Amusing the Millions 55-112:
The section that most stood out to me in reading the last parts of Kasson's work was a small segment on pages 72 and 73. Kasson writes, "Coney abstracted features from larger society and presented them in an intensified, fantastic forms. Instruments of production and efficiency were transformed into objects of amusement, and life around them lifted from the dull routine to exhilarating pageantry" (73). With this statement he also includes two pictures with the captions, "Miners descending for work" and, "Thrill seekers descending for pleasure" respectively.
I thought this was an interesting take on the forms of entertainment that Coney Island produced. Kasson seems to be arguing that Coney's attractions serve as fantastic microcosms for the society at large. The owners of the parks seemed to be taking aspects of the working class, such as the miner's track and transforming them into amusing rides. So something that an individual would be loath to go out outside of the parks now become prime attractions.
In the same way, the recreated natural disasters at Luna Park mirror the tragedies of the past, but do so in a perverted, re-imagined, romanticized way. The attractions turned past catastrophes into the entertainment of the day. In respect, this could also be the source of America's fascination with disaster films today.
So my question is for what reason were these rides such draws to people? They could have experienced similar things in the working world and yet now they pay good money to do the same thing in a different setting. And why were recreated disasters such a big hit? Does it relate somehow to the society as a whole, or to human nature?
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