Starfish Eco

After reading The City of Robots by Umberto Eco all I can say is WOW. I thought this article was entertaining, interesting is extremely frightening in many ways. It brings up the whole statement that was mentioned the first class, “reality is not what it used to be” and Baudillard’s desert of the real notion. How do we know what is real and what is fake?

On page 202 Eco discusses how while walking in the village schoolroom of an “absolute fake.” While inside he “…heard one tourist ask his wife if the children were real or ‘fake’. I thought this was interesting because that is the question when you go to places like that or Disneyworld. You need to be able to separate what is real from what is fake. This segment in the article also reminded me of a personal experience. I am a big fan of wax museums. I find them kooky and artistic at the same time. I remember when I was in Paris I went to a wax museum. While walking around the dungeon scene and looking at the figures, one of the prisoner statues that I assumed to be made of wax jumped up and scared me. After reading this article I find what he did to be creative. Not only did it entertain the visitors of the museum, but also he was playing with this whole idea of reality and fantasy that Eco discusses.

I also found the whole part on Disneyland to be incredibly fascinating. Being a huge fan of Disney and going each year to the parks, it made me realize what the underlying reason of my enjoyment might be. At Disney, “ the public is meant to admire the perfection of the fake and its obedience to the program...Disneyland not only produces illusion but in confessing it stimulates this desire for it” (203). This is the whole idea of “the pleasure of imitation.” We have even discussed in class that we are in an age where people are obsessed with the art of imitation. Eco brings up the idea that once we see imitation as being perfect, “reality will always be inferior to it” (204). This quote makes a lot of sense. Many people enjoy going to Disney because it is an escape from reality. It is the place “where dreams come true.” Doesn’t that sound more enticing then the real world?