Disney World
By Douglas Lummis
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ディズニーワールド
これは未来の物語。1996年の映画『ノートルダムの鐘』の大ヒットのあと、ディズニーで映画化された文学作品が人気を博し始めた。やがて、都市計画もディズニーの遊園地を模したものになり…。
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After the great success of Walt Disney's version of
"The Hunchback of Notre Dame" way back in 1996, the Disney people began
to make movies from a greater variety of stories than ever before. They
realized that they did not have to limit themselves
to happy children's stories but could make movies about anything at all -
tragedy, horror, naturalism, whatever.
Within a few years they had made Disney versions of Shakespeare's "Macbeth,"
"Richard III," and "Timon of Athens" (The Lady
Macbeth T-shirt sold very well). The Disney version of "Heart of Darkness" didn't do very well in Africa,
but was quite popular in Europe, especially Belgium. One of the songs from the
Disney version of Strindberg's "Ghosts" got into
the hit parade. The Disney version of "Finnegan's Wake" won three Academy awards.
The musical "Chushingura" had the whole world singing, and the comedy
version of "The Odyssey" had the whole world
laughing.
The original versions of these classics still existed in libraries, but fewer and
fewer people read them, as the Disney versions were more attractive. Most
children did not even know that the originals existed (just as in the old days
children didn't know there were non-Disney originals of Pinocchio and Bambi).
More and more people - not only children, but also adults - wore clothing with
pictures of Disney characters on them. More and more people went to theme parks on their
days off. More and more housing developments came to resemble
theme pards, modeled after Florida's Disney
World.
City planners developed a whole new concept: The City as Theme Park. First the suburbs, and then the world's great capitals were made over into Disney versions of
themselves.
Sociologists coined the expressions "Disnification of consciousness" and "Disnification of reality." In Japan, sociologists
spoke more generally about "Mangafication of consciousness" (ishiki no
mangaka).
Zoos also gradually evolved into theme parks
on the Disney model. And in these parks it
became more and more difficult to distinguish
between the real animals and the
robots.
Eventually, much of the population of the world's animals ended up living in zoos and theme parks; fewer and
fewer in their natural habitats. Of course,
little by little their natural habitats were being
destroyed by "economic development," so zoos and theme parks became
the only places for them to live. The new generation of children understood
"wild animals" as "animals in zoos," and "animals in zoos" as Flipper, Bambi,
and Dumbo.
And so the world changed little by little. Wildness was
abolished from it. Nature was abolished. All stories now have happy
endings. The world has become a cartoon
version of itself. It has become Disney World.
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