Back from vacation: A literary interpretation

I had the wonderful opportunity to accompany my youngest brother and his wife to the Universal Studios amusement park in Orlando, Florida. (Yes, that's us pictured above.) We enjoyed fabulous weather, overpriced food, and far too much walking for these old bones.

Most of the theme park rides came with ... themes. Whether the theme was The Fast and the Furious, the Amazing Spider-Man, The Mummy, Jurassic Park, or a whole lot of something related to J. K. Rowling's blockbuster Harry Potter series, each ride was embedded with a story and each story contained the same plot elements. The characters and venues changed, the story details changed, but the plot remained the same for each.

My brother, who's a mechanical engineer, found that entertaining and made several jokes regarding the similarity of ride stories. The general run of every plot began with an assurance of safety (e.g., "Gringotts is the safest place on earth"), quickly followed by immersion into feigned peril (dementors, dinosaurs, and other villains), and concluding with triumph over (or escape from) said peril.

Universal Studios' theme park employees dutifully applauded each coterie of guests when the ride ended, each memorized the story patter, and each gave a plausible impression of pleasure in welcoming guests and getting the stories started ... over and over and over. That's some good training there.

I certainly couldn't do it.

Most of the story-rides showed impressive attention to detail, setting the ambiance and giving those waiting in long, long lines something to watch, listen to, or gawk at until they got their turn to be thrilled and amused. I found the 3-D CGI graphics of the Jurassic Park ride the most impressive. Even though I knew it was safe, I still flinched a few times. Primal, knee-jerk reaction will win. The smoke-and-mirrors trickery used to show passengers disappearing into the arch support of Platform 9-3/4 in the Hogwarts Express trail made for a lovely distraction. The "Hagrid" ride held a couple of unexpected surprises, making that mild roller coaster a fun experience. As in literature, an unexpected plot twist or sleight of hand adds excitement and interest to a story and lends to the reader's anticipation, wondering what will happen next.

In my fifties, I finally experienced the special effects of wearing 3-D glasses. When done well, those special effects provide an impressive, immersive experience. When done poorly, cynical disappointment manifests. That contrast correlates with the skill needed for good writing, good storytelling. Well-written stories draws the reader into the characters' emotions such that the reader feels what the characters feel.

That immersion doesn't happen through volume (loud equates neither to good nor effective), but through plausible detail. (If I had a piece of advice for the theme park, it would be to turn down the volume. We're not deaf, folks; however, after a couple of days there I feared I might go deaf.) Once the mind accepts the details, then it willingly follows where the narrator leads.

I think, perhaps, my favorite part of the long weekend vacation wasn't a ride at all, but a show: a behind-the-scenes look at horror movie makeup. The host's and makeup artist's patter kept us in stitches even as they revealed some of the interesting how-to facts behind the gruesome special effects of horror movie characters, from layers of latex to cheesy props to "animatronics" that achieve a metamorphosis from man to werewolf.

I often like to learn a little something with my entertainment.

Universal Studios does a lot of things right in this theme park. I enjoyed the visit and need never return. That, too, can describe a satisfying ending to a good book.

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