Eco "The City of Robots"

Since I have never been to Disney World, I compared Eco’s, “The City of Robots”, to my experience at Colonial Williamsburg. Williamsburg is not a completely fake city because it was rebuilt on its original foundations but it has incorporated many fake elements through its restoration and reconstruction. Although its purpose is to share history with visitors, the tours shape the way that they want the public to see it. Similar how Eco describes the experience of Disney World because, “Access to each attraction is regulated by a maze of metal railings which discourages any individual initiatives” (205). The tour guides at Williamsburg take you to certain attractions, let you participate in hands on activities having to do with colonial life, take you to a restaurant to eat traditional food, and then to the gift shops.

Visitors take their experience at Williamsburg as genuine and true to what the colonial life actually was. If the visitor believes that anything within the town is fake or recreated they will not enjoy their experience as much. Eco says, “But once the ‘total fake’ is admitted, in order to be enjoyed it must seem totally real” (202). This is why Williamsburg makes the effort to have all of their tour guides dressed in traditional colonial clothing and talking in accents, having shopkeepers dressed up in the gift shops, and fake families inside the houses showing the colonial lifestyles.

Williamsburg is not as nearly as strong of an example of Disney World but still shares some of the same elements of being consumers within these places. Eco says, “The customer finds himself participating in the fantasy because of his own authenticity as a consumer” (201). So even though all of the employees of Williamsburg are acting, and visitors are placed into an authentic environment to try to relive life in the past, the current consumerism of our society still exists within places like these. Visitors purchase “antique” items, “old-style” lunch, or other items that are exclusive to Williamsburg. Even though they may be into the scene that the town has created, their role as a consumer will still exist.