In other news...
Felly and I wacthed this terribly interesting little show about Bodies. As in, Bodies: The Exhibition.
Fascinating really...like how most of the bodies are of asian descent and come from this rundown shack of a wearhouse/laboratory in China which supposedly doesn't know where they come from. And this creepy but cute German doctor who came up with the plasticization process that these bodies go through but who cried when he was recalling how he accidently was working with some bodies who had not voluntary gave their bodies up...he incinerated them. And the millions of dollars that this exhibition is bringing in for americans, never mind the fact that they, in order to avoid human corpse laws, claim that the plasticized human body parts are plastic "models".....
I guess...well, it really gets me thinking about all kinds of things. My first instinct is to say that as American's we have some creepy fascination with death coupled with a conflicting taboo which is why people are so drawn to these types of things in the first place. Taboos create fascination. I believe this. There are other cultures in the world who have no (or at least a different) taboo around death or the dead body...sometimes they hang out with the bodies, take parts of it home with them, things of that nature. Death is natural and normal for them...it is not the end of the world like it is for us. Yeah ok, we believe in heaven, but we also believe in ghosts and vampires and that sort of thing. Don't kid yourself. We do. I won't get into the "we" of America because that is a whole nother post.
So maybe the Bodies exhibit isn't all that bad? Maybe we should try to be more comfortable with death? Maybe then we wouldn't see people freaking out getting plastic surgery and tring to look "Ten Years Younger" and all that youth is beauty bullshit. But then...here is the tricky part I spose. these bodies are NOT of old people who died of natural causes. According to ABC or whoever, they were young, healthy people who didn't look ready to die. So hence the question...where do these bodies come from. I do not doubt...for one second...that there is an underground, clandestine body business going on. It has happened in the past, why not now?
Anyways...I am not saying you should or shouldn't, but if you are interested, here is a website called No Bodies 4 Profit...
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decide for yourself.
I saw a body exhibit in December here in Rochester.
It was just like this, plasticized bodies. Some of them were sliced so you could see the cross sections and some were focused on organs and different systems.
There was a corner with fetuses and in utero cross sections. I didn't see that part.
It cost a pretty penny and the place was packed. They staged groups of people so only so many could enter every 15 minutes.
I got the feeling that it was like a modern day PT Barnum freak show with maybe more taste.
Somehow the whole exhibit didn't seem to be focused on the science, art, and architecture of the Human Body. Maybe it was because we all had the feeling that few if any of these people gave consent or donated their bodies to science.
Lauren, check this out: :::link:::
That thing has been going on forever. I remember back when I first studied in Germany in 1996, they had it and people were freakin out with all the nazi, experimenting on bodies past.
your posts are long and boring. you suck. :)
seriously - i'm so disgusted with the bodies exhibit now. even though i secretly want to see it. dilemma!