Walt's World

I'm now on leg three (out of six) of my Christmas perambulations around the United States, a stop at Disney World in Orlando Florida to see an exhibition at Epcot I curated for the Norway Pavilion that has been up for about 2 years now.   

For an intellectual, even an American intellectual, I have a decidedly uncritical attitude toward Disney.  There are sentimental, emotional reasons for this -- I grew up nearby Disneyland and have many fond memories of it from my childhood -- but as I've gotten older it has become more about a profound respect for Walt Disney himself. He had drive, creativity, a desire to imagine the world in a completely new way, and the confidence to see that through. I know there are people who have done more radical things in their lives, but Walt, in my mind, attained perfection in what he set out to do, and then did. The critiques leveled at Walt Disney stem from the fact that other people tried to take over his vision and in so doing over commercialized it.  There is in fact no "improving" on perfection. So I remain a Disney loyalist, overlooking all the recent flaws (like Little Mermaid 2) and instead see only the fundamental magic of the Magic Kingdom.  I'm pretty sure my son will feel the same.  

Comments

Ko-Leen said…
little mermaid 2 was a disappointment to all
December 17, 2008 at 7:02 PM
Lissy said…
A friend of mine tells me that Walt Disney is known in Germany as a Nazi supporter. This is a bit harder to overlook than little mermaid, but of course Walt was not the only one to be fooled early on by Hitler, and I think the vision he gave to the world thereafter says enough about his core beliefs to make me give him the benefit of the doubt.
December 19, 2008 at 3:17 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dett í, ofan á, úr, út

I´m not sure if someone had dett í (gotten drunk), or if það bara dett ofan á (it just sort of happened), or if some dett úr (forgot), but at any rate, my household goods dett út (have disappeared). Let's review the chronology here. Early August packers from the shipping company arrive at the apartment in Moraga. They load my 4 large plastic containers and 8 cardboard boxes, plus one baby crib, into their truck. I watch my things depart. In September, I ask the friendly girl (Magie is her name) if she happens to know when I might expect my stuff. Late September she tells me. I am most impressed. Extremely so. Mid October rolls around, and I have not gotten a call. And it occurs to me that I am going to be traveling through November. Hmm. So I call again. Well, yes, she tells me, looks like your shipment should arrive on the 31st of October. Now here I admit that maybe I was a little lacks. I had a lot to do before my trip, and so when they did not call me, I did not follow
Read more

Twitterverse

Although this is a function of the specific feeds I have chosen to follow, I have observed that Icelanders are much funnier on Twitter than Americans are. Americans tweet their opinions on political matters in categorical, condemnatory terms, or they use Twitter to bolster their professional expertise, a la LinkedIn. So kudos to the Icelanders for understanding the potential of the medium and maximizing it.
Read more

The sky weeps

For the last few days, the sky here in the San Francisco Bay has been filled with smoke, blown this way from a fire 100 miles away. At least 40 people died in that fire, a whole town destroyed, and many others missing. One reporter described the sky over the town as raining down ash. On this day, the 100 year anniversary of the end of World War I, the news in the US is filled with stories of the man who calls himself President, unwilling to step out into the rain to lay a wreath. Unwilling to partake in our communal, world wide weep. And I'm thinking about my trip to Iceland on Thursday, of the carbon dioxide the plane will be spewing into the sky. My third round trip from SF to Iceland this year, and I don't have anyway to make up for my carbon footprint. But in all honesty, I'm also wondering how bad the weather will be, if I'll have to be out braving wind and snow for the shot the documentary film maker wants, of me walking around outside. Will the landscape reme
Read more