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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Night at the museum with a personal tour guide, September 19, 2008
Behind-the-scenes look at London's Natural History Museum is an interesting peak at the "coalface"--Fortey's term for the daily work occurring beyond and below the public galleries--of museum science. Fortey describes the main work of the Museum, and its sister institutions in other countries, as systematic taxonomy--the attempt to exhaustively categorize and collect reference examples of each species of plant, animal, and mineral.
In an era of hard-to-obtain research grants and declining public funding, Fortey defends this work as valuable for several reasons:
--the need to find and identify species before they are destroyed by climate change, environmental destruction, or over-harvesting.
--potential beneficial uses of unknown species for the biosphere, for example expanded use of natural predators as environmentally-safe pesticides.
--helping future scientific endeavors by placing each species in its proper place in the taxonomy.
--and ultimately, the pure aesthetic satisfaction of knowing everything we can know about the world in which we live and upon which we are dependent.
Fortey spends time walking the reader virtually through the hidden corridors of each section of the Museum and using the discussion of the physical surroundings to talk in layman's terms about the science and the history of the science. Black-and-white photos in the pages with the text and color plates in the center of the book illustrate the surroundings and the collection as Fortey describes them.
But most interesting are the people who work behind the scenes. The current and past scientists, curators, clerks, Keepers, Directors, and Trustees are a diverse, intelligent, and intensely fascinating lot. After describing some of the more legendary polymaths who seemed as if they would scarcely have time to indulge in their many interests, Fortey asks in wonderment: "Are we lesser people today, or do we expect less of ourselves?"
Of course the Museum also has its share of misfits, misanthropes, recluses, shysters, and just plain crazy people deep in the hallways behind the public galleries, and Fortey seems to take special glee in describing them, many of whom he knew personally from his 30-plus years in the corridors. He writes with an understated, decidedly British wit and language. I'm guessing I missed some of his best jokes as they glanced off my tin American ear, but unless you get the opportunity to tour the hallways (which he compares to the phantasmagorical and never-ending castle in the The Gormenghast Novels) with Fortey in person, this book will be your personal tour guide.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Museum, the Scientists and their Specimens, October 8, 2008
About a month ago, (September 2008) I had a chance to hear Richard Fortey himself lecturing about this book. The lecture, very fittingly, was happening in a natural history museum. As his lecture unfolded, I found myself with many of the most interesting characters that have ever contributed to natural history, both famous and obscure. I also learned about what goes on behind the scenes of the museum, and of some of the many interesting and strange specimens which are not on display, such as an "accursed amethyst" and the famous rock from Mars which is said by some to contain fossils. After the lecture was over, I went home and started reading the book, and found the written account of these things and people to be just as engaging as it was to hear Richard Fortey speaking. It is like recieving your own guided tour through the Natural History Museum of London, and even through the history of natural history. Richard Fortey shows that scientists can be very eccentric and unusual characters, in spite of their stereotype of being very dry and boring. All in all, this is an excellent book which chronicles the history of the museum, the people who make it go, and the specimens which are stored inside it. I recommend this book to anyone who has wondered what goes on inside the hearts of museums, and also to people who are interested in natural history. You will finish this book knowing much about the "behind the scenes" of museums.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Did you have a nice week with the troglodytes, dear?", January 18, 2009
Richard Fortey is also the author of Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution. This has some bearing on this wonderful book because of passages like this:
***
It might seem an odd ambition to try to get everyone to pronounce a word correctly. But mine has always been to get the world to say "trilobite" without fudging, and with a certain measure of understanding. My own mother was wont to say "troglodyte," which at least has a certain prehistoric dimension, even if it refers to human cave dwellers rather than extinct arthropods several hundred million years older than humans.
"Did you have a nice week with the troglodytes, dear?" was one of her regular enquiries.
***
As this (hopefully) illustrates, Fortey is a capable and humorous guide, one who can impart information without the reader minding it a bit. And this book isn't just about hidden exhibits and research. Some of its most fascinating specimens are the humans who work behind the scenes.
One of Fortey's particular strengths is what I call the "Doug Henning Superpower." Older readers may remember Doug Henning as a tie-dyed magician with big hair. Although he should have been aggravating, Henning was able to look as amazed as his audiences at the wonders he wrought onstage. Fortey has this ability as well; he is a guide who takes us behind the scenes of the Natural History Museum with a convincing demeanor of excitement and wonder.
And it's contagious!
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