LAS VEGAS AS CARNIVAL, TOURISM AS PLAY

LAS VEGAS AS CARNIVAL, TOURISM AS PLAY

THE LAST RESORT: HELLAd Slogans: Go to Hell, Youll be Dying to Get Here, Damned Good FunSpectacles: Ever-flaming Fire & Brimstone, Ferry Cross the StyxRides: Drop of Doom, From Here to Eternity, the Bottomless PitCostumed Employees: Croupiers from Hell, Cocktail Waitresses from Hell, Pit Bosses from Hell; His Royal Satanic Majesty

BUT WAIT, THERES MOREShops: Needful ThingsHellmark CardsSave My Sole ShoesRosemarys Baby ShopDevil May Care ClothingParadise Lost LuggageInferno Hot TubsPurgatory Petes PetsBeetlejuice Julius

PLUS FOOD, DRINK, & ENTERTAINMENT Souls on Fire DiscothequeHellraisers BarClub LimboDeathwatch Dinner Theatre (Featuring the Corpses on Parade Musical Revue)Faustus FolliesHard Rock and a Hot PlaceBeelzebubbas Soul Food

SATIRE IS DIFFICULT IN A TOWN LIKE THISThis is not a good town for psychedelic drugs. Reality itself is too twisted (Hunter Thompson, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas)Kaleidoscopic (Jean Baudrillard)Like Thee-Dimensional TelevisionLike a Postmodern Shopping MallAn Uncoordinated Theme ParkFantasy Pseudo-locales Drawing on Myth, Magic, the Exotic, Carnival, & Hollywood

Liminal spaces

Places on the MarginLiminality:"moments of discontinuity in social space...moments of 'in between-ness', of a loss of social co-ordinates... Liminality represents a liberation from the regimes of normative practices and performance codes of mundane life... (Shields, 1991: 83-4)

A BRIEF HISTORYOrganized Crime Beginnings: Sin (Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth), Transgression, Dystopia, Excess, Inversion, Carnivalesque -- a place at the margin

Enter Howard Hughes: The Buyout of the Mobs; Corporatization; MegaresortsMainstreaming/Theming: Hospitality Industry, Hollywood, Franchises, Family

LAS VEGAS AS FAMILY FARE?: EFFECTS OF CHANGESMore & More Diverse TouristsBut Not the Family Market of Disneyworld or Even of Los AngelesPeople Dont Come To Las Vegas to Gamble (anymore)

THE INFANTALIZATION OF ADULTS IN LAS VEGASBelk: people wandering from slot machine to slot machine with their cups full of coinslike children in a candy store with their coins clasped hotly in their hands. Those who are dressed in sweatsuitstaking on the look of children in their pajamas. This looks more like a playpen for the middle class and middle aged than the city of broken dreams.

WHY INFANTALIZE ADULTS?Infantalization Fosters Willing Suspension of Cognitive, Rational, Adult ControlWe are open for experiencesWe succumb to a dreamworld of possibilities (lost to an adult)Thus, Once Infantalized by Magic, Fun, & Fantasy, Adults Make Better TouristsGames Adult Infants Play: Dress-up, Pig Out, Stay up All Night Liminoid Freedom & Transgressive Desire

The Las Vegas EffectIndulgence & HedonismSome Gamblers Compulsive/AddictedAn Invitation to Excess/GratificationTacky, Shallow, Passive Materialism

But alsoChildish play nourishes imagination, hope, & unapologetic funConsumers have a deep need for Magic/Fantasy

CONCLUSION: Consuming the CityscapeCity as Theme ParkCommercial and corporate production of Carnival. Intense and guaranteed experiences at the marginsThe artificial as authentic urban tourism experience