Day 239: Reading

Here in Wisconsin it's insanely warm. Like seriously hot. Our dorms don't have AC either, meaning that it's basically like walking into a sauna that you also sleep in. Luckily the rest of the building on campus DO have AC, so I just end up spending a lot of time in those. This morning though, after my three classes and eating lunch with a couple of my friends, I went to the library to study with my best friend. Of course, we were just studying for our own classes, but we were there, at the same time, in the AMAZING basement (that I'll have to show you sometime), and I was reading for my Survey of American Lit course.

Basically my course studies American Literature from the 1600's until the end of the Civil War. So I sat down this afternoon in the library to read our homework, the introduction to the course. Now, honestly a large portion of me is somewhat confused about what this introduction has to do with the rest of the course, but there are several things that really stood out to me as "DISNEY!"

I was annotating the entire time, so I was able to kind of mark them all down too! =)

First, this passage: "A written alphabet had been used by Europeans to preserve and communicate information for many centuries, and Gutenberg's invention of movable type in the mid-1400's had shown the way to a mechanical means of "writing"; by 1492, Europe was on its way to becoming a print culture" (The Norton Anthology: American Literature Volume A).

Any ideas on how I related that one to Disney? I'll give you a clue: Epcot. Get it now? If you guessed Spaceship Earth, you'd be right! There's actually two references in that quote, but the most obvious is Gutenberg's Movable Type Printing Press, actually invented in 1450. Yes, the second I read that every time I hear the line in my head "In 1450 Gutenberg invents the movable type printing press..." and so on and so forth.

Next, a few pages later, I was annotating and came across the section on the Pilgrims and Puritans. I don't really have a direct quote for this one, but as I read it, I really thought of the American Adventure. I mean, they talked about the colonists surviving the first winter in the New World, and if you recall, in the American Adventure, there is a portion of the song about the Pilgrims talking about that same cold winter.

Finally, and this one will probably come up more in the future, but my next assignment is the autobiography of Frederick Douglas...which can also be related to the American Adventure. Of course, this one is obvious as well, as Frederick Douglas himself makes an appearance in each and every show. I'm really looking forward to reading his work too, so I can finally relate the words in the attraction specifically to the man himself.

And so, that was my Disney relations for the day, or at least what I can tell you. There is another part of my day that included Disney, quite obviously, but I'll wait to tell you about that one later. All I can tell you is that it has to do with Disney and Wind Ensemble, and that I'm REALLY excited about it!

Here's today's Disney History: 1964: Disney's live-action and animated film Mary Poppins has a lavish world premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The comedy-musical stars Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Some of Hollywood's biggest stars like Angie Dickinson, George Hamilton, Angela Lansbury, Carl Reiner and Debbie Reynolds are in attendance. After the screening and a 5-minute standing ovation the audience moves on to an elegant party hosted by the Technicolor Corporation.

Have a magical day!