Dude! That guy is dead!

so… plastination of cadavers?

http://www.bodyworlds.com/index.html

Has anyone seen this yet? I am really wanting to go, but am kind of torn on taking my 5 year old daughter? Think it would be too graphic for her? She is a damn smart kid, but I don’t want to traumatize her for life.

Those of you that have seen this and have kids, please chime in.

Thanks!

This is an awesome exhibit, but frankly it does get graphic, looking at everyone’s innards in a variety of fascinating ways (including a pregnant woman & child, blood vessel branches for the heart, animals, etc.). Also note the exhibit is really busy, especially on weekends, and costs a bit ($19 for adults). I think it’s totally worth it, but 5-year olds it might be too much.

— Alan

It’s a great exhibit. Whether it would freak out any given kid is a big old “it depends.” I would’ve dug it as a tyke.

I was most impressed by the more selectively-preserved bits, like the entire circulatory system hanging there like the Invisible Man in mid fade-out.

It was godawful crowded when I saw it, though. Try to go on a weekday.

The title made me think that Dell actor had a tragic accident.

It’s the ever-luvvin’ shit. Go now.

I’m trying to go see it while it is here in DFW, hard to find the time now that classes have started.

I told my fiance I didn’t want to go because it was gross and she said it can’t be any more disgusting than those skin disorder conventions we call trips to a backwoods titty bar.

Just kidding, my fiance won’t go to naked lady shows where the ladies are still breathing. She is always making me go to dead body shows, though. If it’s not this one, it’s the catacombs underneath Paris, if it’s not that, it’s fricking Dachau. I shouldn’t complain, because I only had to be at each of those places for a day, which is better than having to be one of the dead people who made it famous enough to be on a postcard, but still.

If I were in charge of this exhibit, I would have my friend Cameron make a fake organ looking thing out of fimo and slip it in to a couple of the corpses. Or I would make a cut away display of some awesome moustache. Slice it in half, the front part shows the surface of the moustache, the inner view shows how lustrous and thick the moustache is.

That guy did a series of dissections filmed in front of an audience, and it was shown on UK TV. It may have even been live.

It’s not my thing, and I avoided most of it. However fate cruelly conspired me to switch channels one day and catch a minute or so of the entire series.

So why did that minute end with him slicing a penis open lengthways? I turned away whilst retching, and didn’t even see anything in detail, but I can honestly say it’s the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen on TV. Medical students, feel free to laugh and call me a pussy, I guess when it comes to dissection, I am. That guy sounds like Dr Strangelove, and is a genuine creepy mad scientist necrophilliac type.

Oh yeh, and aren’t some of the corpses executed Chinese prisoners ?

I saw this last summer in Denver, way cool. I don’t think a five year old would really get it. But just in case I’d get a sitter and take the wife. I was totally fascinated.

Apparently there is a chance this is the case. I know it’s been a controversy that keeps coming up with this exhibit. Depending on your view of things it may matter whether the bodies are there willingly (i.e. medical donation) or not, though we don’t seem to have the same issues with digging up long dead people and staring at their remains.

Your lady sounds like my kind of man, if you’ll excuse my turn of phrase.

To offset the Chinese prisoner rumors, the exhibit I saw had a huge blowup of a letter from some guy who just couldn’t wait to donate his body for plastination (well, not exactly “couldn’t wait”).

I actually was hoping it would be more creepy than it was. It is not close enough to real to be off-putting. If they had more skin and faces, that would probably make it better/worse/your call. It was fairly educational, but just in an observing sort of way. There’s not alot of text to accompany the bodies (except to tell what they did to the body - we sliced this way, we sliced that way). The creepy thing is the strange artistry to it, more prevalient than the science of it almost, like a challenge - what is the most outrageous thing we can do?

Most impressive exhibits were the plastinated pregnant woman with the cutaway belly and just the hand made of nothing but blood vessels. (Note: different shows feature different plastinates) Also, the comparisons between diseased & healthy organs was interesting. I wanted to see the horse.

Also, it’s … messy. I mean it’s not smooth and sleek. Little bits of flesh make most of the surfaces rough with … flesh. I’d almost rather see a model. One more thing: TESTES, plenty of dangling TESTES!

Worth seeing though, and there were plenty of kids there when I saw it.

[If you want a nice preview to the possible horriffic ramifications of it, see the German movie “Anatomy” before you go. It has Bourne’s wife/RunLolaRun in it.]

Wasn’t this the exhibit featured in Casino Royale?

Yes it was!

Just a heads up. If you are ever in France, a guy called Fragonard did this shit a few hundred years ago. Further proof that there is nothing new under the sun. I consider Fragonard’s work superior considering the materials he had to work on and the attitudes of the times.

Here is a link : http://musee.vet-alfort.fr/

also images here: http://www.kirchersociety.org/blog/?p=829

Yeah, they should always be sliced into eighths, so they look like octopuses:

That’s just not right dude.