Theme Park (review)

At least at one time, as part of the final sendoff at the Super Bowl, the most valuable player would be asked what he planned to do next. He would be shown answering: "I'm going to Disney World!" That moment, beyond its obvious commercial purpose, served to link one American icon to another—the Super Bowl to the theme park. In his generously illustrated Theme Park, sociologist Scott A. Lukas offers an extended reflection on how and why the theme park became such an important touchstone in American, and indeed world, culture.

Lukas traces the modern theme park back to the late nineteenth century and, in particular, to Coney Island. Even though he argues that Coney Island was not a theme park, its emphasis on taking visitors out of their everyday lives and immersing them in a world of fantasy—fantasy landscapes, danger, and adventure—along with the Chicago World's Fair and certain nineteenth-century pleasure grounds, provided the basic elements out of which grew the modern theme park. Lukas then traces the evolution and elaboration of the theme park and its many functions—as retreat, as land use, as technology, as entertainment, and as brand. To demonstrate how pervasive the notion of theme park has become in American culture, he explores the ways in which people have applied it to such varied places and landscapes as Las Vegas (adult theme park), Iraq (terrorist theme park), and shopping malls and restaurants.

Genuine theme parks, such as the Disney parks and the Six Flags properties, Lukas argues, offer patrons an alternative world. Unlike movies or books, theme parks provide a total immersive experience complete with controlled danger and contained fear. Key to the theme park as type, experience, and technology are the various thrill rides—roller coasters, ferris wheels, and the so-called "dark rides," such as the fully enclosed Back to the Future at the Universal Studios theme park. These experiences, and the themed landscapes in which they are contained, take patrons out of their everyday lives and offer them a unique outlet and diversion. Lukas also discusses the differences between the modern theme park and the older amusement parks, such as Kennywood outside of Pittsburgh, with their offer of a packaged nostalgia.

Though the theme park began in the United States, Lukas demonstrates how it has globalized, especially since the 1980s. As socially constructed landscapes, he discusses the challenges faced in adopting the form in other cultures, his prime example being the initially poor, even hostile, reception of EuroDisney in France. Nonetheless, theme parks eventually emerged as successful in France, as well as in China and Japan, among many other countries. Lukas also notes how the Disney parks have evolved as a singular brand, intensively intertwining the corporation's movies and other media products within the parks, as for example with the wildly popular Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

Lukas brings a unique background to his study, as he has not only written more broadly on themed spaces, but also worked as a theme park employee at one time, and he admits to a lifelong fascination with theme parks. While his particular background obviously informs the study, it also might explain the occasional flight of rhetorical fancy.

Lukas writes that people either love or hate theme parks. I would add that they can also be ambivalent. No matter the individual reaction, they have become readily recognizable landscapes, deeply embedded in American culture. Theme Park goes beyond the surface to explore the deeper roots and meanings of this particular land use. Historians may be frustrated by a very thin sense of the historical context of the evolution of theme parks and urbanists will miss an emphasis on the park's role as an urban/suburban landscape, and they might in addition turn to the recent work of Eric Avila or Richard Foglesong. Lukas's book does provide an interesting and thought-provoking discussion of a familiar, but as yet not fully examined, part...