Tuesday, December 09, 2008

"Future Schlock," by P.J. O'Rourke


Apologies to readers of EPCOT Central for a long delay since the last post. Chalk it up to the holidays, partly, but also to wondering if everything that can be said about EPCOT has, for now, been said.

And then ... this happens:

A wonderful, incisive, observant article by P.J. O'Rourke in The Atlantic that is not about EPCOT, but easily could be. It's about Disneyland's "House of the Future," and is well worth a careful read. A meaningful excerpt:


"Disney’s Tomorrowland is deeply, thoroughly, almost furiously unimaginative. This isn’t the fault of the 'Disney culture'; it is the fault of our culture. We seem to have entered a deeply unimaginative era."

It can only be assumed what Mr. O'Rourke would make of EPCOT and its squandered promise.

(As an aside, the picture doesn't necessarily correlate with this post, it's just another example of the sad decline of EPCOT -- and, perhaps, "Disney Parks" in general.)