I think the distinction is it’s easier to see disembodied parts because they don’t seem real. Bodies in some semblance of their original configuration are a little harder to take.
Robin
But besides floating bits, there are also a few malformed fetuses. Have you seen the picture of the cyclops cat? The Mutter Museum has a cyclops fetus. Besides which, the bodies in Body Works are generally healthy. The Mutter Museum has specimens in which something has gone horribly wrong.
I agree with MsRobyn; if you can stomach the Mutter you can probably handle Bodyworlds. (I’ve already seen it or I’d join in the OP’s proposal.) But I can understand Twickster feeling differently, because there are a few differences between the Mutter and BodyWorlds:
–The Mutter, being a replica of a 19th century museum, has little or nothing sexual on display. BodyWorlds lets it all hang out, in every sense of the phrase. There’s even a whole preserved pregnant woman.
–The preservative methods at the Mutter change the color of the specimens, so they look less human than they are. At BodyWorlds everything is colored as realistically as possible.
–BodyWorlds is also a venue for Gunther von Hagens’s artistic sense, which is definitely not to everyone’s taste. The aforementioned pregnant woman is displayed lounging on her side in an almost suggestive pose, which bothered me. The man holding up his own skin is an impressive image; the man holding out his own internal organs in his hands, not so much. Some of the bodies have been cut apart, pulled around, exploded and otherwise posed in ways that seem to be inspired by little but “What would it look like if I did X?”
Actually, I found the clear-plastic sections more interesting than many of the plastinates. The sectioned muscle fibers have a wonderful feathery quality, and the healthy lung tissue is amazingly delicate-looking; the alveoli look like tiny bubbles in a fine foam that could collapse if you blew on it too hard. Compare it to the diseased lung next to it and smoking looks like a REALLY stupid idea.
So it looks like it’s just going to be me and DocCathode. Oh well. Though I will add that there are no other scheduled exhibitions on the East Coast.
My ex boss has seen it three times. He raves about it.
I was supposed to go and see it with him last time, but unfortunately, had to do some work.
I don’t think I’ll be able to make it this time, as I am unemployed and every little dollar counts…