Actually, what we’re selling throughout the park is reassurance. We offer adventures in which you survive a kind of personal challenge—a charging hippo, a runaway mine train, a wicked witch, an out of control bobsled. But in every case, we let you win. We let your survival instincts triumph over adversity. A trip to Disneyland is an exercise in reassurance about oneself and one’s ability to maybe even handle the real challenges in life. (Bright, 1987, p. 237)

Fantasyland is especially liminal in this way; it resonates with the mythic structure of the hero’s journey and the birth process. The rides of Fantasyland, for the most part, end where they began, alluding to the endless round, the eternal return. Just as rites of passage allowed participants to dip into illo tempore and renew themselves and their culture soo too, can a trip to Disneyland. [We can take The "Art of the Show" excursion and see how Disney creates the magic of Disneyland, as well as exploring transitional space and flow. ] One of the favorite rides of Fantasyland is "It’s a Small World," which was created by Disney for the 1964 World’s Fair, along with several other exhibits. "It's a Small World" was added to the park during the 1960s and this ride has a similar archetypal interplay between Neptune and Uranus: all of the children look the same and different at the same time, and they are unified at the end all wearing white. [The "Antistructure" excursion, located in Adventureland/New Orleans Square, gives us some insight into the emancipatory nature of this ride]. But now we are off to the most popular part of the park, New Orleans Square, an especially liminal land.

New Orleans Square

New Orleans Square sits between Adventureland and Frontierland, and as Marin (1984) maintains mediates between the two. Marling (1997), in her discussion of Adventureland describes New Orleans Square as a “demi-land . . . a transitional zone mediating the juxtaposition between Adventureland, and Frontierland” (p. 114). Although New Orleans Square was not part of the original Disneyland, and was carved out of the Adventureland section of the park in 1963, Real (1977) in his study found that it was the favorite land of most visitors. The most famous ride in New Orleans Square is "Pirates of the Caribbean," which debuted in 1966, while the "Haunted Mansion" opened in 1969. Since New Orleans Square didn’t open with the rest of the park in the 1950s, the archetypes that it plays with more closely reflect the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the mid-Sixties. The feeling here is decidedly more liminal and carnivalesque—it has a more Plutonic nature—but a Disney kind of Plutonic which is playful, and is not related to the Disney character Pluto, although the Disney Pluto and the planet Pluto did arrive on the scene at about the same time.

New Orleans Square evokes the Dionysian spirit of this city that is the home of Mardi-Gras—Fat Tuesday, the one last fling before the austerities of Lent. New Orleans is the most carnivalesque city in America, because Bourbon Street and the French Quarter retain their carnival identity year round. Other cities in America have carnivalesque qualities to them only at certain times of year, such as New York City on New Year’s Eve or Florida’s beach cities during Spring Break. Las Vegas, too, has become more carnivalesque over the years, borrowing heavily from the Disney theming playbook.

In "Pirates of the Caribbean," we are transported from the bayou and thrillingly taken below ground, as the boats go down water slides and drift through underworldly caves filled with riches, treasure and skeletons of dead pirates. We also witness a pirate battle, drunken revelry, and suggestions of raping and pillaging as the ransacked city burns and loot is hoarded.

In the "Haunted Mansion," we are guided by ghosts and descend again underground and go through graveyards and again a celebratory Dionysian spirit abounds. Eco (1986) reports that in the "Haunted Mansion" we “cross a hill enlivened by a witches Sabbath complete with spirits and bedlams . . . involvement (always tempered by the humor of the inventions) is total” (p. 46). It doesn’t get more “third matrix” (BPM III) than this. The "Haunted Mansion" doesn’t follow the familiar narrative form present in other attractions. Like its liminal compatriot, "Pirates of the Caribbean," points of view are switched from interior to exterior haphazardly, which acts to decenter and disorient us and is like, as Marling (1997) notes, “a cinematic jump cut. Continuity and reassurance are first established and then abruptly denied for an emotional effect that floats free of narrative and hovers in the air like the disquieting scent of a burning city” (pp. 114-115). This feeling of free-floating disorientation is a hallmark of Caillois's (1958/2001) categorization of ilinx, or vertigo, archetypally associated with Grof’s Basic Perinatal Matrix III (BPM III), the Death-Rebirth Struggle and the planetary archetype Pluto. ∆RC[dl11]

As was noted in the "Cosmic Game" chapter, Pluto, Dionysus, and Shiva are equated, and the planetary archetype Pluto corresponds to Grof's "third matrix—BPM III. Although in all of New Orleans Square, this Plutonic theme is inflected with the Dionysian revelry, Plutonic overtones are especially reflected in "Pirates of the Caribbean," when one remembers that Pluto is the god of the underworld and the god of riches, while the Shivanic overtones can be seen at the "Haunted Mansion," since one of Shiva’s favorite haunts was the graveyard.

Both "Pirates of the Caribbean" and The "Haunted Mansion" became movies in 2003, thus reversing the usual sequence of Disneyland attractions being based on Disney films. Interestingly enough, parts of both of these two attractions also extend outside of the berm. They were the first attractions to ever do so, although you never realize this when you are in these attractions. The timing of these movies is also interesting to note; Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion were both filmed and released synchronistically during the Saturn-Pluto opposition of the early 2000s. [The "Antistructure" excursion located here in New Orleans Square/Adventureland looks at the liminal nature of Disneyland—a playful pilgrimage center centered around carnival and communitas.]

Frontierland and Adventureland

Frontierland and Adventureland are on the left side of the park which, as previously mentioned, “is given over to the excitement endemic to liminal places” where Marling (1997) points out the "competition between civilization and nature is ongoing, and it is not certain who the winner will be" (p. 103). According to Real (1977), Frontierland is the least favorite of all the lands. It was originally based on the True Life Adventures and Disney’s live action films, and the Davy Crockett series and later movie on the Disneyland television show. Frontierland takes us back to the imaginal “Wild West,” the American Frontier, the historical past. Frontierland hosts "Tom Sawyer Island," the "Mike Finn Keelboats," and "Big Thunder Railroad." Critter Country with "Splash Mountain" has been carved out of Frontierland, too, just as New Orleans Square was essentially carved out of Adventureland’s territory. ∆RC[dl12]

Adventureland is home to the "Jungle Cruise," the "Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse" (now "Tarzan's Treehouse"), the "Enchanted Tiki Room" and more recently the "Indiana Jones Adventure." Whereas the scale of Fantasyland is small, storybook-like and based on children, the scale of Adventureland, like Frontierland, is life-sized, and based more on an adolescent sensibility, which would fit with its liminal nature:

Adventureland evokes the illusion that it is life-size, while Fantasyland appears to contain the smallest buildings in the park. Adventureland looks “grown-up” so that one can more easily enter into the scene as a participant, which is impossible to do at Fantasyland where the adult, at least, experiences the rides from a wistful—therefore more distant—mental state. (Waldrep, 1993, p. 148)

Frontierland and Adventureland, represent the historical and geographic past respectively, as well as the left-brained, competitive, exciting, adventurous spirit of the past, using Marin’s (1984) and Bukatman’s (1991) notions. Archetypally, we can associate Frontierland with the planetary archetype Saturn, while Adventureland and New Orleans Square can be associated with the planetary archetype Pluto. [Frontierland hosts the "Amusing Ancestry" excursion, where you can explore the historical precedents of Disneyland] and [Adventureland / New Orleans Square hosts the "Antistructure" excursion.] Let us cross the park and go back to the future and visit Tomorrowland.

Tomorrowland

Tomorrowland, on the other side of the park from Frontierland and Adventureland, represents the fantastic future where space and time are merged into “space-time” (Marin, 1984). Newton, we're not in a mechanized universe anymore; although ironically, in Tomorrowland, mechanics, in the form of technology and not quantum mechanics abound. This is probably due to the nature of subatomic particles, which are notoriously skittish things and have an on-again-off-again attitude to the world. They are not easily captured, let alone understood, by the vast majority of people, which could be one of the reasons for…

Tomorrowland’s Troubles

Tomorrowland was the last land to be constructed, and was largely unfinished when Disneyland opened in 1955. Tomorrowland has been described as the “poor relation in the happy family of lands” (Marling, 1997, p. 143) and "the least impressive piece of Disneyland cake" (Finch, 1983, p. 431). Tomorrowland, as its name suggests is based on the future but the future is problematic, in that the future is always arriving and then becoming the past. Tomorrowland is where technology is showcased and Disney very much believed in technology and the so-called “myth of progress.” Indeed, Tomorrowland revolves around technological progress, and many of the attractions involve transportation technology. Disneyland was the home of the first monorail in the Western Hemisphere, which debuted in 1959 with the first new Tomorrowland, while the "Peoplemover" and Monsanto's "Adventure into Inner Space" "wondrously" made their debuts with the second new Tomorrowland in 1967, archetypally reflecting the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of that time, showcasing the empowerment of technology.

Tomorrowland is an expression of Disneyland’s open-minded future orientation, reflecting the fact that the park will never be finished (King, 1981a). Tomorrowland was the most utopian part of the park:

If Disneyland as a whole—its spatial reassurances and human scale, its concern for providing visual pleasure, its walkability and fanatical cleanliness was a critique of Los Angeles and the modern city, then Tomorrowland was supposed to be a place where solutions to urban problems were dramatized. A place where Walt could try to articulate a future so compelling that his guests and their children would want to go home and make it all come true, down to the moving sidewalks and the dancing fountains.” (Marling, 1997, p. 143)

Currently, Tomorrowland has the retro look of an imagined future, because the pace of technological change is so fast now, any Tomorrowland would be outmoded by the time it was built. Bukatman (1991) says that the very name Tomorrowland “carries a casual colloquialism. Tomorrow is after all, not so far away, while land suggests the whimsicality of the fairy tale (it is an all-important suffix in conveying a childlike innocence or nostalgia)” (p. 57). [The "Looking-Back Looking-Forward" excursion looks at the relationship between paradise, nostalgia and utopia and is located here for precisely this reason.]

Tomorrowland, Terminal Space, and the Transcendent

For Bukatman (1991) Tomorrowland is a “retro-future.” He points out that “the Disney futures are simultaneously reactionary and progressive, nostalgic and challenging. They are also richly imbricated with the shifting experiences and metaphors of postmodern urbanism, electronic culture and pervasive redefinitions of space and subjectivity” (pp. 58-59).

Bukatman sees the Disney theme parks as “projections of terminal space . . . . a gigantic piece of installation art "(p. 73). This has a very Tomorrowland feel, and it should, since Bukatman's article is entitled “There’s always Tomorrowland.” Walt would have marveled at this view. In addition to seeing Disneyland as topographically similar to the brain, Bukatman fascinatingly sees the Disneyland experience as being inside of a virtual reality system, which evokes memories of Tron (Lisberger, 1982). Bukatman says that Disney’s narrative strategies comprise a kind of “virtual reality system that move guests through a technologically informed yet fundamentally conservative and historically bound vision of the ‘future’” (p. 73). If we imagine Disneyland as a gigantic computer, where the different structures of the system are spatialized, Bukatman wondrously explicates:

Each of the rides and attractions—files—are gathered into the subdivisions of different lands—folders. Utilities punctuate the array in the form of food and service kiosks. The pervasive transportation systems… that shuttle the “guests”/users from function to function form an extremely efficient operating system. All the technology remains hidden behind the tropical plants and architectural facades of the attractions, just as the ubiquitous beige shell of the personal computer disguises the micro-circuitry within. Finally, the blips being processed and circulated within this cybernetic paraspace—are us. The computer becomes a site of bodily habitation and experience in the theme parks—a technological interface so effective that most users are unaware of the interface at all. (p. 73)

To think that we are physically having a virtual reality experience, inside a gigantic liminal space is really quite mind-blowing. Again, we see the Neptunian-Uranian mixture of technology and illusion. Seeing Disneyland in this light, gives us a whole new view of the world. Other maps that we have seen have given us different views of the world as well. William Irwin Thompson (1972) in The Edge of History wrote about the “nonordinary” nature of Disneyland:

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