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 art and science. Illustrations.
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Editorial Reviews
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.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
New Yorker staff writer Weschler probes into L.A.'s highly unusual Museum of Jurassic Technology in this NBCC finalist.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful book. It's beautifully written and captures perfectly the spirit of the Museum of Jurassic Technology. By the way, the Museum is real -- I've been there. I wandered in not knowing what it was and was immediately hooked. Having read this book, I like the Museum even more. David Wilson is a national treasure.
One recommendation to anyone lucky enough to read this book: don't flip through and look at the pictures first. Read it from beginning to end as it was intended, or you'll ruin the story.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What is a museum? Are the things we see in a museum "the truth", and how did they come to be so? These questions and others fill Lawrence Weschler's marvelous extended essay, Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder. Weschler takes as his jumping-off point the very real "Museum of Jurassic Technology," privately owned and operated in Los Angeles by David Wilson. In this book, Wechsler tells how European museums began as private collections of "wonder-ful" objects, with the focus less on whether the object was "true" than whether it evoked amazement. Many of the objects in Wilson's "Museum" appear real, and are described in the dry, precise prose known to museum viewers around the world. But they are not real. Or are they? This short (168 pages, with endnotes) book examines both the "wonders" of Wilson's storefront museum and the even more astounding wonders of the real world in gifted and sprightly prose. Not to be missed!!
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I read this book after visiting the beautiful and strange Museum of Jurassic Technology. I was first discomfited to find that the Museum's wonders could be -- how could they be? -- frauds and hoaxes. I was at first crushed and a little annoyed at Mr Weschler's seeming cynicism-- unlike me, he had apparently rushed immediately out to fact-check the exhibits' provenance, and gleefully points out how most visitors had been hoodwinked. However, Mr Weschler moves from simple cynicism to a greater appreciation of the Museum's gnomic aims, and the reader moves with him from everyday disbelief and sour disgruntlement to a rapturous awe. A magnificent book, and a worthy addition to study of the Lower Jurassic.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Awesome little book
I was led to this book through a StumbleUpon the Museum of Jurassic Technology. Besides an in depth look at the museum - no details, there's too much fun to spoil - the author... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Suzanne Cooke
A great and mystifying read
Let me start by saying that this book is excellent. Though readers might be a bit confused to begin with, if you stay with this novel it is absolutely worth it. Read more
Published 15 months ago by nosborm
Maybe it's just me, but...
I really, really hated this book. I had to read it for an art class (I'm a biochemistry major), but if you are reading for fun... Read more
Published 15 months ago by R. Hutson
Wonderful peek into a true Wonder cabinet
Weschler's book takes its reader through the Museum of Jurassic Technology and inspires curiosity, wonder, confusion and disbelief. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Alicia
Cabinet of No Wonder
Wonder.
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler revolves around the concept of wonder. It's an abstract thing. Read more
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder by Lawrence Weschler revolves around the concept of wonder. It's an abstract thing. Read more
Published on March 1, 2010 by Lihui Zhang
A disappointment
I share the disappointment of other reviewers who found MWCoW a little smug and scattershot and who thought it did poor service to an otherwise fascinating topic. Read more
Published on December 3, 2009 by Librum
A Paean to Wonder
This odd little book celebrates the odd little Museum of Jurassic Technology (MJT) in Los Angeles. Really, the book celebrates wonder itself. Read more
Published on January 27, 2009 by Deb Oestreicher
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.
Published on October 25, 2007 by H. Winslow
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. Read more
Published on June 15, 2007 by Stephen R. Laniel
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. Read more
Published on April 19, 2007 by Tod Rathbone
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Deep in the Cameroonian rain forests of west-central Africa there lives a floor-dwelling ant known as Megaloponera foetens, or more commonly, the stink ant. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
deprong mori, stink ant Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Museum of Jurassic Technology, David Wilson, Los Angeles, Bernard Maston, Culver City, Elias Ashmole, Ashmolean Museum, Lower Jurassic, Ole Worm, Richard Whitten, South America, United States New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Deep in the Cameroonian rain forests of west-central Africa there lives a floor-dwelling ant known as Megaloponera foetens, or more commonly, the stink ant. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
deprong mori, stink ant Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Museum of Jurassic Technology, David Wilson, Los Angeles, Bernard Maston, Culver City, Elias Ashmole, Ashmolean Museum, Lower Jurassic, Ole Worm, Richard Whitten, South America, United States New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 37
books:
See all 37 books this book cites
- Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World. The Clarendon Lectures and the Carpenter Lectures, 1988 (Clarendon Paperbacks) by Stephen J. Greenblatt on page 77, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Character of Physical Law (Modern Library) by Richard Feynman on page 90, and Back Matter
- A Tale of Two Cities (Signet Classics) by Charles Dickens in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age by Simon Schama in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 37 books this book cites
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