MR. WILSON'S CABINET OF WONDER: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Techno logy - Hardcover

Weschler, Lawrence

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679439986 ISBN 13: 9780679439981

Publisher: Pantheon, 1995

Synopsis

Writing with great style and humor, Weschler guides the readers through the Museum of Jurassic Technology and through the mind of its curator, David Wilson, a man of unusual imagination who mounts exhibits such as spore-inhaling ants, bats deploying ultraviolet frequencies, peach-pit carvings, and other exhibits that seem the manifest definition of bizarre. Illustrations.

About this title

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.

About the Author:

Lawrence Weschler was for over twenty years (1981-2002) a staff writer at The New Yorker, where his work shuttled between political tragedies and cultural comedies.  He is a two-time winner of the George Polk Award and was also a recipient of Lannan Literary Award. his nonfiction book Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pantheon
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0679439986
• ISBN 13: 9780679439981
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 163