Wander sweating and hungry through undeveloped Disney property after being dumped from a pickup truck

One of many new Disney dream vacations, courtesy of Vince LiCata in McSweeney’s:

Chiapas Experience

Enjoy a fortnight in central Mexico hiding in caves with the Zapatista revolutionaries, sleeping on a bed of dirt with your gun for a pillow, and freezing in the high altitudes of the beautiful Chiapas countryside. Drink tequila till you are blind with love and rage, and dine on the crispy fire-charred bodies of small unidentifiable mammals. Enjoy an overnight stay in a Mexican military jail, complete with a friendly interrogation session and expedient deportation. Includes choice of a Cinderella backpack or Bambi beach bag. $1,400 per person.

Of course, if you’re more of a domestic traveler:

Orlando Escape

Wander sweating and hungry through undeveloped Disney property after being dumped from a pickup truck in the middle of the night in the backwoods of the Vacation Capital of the World. Dine on fresh squirrel with redneck squatters in their rustic plywood homes deep in the haunting transitional swamp-to-scrub-brush landscape. Kick back with some homemade corn liquor that could dissolve your shoes, listen to barely comprehendible stories long into the night, then sleep like the dead in a hollowed-out cypress. Includes a free one-day pass to the Magic Kingdom. $800 per person.

See others here.

I’m reminded of one of my favorite novels, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Here’s one summary from Amazon:

Welcome to Bitchun society, where all today’s commonplace problems have been solved: even death is a minor inconvenience, since one can make regular backups. Our hero has gone to Disneyland–his habit at times of major personal crisis–where he works for the ad-hocracy that runs the Haunted Mansion and the Hall of Presidents. It is a great honor to be working on the pinnacle of late-twentieth-century cultural and artistic achievement–Disneyland, that would be–and it inspires great loyalty.

Our man begins feeling the pressure of change, however, after a cookie-cutter teenybopper shoots him dead for apparently no reason at all. Convinced that a new ad-hocracy on the block used his death to take over the Hall of Presidents, he vows to sabotage their plans and protect the sanctity of the Haunted Mansion. Thus begins a cycle of destruction and conflict with unexpected ramifications for the park–and his personal life. An excellent ride, entertaining and unpredictable.

Incidentally, author Cory Doctorow (son relation of famed author E.L.) runs the Boing Boing blog.

One Response

  1. Hey Chris,

    In case you were wondering you can actually have a trip of “turismo revolucionario” in Chiapas by voluneering with any of the human rights organizations in the state. A lot of Europeans and U.S. citizens does that, until they are kick out of the country . . . Please don’t scare potential activists . . . we receive Yale students ;)

    Btw, Cory Doctorow, is not son of E.L, is a non confirm nephew. . . I love his last comic. . .

    Saludos

    Manolo

    pd. you can read http://arquimagia.blogspot.com, I just posted something related with guns and youth. . .