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    Cover of Mr. Wilson's cabinet of wonder

    Mr. Wilson's cabinet of wonder

    Lawrence Weschler · 1995

    A nondescript storefront operation in Los Angeles, California, the Museum of Jurassic Technology actually exists - that may be the only thing about it that is for certain. The creation of David Wilson, a man of prodigiously unusual imagination, the museum is crammed full of some of the most astonishingly unbelievable marvels known to man. Visitors to the museum continually find themselves caught between wondering at the marvels of craft and nature that are on display and wondering whether any of this could possibly be true. Indeed, Wilson's true subject seems to be wonder itself, the delicious human capacity for astonishment and absorption out of which all true creativity arises.. Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder begins as a simple investigation of the tiny storefront in southern California and spirals out into a consideration of the origins of all modern museums in the wonder-cabinets of the sixteenth century, the generative role of pure imagination in both art and science, the mystifying bases of the authoritative in every field, and, not least, the actual existence and profound significance of human horns.

    Arts, Games & MediaPolitics & Society
    Open LibraryAmazon
    Stats for nerds
    2recommend
    2mentions
    2people
    2026years
    100% recommend

    What Hacker News says

    1. bookofjoeMar 2026
      It was wonderful. Scintillating. Alas, that was in the late 1980s and I haven't been back, though from the photo in Wikipedia its kind of derelict/dumpy entrance looks like it hasn't changed at all.

      If you read "Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology," Lawrence Weschler's superb 1995 book about the museum with extended interviews with Wilson, you will find it hard not to want to visit.

      https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Wilsons-Cabinet-Wonder-Technology/...

      thread
    2. da-baconMar 2026
      The book "Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder" about the museum is a good read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Wilson%27s_Cabinet_of_Wond... Recommend reading it after visiting, don't want to spoil the first journey into the Jurassic.
      thread

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