New York Wonderland

An insane idea that is widely used as a tactic for unsolicited parenting is the idea of referencing monsters when behaving a child. “If you stay up all night, the Boogey Man will get you.” Children, being naïve and susceptible to believing every word they hear, grow damaging fears to the monsters found in the dark. Psychologically, irrational fears like these can break a child’s mind. Many adults seem to think that little white (insane) lies are simply the easiest way to teach a child the correct way of doing things.

Typically, the definition of a “monster” is an inhumanly cruel or terrible creature. Maybe the monsters we should be afraid of are not the ones found under our beds or in our dark closets; perhaps they are the ones that make us believe that those monsters are bad.

This Portrait was painted by 18th Century Spanish artist Francisco De Goya. It’s titled Que Viene El Coco, which means “Here comes the boogey man” in spanish. The painting shows two kids  that are in the arms of their mother, and are frightened by a creature covered in blankets. This creature represents the folk tale story of the Boogey man (a.k.a the monster under the bed). This folk tale has been past down from century to century, a long with many variations around the world. The variation demonstrated in the painting shows the custom that Hispanic Cultures have, which is telling their kids to sleep or the Boogey Man will get them. This Document represents the binary Sane vs. Insane being presented to children in the late 1700s. The document does this by having the parent preach an insane idea to kids, to keep them well behaved during bed time. The insane idea show here is that there are monsters that live under the bed that are out there to get kids who don’t want to go to sleep. Our Wonderland will depict insane lessons/stories that kids have been thought by adults has the protagonist moves through the wonderland, from cart to cart.

For Our wonderland: We would like to communicate our binary using different photos, songs, and advertisements throughout history that represent insane ideas that kids learned throughout history from adults. These documents will be seen and heard by the protagonist as he/she goes through the wonderland

Work Cited: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “Que viene el Coco” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1797 – 1798.