Take the Books to Disney World: The Transformative Power of Spinning Teacups

Today, We the Living by Ayn Rand and A Room of One's Own by Virgnia Woolf were escorted through the Magic Kingdom by me, and also by Anxious Pleasures by Lance Olsen.

I recently read A Room of One's Own for the first time. Oh, I "read" it as an undergraduate, but I didn't really pay any attention. I was not interested in reading about feminism because I was too busy rolling by eyes at it. What I found, when I finally got to it, was that the book was surprisingly funny, and not just some stuffy crank about how rough women have it. In fact, even way back then, Virginia Woolf was telling women to get on with life -- make something, do something, say something, discover something -- and quit howling about men and how awful everything is.

The Magic Kingdom is all about girls having rooms of their own. Minnie Mouse even has an entire house of her own:



Ariel has that nice grotto:



And we all know who lives here:



A Room of One's Own had no trouble getting into the party spirit. We the Living, however, which is about the Russian Revolution, and, you know, the human spirit and stuff, had more difficulty relaxing.



She didn't see the point of riding a flying elephant.



She didn't think it was, after all, a small world. Then there was the part where she almost got into a duel with Woody the Dancing Cowboy.



The Country Bear Jamboree is just pap for the masses.



Not even cool chillin' in a rocking chair by Tom Sawyer's Island worked.



When a book is so deeply into nobly self-sacrificing itself strictly for its own individual gain, sometimes you just have to ditch it by the turkey leg stand and run off. So, Anxious Pleasures and A Room of One's Own snuck off on their own to the Haunted Mansion.



Here's Anxious Pleasures on Goofy's Barnstormer:



The front row seat was taken by someone's crazy little children:



Trying on Christmas headgear:



How about a horse of one's own?



I'm not surprised that Ayn Rand's book was able to resist the seduction of the Magic Kingdom. She's a grim sort, and determined. If spinning teacups won't change your mind, then nothing will. Still, can you not imagine Kira and Leo on the teacups, spinning the winter away? Instead of dying in the snow, so close to the border, so close. At least they had their day at Disney, with no tuberculosis in sight, no snow, and a small world after all.



That's it for this trip. I appreciate those who have linked to this project. Tomorrow we are on our way back to Virginia.

See ya real soon!