After the Rainbow: Critique, Simulation, and Freedom Within Inheritance
“Do not all charms fly At the mere touch of cold philosophy? There was an awful rainbow once in heaven: We know her woof, her texture; she is given In the dull catalogue of common things. Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings, Conquer all mysteries by rule and line, Empty the haunted air, and gnomèd mine— Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made The tender-person'd Lamia melt into a shade.” ( Lamia , Part II, ll. 229–238) The Adult Who Returns to Disneyland A child entering Disneyland does not encounter a representation of a castle, a pirate ship, or a fantasy world. The child encounters a world. The distinction is not between what exists and what does not exist, but between different modes of inhabiting what exists. The castle is not merely an architectural structure; it is the center of a universe in which stories, characters, and possibilities become temporarily inseparable from reality. The experience is not produced by ignorance. It is produced by participati...