There's A Strain in My Credulity

A Review of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder, by Lawrence Wechsler

by Gordon Douglas

Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and other marvels of Jurassic Technology are featured in Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder, by Lawrence Wechsler. The book is a travelogue into the realm where fact and illusion cross-pollinate in a dimly lit maze of nature exhibits and quasi-scientific display, with a taste of the possible sham

Natural questioning of the reality of these exhibits impels some, like the author, to the heated pursuit of clues, calls to colleagues to verify references, obsessive immersion in dusty tomes detailing early museums and collectors. It yields a fascinating evolution through an arcane subject.

However, another condensation around the knuckle of wonder is the alternative cultural confrontation that comes to call on us, more often than not unbidden. Even when ready, at the chosen moment of engagement, the true entrance into us does not occur by an act of will. The process of penetration, of implantation, suggests a chemical bonding - inhalation of the spore (spoor), no doubt.

These exhibits might crack the crust of self-posession and at the same time engage the synapses of reception. Our reception field, when focused, is open to the slippery flow of fact versus fantasy. Self-projection is not so easily focused, yet receptivity seeds bizarre coincidences when tracking down the veracity of passing references. Paranoia - you've heard some of this before, but you can't make your connection.

When visiting a museum like the Met, you sorta try to control the magnetic pull of a Van Gogh, you woulda if you coulda, but you canta get thata excited. Your curiosity, bound too tightly, is blunted by the art-world authority on aesthetic possibilities. Cultural obeisance sticks to your shoes. Whereas a visit to the MJT is different. The Museum of Jurassic Technology is a technology for altering ways of habitual seeing and thinking. Walk right in, sit right down, baby let your mind roll on. Go figure, yourself.

David Wilson the man, himself worthy of an exhibit, was described by his nineteen-year-old future wife as a "gnome.... This old, small, man. It was scary: he was only nineteen, but he was kind of ageless - or rather aged." He tells Wechsler that "part of the assigned task is to reintegrate people to wonder." Wechsler reminds the reader that a visitor to the museum "finds himself shimmering between wondering at (the marvels of nature) and wondering whether (any of this could possibly be true). And it's that very shimmer, the capacity for such delicious confusion, Wilson sometimes seems to suggest, that may constitute the most blessedly wonderful thing about being human."

This book tells of several intimate moments between author and subject - ruminations concerning origins, cross-referential experience, the obvious care and devotion it takes to run such a museum. Wilson's "orientation towards wonder" sets up an open-ended negotiation for the invention of culture that lies within each individual visitor. Constructive maintenance of uncertainty in our world is a fearless display of self. And uncertainty is the key to pleasure. He leaves it all up to you.

About the Author:

Gordon Douglas lives and works, amid collections of many things, in New York City. This is his first article for the Newsletter. He sends his thanks to AM. He can be contacted in care of the editor at editor@arts4all.com

Resources:

Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology, by Lawrence Wechsler is in print and available for purchase on- and offline and in libraries. First published in 1995, the book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The paperback edition from Random House - Vintage Books is ISBN 0-679-76489-5.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology is located at 9341 Venice Boulevard, Culver City, California. It is open Thursday through Sunday. More information is available at its website: http://www.mjt.org