JustASC

Back blogging after a week in Florida.

We spent the last few days at Universal Studios Orlando. Almost all the theme rides have the same back story: Thing start out “normal,” then go horribly awry, usually thanks to some villain or natural disaster. The archetype is the Jaws ride, which starts as a tour of Amity, and ends in exploding bloody mayhem. Or the Jurassic Park ride, which starts as a tour of the park, and ends in exploding bloody mayhem. Or the Simpsons ride, which starts — you get the idea. Even the Cat in the Hat ride follows this arc, although there was slightly more mayhem than bloodshed. (The only exception was the treacly E.T. ride, which starts out feebly and ends weakly.)

I’m not knocking this, but am curious a/ why Americans have such an appetite for this entropic story line and b/ if I can pull off an 850-word column developing the idea into a symbol of America’s current economic decline and can thus write off the the cost of the trip as a tax deduction?

This entry was posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009 at 5:00 pm and is filed under JustASC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.