MR WILSON’S CABINET OF WONDER

Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology, by Lawrence Weschler: I finished this great little book while brushing my teeth this morning. (Do you do that? I always read while tooth-brushing.) It’s about the Museum of Jurassic Technology in L.A., one of the most memorable and perplexing places I’ve ever been, and where I will most certainly drag any out-of-town visitors at the slightest provocation. I really liked the author’s thesis that the MJT is simultaneously a premodern and postmodern museum—it emulates the unscientific collections of oddities popular in the Renaissance, while at the same time playing with subjectivity and perception, commenting on itself, and parodying (though sincerely) the whole concept of museums. Plus, there really are mice on toast.