Our Man just got back from Tokyo Disneyland with Our Family and on the packed commuter train home, he struggled to find the ideal analogy to sum up the experience. Here are some of the contenders, arranged in alphabetical order for ease of reference:
Abattoir: That image certainly sprang to mind on a few occasions as Our Man dutifully lined up in snaking lines, shuffling forward like pigs to the slaughter, only we never knew if at the end of the line it would be a merciful bolt to the head or a painfully slow finish (have you been on the "It's a Small World" ride recently?)
Communism: It's those lines. You get to the stage where you see a queue and just join the end of it hoping for something worthwhile. Is this the queue for bread? Hey, the sign said it's only 45 minutes' wait. Let's queue! Oh, at the end of it is a performance of mechanical bears singing country and western (they really were)... great!
Consumerism: Buy your ticket; buy some junk food; buy some plastic souvenir with a corporate logo on it to give to your loved ones who couldn't share the magic with you today.
Fascist state: We were constantly reminded of Our Glorious Leader's vision - no, not the emperor, silly, but Walt Disney - his statue stood by the entrance, with his left hand holding Mickey Mouse, his right raised in a non-threatening half salute/wave to the youth of the world.
Consumerism: Buy your ticket; buy some junk food; buy some plastic souvenir with a corporate logo on it to give to your loved ones who couldn't share the magic with you today.
Fascist state: We were constantly reminded of Our Glorious Leader's vision - no, not the emperor, silly, but Walt Disney - his statue stood by the entrance, with his left hand holding Mickey Mouse, his right raised in a non-threatening half salute/wave to the youth of the world.
Science Fiction disutopia: Is this a Brave New World where we are bred to accept the needs of the collective good. Hey, you there, why aren't you having A GOOD TIME? THIS IS FUN. START SINGING! Oh, by the way, the machines are in charge now. They run the show and are the show (see the entry under communism for proof). Another troubling question nagged at Our Man's dulled consciousness during his stint in D-land - what has happened to all the over 30s employees? Every single always-smiling-always-helpful staffer was well under 30. Was this place like Logan's Run, where everyone is bumped off before they are old enough to know better? When someone discovers the truth ("Hey, this place is a Mickey Mouse operation! I want out!") are they taken aside and rendered into a fibre-glass Polyfiller and smeared over the cracks in Western Land?
Anyway, Our Man gave up trying to think of the perfect analogy when it hit him that it's not so much that Disneyland is a perverse version of reality, but that reality is aping Disneyland.
It's a small world after all.
The preceding piece was fished out of the virtual waste paper bin after Our Man came across this Disney post and felt he could no longer remain silent.
Pic lifted from here.
8 comments:
never been,and if the kid asks why,I'll tell him Ourmani warned me off.sounds ******* hideous.no wonder the worlds f***** when shares like walt disney can trade on forward p/e's of 30+
Our Man, OMG, have you no sense?!
Disney is one of the stages of purgatory. Up there with Chuckie Cheese and childbirth AND actually having to watch the Country Bears movie (if I told you the premise of that movie you would not believe me).
There are few things worse than waiting in a long, slow moving line on a hot, humid Florida day with a restless 6 year old simply to get a "signature" of an "associate" dressed as a rat, I mean mouse. Even spent money on the "autograph" book.
I could go on and on, but the memories are just too awful. Ok, the kids had a good time.
And see how all this has distracted you from your primary mission of reporting on Japanese politics? Or were you found out and the Kempeitai sent you to Disney to break you?
that's it AA,it's a modern day gulag,for thought correction for wayward expats/natives who refuse to accept incorporation is next to divinity.
two trips and the will to fight is gone.
Don't go there again Ourmani!!!you've been warned
some pretty amazing GDP numbers today by the way.how's it feel to be living somewhere deflating at 15% per annum?
wrod verification
asheads
you couldn't make that one up
Spose Our Man should post about that. Guess it's big news, huh?
The voice of Mickey Mouse died today
'Spose Our Man should post about that. Guess it's big news, huh?'
my advice is to bury your head in the sand with most western govts.the views are neutral, there are no pleasant odours and there's safety in numbers.
WW,
Get a grip girl. That Mouse is a rat and a rat is vermin.
It has no place in polite society.
BTW, I was wrong that Rat is not an "associate." It is a "cast member."
I rest my case.
And Our Man: you get back to work. There is movement toward creating a third (fourth? if you count Komeito), and that could tip things to get Their Man Aso as PM again. We need to know more.
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