Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space Paperback – March 1, 1992

Although this book is 25 years old, the ideas in it seem as fresh and relevant as they must have at the time it was written -- in the days before Facebook, Google, Uber, self-driving cars, and volatile weather patterns. Even though it seems that cities are having a major comeback, this book brings a huge warning that our cities are manicured and monitored in ways that should make us shudder, if we think about it. They're not the cities of 50 years ago, and we should be ashamed that our fears and simple-mindedness have let this happen.The essays tackle a wide range of built spaces, but always circle back to a central idea that public spaces are being eliminated in favor of commercialized spaces that limit freedom and creativity in the service of safety, comfort, entertainment and money. So we tour gigantic shopping malls that have become de-facto town centers, but with guards able to kick out anyone who looks or acts different, or who is just lingering. We have skywalks in cities such as Toronto and Minneapolis that have killed the street life below, while being dead zones on their own. We have Orange County, California, with its gated communities, highly designed plazas, and more Olympic training swimming pools than libraries.Over and over, the authors of these essays explain how the spaces have dulled our senses and tricked us into believing that the fascimilies we are being served are the real things. This is especially so at the reconstructions of historic seaports in Manhattan (South Street), Boston (Faneuil Hall), Baltimore and elsewhere. A few ersatz images are stuck on storefronts, like lettering in a 19th century style, and we are tricked into buying lobster pots that have never been in the water.Atop the heap, of course, is Disneyworld, which is referenced numerous times and is the subject of the culminating chapter. It has so totally subverted reality that it gives us a fake version of reality so denuded that we have lost all connection with the past. The phrase in the book is something like that for decades we strived to develop production so that we had time for entertainment, and now that we have entertainment our subject is often production. In other words, we don't do real work, but when we go to Disneyworld, we can see images of people doing old-style work, like washing clothes by hand. So does Williamsburg, by the way. And without the dirt or mud or slavery (though they've actually improved the coverage of slavery in the quarter-century since the book was written).Here's another great point, just to give you a sample of the depth of thinking in this book. There's a long section on gentrification, and how when it was occurring in the late 1980s in the Alphabet City part of New York City, the people doing the gentrification referred to themselves as pioneers. They were winning the West all over again. It was as much a fable as the first winning of the West. So that's one observation. Then, the author doubles down with a hilarious passage from an ad about cowboy fashions that were all the rage in NYC at the time, thus furthering this myth that the city was The Wild West that needed to be tamed -- as if tens of thousands of people weren't living in these impoverished areas and minding their own business. And then the author triples that with comments on Ralph Lauren designs at the time, which were heavy on African prints (think: savages), though Lauren had never been to Africa and famously said, "sometimes it's better if you haven't been there."The other point that the book makes very well is that these images of our past are now jumbled together so rapidly and randomly that we've lost all context. This is done in commercial properties or downtowns or Las Vegas, where architectural styles are thrown together. A long section about Los Angeles describes subversions as a library that looks like a prison and a prison that is regularly mistaken by visitors for being a luxury hotel. One of the authors notes that this rapid-fire composition is like TV, which throws images at you one after another that are not connected in real life, either geographically or chronologically -- maybe the Vietnam War, a basketball player, a sunset and New York City's skyline. Of course, this has only become much worse in our Internet era.One final thing to note: this is not an easy book. The language is dense and purposefully complex. Words are made up sometimes, as professors do, by adding "izification" to nouns, and other such rhetorical devices. But don't get too intimidated, because there are careful observations throughout the book. And every few pages a fascinating observation shines through.

This book consists of various essays on the built environment, basically arguing in essay form (which means lots of words) that we should go back to more original forms of the city instead of the faux reality we have today. The book is interesting, but it is also glaringly out of date. A lot has changed in the world in the past 20 years. While the book gives you a good general overview of the topics at hand with the examples used, I would be interested in seeing an essay about any of the multitude modern additions to the built environment.

This is a very thoughtful and provocative collection of eight essays on various simulated spaces which have infiltrated the American landscape. The book's overall thesis is that public space and "authentic" urban life increasingly has been replaced by simulations of urban life, usually as spaces of commodification (e.g. malls, gentrified districts, theme parks). In this process of replacing public space, aspects of American public life--open space for assembly, the interaction of different people, concern for communities--also get erased. While simulated spaces may seem to improve public space and public life, they do so at a cost, one that the critics seem to suggest is the loss of real public space and perhaps even of democracy.The purpose of this book is not only to describe these spaces, but to oppose them. Each of the authors point to the negative effects of simulated space. In many cases, the essays' implications jump right out of the page and into your neighborhood. Margaret Crawford's essay on the Edmonton shopping mall could be applied to any mall in Anytown, USA. Neil Smith's essay on gentrification points out the high price that comes with "revitalization"; one is reminded of many similiar projects outside his NYC example: Philadelphia, Detroit, Seattle,and so forth. Edward Soja and Trevor Boddy both contribute well-written essays which demonstrate growing chasm between the "haves" and the "have-nots." With these essays, extended and local comparisons with dying urban areas and suburbia, sprawl, gated communities, and so forth are appropriate. Michael Sorkin's own essay on Disneyland turns a well-wrought phrase, and gives the Disney Studies scholar much to think about. (NOTE: Those interested in Disney should read this article if nothing else in the collection, although many of the essays are applicable to the study of Disney.) Of the essays, it is perhaps the one least obviously applicable to "real" life. But then again, Sorkin notes the distance between the simulated environment of the theme park and the reality of the city is decreasing.Of course, the scholars' analyses are dark and even depressing. And more than once, the authors manage to sound like angry young critics filled with more agenda than action. More than once, extended discussion of the issues raised in the essays would have helped--although many of these authors do have full-length treatments elsewhere--or perhaps alternative perspectives which would have varied the collection's tone and helped sustain readers' interest. And like any collection some of the essays are stronger than others. Overall, though, the collection makes a reader stop and think. Many readers will end up carefully reconsidering 1) the state of American life and its public space and 2) one's participation in these developments. Variations deserves recognition for addressing these issues.

This book enlists many different authors, who all have an amazing point of view on the built environment. From gated communities to Disneyland, every chapter expresses concerns of fast-changing developed environments. Our cities are quickly becoming cold, enclosed enclaves. This book helped me realize how our society has snubbed the utilizaton of public space. This is definitely a book for every person interested in city planning, urban studies,or sociology. Whether a student or leisure reader, this book will open your minds to what is really taking place in our cities, suburbs, resorts, and recreational facilities. Any place in which society is forced to interact with one another is referred to in "Variations on a Theme Park". Read it. It will open your mind!

As an architect and urban planner, I can recommend this book.The essays are well written and still relevant today. They offer a great analysis of public space (or the lack thereof) in current day cities, and how these spaces are conceived and function.

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