Novel Activities

“I get the glimpses of the horror of normalcy. Each of these innocents on the street is engulfed by a terror of their own ordinariness. They would do anything to be unique.” – Arturo Binewski, “Geek Love” by Katherine Dunn

Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out–with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes–to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. Reading Geek Love inspired my visit to the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia. The museum’s exhibits of anatomical abnormalities help the public “appreciate the mysteries and beauties of the human body.” The day I visited the Mütter there was a special exhibit called Imperfecta that was freakishly perfect to view in the wake of Geek Love. The exhibit is open through the fall of 2019, and “examines shifting perceptions about abnormal human development, from fear and wonder to curiosity and clinical science.” I think Al Binewski would have been a frequent student of the museum. Thank goodness he’s just a figment of fiction.

[S]imply because a condition such as abnormal human development has been studied and classified by medical science, that does not mean that it cannot touch the deepest part of our psyche, making us question what it means to be imperfect.

Mutter Museum on the exhibit, “Imperfecta”

[Read more…] about Mütter Museum – Fiction to Inspire Your Visit to Philadelphia’s Freakiest Collection of Real-Life Anatomical Oddities