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I saw a similar exhibition in London a few years ago, and although it was fascinating, I had to question some of it. Not only were there bodies and body systems (ie just the nervous system or just the muscular system) of all shapes and sizes on display that had gone through this plastination process, there were some that were like sculptures, my memory of it has faded but I recall seeing a horse displayed in a weird fashion and also bodies riding bicycles and things like that. I know, my memory has gone to crap. They also had a room that was dedicated to pregnancy and unborn babies and that was a total shock. There was a pregnant woman's body and the belly had a section and you could see the unborn baby inside...it may have educational value of course, but the feeling of slight horror upon seeing all the different embryos and babies (some with clear deficiencies and malformations) made me wonder whether it was right to display them as they were displayed. You'd have to see it to understand I guess.
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Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.
Fernando Pessoa, 1918
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