Assignment 1-3 Journal Article Analysis

Article Analysis: Margaret King

In her article “The New American Muse: Notes on the Amusement/Theme Park” (1981), Margaret King seems to perfectly introduce a collection of essays that center upon the cultural impacts amusement parks may have on future American lifestyles. This is made clear as she more completely defines her audience within the confines of academia. Throughout the essay, King continues to address “students of the American scene” (56), indicating that whatever the reason the reader picked up the volume, it was done with intellectual or academic pursuits in mind rather than for entertainment alone. Yet she also makes the case that entertainment is the field in which the true heart of America might be discovered if one would only take the time to investigate. She further defines her ‘students’ to be students of cultural history and development, making frequent reference to contemporary popular culture and cultural geography as if speaking with a group of peers, thus an already informed audience to some extent. Terms such as “the man-made landscape” and “the consummate popular culture institution” (57) quickly work to subtly ‘screen’ readers and prepare them for a discussion based within the general realm of sociology. However, in identifying her audience as such, King then goes on to somewhat take them to task for not having examined the cultural phenomenon and implications of the amusement park before this.

The article is essentially a call to action, pointing out that there is a significant influence impacting the lives and culture of America that no one is yet in real control of and that nevertheless represents a great deal of control. It begins by pointing out that “it is in the world of play that decisions are made much more freely, indicating true taste, class and personality profiles, shaped by beliefs, fantasies, and inclinations of who we are and what life is about (or what we would like to think it is about, which is really the key issue in the study of culture)” (56). The author points out numerous instances in which the amusement park has been incorporated into and incorporates all other forms of entertainment to such an extent that it overwhelms the senses and begins to redefine cultural geography. Regardless of the lack of investigation into the field, the author also points out that there is sufficient evidence indicating that “there is much more to these places than meets the eye, or even the education, of the beholder” (58). While the argument seems to remain focused on trying to encourage further research in the field, this becomes somewhat lost in the structure of the article.

Having made the case that there isn’t much research into amusement parks’ impact on American culture and that there has been an impact, the author suddenly switches approach and begins to trace through some of the broad history of the development of amusement parks and the study of them. By pointing out some areas in which the amusement park can be directly related to cultural thinking and the collective unconscious, the author provides a general outline of what still must be investigated regarding the relationship of the parks to the development of American cultural belief. This then switches again to illustrate the ways in which the amusement parks have evolved into masterpieces of crowd control and landscape definition that have served to further influence the way in which other ‘real’ centers are now designed. This process of crowd control through entertainment venues, including television and film, finally prepares the public to accept the controls that are put in place without question and without complaint, despite assertions of the value of freedom and autonomy.

The text is relatively difficult to follow perhaps because the author does not make her purpose clear in the beginning of the article. It is only in the final few pages that one realizes she is attempting to introduce a collection of essays on the topics she’s brought forward. In addition, the structure of the essay seems disjointed. Close investigation of the topics brought up reveal a sense of deeper cohesion, but this is often hard to trace and one must read several paragraphs ahead to finally grasp the connections. Moving into a more general conception of the article reveals a progression from establishing the importance of analyzing entertainment choices as a means of measuring the ‘true’ American to investigating the rise of the amusement park to meet that desire and the various ways in which the amusement park in turn helps to shape and define cultural ‘ideals’ of the perfect landscape. While the interrelationship between audience and media has been recognized and studied at least in recent years, the author of this article takes this one step further by pointing out the various ways in which the amusement park has access to a much wider sphere of influence as it can employ all of the influences of other forms of media together. Once these connections are understood, the article comes into clearer focus, but these concepts could have been brought forward with much more cohesion and clarity. Above all, the main idea of the article, that further study into the effects of the amusement park/entertainment industry upon American culture is not only merited but urgently required, remains clear.

Reference

King, M. J. (1981). The new American muse: notes on the amusement/theme part. Journal of Popular Culture, 15(1), 56-62.