What is Las Vegas?

 

God help me, but I went there again.  As I make this confession I'm inspired to ask myself--and you by implication--why did I do so?  That would seem to be a question which must be asked of any person who isn't a gambler and isn't even mildly interested in gambling, like myself.  An argument can be made that only those who enjoy gambling should go there.

Las Vegas is a city, yes.  It has many of the characteristics of one, in any case.  But it isn't a city in any normal sense.  It isn't a place where someone lives.  It's a place someone goes to; it's a destination.  There's an expectation that one doesn't stay in Vegas indefinitely.  There's a sense that people who go there will leave, when enough is, as they say, enough.

It's reminiscent of Disneyworld, I would say, though it isn't nearly as ubiquitously branded and isn't owned by a single entity omnipotent in its own domain.  Perhaps it was when it was largely a Mob operation.  Now, though, it isn't though one can see that the powers operating MGM and others have begun to expand their sway over what were once rival hotels and casinos.  But Vegas intends, at least, to provide an appearance of variety lacking in places like Disneyworld.  Self-contained miniatures of Rome, Venice, Paris and other places are on display and open for business, and they succeed in appearing distinct from one another, though not necessarily by accurately copying the real places they purport to be.  They're the same in having casinos, however.

Their mimicry of actual places can be vulgar, it must be said.  But the vulgarity is amusing and even striking.  Caesar's Palace delights me in a strange way, as its vast faux Roman buildings, fountains and forums reminds us of what was vulgar in ancient Rome itself, when the mob was being placated and narcissists and madmen like Nero and Caligula were emperors and devoted themselves to their own glorification.  I don't follow Henry James in thinking that Roman structures were vulgar merely because they were large, however.  Spectacles were important in ancient Rome, and bread and circuses were among the few things available for those not rich and powerful to enjoy without cost.  James was never much concerned with anyone among the "common herd." Vegas is like Rome as it provides spectacles of all kinds and is itself a kind of spectacle.

There's something very American about it.  Other cities and places around the world are rendered into places which can be enjoyed by Americans at a single location, without any of the unfamiliar and disturbing aspects Americans encounter when leaving America (foreign ways, looks, language and currency).

It's not a place which will impress Puritans or Progressives.  It will more likely concern them.  But the delights provided are typically American and are not such as to cause too much concern.  Good food, good drink, good shows, some sex of a kind and in an amount which will not shock Middle-Americans, and money to be made.

It's an American Dream.