Mythologies Unlimited

About a week ago I went to Epcot with my family. I was led to wonder why I am wasting my money on an education at Columbia when I could have had it handed to me on my plate, pre-digested at the funnest place on earth. As a matter of fact, Epcot has a ride called Spaceship Earth that deals with exactly what we're investigating in my Theories/History of Communications class. Check the link if you're curious!

Roland Barthes writes about the way mythologies are created, using signs and signifiers to rob objects (pictures, words, etc) of their history and/or reconstruct their meaning. This is a lot of what goes on in Epcot. They have an attraction called "The American Adventure" that uses animatronics, video, and song to interpret our country's history-- all in less than a half hour. Disney's animatronic displays are excitingly apropos to Benjamin's ideas considering the liquidation of essence (which I touched on in my entry about the Satanic Verses). I may write more on this later, it was an exciting trip.