EPCOT and Totalizing Metanarratives- Bored Caitlin, 9/25

Talking about totalizing metanarratives in class on Thursday got me thinking about why Lyotard believes they don’t work. In the article we read, he writes, “We have the Idea of the world... but we do not have the capacity to show an example of it... We can conceive the infinitely great, the infinitely powerful, but every presentation of an object destined to ‘make visible’ this absolute greatness or power appears to us painfully inadequate. Those are Ideas of which no presentation is possible” (43). What I think he’s saying here is that the world is too varied and complex to attempt to apply any broad totalizing ideas to. Everyone has different backgrounds and experiences. We all look at the world differently. As John Green would say, “the truth resists simplicity.” To say any one broad set of ideals will work for everyone would be grossly oversimplifying. Of course, this all made me think about a totalizing metanarrative from the realm of Disney, Walt Disney’s original idea for EPCOT.

 Originally, he wanted EPCOT to be a massive city, and a model for what all cities could be. EPCOT would demonstrate how innovative technology could be implemented to solve major problems big cities face. When Walt Disney died, the idea for the city seemed to die with him. Disney probably realized that the problems EPCOT purported to solve were too complex for a single totalizing idea to handle, and the concept was eventually reworked into a theme park.