I went to see a fantastic monologue, American Utopias, at the Woolly Mammoth Theater last night. The monologue was hilarious, but also deeply insightful, smart, and provocative. American Utopias was three interwoven tales of Burning Man, Disney World, and Occupy Wall Street. The intros to all of these stories are hilarious, but as the night went on, we gained more understanding of how these "American utopias" are related.
I found particularly thought-provoking the way he demonstrated to the audience how mainstream American culture has shaped our perceptions, our imaginations, and given us a point of reference for our own thoughts and ideas about the way the world operates. He made the claim that Disney owns many of our cultural references, our images, our narratives. He said, "picture Snow White. What does she look like to you?" He is absolutely right in this case, when I think of these stories and fairy tales, my point of references is Disney. What started out as revolutionary--Disney's creative stories, images--has now become cliche. It is amazing to think about and challenging to understand just how much of what we understand and believe to be reality is shaped by a popular notion.
Daisey went on to challenge our perceptions of freedom, assembly, audience and individualism, as he wove his narratives. He challenged my ideas of reality and truth (demonstrating what Colbert calls "truthiness") and left the audience with the task of better understanding where our perceptions and notions come from and really letting go of what's not real (ie the idea this country is "free" simply because they've been telling us it is since kindergarten) and creating our own narratives and waves of thought. That is how revolution starts and with it, a new wave of thought, that will someday seem cliche.
--Megan
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