Las Vegas as the Postmodern City

Eve Quillin penned the notion of Las Vegas existing as an ‘…adult Disneyland’ within which the simularcrum of society transports each individual into a world built upon hyperreality, containing no fixed identity or relationship to the ‘real world.’ Instead, the material and the interpretation of the city are pure images reflective of the stereotyped utopian view of American sentiments and perceptions. This postmodern interplay interjects itself into the constant imagery of iconicism that itself is a copy of a copy of a copy. That is, the projected displays of American acknowledgement in Las Vegas exist as mere polythene metaphors of the country’s ideals and not its reality. However, Mike Greenberg contests this concept, stating instead that, ‘you can't go to Disneyland because you're already there’ . Thus, postmodernity has created its own narrative by which America believes it should live, when paradoxically, by conforming to postmodernism, the country is forming a displacement and falsehood that devotes itself to a simulacrum. That is, America is Disneyland as it conforms to a make-believe narrative that creates sprawled metaplaces, personified by Las Vegas. As exemplified by Matt Gottdiener, the ‘casino themes…include detailed reproductions and simulations…reinforcing a fantasy environment for visitors.’ Thus, in postmodernity, as literary illustrated by the staging of Las Vegas’ ‘reality’, those who gamble buy into the utopian façade as well as the table. In turn, the environment is simulated to achieve as much economic gain as possible, whereupon actions of a visitor are made to seem alike the city, that is, unreal.

The hotel and casino Excalibur exemplifies postmodernity and the effect of the simulacrum inherently. Through simply examining the structure and grandeur of the building, notions of child-like dreams and fantastical explorations enter the consciousness to form a fairy-tale ‘reality’. However, the postmodern paradox reigns when peeling back the façade to reveal cardboard and foam, materials that turn the fantasy into a stark reality of the falsehoods of the American city’s construction.