Quote of the Day (Peter Lunenfeld, on Unexpected Similarities Between Disney and Hefner)

“Though Walt [Disney] and [Hugh] Hef[ner] were a generation apart (Walt was born in 1901, Hef in 1926), in many ways they are strikingly similar. Both were raised by a warm, supportive mother and a father who could be distant and demanding. Both had backgrounds in commercial art; both served in wars but saw no action; both were serial entrepreneurs, though neither was particularly interested in the minutiae of business; both became world famous for success in a single medium and moved on to create complex ecosystems of media, formats, and environments. Most significantly, Walt and Hef simultaneously perfected what we might call the Factory Model of Desire, wherein the only fantasies that endure are those that can be fulfilled by a preexisting, branded, mass-marketed commodity.” —Critic and digital-media theorist Peter Lunenfeld, “The Factory Model of Desire,” Believer Magazine, Issue 79 (March 2011)