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116th out of 127 books
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Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology
Pronged ants, horned humans, a landscape carved on a fruit pit--some of the displays in David Wilson's Museum of Jurassic Technology are hoaxes. But which ones? As he guides readers through an intellectual hall of mirrors, Lawrence Weschler revisits the 16th-century "wonder cabinets" that were the first museums and compels readers to examine the imaginative origins of both...more
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
November 26th 1996
by Vintage
(first published 1995)
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King Dinösaur
rated it
The Museum of Jurassic Technology, located in a modest little storefront in Culver City, Los Angeles, California (near the In-and-Out Burger) is one of the last of the Wunderkammern. Step into a world of wondrous "could-be" and bizarre scientific and anthropological phenomena. What is real, what is natural, what is make-believe? Are old-wive's tales based, in fact, on scientific principles? Was a fossilised centaur really excavated near Volos, Greece in 1980? These and other quest...more
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There is only one word to describe this book: peculiar. David Wilson, who set up a museum of oddities and curiosities in a storefront in East L.A., is a peculiar man whose interests run from the eclectic to the confabulatory. Some of the most outrageous exhibits turn out to be real, while others, perhaps slightly muted in their presentation, are more constructs of theories of how things might have been. I couldn't help but to think of the family heirloom, passed down from generation to genera...more
This is one of the very few books I purchased by merely looking at the cover and title. I've always had a fascination with Wunderkammern, the precursor of the modern day museum. I love museums and this book recounts the remarkable history of their development, from the 16th Century to what we
are aware of today. But the most intriguing thing, to me, about this book is the introduction and investigation of one David Wilson, the accordion-playing proprietor of The Museum of Jurassic Technolog...more
are aware of today. But the most intriguing thing, to me, about this book is the introduction and investigation of one David Wilson, the accordion-playing proprietor of The Museum of Jurassic Technolog...more
This is a strange, little, occasionally delightful book inspired by Lawrence Weschler's fascination with the Museum of Jurassic Technology, an offbeat cultural attraction here in Los Angeles. I have never actually visited the museum but have heard it frequently mentioned, which is impressive considering the museum makes virtually no effort to promote itself, charges a nominal "suggested donation" fee for entrance, and operates out of a relatively tiny (compared to your average museum) ...more
The first part of this short sweet nonfiction book is an essay Weschler wrote for Harper's Magazine on one of the Places-to-See-Before-I-Die, the Museum of Jurassic Technology. The second part of the book is a rigorously footnoted essay about the philosophical, historical and aesthetic meanings of the Wunderkammer, which is the phenomenon Weschler finally settles on to define the MJT.
For my part, I liked better the way it was first presented--in which the MJT was a kind of part conc...more
For my part, I liked better the way it was first presented--in which the MJT was a kind of part conc...more
Howdy. The book I’m reviewing is Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology by Lawrence Weschler. The book, in my opinion, totally lives up to its title.
This book revolves around the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, CA and its curator, David Wilson. While the book is a non-fiction selection- let’s just say that what is real and what is fictitious in MJT is very much subject to interpretation. Which is a ...more
This book revolves around the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, CA and its curator, David Wilson. While the book is a non-fiction selection- let’s just say that what is real and what is fictitious in MJT is very much subject to interpretation. Which is a ...more
In Part 1 of Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder, Lawrence Weschler takes us on a tour (for lack of a better word) of the Museum of Jurassic Technology (MJT). His narrative is extremely erratic with no clear order that I could identify. He jumps from one topic to the next without going into depth on a thing. One moment he is talking about a display, the next he is describing the museum’s proprietor then onto another display and then back to some half-hearted fact-finding he had done on the first disp...more
Hmmmm. It's hard to say what I thought about this book. It was well researched with far too many citations and references within the text, which made the book harder to read. I have great admiration for both the author and Mr. Wilson who runs the museum at the center of this book. At a basic level, the book encompasses an interesting topic, or many really. I loved the tidbits of artifacts and oddities, wonders of the natural world, and also the relationship that developed between Wilson and...more
Reread almost the whole of it in one day before I gave it away as a christmas present. It was just as good as it lived in my memory from when I first read it after chance and boredom conspired to place it in front of me.
I like in particular this from the notes,
"In the years after Columbus, the European sensibility's virtual debauch is the wonder of the new world allowed it to disguise, from itself, the unprecedented human decimation that was taking place over there, on t...more
I like in particular this from the notes,
"In the years after Columbus, the European sensibility's virtual debauch is the wonder of the new world allowed it to disguise, from itself, the unprecedented human decimation that was taking place over there, on t...more
Beth
added it
A human horn? Who knew?!
I took a class in grad school called "Mind In Motion." All the stuff we read actually evoked the working of the author's mind, in the text, as you were reading it. The idea was, it's not enough to just tell us what you know. Make us come to know it in the way that you did. Some of it was too meta- for my taste, but when it works, it works. And Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders works. It actually makes you feel proud of yourself for making obscure and u...more
I took a class in grad school called "Mind In Motion." All the stuff we read actually evoked the working of the author's mind, in the text, as you were reading it. The idea was, it's not enough to just tell us what you know. Make us come to know it in the way that you did. Some of it was too meta- for my taste, but when it works, it works. And Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders works. It actually makes you feel proud of yourself for making obscure and u...more
The best thing about this book is that it pulls you into questioning academic truth, the proper function of museums, and the nature of wonder in a totally fascinating, unpredictable way. I also loved how it's a series of curious stories and personages within a museum within a book examining that museum. The fantastical nature of what the Museum of Jurassic Technology contains and the dry, edge-of-ironic tone made me question that such a place could even exist as I was reading the book, but the i...more
Aleisha Z Coleman
rated it
Recommends it for:
a lot of people but i don't think many would like it
Recommended to Aleisha Z by:
d.i.
It has been a very long time since I have read Pippi Longstocking. One of the things I remember loving about her situation is the piece of furniture that had many drawers of treasures in it, remember the one?
This book reminds me of what those drawers must have contained. Some of the most ridiculous and fabulous stuff you would ever think to collect. Not normal stuff, all jammed into one museum of sorts, all under the original idea of "Wunderkammer" = a sense of wonder ...more
This book reminds me of what those drawers must have contained. Some of the most ridiculous and fabulous stuff you would ever think to collect. Not normal stuff, all jammed into one museum of sorts, all under the original idea of "Wunderkammer" = a sense of wonder ...more
I picked up this book because it apparently won all sorts of awards. But I have to say, it did not really impress me very much. It's about how curiosity museums are a vanishing but important institution. The author mainly describes a particular such museum in Los Angeles. He claims that this place is important, even if the curios inside are not necessarily true. But wait, maybe the artifacts really are true. Or maybe they are not, but it doesn't matter, because such museums have a broad history ...more
Kirsti
rated it
"Videatur et ponderetur. Ab arte reperitis." (Look and ponder. One discovers things from art.)
This inscription is on the back of St. George and the Dragon by the Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden. It also describes the exhibits in the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, California, which is a collection of museum exhibits that are fakes . . . except when they aren't.
Read this brief but memorable book to find out about insane spike-headed ants, roast...more
This inscription is on the back of St. George and the Dragon by the Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden. It also describes the exhibits in the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, California, which is a collection of museum exhibits that are fakes . . . except when they aren't.
Read this brief but memorable book to find out about insane spike-headed ants, roast...more
I just re-read this book in preparation for a visit at my work by Lawrence Weschler (today!). According to the museum (MOCA, not MJT) ticket I found in my book, used as a bookmark, the first time I read it was in 2001. And it really is one of my favorite books. It is about wonder and wunderkammern, about art and science, and the bizarre intersection of it all at the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles. The main book itself is only about 110 pages, but even more is included in notes. Wor...more
Eager to read this after visiting the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Culver City, Los Angeles, CA, I found it set of at a great pace, supplementing much of what I saw (and didn't see) with needed detail. The book offered much detail at the front about the eccentric Mr. Wilson, the history of the Wunderkammern and the weird exhibits at the MJT. However, toward the end, with the increased usage of confusing, often non-sequitorial, end-notes, I lost interest. I am glad I read the book, but wou...more
What I felt Weschler did best was depict the notion of wonder into which the Museum of Jurassic Technology taps. My favorite part of the book was his discussion of doubt and wonder in contrast with positivist rationality and "logic." I think that so many people would peruse Wilson's museum and hear about its 16th and 17th century predecessors, and they would simply react by asking, "Why?" What Weschler does so well in this book is departing from (or re-approaching, as it w...more
One of the strangest and most fascinating books I've read in a while.
After stumbling a bizarre and obscure museum in L.A., Lawrence Weschler's persistent curiosity leads him to a discovery of horned humans, miniature sculptures, and a host of mysterious historical characters who may or may not have existed.
All of which becomes a reflection on the history of museums, but at the same time an intimate look at the L.A. museum's curator, perhaps the most curious aspec...more
A particularly bizarre and enjoyable book. If you are unaware, it should be noted that the Museum of Jurassic Technology itself doesn't exist anymore, having been torn down about 5 years ago. But it was an impressive place full of beautiful, forgotten pieces from the Jurassic, an era even historians know little about. Also, the author, "Lawrence Weschler" doesn't really exist, but is really just a nom de plume for David Wilson, whose real name is in fact Wilson Davidson, a direct de...more
So, you’re waiting at a bus stop in Culver City when you notice an odd little shop (just, you know, stuck in among the zinnias?) and mosey on in. You could be forgiven if you thought for a moment that you might have dropped into a story from the White Hart or one of Joseph Jorkens’ club yarns. But the tales told here are not tall, at least not the ones told by the author. He tells of this very odd place, The Museum of Jurassic Technology, which holds a dazzling array of oddities, many of which...more
Living in LA, I've been to the Museum of Jurassic Technology, and initially did not know the intent and purpose of the place, and was confused. After realizing that the items there had various levels of legitimacy to them, it made it far more interesting.
The book does good job of describing the museum and the artifacts in it. The book is a quick and entertaining read and covers such a strange and interesting topic. Just discovering something with this level of oddness is worth the ef...more
The book does good job of describing the museum and the artifacts in it. The book is a quick and entertaining read and covers such a strange and interesting topic. Just discovering something with this level of oddness is worth the ef...more
To review this book, I quote Michael Pollan, in The Botany of Desire.
"by the grace of [cannabis-induced] forgetting, we temporarily shelve our inherited ways of looking and see things as if for the first time, so that even something as ordinary as ice cream becomes ICE CREAM!
There is another word for this extremist noticing--this sense of first sight unencumbered by knowingness, by the already-been-there's and seen-thats of the adult mind--and that word, of course, is W...more
"by the grace of [cannabis-induced] forgetting, we temporarily shelve our inherited ways of looking and see things as if for the first time, so that even something as ordinary as ice cream becomes ICE CREAM!
There is another word for this extremist noticing--this sense of first sight unencumbered by knowingness, by the already-been-there's and seen-thats of the adult mind--and that word, of course, is W...more
First of all, what could Jurassic Technology possibly be meant to describe? Who is this strange Mr. Wilson who curates a modern cabinet of curiosities, or Wunderkammen, along an otherwise insignificant strip of road in Los Angeles?
Lawrence Weschler tells the story of the one-time film technician, now museum owner, David Wilson and his peculiar life's work. He presents us with a place that is, as he describes it, part museum, part critique of museums, part homage to museums, where t...more
Lawrence Weschler tells the story of the one-time film technician, now museum owner, David Wilson and his peculiar life's work. He presents us with a place that is, as he describes it, part museum, part critique of museums, part homage to museums, where t...more
Read this right after visiting the Museum of Jurassic Technology in LA and it really captures the essence of one of the most amazing places I have ever been. The book and the museum are a testament to the power of a man with a plan, however strange and eccentric that plan may be. And it's one of those many things that I wish I had made - so what to do with the fact that this particular piece of oddness already exists? Only thing is to move forward! On to the next!
The suspension of disbelief is a marvelous thing. This rumination/examination of a singular museum and its eccentric curator looks at the boundaries of what's real and what's imaginary. If, like me, you're continually stunned by the things that people believe and accept without question (especially when presented in a convincing manner, or as my mother-in-law once said, "I know it's true -- I read it in the newspaper!" and she was referring to the National Enquirer), then this tour t...more
Hannah
added it
Oh man I loved this book - an affectionate and literate biography of the Museum of Jurassic Technology, the best place in Los Angeles. I could go on and try to unravel the appeal for you, both of the book and of the place, but I am going to stop right now and instead just tell you to read it, and to get inside the museum if you're ever anywhere near. That good.
Ken pulled this from the shelves and said I would probably like it. He was right, as usual. This book reminds me of a couple of museums: a tiny one in New Harmony, IN, where all kinds of oddities are crammed into the upstairs of an old Carnegie library; and the film museum in Paris, where I wandered through the dark to hear explanations of little areas that lit up with activity. Great fun.
Trisha
rated it
Recommends it for:
Fans of weird history and weirdness in general!
Shelves:
non-fiction,
reviewed
I visited this museum in L.A. a few years ago, and didn't know what had hit me! But reading this book about it brought back all the fond memories, and also proved very educational. I am a fan of the weird, wacky and wonderful, and if you are too you'd love the Museum of Jurassic Technology. But if you're too far away, I recommend hunting down this book and getting a glimpse of what it's all about instead.
How wonderful--and, indeed, wonder is the main theme of this book--that there are people like David Wilson in this world. And how wonderful that there are people like Lawrence Weschler to tell us about him. This short book--a long essay, really--is chock full of delight(s), not to mention Dickensian names (real or otherwise): Hester Boxbutte Thum, Gerard Billius, Elias Ashmole, Ole Worm, Sir Walter Cope...
Though a quick read, Weschler still couldn't hook me right away. The subject matter was fascinating, but the use of language and organization seemed only to frustrate. I kept two bookmarks, one for the primary text and one for the notes which sometimes read like its own chapter. However, by book's end, I found myself pondering some big ideas about whether truth or amazement is a more valid pursuit. And asked myself why I really need any kind of trinkets or extraordinary "finds" in my h...more
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“When someone witnesses something amazing, what matters most is not 'out there' . . . but deep within, at the vital emotional center of witness.”
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