I Love a Good Setting , Part 4

As we watch summer days pass this week into the lushness of autumn, I look forward to cooler weather and the changing colors against the dark blue sky. At school, this change also means we have passed through America's beginnings in literature - Native American wisdom; early settlers' diaries, journals, songs, poems, and sermons; and Benjamin Franklin's moral perfection outline in his autobiography.

Now we welcome America's Literary Nationalism (1800 to 1840), influenced by the Romantic Movement and the youthful optimism of a new nation. We discover native themes and American locales. We await the storytelling genius of both Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe.

Our autumnal setting, here and there, is hence perfect for a rich American harvest. Now is the time for a look into the past and present at the place of the psychological narrative - our "ghost" stories - in the American literary tradition.

I Love a Good Setting, Part 1

If you click on the image here of Pinocchio’s village, you will discover my favorite Disneyland setting - Storybook Land.

You cannot imagine how many times I have ridden Casey Junior Railroad and the Disney canal boats in the last four years so that I can photograph every angle and tiny space. I had, however, never seen the Big Bad Wolf's lair until I saw my daughter Carlon's photos. I suppose there is much to discover in the settings of stories if you study them more closely.

Can you name the stories represented in the settings here?

HINT: “Storybook Land, inside Fantasyland, is one of Disneyland's finest examples of the Disney magic in artistry and the creation of unique and entertaining attractions. A kingdom in miniature, Storybook Land presents life-like re-creations of villages, castles, houses and other buildings from the pages of fabled stories-scene after scene of painstakingly detailed settings. If you've ever wanted to actually see from close up Gepetto's Village high in the snow covered Alps, Kensington Gardens from the story of Peter Pan, the straw, stick and brick houses of the Three Little Pigs and the Crazy Quilt Country from Wynken, Blinken and Nod, they're all there-along with many more-in Storybook Land. Gaily painted, picturesque European canal boats take visitors through the mouth of Monstro the Whale into this wonderful world” — Disneyland Holiday Magazine, Spring 1958