Response for 2/15

I really loved these readings. Yes the Haraway piece was dense, and at times a bit flowery, but I really loved the juxtaposition of both texts. In terms of Dinosaurs in The Attic, I found that story of Meshie Mungkut (Harry Raven's pet monkey) to be really fitting with the Haraway reading. Besides being an incredibly sad story, it's an interesting look at the human fascination with different species being like us. Raven raised the monkey like a daughter, but in the end realized he couldn't control the biological constraints of her.

I was fascinated with the idea of manhood and this need to prove the power of humanness with the domination of a species. One of my favorite quotes was early on in the Haraway reading when she says, "The joining of life and death in these icons of Roosevelt's journeys...announces the central moral truth of the museum. This is the effective truth of manhood...the body can be transcended...'man is the sex which risks life and in so doing, achieves his existence..." (23). I find this idea so interesting in terms of the museum, and the anthropological lifestyle of the early 1900's, seeing as its this constant proving of human dominance. Akeeley killing that male silver back gorilla, was not only a matter of science, but showed a construction of power. The human (man) destroyed such a powerful creature in nature, and thus garners a sense of self. That's just really interesting to me for some reason.

Also I just wanted to note that the bug stories from Dinosaurs in the Attic were so good. Could you imagine being in an exhibit and seeing a scorpion walking around? Crazy. Also that roach story was so disturbing and brilliant all at the same.