Books : Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Techno logy
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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 069.5
EAN num: 9780679764892
ISBN number: 0679764895
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 192
Printing Date: November 26, 1996
Publishing house: Vintage
Release Date: November 26, 1996
Sale Popularity Level: 61005
Studio: Vintage
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Product Description:
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 very first museums and compels readers to examine the imaginative origins of both art and science. Illustrations.
Amazon.com Review:
In the non-Aristotelian, non-Euclidean, non-Newtonian space between the walls of the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles exist bats that can fly through lead barriers, spore-ingesting pronged ants, elaborate theories of memory, and a host of other off-kilter scientific oddities that challenge the traditional notions of truth and fiction. Lawrence Weschler's book, expanded from an article for Harper's, is, at turns, a tour of the museum, a profile of its founder and curator, David Wilson, and a meditation on the role of imagination and authority in all museums, in science and in life. Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder is an exquisite piece of 'magic realist nonfiction' that will prove utterly captivating.
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Rated by buyers 
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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.
Rated by buyers -
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 endeavor 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.
Rated by buyers -
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.
Rated by buyers 
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Although Mr. Wilson's Cabnet of Wonders is at very 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.
Rated by buyers -
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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