LAS VEGAS AS CARNIVAL, LAS VEGAS AS CARNIVAL, TOURISM AS PLAYTOURISM AS PLAY

THE LAST RESORT: HELLTHE LAST RESORT: HELL• Ad Slogans:Ad Slogans: “Go to Hell,” “You’ll be Dying to Get

Here,” “Damned Good Fun”

• Spectacles:Spectacles: Ever-flaming Fire & Brimstone, Ferry ‘Cross

the Styx’

• Rides:Rides: Drop of Doom, From Here to Eternity, the

Bottomless Pit

• Costumed Employees:Costumed Employees: Croupiers from Hell,

Cocktail Waitresses from Hell, Pit Bosses from Hell;

His Royal Satanic Majesty

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MOREBUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

• Shops:Shops: – Needful Things

– Hellmark Cards

– Save My Sole Shoes

– Rosemary’s Baby Shop

– Devil May Care Clothing

– Paradise Lost Luggage

– Inferno Hot Tubs

– Purgatory Pete’s Pets

– Beetlejuice Julius

PLUS FOOD, DRINK, & PLUS FOOD, DRINK, & ENTERTAINMENTENTERTAINMENT

• Souls on Fire Discotheque• Hellraiser’s Bar• Club Limbo• Deathwatch Dinner Theatre (Featuring

the “Corpses on Parade” Musical Revue)

• Faustus Follies• Hard Rock and a Hot Place• Beelzebubba’s Soul Food

SATIRE IS DIFFICULT IN A SATIRE IS DIFFICULT IN A TOWN LIKE THISTOWN LIKE THIS

• “This 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 Television Like a Postmodern Shopping Mall

• An Uncoordinated Theme Park• Fantasy Pseudo-locales Drawing on Myth, Magic,

the Exotic, Carnival, & Hollywood

Liminal spaces

• Places on the Margin

• Liminality:– "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 HISTORYA BRIEF HISTORY

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

• Enter Howard Hughes:Enter Howard Hughes: The Buyout of the Mobs; Corporatization; Megaresorts

• Mainstreaming/Theming:Mainstreaming/Theming: Hospitality Industry, Hollywood, Franchises, Family

LAS VEGAS AS FAMILY LAS VEGAS AS FAMILY FARE?: EFFECTS OF FARE?: EFFECTS OF

CHANGESCHANGES• More & More More & More

Diverse TouristsDiverse Tourists• But Not the Family But Not the Family

Market of Market of Disneyworld or Even Disneyworld or Even of Los Angelesof Los Angeles

• People Don’t Come People Don’t Come To Las Vegas to To Las Vegas to Gamble (anymore)Gamble (anymore)

THE INFANTALIZATION OF THE INFANTALIZATION OF ADULTS IN LAS VEGASADULTS IN LAS VEGAS

• Belk: “Belk: “…people wandering from slot …people wandering from slot machine to slot machine with their cups machine to slot machine with their cups full of coins…like children in a candy store full of coins…like children in a candy store with their coins clasped hotly in their with their coins clasped hotly in their hands. Those who are dressed in hands. Those who are dressed in sweatsuits…taking on the look of children sweatsuits…taking on the look of children in their pajamas. …This looks more like a in their pajamas. …This looks more like a playpen for the middle class and middle playpen for the middle class and middle aged than the city of broken dreams.”aged than the city of broken dreams.”

WHY INFANTALIZE ADULTS?WHY INFANTALIZE ADULTS?• Infantalization Fosters Willing Suspension of Infantalization Fosters Willing Suspension of

Cognitive, Rational, Adult ControlCognitive, Rational, Adult Control– We are open for experiencesWe are open for experiences

– We succumb to a dreamworld of possibilities (lost to an We succumb to a dreamworld of possibilities (lost to an adult)adult)

• Thus, Once Infantalized by Magic, Fun, & Thus, Once Infantalized by Magic, Fun, & Fantasy, Adults Make Better TouristsFantasy, Adults Make Better Tourists– Games Adult Infants Play: Dress-up, Pig Out, Stay up All Games Adult Infants Play: Dress-up, Pig Out, Stay up All

NightNight

• Liminoid Freedom & Transgressive DesireLiminoid Freedom & Transgressive Desire

The Las Vegas EffectThe Las Vegas Effect

• Indulgence & HedonismIndulgence & Hedonism

• Some Gamblers Some Gamblers Compulsive/AddictedCompulsive/Addicted

• An Invitation to Excess/GratificationAn Invitation to Excess/Gratification

• Tacky, Shallow, Passive MaterialismTacky, Shallow, Passive Materialism

But alsoBut also• Childish play nourishes imagination, Childish play nourishes imagination,

hope, & unapologetic funhope, & unapologetic fun

• Consumers have a deep need for Consumers have a deep need for Magic/FantasyMagic/Fantasy

CONCLUSION: Consuming CONCLUSION: Consuming the Cityscapethe Cityscape

• City as Theme ParkCity as Theme Park

• Commercial and corporate production Commercial and corporate production of Carnival. of Carnival. – Intense and guaranteed “experiences at Intense and guaranteed “experiences at

the margins”the margins”

• The The artificialartificial as as authenticauthentic urban tourism urban tourism experienceexperience