When I die, I want to be a ballerina-Plastination reveals truths about us, welcome or not.

[Mugu]

By Karin Klein

Late to every trend, I missed the first Body Worlds show at the California Science Center. Also the second.

It was too much for my morbid soul, this notion of bodies preserved by replacing water with polymers, flayed and partly filleted to reveal their innermost selves, then posed jauntily for exhibit. I heard that people loved it. Ugh. Some were even inspired to donate their own bodies. Lunatic.

As it happened, the media invitation to view Body Worlds 3, now on view through Sept. 7, arrived at a vulnerable moment. I was reading Mary Roach’s delightful book, "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers." Despite the light touch that Roach applies to the sad facts of mortal decay, none of the options she outlines sounded appealing as a way to spend eternity. Cremains, mortuary customer, med school dissection subject, crash-test dummy, organ donor: The dead may contribute to the living, but life is not kind to the dead. By the time I got to the section about long-ago experiments that involved transplanting entire human heads, polymer was sounding good. Durable. Educational. Aseptic.

Sure enough, that's what Body Worlds is all about. The cadavers, (relatively) whole or in parts, are fascinating, sometimes beautiful and inspiring, and remarkably low in ick factor. They could be plastic or ceramic; when you see them, you have to keep reminding yourself that they're dead people, and then you get to pat yourself on the back for how well you're taking this. A practically skinless man is leaping over a hurdle, though given the lack of clearance, he is perpetually headed toward really hurting his private parts. His aerodynamically sliced brain, however, seems like overkill. There's no apparent educational reason for this. It is, I deduce, Art.


Read complete article at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-klein22mar22,0,476002.story

[madokie]

1. I wouldn't mind my stinking ass being used as a learning tool any day

I'm going to be the ghost I always thought I wanted to be so it won't matter to me what this carbon based object called my body is then.;-)

[fudge stripe cookays]

2. A guy in our family....

who was a very degreed scientist and taught at Sacramento City College for 37 years donated his body to science when he died. Very appropriate, I thought. He loved science THAT much!

[blues90]

3. About two years ago I had been introduced to this plastination!

I was working as a service adviser for a ford dealership . A man came in for car repairs and I noticed he has a little trouble speaking and then I noticed he had a bit of a sunken area on his left jaw .

I had a little free moment so I stepped out the garage door to have a cig and he followed me out a second or so later . I knew right then that he dealt with cancer .

He came up to me and began his personal story which in itself was horrifying enough . Then he went further to explain operations he had in great detail , I felt faint and lost all desire for lunch .

Then he brought up this exhibit in Los angeles just down town not far from where I worked , this sounded even more outer space to me .

Then this was not enough , he rushed over to his car and brought out a color magazine from this exhibit and began pointing out his favorite displays , I felt even more faint .

He was really into this stuff and even showed me a photo of on mans head who had a similar metal jaw part installed that he once had .

I have to say , this stuff is not for me , it is a bit to far out and it does go into some form of graphic art . I don't want to know what I look like on the inside and feel every pain and think about what the area might look like in a visual mental picture .

It my be very useful for a medical student but I could not help thinking of the person who looks alive to a point now on display , sliced and prepared and spread out open .

so no thanks , let me be ashes in the end .

[Mugu]

4. You're not the only one that finds the idea unpleasant. n/t