If anyone asks why you are a theme park fan, send them this:
That's the latest video from chocolatier genius Amaury Guichon. You might know Guichon from his reality show "School of Chocolate" on Netflix, or by being one of the millions of fans who watch his amazing chocolate sculpture and pastry work on TikTok or Instagram.
But what does Amaury Guichon have to do with theme parks? Everything.
In the video above, Guichon crafts an orchard crate from chocolate and then fills it with small illusion cakes shaped to look like apples. The cakes are made from apples, which raises the question - why would anyone use a real apple to make a fake apple?
The answer to that question is the answer to why I - and millions of other people - love theme parks.
An oft-quoted statement from Arthur C. Clarke declares that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Declare "advanced technology" as a variable for any outstanding human effort and the statement holds. We marvel at watching people do what we cannot. But our greatest wonder follows that which exceeds not just our ability, but also our imagination. That is where we find what seems like magic.
Tempering a batch of chocolate and forming into a regular shape might lie beyond most of our abilities. But sculpting those shapes of tempered chocolate in a working foosball table or life-sized tiger or dinosaur defies our expectations for what is possible.
Beyond chocolate work, that wonder with creative excellence is why we listen to amazing singers and phenomenal instrumentalists. It is why we look at the paintings of masters and watch compelling actors on stage and screen.
Yes, sometimes you just want to bite into a perfect apple. Nature amazes and delights. But, as many Imagineers are fond of saying, "sometimes it's fun to do the impossible." Sometimes, you want to play with what nature has given us. You slice the apple and sprinkle it with cinnamon. You bake it into a pie or crumble. You discover life beyond sustenance.
And when you want to experience joy on another level, you delight in the work of others who accomplish things that look to you like magic. That's when you end up liking and sharing a YouTube video that shows a ridiculously skilled chef crafting real apples into pastry ones.
It's the audacity of creating. We do not want to just survive life. We want to live it. We want to make a mark. And then we aspire to be inspired. We want to watch, and be awed, by those who expand our imagination through their creations.
That's why I love visiting a former orange grove in the Los Angeles suburbs where some guy decided to build a castle that looks like Neuschwanstein and put it in front of a 147-foot-tall Matterhorn. It's why I want to sit in a chair engineered to launch me up an 80-degree, 155-foot Top Hat hill, through a paddock of animatronic dinosaurs. It's why I want to straddle a seat that feels like it is breathing, while I watch a 3D movie that leaves me crying because it makes me believe that I have participated in a cultural ritual on a distant, beautiful world.
Sure, I can - and do - wonder at the beauty of national parks. But I also wonder and admire the work of the Disney artisans who sculpted a sandstone mountain range that looks like the tail fins of Cadillacs. Because as much fun as it can be to enjoy nature, it's fun to watch people do the impossible with what nature has given us, too.
Civilization endures so long as we find joy in the creative work of ourselves and others. Reject the orthodoxy of sustenance. Embrace the audacity of creating.
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Profound words Robert. Thanks for thinking enough of your readers to create pieces like this that help us reflect on our mutual love of suspended disbelief and appreciation of man (and most definitely woman as well) -made Wonder. It frames our fandom in a most untidy box bereft of borders and most assuredly about coloring over the lines. We come back for stuff like this, and are glad to have a community here to communicate and debate with one another. Cheers to you, yours and everyone who respectfully participates here at TPI.
"Civilization endures so long as we find joy in the creative work of ourselves and others." What an amazing line. It honestly gives me hope in this bleak future the United States could be headed into, that we will survive thanks to artists and creators who create works that continue to inspire us, challenge our leadership, open our eyes to all people and cultures and perspectives, and use their creative voice to make the country and the world a better place, one work at a time.
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This is beautiful stuff here and so so true. Back in the day, a really young me was able to sit in an "actual" DeLorean and have Doc Brown lead me to the far off distant year of 2015...and I was hooked. All of this in the middle of LA, on a hilltop of all things. I love theme parks, more than when I joined this site over 20 years ago.