The Selling of Time at Euro-Disney

The commodity on sale at Euro Disney is time itself,
leisure time,
the time of your life:
time to wait an hour for a three-minute ride,
time to wait for a restaurant seat,
time to stand on line next to other people whom you never talk to, never relate to,
waiting for an experience that will be entirely private,
even though you have it in synchronization with others.

The park has been designed so that however small the attendance, the lines will always be impressively long.
In practical fact, there isn’t much in this place. You could do everything in two hours, go on every ride, sample every restaurant, buy a piece of souvenir junk in every shop, if there weren’t stupendous, numbing lines.

Since Disney recommends a three-day visit for families, I assume what they’re selling is exactly this alienated duration
the time
spent waiting in silence, waiting in obedience to some unwritten code of decorum, waiting like cattle at the abbatoir.

And nobody talks to anybody.

- Gary Indiana, "Disneyland Burns," (Let it Bleed: Essays, 1985-1995)

T. of Contents