I LOVE the Beyonders. It is an amazing series. The wizard races are awesome, the adventure and the moral messages of the series are fantastic. Most of the time, I had no issues with suspension of disbelief throughout the series. But even early on, there were a couple things that just felt off about the Vista Point Zoo.
Here's a passage from page 16 of "World Without Heroes":
"Although the family-owned institution was no match for the Denver Zoo, Vista Point held a respectable population, with more than four hundred animals representing almost one hundred and sixty species."
The zoo is family-owned? Private zoos are not unheard of: Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is a privately owned zoo. Even family-owned isn't entirely unheard of. The book "We Bought a Zoo," by Benjamin Mee, is a true story. But most, if not all, it's not that simple. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo was deeded as a non-profit public trust, and its founder, Spencer Penrose, was the founder of the Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Society. Even the Mees no longer "own" their zoo. Eight years after buying it, it was donated to the Dartmoor Zoological Society, which is a charity.
Still, privately-owned, and even family owned zoos are not unheard of, so let's dig a little deeper. Jason is thirteen years old, and he's working... at a zoo. It's weird enough that he's thirteen and has a job, but it's even weirder that his job is at a zoo.
Jason lives in Colorado, so out of curiosity I looked up the three zoos in Colorado. In size order from smallest to largest, that is the Pueblo Zoo, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, and the Denver Zoo. All three require employees to be at least 18.
To be fair, let's say there is a youth volunteer program at the Vista Point Zoo. All three Colorado zoos have these, too. in Pueblo and Colorado Springs, these programs are for fourteen and up, so Jason almost makes the cut... almost. The Denver Zoo has a Teen Intern program, and participants have to be at least thirteen. Sweet! There you go! But there's a catch. All three of these programs are summer programs. And Cole is working there in the winter.
Even if you can shrug off the fact that it's family-owned and the idea of a thirteen-year-old working at a zoo, let's look at the display in front of the hippo exhibit. Here's another passage from page 16:
"When he entered the hippo viewing area, Jason paused to admire a glass case on the wall labeled: MONUMENT TO HUMAN STUPIDITY.
"It contained various items workers had fished out of the hippo tank over the years: aluminum cans, glass bottles, coins, cigar stubs, two cigarete lighters, a dental-floss dispenser, a pocket knife, a tangled Slinky, a plastic wristwatch, a disposable razor--even a few rounds of ammunition."
This, admittedly, is hilarious. I love that they have a display labeled "Monument to Human Stupidity." But it's a little on the nose for a zoo. Zoos now days are all about conservation. They take good care of their animals and use a lot of the money they make to promote animal conservation projects. They are very friendly about it. And their signage reflects that as well, often using the word "Please" or using gentle reminders that litter and foreign objects are not good for the animals.
Calling your guests stupid, as funny as it is to read about, is not great business.
And then there's the list of things in the exhibit. Most are not too surprising. But how many people floss while wandering around a zoo? Or shave! Or fire off guns! Even the slinky is a little extreme, but maybe a little kid got it at the gift shop and dropped it in.
As hilarious as this passage is, it makes me wonder about the owners, and the guests at the Vista Point Zoo.
Let's look at the owners. We know very little: they are a family, which means it's a private zoo. Most private zoos are affiliated with a Zoological Society--conservationists and charities. With Cheyenne Mountain, Penrose's personal animal collection was getting big, so he made it a zoo so others could enjoy seeing the animals. Over time, it has evolved into an organization that promotes animal conservation projects, as many zoos do. If we are drawing, or even jumping to conclusions about this, we can assume that the family who owns this zoo are animal enthusiasts who want to show off their cool collection. Maybe they're affiliated with a charity, but most charities don't insult their guests by calling them stupid, even if it's an indirect statement.
At Dartmoor, the Mees wanted to save the animals, so they bought the zoo, and when it was better established, donated it to a charity that could do a better job of running it than he and his two kids could. Benjamin Mee is still the CEO of the charity, and still lives at the zoo. So maybe this family is more like the Mees. They saw animals who were not being properly treated, and did something to solve that problem by buying a zoo and living on it.
Who else do we know of in the Mull-Tiverse that cares about animals and lives with a wide variety of unique animals... and creatures? Hmmm... Wait! What if the Vista Point Zoo is actually a preserve for mythical creatures! I really liked this idea for a while, even though all the other preserves are on massive amounts of land... in remote areas... and most of the creatures roam free on the land, restricted by magic rather than physical barriers... and the caretakers do everything they can to prevent people from seeing the creatures they protect... okay, so it's probably not a preserve for magical creatures.
But then there is the connection between Fablehaven and Candy Shop Wars that magicians exist as "pretenders" and Wizards are actual magical beings. So what would a magician, who wanted to have a collection of mythical creatures look like? Well, they could never leave their lair--they'd have to live at the zoo. And magicians don't seem to have any issue with people unknowingly traversing their lair. Not only this, at least some of them have shows that they want people to come into their lair. Why else would you make your lair a candy shop or an arcade?
This also would explain their lack of tact with the "human stupidity" display in front of Hank the Hippo's exhibit (if Hank really is a hippo... just sayin'...).
And it could potentially explain the stupidity of some of the guests! Maybe there's cotton candy that suddenly makes people obsessed with hygiene--they just have to floss... or shave... and don't even realize they're doing it. Or maybe White Fudge is involved somehow. It has always made me sad that Jason's parents were so inattentive to him, but not his older siblings, and this, while in some ways, could make it even sadder, also means that it really isn't their fault: if they are the victims of a cruel magician who causes them to neglect their son, who unwittingly is working for them around creatures far more dangerous than he realizes... at least it's not their fault. See what I mean? Way worse, but also... in a tiny way... mildly better because they're good parents, just not themselves lately.
And as the icing on the cake, it supplies some fodder to bring the Beyonders series more firmly into the One-Earth piece of the Mull-Tiverse theory!
I know this leaves a lot more questions, but would love to hear what other people think. Is this too far fetched, or does it make Brandon Mull's books more enjoyable to read and talk about? Do you have any other tidbits that would support the Mull-Tiverse theory?
And what kind of creatures do you think they have at the Vista Point Zoo if they really are mythical creatures in disguise?
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