Thursday, October 28, 2010
"Very Bad Things" and The Morbid Anatomy Library in Newsweek, Article and Video
The Morbid Anatomy Library has just been featured in a Newsweek Magazine article entitled "Very Bad Things," which is essentially a meditation on why people collect the unspeakable, from "hipbones to wallets made of human skin to babies in jars." The piece was inspired by Mark Jacobson's new and excellent book (about which he just spoke at Observatory) The Lampshade: A Holocaust Detective Story from Buchenwald to New Orleans. Good friend Evan Michelson of the incomparable Obscura Antiques and Oddities--who is also co-star of the new reality show "Oddities" (as mentioned in yesterday's post), and Morbid Anatomy Library Scholar in Residence--also makes a characteristically well-spoken and thoughtful appearance.
Accompanying the article is a video tour of The Morbid Anatomy Library which the magazine describes as "A Peek Inside a 'Morbid' Museum;" You can view the video above if you so choose.
You can read the article--and see the video in context!--by clicking here. For more about The Morbid Anatomy Library, click here. To find out more about Mark Jacobson's book The Lampshade--or purchase a copy!--click here. To find out about his recent Morbid Anatomy Presents lecture at Observatory, click here. To find out more about Obscura Antiques and Oddities and the new program "Oddities," click here and here, respectively.
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5 comments:
This is wonderful! Congratulations! And your articulation of the importance and "wonder" of this material was engaging and concise. Brava!
Congrats! There are a LOT of us out here we just don't have many places we can gather and discuss our similar interests. I have friends with similar interests all over the world that I've found mostly by our photos on Flickr. I fear though that this will become a new "norm" for the masses. Just as nobody thinks twice about tattoos anymore. It should mean something more. Collecting bones and oddities have been with me since I was a young child, and are somewhat sacred to me. An instant bond to other people with similar interests. People that truly are in tune with them for the right reasons. Not because it is the latest fad. I don't want to see these things consumerized in Hot Topic.
Hi Janna. Yes, I understand your ambivalence about the growing popularity of such things. I can only say that I comfort myself with the knowledge that everything is cyclical--that this trend, too, shall pass--and also, that this popularity means that, for the moment, we shall be able to find books, films, etc, that actually suit our interest.
Best,
Joanna
This is great.
The creepy music forces the opposite interpretation of the narration :)
Kelli
excellent! perfect website and videos.
merci!
charlotte
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