Robby Riehle-Eco-Make up

Umberto Eco’s Travels in Hyperreality he explores the hyperreal and simulations of reality in actual life. Eco states, “The United States is filled with cities that look like cities”. In particular case, Las Vegas is a perfect example, because it’s got the pyramids or Egypt, the Eiffel tower, and even the canals of Venice. He also uses the example of Disneyland to help illustrate his stance saying it “is also as place of total passivity. Its visitors must agree to behave like robots." He describes us as robots because we are unfamiliar visitors of this simulated world. Basically, you are invited to escape to a world that is better than the one we actually live in. As he says “Disneyland tells us that technology can give us more reality than nature can”. An example we discussed in class is the comparison of Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park and the fountains of the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas. At Yellowstone we have to wait for scientific realities to conjure up the blast needed for the famous geyser, where the fountains of the Bellagio are automated and allow for instant gratification. Even though they only simulate reality, the fact that its on demand makes it more desirable. A similar critical theorist, Jean Baudrillard’s main argument is that humans have reconstructed simulations so realistically that lines between reality and simulacra have become blurred and indistinguishable. This is important because the idea of both these theorist is essentially that, simulacra and hyperreality create an unobtainable better world than could ever exist. Therefore, in comparison our reality will never be good enough, leaving us detached from the world we could otherwise revel in.