Part of the reason why I was so fascinated by America was through my reading of theorists such as Jean Baudrillard in my third year of studying English. America is described by post-modern theorists as, ‘hyper real’, the inability to consciously distinguish reality from fantasy.

On my three week trip in America I went to six places including,Orlando, Florida and Las Vegas, and these places were the most hyper real. I do not think that hyper reality is something to be criticised, in these places I can distinguish fantasy and reality, and I hope that most people will! But it is fascinating that America especially constantly feels the need to simulate reality, thus it has become a land of fantasy.

Since the early twentieth century through films and the media, America has emerged as a new naive country full of ambition, hope and many would now say stupidity. It is the land where you can live the dream and be who you want. America is the home of manmade wonders such as Disney World, Universal Studios and Las Vegas. You can experience simulations of fantasy, film, and other countries, and America is rich enough to spend money on creating these simulations.

Orlando, ‘The Sunshine State’ in Florida is home to many a theme park and is the ultimate family holiday. Baudrillard speaks about Disneyland claiming:

The Disneyland imaginary is neither true nor false: it is a deterrence machine set up in order to rejuvenate in reverse the fiction of the real. (Baudrillard 1988, 170)

Baudrillard declares that Disneyland is a there to show that the outside world is real; and therefore it is purposely a fantasy. Universal Studios is a strange experience as it tries to create San Francisco, Hollywood and New York as a movie ideal, and it is how the public imagine America and it is simulated again and again so that it almost does become real, or ‘hyper real’.

Las Vegas is themed casino after themed casino, all competing with each other, there is Paris, New York, Ancient Rome, Egypt, and Venice. Las Vegas almost aspires to be a simulation of the entire world, and Universal Studios, a simulation of America. They are huge spaces which have everything that you need; malls, a fake sky, restaurants, slot machines for money (some people can make a salary out of this money!), hotel rooms etc! The Casinos have with concealed exits and you can not escape the simulation of a mini world. Jameson writes about modern hyperspaces which aspire to be a miniature city, and each Casino does this. Jameson concludes that:

Post modern hyperspace-has finally succeeded in transcending the capacities of the individual human body to locate itself, to organize its immediate surroundings perceptually, and cognitively to map its position in a mappable external world. (Jameson 1984)

Vegas and its many casinos, is a perfect example of post-modern architectures ability to disorientate us. Every casino is a maze for us; the exits are not labelled, and when you ask how to get out you end up even more confused, and you are constantly sidelined by “free” shows, meals, buffets and club entry, that you are completely deterred from the exit!

With all this in mind before my trip to America I was prepared to look for the hyper real, but despite the seriousness of Baudrillard’s and Jameson’s theories, I looked at the buildings maze like qualities, and Universal Studios hyper reality all in good humour. Yes I can certainly see where Jameson and Baudrillard are coming from, and I can see how America can be fake, through the media especially, but when I was in the ‘real world’, I knew that I was there!

New York was very ‘real’, with its urban landscape, regular people and dirty streets, nothing was an ideal. LA was also gritty, full of people that looked like they were ‘real’, and full of poverty.

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