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Title: MR. WILSON'S CABINET OF WONDER: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Techno logy
ISBN: 0679439986
Author:
Lawrence Weschler
Publicate Date: 1995-10-10
Publish: 1995-10-10
List Price: $21.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $17.00
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $1.49
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| Customer Review: |
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1: curious and fabulous
I love this book! It is fascinating! and well written! You will want to visit the museum after reading this book; if you've been there, it will enrich your visit! Unique.
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2: The author is in on the joke ... if it is, in fact, a joke
Splendid little read, profound in its own way, and outright devilish. Absolutely in keeping with its subject matter; anything shy of devilish would have been cheating.
The Museum of Jurassic Technology, to trim descriptions to the bare minimum in the interests of time and of not spoiling the fun, is a museum that may or may not be entirely a joke on the part of its owner. If it is a joke, it is the most ornately gilded, realistically depicted, and intellectually rewarding joke yet perpetrated on the good citizens of California.
Lawrence Weschler may or may not, himself, be in on the joke. The whole thing, if it is not a joke, is a delicious insight into what the modern world has gained and lost, and an attempt to restore some of what's disappeared.
Well worth the two hours of reading. If I had more time, I would certainly recreate the research that Weschler did when he started to get obsessed with the MJT.
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3: A most amazing journey with an elloqent guide
Honestly, when I worked in Culver City, I would drive by the Museum of Jurassic Technology and wonder just what was in there. I read the articles in the L.A. Times and still I could not understand what it was about. And even when I finally got to the museum, I was mystified. What was the connection? What was it all about? Finally, I have my answer. And more. This book was a superlative read. Mr Weschler never flags in his focus and his precision of language and yet doesn't overwhelm his subject matter. It would be so easy to try and write a fictional story about the museum as opposed to trying to distill and tell the real story. It is very slippery! You will not be dissappointed in this book. And you don't have to go to the museum to enjoy it. But if you read the book, you will be COMPELLED to visit the museum.
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4: An Education
Although Mr. Wilson's Cabnet of Wonders is at first slightly confussing and plotless, much like the type of museum disscussed in the book, it is eventually leaves you with a sense of...well...wonder. The book is construsted to take you through the wonders of a "wonder cabnet." I found it to be an education on what it mean to learn, that wonder is a nessisary component.
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5: A Journey into Wonder
Lawrence Wescher is not writing a complete treatise on wondercabnets for use in an academic historical society of previously learned fellows. It is much too short and easy to read for that. He is coming at the subject as a newcomer and hoping to bring some of us in with him. I for one am right there. Mr. Wilson's Cabnet of Wonder serves as a perfect introduction to this ultra-fascinating subject that has surprisingly huge implications on our everyday understanding of history. His short summations of the history of the museum itself, and what might be housed within them, are to the point and well researched (I would like to think he threw in a few of his own "made up" references just to keep in the spirit of things although). The anecdotal stories of his mystic encounters with Mr. Wilson are humorous and enlightening. Weschler encourages a healthy skepticism about each exhibit in the MJT (Museum of Jurassic Technology), and indeed about every bit of knowledge we are taught as fact in our upbringing. The wonderful thing about this skepticism is that it leads him on an astonishing journey into The Church of Wonder. He made me a believer in Wonder as a state of mind/heart that perhaps shouldn't be questioned too much, lest we lose it. Be it wonder of Nature's endless imagination or that of man's, I'm hooked.
Therefore, Weschler not only writes about Mr. Wilson's wonder-filled collection, or simply the history of other collections, but they are merely the means to an understanding of that blissful state itself. I began to understand this book as a more of a religious conversion, than a "fact" filled catalogue.
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