anything to do with Africa. Granted, the park does try to educate people about African wildlife zoo-style, but that's pretty much where it stops. Do they promote interest in African language, cuisine, and culture. No, it's all Americanized. Does the park encourage tourism to Africa? No. Yet the park seeks to emulate an entire continent. Some buildings in the park resemble colonial architecture, without providing any context as to how white colonialism damaged African nations. It also gets to me me the sheer amount of water used in the flume rides and water features. We have all this water sitting there doing either nothing or moving people around for fun, while the actual continent of Africa faces water scarcity. I can't reconcile it. And nobody questions any of this because Tampa barely has anything else to do around here.

 

Anybody else creeped out by theme parks? There's a lot more I could cover here, like the existential crisis of line waiting, barely-edible food, heat stroke, ride accidents, fake plants, parking lots, etc. But it's 2:30 am and I need to sleep.

[Morgan123]

Yep, not a fan either. It’s all too commercialised and money-grabbing. Also, I can’t deal with all those people. 

 

And it annoys the Hell out of me when you have places on the theme of “Africa”- you do realise that the Africa is a huge continent with countless numbers of different cultures, right? They are all based on stereotypes anyway and abuse people’s cultures for commercial gain.

[Skycaptain]

They're just escapist consumerism, and amongst the most popular attractions in the world.  Jurassic Park was a brilliant parody of them 

[Grumpy Alien]

I don’t really understand where you’re coming from, no, sorry. I really couldn’t care less about architecture. But I’ve only been to Disney parks, Universal, and Six Flags. To me, Six Flags is just an amusement park and not a theme park. (What’s the theme?) Six Flags is really boring to me so I would say I don’t enjoy generic amusement parks. I do love Disney and Universal though. I enjoy being able to experience a fictional world, basically.

[Guest]

I mean... yeah its commercial. Almost everywhere in the U.S. is. Especially in a tourist area. 

 

But, Busch Gardens has a huge zoological area with a lot of space for the animals (60 acres isnt it ? ). The themes are not just Africa, it is Congo, Egypt, etc. It isn't historically accurate but... its a zoo theme park, they arent trying to teach history. They do educate about the African animals though and the conservation efforts one can do in ones own life to help them. 

 

Now do I like zoos? Not really. I wish we could have all those animals free and safe in the wild. But, they arent safe. Rhinos are nearly wiped out. Gorillas are in danger. The babies at Busch Gardens help keep the species going, as sad as it is that captivity is needed to protect. 

[Anthracite_Impreza]

I'm fairly sure education isn't their main aim, it's amusement, and over that, profit. If you want education that's what museums are for.

 

You are also aware all that water is recycled right? It goes through a pump and gets used over and over again. They aren't stupid enough to pay more money than they have to.

[Yeast]

The last theme park I visited was Epcot center in 2012. There were little representations of places from all over the world. Germany. England. Morocco. Japan. What caught my attention was the majority of the crowd had dispersed to little America. OK. Some mom, dad, kids and car has traveled thousands of miles to visit a recreation of the world they already knew? They should have just stayed home but I suppose that would have been bad for the economy. The other thing I remember was the Disney Dump. A mountain of decomposing garbage just outside the park. Their version of Fresh Kills perhaps. It stank even worse than Epcot. A friend and her family hosted me at the Key West condos at 700 a night. Security cameras everywhere. Micky is watching you! Even in the rooms, maybe. Don't have sex in Disneyland. Authentic Caribbean maids kept things spotless. They folded hand towels up to resemble cute stuffed bunnies. Child bait. Their parents were doubtlessly billed once they got back home.   

[Karst]

Has anyone else read Carla Speed McNeill's comic King of the Cats?  It's part of her Finder series, and it's a brilliant satire of amusement parks.

[ColeHW34]

I hardly go outside of my house much less to amusement and theme parks.

Also they are bigger targets for crimes and terrorism and more expensive.

So I just sit back and watch videos.

[Karst]

I really prefer fairs to theme parks.  The artificiality feels more normal, because the whole thing is temporary.  And the food is cheaper.

[RoseGoesToYale]

27 minutes ago, Ardoise said:

I really prefer fairs to theme parks.  The artificiality feels more normal, because the whole thing is temporary.  And the food is cheaper.

Fairs are actually fun, and a lot more sustainable. The one they have in my city every has artisans and local companies selling their wares instead of the big franchise gift shops. The food comes from in-state food trucks, there's music from local bands, and the lines are shorter than amusement parks because there's more than one of the same ride dispersed around the grounds. There's a special part of the fair called Cracker Country that has real antique wooden buildings from Florida's past, and features a school house, working print shop, blacksmith, etc. It's not flashy at all, and kids usually love that part best. There's something nice about it being temporary, too. Makes it more special.

[Karst]

I go to the local Renaissance Faire every year with my family, and it's a great time.  They have some really excellent arts-and-crafts vendors there- I stock up on the nice handmade soap when I go, and I have a leather belt pouch that I got there for my D&D dice.

 

(No one is paying me to post this, I swear.)

[Alawyn-Aebt]

I completely agree with you about the consumerism, but I particularly connect with this part:

On 7/16/2019 at 2:29 AM, RoseGoesToYale said:

Children can enjoy tasteful, non-garish architecture, influenced by art and math, just as much as adults do. In fact, when time and effort are put into spaces, children learn this as normal, and they grow up into architects that create beautiful, meaningful, non-puce colored buildings

I always loved architecture, even from an early age. I remember when I told someone I liked architecture when I was 9 and they asked what type I liked the most I answered, "Either Bauhaus or Charles Rennie Mackintosh." I was given these looks saying how could you actually like those styles? How could a 9 year old like the stark, strict, and simplistic yet thoughtfulness of the Bauhaus style? How could a 9 year old like the flowing gracefulness of Scottish Art Nouveau? I then went on a tangent on how awful subdivision housing was and was greeted with blank looks, they expected everyone to love the monochromatic tan and treeless landscape of a subdivision. There seems to be this feeling that children do not really understand true architecture, yet many times adults themselves do not understand it.

I have often thought if we put more effort into it we could make the world so much more architecturally interesting.

[InDefenseOfPOMO]

24 minutes ago, Aebt said:

 

 

24 minutes ago, Aebt said:

I have often thought if we put more effort into it we could make the world so much more architecturally interesting.

 

Landscape architecture and interior design get overlooked even more, it seems to me.

[InDefenseOfPOMO]

On 7/16/2019 at 2:29 AM, RoseGoesToYale said:

I've decided I would like to explain this. I am deeply disturbed by theme parks, and while I'm sure I'm not the only person who feels this way, I can't find very much by the way of criticism for them. If you're wondering if I've ever had a bad experience at a theme park... actually, no. Though I find the experience of them akin to experiencing repeated highs and crashes from drugs all condensed into a single day.

 

In my country, going to theme parks is a cultural staple. In Europe, families go to summer houses or visit cities in other countries. In the US, they go to Walley World Disneyland, Orlando Studios, Six Flags, etc. But the thing is, especially in terms of parks built 1950s on, theme parks are places of "unculture". Even parks that contain pieces of American culture, it is canned, contrived, condensed, and copied. American theme parks are weird facsimiles of culture, ones that suck enormous amounts of electricity, water, and land, and produce massive amounts of waste.

 

Culture part, case in point... Disneyland has an area called "Main Street USA" designed to depict a typical American street from the turn of the century. And I get it, non-architecture buffs wouldn't notice this, but if you've ever wandered through there and gotten this eerie feeling at the back of your head, I'll tell you what caused it... the architecture is all wrong. It's Queen Anne next to Italianate next to Gingerbread next to Gothic Revival next to French revival next to old west saloon next to colonial, all painted in random, garish colors that have nothing to do with the color choices of all respective eras. There's no flow, no cohesion, yet the buildings are all stuck together. To top it all off, they were built with cheapitecture techniques to save money. They in no way resemble what antique American streets looked like. And some might be thinking "It's not for you, it's for the kids!" Children can enjoy tasteful, non-garish architecture, influenced by art and math, just as much as adults do. In fact, when time and effort are put into spaces, children learn this as normal, and they grow up into architects that create beautiful, meaningful, non-puce colored buildings. When they grow up with instant spreadable Erect-a-Façade™, we breed architects who don't care and build horrors like McMansions.

 

When American theme parks start taking on non-American cultures, things get... ew. Take the theme park in my backyard, Busch Gardens Tampa. It's theme is Africa. If this already sounds problematic, let me assure you the park was started by a beer company founded by white guys of German decent, and is currently owned by the company that broke Shamu. Neither have anything to do with Africa. Granted, the park does try to educate people about African wildlife zoo-style, but that's pretty much where it stops. Do they promote interest in African language, cuisine, and culture. No, it's all Americanized. Does the park encourage tourism to Africa? No. Yet the park seeks to emulate an entire continent. Some buildings in the park resemble colonial architecture, without providing any context as to how white colonialism damaged African nations. It also gets to me me the sheer amount of water used in the flume rides and water features. We have all this water sitting there doing either nothing or moving people around for fun, while the actual continent of Africa faces water scarcity. I can't reconcile it. And nobody questions any of this because Tampa barely has anything else to do around here.

 

Anybody else creeped out by theme parks? There's a lot more I could cover here, like the existential crisis of line waiting, barely-edible food, heat stroke, ride accidents, fake plants, parking lots, etc. But it's 2:30 am and I need to sleep.

 

You should read the literature that addresses Disney World's role in creating the capitalist consumer.

 

I know that in Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism Richard H. Robbins shows that Disney World attractions were designed to minimize in the minds of visitors the damage to the environment, other cultures, etc. that capitalist consumption causes. 

[Alawyn-Aebt]

1 hour ago, InDefenseOfPOMO said:

Landscape architecture and interior design get overlooked even more, it seems to me.

While I agree that those can get overlooked in the common imagination I am not sure they are overlooked more than architecture. I have seen plenty of suburban cookie-cutter subdivisions that have at least a bare minimum of attention to landscaping, which is more than I can say for the architecture. 

[Karst]

Places where you can just *feel* the capitalism in the air give me the creeps.

[CelesteAdAstra]

I have been to an abandoned amusement park before, and that was certainly eerie! My family and me had visited this park before when I was a child and we wanted to go there a secomd time years later. Little did we know that it had been left for nature to reclaim it! t was the weirdest feeling, sneaking through the trees and bushes while coming across old bumper cars and a roller coaster that was falling apart. I still remember when the place was bustling with life and I played there with friends, but just a few years later, you could hear nothing but the rustling of leaves and the wind blowing through forgotten cabins. If you don't believe that silence can be loud, it can.

In retrospect, this was what would spark my interest in abandoned buildings and the chilly air of history that surrounds them.

[RoseGoesToYale]

53 minutes ago, CelesteAdAstra said:

I have been to an abandoned amusement park before, and that was certainly eerie! My family and me had visited this park before when I was a child and we wanted to go there a secomd time years later. Little did we know that it had been left for nature to reclaim it! t was the weirdest feeling, sneaking through the trees and bushes while coming across old bumper cars and a roller coaster that was falling apart. I still remember when the place was bustling with life and I played there with friends, but just a few years later, you could hear nothing but the rustling of leaves and the wind blowing through forgotten cabins. If you don't believe that silence can be loud, it can.

In retrospect, this was what would spark my interest in abandoned buildings and the chilly air of history that surrounds them.

I'm so jealous! I love urban exploration (really, if it wasn't largely illegal, that would be my job). It started with dead malls and then branched out. I can't explain it, there's something about abandoned places that just draws me in. Maybe it's seeing places of capitalism being ravaged by nature. Or the lack or humans in human-designated spaces. I don't know, but if I keep going on, I'm gonna derail this thread. 😅