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04/11/2005: "People slices"
Song of the Day: Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone (Jason Nevins Rhythm Dance Radio Remix)
This weekend, I saw 25 dead bodies. I saw slices of people. I saw spleens and livers.
No, I didn't visit Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment. I went to see the Body Worlds exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry. For anyone who hasn't heard about it, it's a display of human bodies and organs that have been preserved with a method called "plastination." There were 25 bodies and over 200 specimen. The bodies were stripped down to their muscles, bones, and organs and often weren't protected by a glass case - the only thing separating you from the bodies was the "do not touch" rule that was repeated over the loud speaker from time to time.
It was entirely morbid, but absolutely breathtaking. The bodies that were comprised of nothing but blood vessels (done with a procedure that hardened the blood vessels so the rest of the body could be stripped away) were absolutely awe inspiring. There was the body of an 8-month-pregnant woman with the baby still inside her. She donated her body to the cause after learning she probably wouldn't survive the length of the pregnancy due to illness. There were about a dozen tubes holding embryos at various stages of the first trimester of pregnancy - the thing doubled in size over a matter of days.
The only explanations of where the bodies came from were from the reproductive area where the pregnant woman and embryos/fetuses were. It was very weird staring at the full-body, cross-sectional slices of a 300-pound body (done to show the effect of obesity on the body - the technique preserved the exact color and visual texture of the fat) and knowing that it was a person that somebody knew. The fact that the plastination technique gave everything a shine made it seem less than real at times, but the visual textures of everything were very intact. As gross as it sounds, the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw a body comprised of nothing but the muscles was, "God, that looks just like the meat that I eat."
I'm not sure which city it stops at next (it's already been in Asia, Europe, and Los Angeles), but if it visits any city near you (I'm speaking to YOU, person sitting at the monitor!), don't miss out on the opportunity. I'm still reeling from what I saw, and words can't even be used to describe some of my thoughts and feelings.