Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.00.1206150314530.5310@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: American Museum of Natural History
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2012 03:16:48 -0400 (EDT)
American Museum of Natural History relatively unlabeled hodge-podge of biodiversity (which is rapidly coming to an end as extinctions increase world-wide). the flora, fauna, fungi, and so forth are indicated by shape and design, not by biomes (although to be fair, the rest of the museum is based on them) - the design exhausts the idea of natural history, which is neither nature nor history, nor any combination of these troubled terms. the museum itself is caught in a time-warp of a dying planet: the bookstore features books about the crisis, and the wild animal panoramas now seem sepulchers. the museum is a tomb of life-forms, doing what it can against the onslaught. the life- forms themselves are mythologies denuded of microbial and other subtle environmental factors; what counts is display. there were children everywhere, loving it; i hope at the very least that the sense of wonder that was clearly awakened leads to commitment before it's too late for all of us. http://www.alansondheim.org/amnh3.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/amnh4.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/amnh5.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/amnh6.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/amnh7.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/amnh8.jpg