Chris Cuthill
Chris Cuthill serves as Art Chair at Redeemer University College, Ancaster, Ontario, where he teaches courses in Art Theory, Art History and Popular Culture. Chris finished a Masters degree in Philosophical Aesthetics in 1999 at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. His thesis, entitled Mutilated Music: Towards an After Auschwitz Aesthetic, explored the philosophical and ethical limitations of artistic representations of the Holocaust.
Bio last updated December 3rd, 2019.
Articles by Chris Cuthill
Common Life: Even Disney's cheese feeds our spiritual hunger
By Chris Cuthill
March 1, 2012
As March Break looms and Canadian families by the thousands prepare for the pilgrimage to "America's Sistine Chapel," aka Disney World, I advise looking beyond the idealized vision of American capitalism to experience the basic human need to be enchanted.
This rubbish-free world, filled with fireworks, parades and permanent smiles, might be thought of as the happy ending to the American story—where nostalgia, technology and optimism fuse together to remind us that "there's a great big beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day" (lyrics written for Disney's Carousel of Progress, considered Walt Disney's favourite attraction, still running at the Magic Kingdom in Disney World) There is truth to the idea, so quotably put by Max Weber, that modernity is characterized by the progressive "disenchantment of the world," and in many ways, Disney World could be seen as a very modern place: monitored, maintained and controlled by technology In this respect, Disney World is an opportunity for safetygated re-enchantment, a place where we are free to take a leap of faith (with just a pinch of pixie dust, of course) without rejecting the rationality that keeps us grounded (not to mention fiscally stable enough to afford the tickets that allow us in the park gates)