Charles Dickens gets a theme park!
I’m sure everyone has heard of Disney Land, and even Disney World. But what about DIckens World? No, it’s not some fly-by-night roadside attraction meant to milk money from wary travellers, rather, it’s a real theme park in the UK based on the works of the immortal Victorian novelist Charles Dickens!
But to appreciate Dickens World, one must understand how Dickens himself was viewed in his own time, while he was still alive:
With his long hair, bushy beard and fancy waistcoats, Dickens was the closest the 19th century had to a pop star. There were more than 200 different images of the author in circulation while he was alive, making him instantly recognisable. He was a celebrity, says Paul Schlicke, author of Dickens and Popular Entertainment. "When he first went to America in 1842 he was greeted that way. His trip there was rather like the Beatles going to New York more than a century later."
While only 13 of his 15 novels are represented, the park is supposed to bring alive the Victorian world that Dickens detailed so well in his novels. While I never even imagined a such a place would ever exist, it somehow doesn’t surprise me that Dickens gets his own theme park given his immense popularity.
Although, as a huge fan of Charles Dickens myself, I fear something like this will somehow cheapen his work. Do we want young readers to identify with the author because they read his novels, or because they took some carnival-like ride at Dickens World? But such a judgement might be premature. After all, visiting the theme park might plant the seed in young minds and spur them to go ahead and read the novels.
I’m willing to give this a chance. I predict it will either be wildly successfull, or a miserable failure. Dickens World won’t just be mediocre.
You can read the entire article from the Guardian Unlimited here:
What the Dickens?
Also, here’s a link to a blog entry that expresses some of the same concerns I have about Dickens World.
Great Forbodings about Dickens World
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