The Disney World project, briefly, is to convince you—yes, you—that,
within the space of what employees call The Property, the apathy of a
hideously unfair world is suspended. Believe, the company instructs, and
you will be rewarded, irrespective of physical infirmity, age, size, or
gender. Few negative emotions are permitted in Disney World, and yet
the possibility of sadness is admitted in order for the company to
undertake the pitiless annihilation thereof. It’s one that many people
here want to stop feeling. In what feels like every line, we hear pairs
of women (accompanied by kids) discussing some bastard or other who left
or won’t leave, rarely in tones of blame, usually in terms of simple,
grim logistics. Wishing, dreaming—these are for people with less to
worry about. Kids, probably. Squash your own dreams quick, before
someone else tortures them to death. Disney’s prosaic response is best
expressed in a couple of lines in the theme from the studio’s 1950
cartoon “Cinderella,” which plays over and over again in various
arrangements pretty much everywhere in the Magic Kingdom:
“No matter how your heart is grieving,” it promises, “if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.”
within the space of what employees call The Property, the apathy of a
hideously unfair world is suspended. Believe, the company instructs, and
you will be rewarded, irrespective of physical infirmity, age, size, or
gender. Few negative emotions are permitted in Disney World, and yet
the possibility of sadness is admitted in order for the company to
undertake the pitiless annihilation thereof. It’s one that many people
here want to stop feeling. In what feels like every line, we hear pairs
of women (accompanied by kids) discussing some bastard or other who left
or won’t leave, rarely in tones of blame, usually in terms of simple,
grim logistics. Wishing, dreaming—these are for people with less to
worry about. Kids, probably. Squash your own dreams quick, before
someone else tortures them to death. Disney’s prosaic response is best
expressed in a couple of lines in the theme from the studio’s 1950
cartoon “Cinderella,” which plays over and over again in various
arrangements pretty much everywhere in the Magic Kingdom:
“No matter how your heart is grieving,” it promises, “if you keep on believing, the dream that you wish will come true.”