Warren Wilson College
73 Cumberland Ave.
Asheville, NC 28801
5-14-03
This
research addresses the function of simulation and hyperrealism in the context
of several tourist sites in the southeastern United States. The sites were
analyzed using Baudrillard’s mapping of the simulation process. The historical
narratives and underlying ideologies of each site were used to examine the role
of simulation in each context.
I visited Myrtle Beach SC, Gatlinburg TN, and Cherokee NC. I
conducted a total of ten interviews with individuals who live and work in these
towns. I also took many pictures, recorded field-notes, and used a
tape-recorder to capture thoughts.
A simulacrum is defined by Webster’s
Dictionary as “an image or representation” or as “an unreal or vague
semblance.” The subject of this research is the examination of the process by
which an original becomes “an image or representation” of itself. The sites
investigated for this paper employ simulation to facilitate and authenticate
the experience of the participant. The experiential and physical
representations of the objects and places that have been manufactured delineate
the experience of the participant. For example, at the Onconaluftee Living
Indian Village a wooden canoe that is perpetually being built by a “native in
authentic dress” is a physical representation of a tradition that has been
rendered obsolete by technological advances, while the actor who constructs the
canoe represents his own ancestors and validates the actual experience of the
participant. The combination of simulated places, time periods, and people
bridges a gap for the participant between his experience at the point of
simulation and the original reality. The totality of the simulation process is
best explained by Baudrillard’s mapping of the successive phases simulation.
Baudrillard
explains that simulation occurs in a four-part process (Baudrillard 1983:11). I
have added a fifth part that relates directly to the simulations found in the
tourist destinations of my research. Baudrillard omits any reference to the
relationship between the simulation and the participant in his mapping of the
simulation process. The relationship between the participants and simulation is
critically important in understanding the role and function of simulation within
the context of the tourist sites analyzed in this paper. The following process
is the primary theory that I used in my research:
Original: Any simulation must begin with an
original. In the context of these four tourist destinations the original can be
put into six different categories. These are: a time period, a culture, a
place, an idea, a person, or an object.
The
Perversion of the Original:
This perversion is the process by which the original becomes permanently
altered. This perversion can take several forms. The perversion sometimes takes
the form of a revolution or shift in religious, political, social, or economic
structure. The perversion can also be the introduction of a foreign culture
into an established or traditional culture. The perversion could also be an
advance or transformation in technology or science. The permanent alteration
erodes the pure form of the original out of existence. In the wake of
this perversion comes an absence of the original.
The Masking
of the Absence: This is the
process by which the absence of the original created by the perversion, is
accepted, normalized, and internalized into the prevailing culture. The new
form of the original now exists in a secondary reality. It is the normalization
of this new reality as the primary reality that masks the absence of the
original.
Simulation: The replication, imitation, or
representation of an idea of the original.
Participation: The act of experiencing a simulation.
This act bridges the simulation to the idea of the original for the
participant.
The first
site visited was Cherokee, NC. This town is located in the far western corner
of North Carolina. The economic status of the town relies on gambling and
tourism. The souvenir shops that dot both sides of the roads are stocked full
of objects that represent ideas of “the Indian.” Gigantic tee-pees rest atop
one store that is appropriately named, “Indian Store.” The Indian Store is
filled with merchandise related to the idea of the generic Indian as opposed to
the specific idea of “the Cherokee”. The mountain behind the store serves as a
perfect backdrop for these two gigantic tee-pees. The imagination of the
tourist is persuaded to picture a time when these tee-pees would have been real
and inhabited by real Indians. The irony is that the Cherokee never used
tee-pees. The image has been borrowed from the image of the Indian in the
western frontier. The incongruence of the tee-pee image within the town of
Cherokee is not of great importance to the tourist. The traditional house
structure of the Cherokee would not fit the archetypal American Indian imagery
theme. Nowhere among the aisles of the souvenir shops does the customer find
miniature replicas of traditional Cherokee homes. Although the tourist draw to
the town is the history, presence, and idea of the Cherokee Indian, the
most prominent idea that is being sold is the idea of the generic Indian
(Kaplan 1998:350). This is the Indian as he has been depicted in spaghetti
westerns and comic books. Inside the souvenir shops, a customer may choose from
a large assortment of miniature tomahawks, synthetic headdresses, and plastic
bows and arrows. These are physical manifestations of various ideas concerning
“the Indian.” These ideas are drawn from folk-narratives of the various
reconstructed histories of the Native Americans. Thousands of paintings are
being sold depicting Indians in the desert shooting their arrows at helpless
settlers. There are also a variety of paintings that depict battles between
cowboys and Indians. The presence of paintings that depict Indians attacking
settlers and nothing of the reverse scenario sends a clear message to the
observer; the cowboys are clearly defending themselves from the aggressions of
the fierce Indians. This is the predominant historical narrative depicted in
these stores. This imagery transmits an aura of justification for the
historical acts of settlers.
Imagery of
the spiritual Indian is also quite common in these stores. Dream catchers are
not only sold in every souvenir shop but in every gas station as well. The
customer can purchase a wide variety of velvet paintings depicting shamans
dancing in front of a fire while eagles and wolves inhabit the background. I
have noticed that the reproduction of the spiritual Indian is also found in
bookstores all across America. Most new-age/spirituality sections have dozens
of books that instruct the reader how to conduct their own vision quests. These
books also explain how Native American rituals can be enacted in everyday life.
The reader can practice Native American spiritualism at home, work, or in the
car. The assimilation of Native American spiritualism into the mainstream
exhibits the function of simulation outside of the context of a place-specific
locale. These books and practices can be bought, sold, and practiced anywhere
in the world.
Consumerable imagery of the Indian is
scattered all over the town (Dorst 1989:108). Replicated totem poles, black
bears, wolves, horses, tee-pees, and most importantly Indians frequent the
landscape. Indian statues made of wax or plastic seem to reside in almost every
souvenir shop in Cherokee. In one store, a plastic life-size Indian robot sits
near the entrance to greet the customers. As long as he is plugged into the
wall his head moves slowly back and forth while his eyes wiggle around
robotically. A small sign that is posted next to the robot reads, “Hi, I’m
Chief Sitting Bull.” This robot sits in front of a display wall that sells
chess-sets, western jewelry, plastic guns, t-shirts, knives, nail-clippers,
Indian themed beach-towels, and whoopee cushions. The image of the Indian has
become a commodity in Cherokee. The mannequin becomes an advertisement for the
paraphernalia that he is surrounded by. If the customer enjoys the Indian robot,
then why not purchase a beach towel with a similar image?
In front of
the same store that houses the Chief Sitting Bull robot is another mannequin.
The scene displays a female Indian sitting in a plastic lawn chair in front of
a gigantic tee-pee. There is an empty lawn chair next to her. This is set up so
that the observer can become a participant. There is a donation box next to the
scene so that people who take their pictures with her may tip her for
the photo opportunity. In this setting the participant is able to interact with
an image of the past. The photos are recorded on film and then reproduced as an
image on paper that can be brought anywhere. The perversion of the original
Indian invalidates the authenticity of the Cherokee that live here and
facilitates the avoidance of interaction between tourists and local Cherokees.
While some tourists may take photos with living Cherokee people, purchasing a
doll or taking a photo with a mannequin is a much more accessible form of
interaction.
The disappearance
of the original Indians is ironically emphasized in the co-existence of
reproduced imagery of taxidermized animals. These synthetic wall-mounted animal
heads emphasize the absence of the original. Elk, bison, and wolves share the
same spaces inside the gift shops as the Indian mannequins and robots. These
animals, although they exist in other regions of the country, no longer inhabit
the mountains of North Carolina. Comparably the taxidermized Indian is
presented as a being that once lived in the Appalachian Mountains but no longer
in its original form. Only through simulations of the past can the Indian once
again exist in this location (Baudrillard 1983:18). Even in the Museum of the
Cherokee Indian, the Cherokee are represented by wax figures and holograms. The
faces of the wax figures in each vignette are replications of living local
Cherokee people. The image of the Cherokee that the tourist remembers is not
the face of the Cherokee man or woman that sold the tickets at the entrance,
but the faces of the local Cherokee that have been replicated inside each
historical scene of the museum. The living Cherokees have been transformed into
caricatures of themselves (Baudrillard 1988:28). These caricatures play the
part of their long-deceased Cherokee ancestors.
Instead of having a human guide lead a tour
of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, a hologram representation of an ancient
Cherokee man leads the participant through the various scenes and narrates what
the participant is seeing and experiencing. The 3-D Indian hologram is a
Cherokee actor that is dressed in native costume. The hologram appears to react
when the participant walks near him as if he were a real person (Kaku 1997:96).
To the observer, the man is approximately one-foot tall. The backdrop around
the hologram implies that this is a feat of time-travel. From the setting of
the past, the hologram guide speaks to the museum visitors in the future. Only
through a simulation of the past can the visitor experience a valid
representation of the real Cherokee.
Place is a construction
within the physical constraints of a given space. A historical simulation
replicates three things: a place, a time, and an experience (enacted through
the participation in the given place). The place is a medium for the
construction of an experience (Dorst 1989:108). The Oconaluftee Indian Village
in Cherokee, NC, simulates place, history, and interactive experiences all at
once. This replicated village was constructed on the same ground where the
ancestors of the Cherokee Indians once lived. The advertising pamphlet for the
Oconaluftee Village explains,
“In
this vibrant 20th century community, the Cherokee people still hold a
strong identity with their proud heritage. This is realistically
portrayed through the Oconaluftee Indian Village. Learn how the red man
actually lived over 250 years ago as Indian guides in native costumes
lead you to primitive cabins and rustic arbors. See Indians
making a dugout canoe with fire and ax. Watch Cherokee women stringing beads,
molding ropes of clay into pots and weaving baskets. Observe the ancient
art of finger weaving. Inside the seven-sided council house, learn the Cherokee
history, culture, and social backgrounds handed down from generation to
generation. Observe the timeworn methods of chipping flint into
arrowheads, carving wooden spoons, combs and bowls, and pounding Indian corn
into meal.”(Author’s emphasis)
The text clearly refers to this historical
simulation as replicated place, history, and experience. The replicated
“seven-sided council house” on the site allow tourists to interact with a
simulated historical setting. Authentic Indians portraying their ancestors
build baskets and canoes in simulation of activities that have been rendered
obsolete by industrialization and the Cherokee’s general removal from their
land during the 19th century. Presently, Cherokee do not build baskets and
canoes to actually use them for utilitarian purposes. Instead they build them
so that tourists will pay to come and watch them be constructed. The craft has
been transformed from product to the idea of the product. The “Indian guides”
dressed in “native costumes” that lead the tours simulate the authentic Indian
that only existed in pure form before the settlers had affected the native way
of life. “Real” Indians actually do live and work in Cherokee. The irony is
that the Cherokee employees at the Oconaluftee village or The Museum of
Cherokee History actually reinforce the idea that they no longer exist in
authentic form (except through simulation and replication). The true “authentic” and the true “real” can
only be simulated. Within this logic, all that is real is must be a replication
or capable of being simulated (Baudrillard 1983:19). The idea of the
origination and history of a culture, person, time period, or place is usually
more important and legitimate than it’s own contemporary existence (tourist do
not flock to ancient Cherokee village sites that are now covered in asphalt,
McDonald’s, and strip-malls; nor do they view the Cherokee man working in the
gas station as being “as authentic” as the “native guide” at the Oconoluftee
Indian Village.
Myrtle Beach, SC
Unlike Cherokee, Myrtle Beach, SC, is not a
tourist destination as a result of site-specific historical events or native
culture. The attractions of the town are explicit in their fantastical
simulation. Souvenir shops line both sides of the main drag but there is not a
consistent theme in each shop. While there are mannequins of Native Americans,
there are also mannequins of Elvis Presley and the world’s tallest man. The
different seasons of the year are marked by distinctly different overall auras.
From March to June, Myrtle Beach is inhabited almost entirely by college and
high-school students who are on Spring Break. The streets are filled slow
moving cars that circle the strip endlessly. Many nightclubs advertise their
affiliation with the popular sex-reality video series, “Girls Gone Wild”.
Vacancy in any hotel near the strip is difficult to find during this time of
the year. During the summer months,
Myrtle Beach is transformed into a slightly more family-oriented tourist
destination. The fall and winter season here is a dramatic change from the warm
months. During the cold months, the streets are empty, most of the souvenir
shops are closed, and even the McDonalds is shut down until the start of the
spring break season. A local woman who was interviewed explained that there are
no jobs in Myrtle Beach during the off-season. She informed me that being a
stripper is the only occupation during the off-season that handle to the cost
of living. She said that the town is not worth living in during the cold
months. Evidently the town dies a virtual death without the tourists.
The souvenir shops here sell lots of
merchandise with vice related themes. Examples include posters that display
every known beer company on earth, shirts with animals having sex in every
possible position, and novelty hats that allow beer to be stored on the head
and drunk through plastic tubes. The sites of attraction that are not consumer
oriented gift plazas are overwhelmingly sites of explicit simulation (Eco
1983:40). Gigantic karaoke bars are positioned right next to theatres that
specialize in look-alike performers. For twenty dollars a customer can see
Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Garth Brooks, and Frank Sinatra all perform together on
the same stage. In Myrtle Beach the death of a performer does not mean that his
likeness will not be replicated and sold as an authentic replication of the
original.
Ripley’s Aquarium is advertised as being “South Carolina’s Most
Visited Attraction.” The advertising pamphlet proclaims that the aquarium is,
“entertaining, educational, interactive, and fun.” Inside the aquarium a
simulated ocean has been constructed. The constructed ocean is filled with real
fish, sharks, dolphins, stingrays, and turtles. The animals live in this
artificial world while tourists watch them play the role of their real
counterparts that swim free in the inaccessible ocean. These animals play the
same role as the “native guide” at the Oconaluftee Living Indian Village who
acts the part of his real ancestor in a controlled tourist environment.
Visitors are given the opportunity to pet crabs and other sea creatures in an
educational exposition in the middle of the aquarium. This education takes the
form of an employee teaching the visitors about each creature and then giving
them the opportunity to touch and interact with the creatures. This simulation
of wild ocean creatures within a controlled environment internalizes the human
domination of the natural world. The process of simulation is clear in the
context of this tourist site. The original creatures of the ocean have been
removed from their natural habitat and placed into a new one. The new reality
must be an exact replica of the ocean environment for the creatures to survive.
Therefore the absence of the original environment is masked by the functioning
replica of itself. In this new simulated ocean environment participants are
given the opportunity to interact and observe the creatures in a way that would
be impossible in the original environment.
Strangely, the
functioning replicated environment is mixed with historical themes. The
aquarium has an exhibit that features the imagery associated with the myth of
the Bermuda Triangle. Various airplanes and boats that have mysteriously
disappeared in the Bermuda triangle have been reconstructed inside the aquarium
to simulate the scenario of a crashed vessel. The aquarium is used as a
background setting to simulate a completely separate region of the earth. The
crashed planes and ships simulate a specific narrative concerning the history
of these disappeared vessels. Similar to the reconstructed village at the
Oconaluftee Living Indian Village, the aquarium is used as a physical landscape
to simulate historical events.
Most mini-golf attractions are designed with their quality of
simulation as being their highest selling point. The mini-golf establishment
that has the most realistic dinosaurs or the biggest artificial waterfalls
tends to have the longest line of patrons waiting to play a game. Mt.
Atlanticus Miniature Golf is a gargantuan tourist attraction that uses a
fantastical historical narrative to provide explanation for the simulated
environment that has been constructed. This site is Myrtle Beach’s largest and
most outlandish mini-golf establishment. From the road, an onlooker can easily
see the giant rivers of green-blue waters, the gushing three-story high
waterfalls, and the dozens of faux-bamboo structures whose roofs are made of
faux-straw. Plaster creatures of gargantuan proportions are fixed into the
landscape. The ideological logic behind
the construction of this place and the creatures therein can only be understood
by participating in a game of golf.
Mt.
Atlanticus uses the geographical space (the external) in the validation of the
fantasy that is being suggested in the place (the internal). After paying for a
round of golf, the patron walks into a giant room. The walls are covered in
murals and diagrams. The ideology of Mt. Atlanticus is constructed with an
alternate history of the place that is now called Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Along with an alternate history to Myrtle Beach the history and evolution of
the human race is visually and textually explained. The first mural at Mt.
Atlanticus shows a giant circle of creatures. The first humans in this
succession are dark-skinned and hairy, and use all four limbs to walk. As this
visual metaphor for the evolution of the human continues, the creature (which
happens to be male) becomes more and more fair-skinned. His furry nakedness is
transformed into a clothed state. The final image is a hairless Caucasian male
dressed in a mode that reminds the onlooker of the dragon-slayers and princess
protectors of Nordic fairy-tale lore. The man could as easily be Sir Gawain as
he could be Beowulf. The text under the final image reads: HOMO SUPER SAPIEN.
It is with this first mural that the racist ideology of the entire
establishment starts to become clear.
It is worth pointing out that the ideology
of a given place does not necessarily have a stated purpose or goal. The first
goal of Mt. Atlanticus is commerce. Whether a person reads the plaques, looks
at the murals, or even plays golf is of no real importance. The first action
and most important solitary action is the exchange of currency that occurs when
the patron hands over the seven-dollar entrance fee. The importance of this act
applies to almost all tourist destinations.
Money aside, the implicit ideology of Mt.
Atlanticus has come into view in the “Homo Super Sapien” mural. This site is
not the first to combine the myth of Atlantis with racist ideas. Hitler was
obsessed with the story of Atlantis. During World War Two he ordered
archeologists to travel to Iraq to search for proof of the existence of the
“lost city.” The word “Super” that is written in-between “Homo” and “Sapien”
might be a reference to Nietzsche’s theory of “super men” which was later used
by Hitler to justify his racist ideologies.
The neighboring section of this room
continues with the same evolutionary theme, yet with a more coherent narrative
in relation to the external world (Myrtle Beach). Next to the second mural is
an educational text that explains the relation of the myth of “the Lost City
and People of Atlantis” to the ocean shores that are now called Myrtle Beach.
According to the text, the highly advanced people of Atlantis built an aircraft
to explore the world around them. By accident their spacecraft crashed right
off of the coast of what is now Myrtle Beach. According to the text, it is
unknown exactly what happened to the inhabitants of the spacecraft. A giant
mural opposite the text might explain one possible scenario. In this mural, a
crowd of approximately 60 people occupies a beautiful stretch of beach. Their
skin is dark. They are clothed in simple fabrics. Their arms and hands are
pointed to the sky as if in prayer or worship. The object that these “natives”
on the beach are interacting with is a giant flying saucer in the sky above
them. There are clearly visible images inside the saucer that depict several
structures identical to the physical bamboo and straw huts that fill the
landscape of the golf course. Ten feet to the left of this image is the third
and final mural. A giant god-like light-blue Aryan man with a kings’ crown is
emerging from the sea. His head is high above the clouds and his arm is
outstretched. In a fatherly fashion, he holds a man with an incredible
resemblance to Jesus in the palm of his hand. The Jesus characters’ hand is
outstretched to another Aryan looking man who stands on the shores of the
beach. From a shell in the beach-Aryan’s hands comes a heavenly blast of
enlightenment. Within this gift that has ultimately come from the light-blue
god, are the signs of civilization. In the beams of light there are assorted
images including: a microscope (science), a lute-like instrument (music), a
molecular compound (medicine), a tableau and paintbrush (fine-arts), a book
(literature), and even images of the futuristic cars and devices (progress).
In relation to Mt. Atlanticus, the
simulation process can be constructed as follows: The original history of the
Native Americans occurs. The perversion occurs later when myths are created
that provide alternate versions of the original history. Selected narratives
are agreed to be the closest to the true history are chosen to be replicated in
textbooks and are validated by archeological research. The normalization of
these histories into the prevailing culture via textbooks and television shows
masks the absence of the original history. The dominant narratives that are
reproduced in textbook form are controlled by the prevailing culture. In the
case of Mt. Atlanticus, the narrative that is told on the wall is in contrast
to the accepted textbook history of the colonization of America. The alternate
history masks the violent and imperialist nature of the original history. The
simulation is constructed at Mt. Atlanticus in several ways. The mural that
represents the story from the plaque is the first form of simulation that the
participant observes. The second is the interaction with the physical
manifestations of the imagery from the story. This interaction takes the form
of a game of mini-golf.
RIPLEY’S HAUNTED ADVENTURE
Along the main drag in Myrtle Beach,
in-between a souvenir shop and a 3-D movie theatre, there is giant
haunted-house that is owned and operated by Ripley’s. The house has been
constructed to simulate the look of a dilapidated old mansion. False rust covers
every metallic surface and the wood looks as if it has completely rotted out. A
replicated hearse carriage sits next to the ticket window. A sign on the hearse
reads: Do not touch or you might ride next! A recording plays ominously from
hidden speakers. The recording alternates between dripping sounds, footsteps,
people screaming, babies crying, and steam whistles. After paying ten dollars
the participant is led to a gigantic elevator. An actor whose face is painted
with fake blood tells the participant, “If you don’t touch anybody, nobody will
touch you!” The participant rides the elevator to the third floor and pushed
into a dark room. As soon as the door of the room is closed, the noises of cars
and tourists are eliminated. The outside world has effectively been eliminated
for the participant. A new guide that is dressed similarly approaches the
participant and explains that the trip through house should take thirty minutes
to get through. A door mechanically opens and the participant is commanded by
the guide to enter. As soon as the participant has entered this dark hallway,
the door behind him shuts automatically. What follows is a series of mechanical
simulations and interaction with human actors that play the role of the
aggressors. The first vignette that the participant approaches is a human actor
behind a table. The actor is dressed in a butcher’s apron and is covered in
blood. He saws a knife into a simulated corpse that appears to have been killed
only moments before. A noise from the previously traversed hallway causes the
participant to run into the next scene out of fear of what might be chasing
him. In the next room there is no apparent door to leave. Blasts of air noisily
come out of holes in the wall. The feeling of this air on the participant
causes the sensation that someone is touching him. Suddenly an actor who is
dressed in all black whispers something menacing in the ear of the participant.
The structure of the experience follows this pattern until the participant
finally exits the last door into the outside world again.
One scene inside Ripley’s Haunted Adventure
is a torture chamber. The walls are lined with cells that have robot prisoners
who mechanically bang on the walls and beg for release. Sounds of prisoners
being tortured are emitted through hidden speakers. At the far end of this room
a simulated man sits strapped in an electric chair. He is begging for his life.
His request is not granted and he is electrocuted and collapses limply to his
death.
The application of the simulation process
is as follows: The original act of violence, torture, or murder is the point of
origination for the simulations inside Ripley’s Haunted Adventure. Myths and
urban legends are constructed from the original. The process of turning an act
into a story abstracts the original act of violence. Eventually these myths are
reproduced as films and television shows. This reproduction incorporates the
myths into pop-culture via film, music, and art. The grand act of simulation is
the construction of a controlled environment where any willing participant is
given the opportunity to experience the fear that might have been felt by the
original victim.
Although the House itself cost over two
million dollars to construct and is filled with high-tech robots, the real
simulation occurs between the actors and participants. The House is a
controlled environment where actors use the backdrop of the simulated corpses
and monsters to physically chase and threaten the participant. The line between
fantasy and reality is effectively blurred in Ripley’s Haunted Adventure. The
senior actor at the Gatlinburg branch of Ripley’s Haunted Adventure explained
that participants often forget that what they are experiencing is simulated. He
said that he has been punched, kicked, slapped, and accosted with knives and
guns. He has been forced to call the police on several occasions to have people
arrested for their violent behavior. When a participant begins to become
violent, the actors can call for help and the lights go on and the robots are
turned off. He called this, “the kill-switch.” He described one incident when
an angry man broke into the house and found the actors cleaning the make-up off
of their faces in a dressing room. The man pulled a gun out of his pocket and
threatened to kill the actors. The man eventually calmed down and left the
building and was arrested on the street. Another actor that was interviewed had
had several similar experiences. He expressed that he was constantly astonished
by the behavior of the participants that pay to be scared. He wondered why
anyone wouldn’t understand that the experience inside the building is an
explicit simulation.
AN INCIDENT AT RIPLEY’S HAUNTED ADVENTURE
My first research trip took place in the
middle of October 2002. Myrtle Beach during this time of the year is completely
deserted. At first I was disappointed by the lack of tourists and the
inaccessibility of many of the attractions that had been closed until the
spring. I then realized that the off-season might provide a glimpse of Myrtle
Beach that I would have otherwise missed during the tourist season. Other than
the bars and strip-clubs, the only other places that were open were Ripley’s
attractions such as Ripley’s Aquarium and Ripley’s Haunted Adventure. My friend
Jake and I decided to buy tickets to Ripley’s Haunted Adventure. We were told
that the attraction closed at 9 PM and that we could use the tickets anytime we
wanted before closing. We did not make it over to the attraction until
approximately 8:50 PM. The man at the ticket window was in the process of
closing down the attraction. Several of the actors were standing outside of the
entrance smoking cigarettes. Jake and I begged the man at the ticket window to
let us in. We pointed to our watches and argued that he was closing too early.
After some arguing he agreed to let us in. He told the actors to go back
inside. They did not seem happy that they had to work for an additional 30
minutes on account of a couple of pushy tourists. As we boarded the elevator
that took us to the 3rd floor, an actor stepped into the elevator
with us. He explained the rules to us in a rude fashion and then dropped us off
at the top. We were pushed into a room and the doors automatically shut behind
us. Jake said that he thought that they were mad at us for making them work
another 30 minutes. I tried to assure him that the manner in which they were
acting towards us was simulated anger. I thought they were being so mean to us
to try and scare us and give us a more realistic scare. In one of the first
rooms that we walked into, an actor threw a cup of water in my face. I then
realized that maybe Jake had been correct in assuming that the actors were
actually mad at us. In one of the next rooms that we entered, a group of actors
surrounded us. One of the actors was uncomfortably close to me. I wanted to try
and ease the situation so I pretended to push the actor a little. I told him
jokingly, “Don’t flex!” He immediately broke out of his character and told me,
in street language, “Don’t fuckin’ talk bout flexin!” At this point Jake and I
decided to get out of the room. As we turned our backs to the actors and began
our departure into the next room, the actor that had threatened me picked up a
chain-less chainsaw and turned it on. Jake and I started to run. As I ran, my
tape-recorder that I was using to take field notes fell out of my pocket. The
darkness of the hallways made it impossible to run fast enough to get away from
the chainsaw wielding actor. The actor cornered me and ran the chainsaw up and
down my shins. He stepped back and we continued to run. As we reached the end
of a hallway and boarded an elevator that would take us down one story, the
actors caught up with us. I began to tell them that I had just lost my
walk-man. I explained where I had dropped it. They did not respond. The doors
of the elevator shut. We eventually made it out of the attraction.
Once we were back outside I approached the
man at the ticket-counter. I told him that I had lost my walk-man and that I
would like to get it back. He told us to wait outside and that he would go look
for it. We stood on the street for 15 minutes and he never came back out. The
lights were turned off. An actor on the 2nd story where I had lost
the walk-man shouted down to us on the street. “We got your walk-man!” After a
few more minutes of waiting I decided to go see if there was a backside to the
building. Sure enough I found the actors in a parking lot behind the building.
The actor that had accosted me was in the middle of a fistfight with one of the
other actors. I waited around in peripheral of the area until the fight broke
up. Determined to get my field-notes back, I tried to politely ask if anyone
had found my walk-man. No one would even acknowledge my presence. After asking
several times I was able to get a response out of the actor that had chased me.
He said, “Somebody might have took that.” Realizing that it was a lost cause, I
left the parking, found Jake, and then went to the beach to mourn the loss of
my field-notes.
The simulation that occurred during our
experience in Ripley’s Haunted Adventure was complicated. Although the Haunted
Adventure is supposed to be a controlled environment, the boundaries between
simulation and reality were broken down.
The actors were being paid to be our aggressors. Their anger towards us
for causing them to work late affected their performance as simulated
aggressors. When I mistakenly offended one of the actors with a verbal comment,
he forgot his role as an actor completely. He co-opted the role of the
aggressor that he was being paid to simulate. Thus he became a caricature of
himself. I, playing the simulated role of the victim, actually became a victim
to a minor physical assault and theft. In effect, we were all transformed into
the roles that we were supposed to only be simulating.
During my second visit to Ripley’s Haunted
Adventure in the month of March 2003, I interviewed several actors. I hoped to
find out information that would aid my analysis of the incident in October.
Each actor that I interviewed told me that real violence commonly occurs inside
the attraction. Each actor described different accounts of being attacked by
men, women, and children. No actor ever mentioned any case of the actors
lashing out at the customer.
When I spoke with the actors at the
Gatlinburg location, I learned a lot about the Haunted Adventure in Myrtle
Beach. The senior actor in Gatlinburg was the employee that had opened the
Haunted Adventure in Myrtle Beach. He told me that he had a lot of problems
training the actors in Myrtle Beach. They had been difficult to work with and
did not follow the rules of the establishment. He said that the turnover rate
is abnormally high at the Myrtle Beach Ripley’s Haunted Adventure. He heard
that many of the actors at the Myrtle Beach location have drug problems. A
female employee who was listening to our conversation added some comments. She
said that she had visited the Haunted Adventure in Myrtle Beach during a South
Carolina vacation. The actors had locked her, by herself, in a cage for fifteen
minutes. I told them the story of what had happened to me in Myrtle Beach. They
were not surprised.
After the interview at the Gatlinburg
location was over, I was given a free ticket on account of my status as a
researcher. The experience inside the Gatlinburg location was starkly
different. I was never touched or threatened by anyone. The experience was
still frightening, but I never actually felt threatened.
CONCLUSION
Most simulations seem to follow a similar
structural pattern and a similar purpose. Replicated objects, places, time
periods, and people are used to construct historical narratives. Ripley’s
Haunted Adventure, Mt. Atlanticus Mini-Golf, the Oconaluftee Living Indian
Village, the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, and Ripley’s Aquarium all present
narratives concerning historical events. Each site presents the simulacrum as
an educational opportunity, an entertaining experience, and as being authentic.
Certain devices of simulation are employed at each of the sites of this
research. These devices are: mannequins and robots, reconstructed domestic and
institutional settings, and the use of actors.
Robotic mannequins and taxidermized
creatures are on display in every site that I visited. In the context of these
tourist destinations, these simulacra are used to depict historical figures.
Regardless of the validity of the historical narrative, the simulations
function identically. Images from the past are presented as frozen in time or
in living simulation.
Historical settings are constructed to
create a backdrop for human actors and simulated actors (mannequins and
robots). The simulacra enact ideas concerning events of the past that can be
experienced by a participant.
All of the simulations serve to internalize
ideas about history and culture. The visual narratives in each setting are
presented as valid. The visual narratives are presented as entertainment or
alternately as being educational. The participants desire a tangible and
reproducible history and are willing to pay money for the experience of the
simulation. The participants desire is not for the original reality, but for
the reality that is in simulation (Zizek 2002:10). The simulacra researched for
this paper are simulations of fragmented ideas of original realities. The
Haunted Adventure has violence but no pain. The Oconaluftee Living Indian
Village has peaceful hard working Indians but no indication of the complexities
of the contemporary Cherokee. With the use of selective replication, the
simulacra of my research present idealistic representations and experiences
that are mainly used to pacify historical injustices, internalize the
domination of the natural world, and to normalize institutional violence.
Baudrillard, Jean
1983 Simulations.
New York: Semiotext[e].
Baudrillard, Jean
1986 America. New
York: Verso.
Dorst, John
1989 The Written
Suburb. Philadelphia: University of PA Press.
Eco, Umberto
1983 Travels in
Hyperreality. San Diego: Harcourt.
Kaku, Michio
1997 Visions. New York: Doubleday.
Kaplan,
Robert
1998
An Empire Wilderness. New York: Random House.
Zizek,
Slavoj
2002
Welcome to the Desert of the Real. New York: Verso.
Taxidermy of Time:
Hyperreal
Tourist Destinations of the Southeast
Drew
Heller
Warren
Wilson College
73
Cumberland Ave
Asheville,
NC 28801
(828)
255 7879
05 -
14 - 2003