h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Gunther Von Hagen and Plastination - A804322
Author: Em - nervously starting her first sub-editing - U129266

An essay I wrote for school about Professor Gunther von Hagens, the process of Plastination and the moral objections towards it's viewing in the modern art world.

Think it could do with some Headers and the first person at the end may be a bit of problem

Hi.

This is a well researched entry on an interesting topic. Which it should be considering it's an essay.

However the purpose of writing essays is to show you can consider arguments and come to a descion but the purpose of Edited Entries is to be balanced!

I personally would put a section in at the begining describing who Proffessor Von Hagan is, then deal with the controversy in a serparate section and get rid of the final sentance completely.

Until recently the only people who were privaledged to see the inside of the human bodies were members of the medical proffession. They is a musem at most medical schools which has body parts on display. This in essense is no different to visiting Proffs exhibition.

People really don't seem to have a great knowledge of medical science themselves. For instance i had to expalin to my Dad the other week what the liver and kidney's do. In a recent study a large proportion of people cannot locate most of the major organs on a picture of the human body. People will spend a lot of money on alturnative health care that cannot possibly work when they could get more effective care for free. By gaining a greater insight into how marvellous their bodies are it may encourage people to take better care of them.

I have heard proffessor Van Holden say that the exhibition is intended for people to learn what goes on inside there bodies. It is not art. The reason the bodies are displayed in that manner is to make them more interesting to the general public. If they were all displayed in the antomical position (staring straight ahead, hands by there sides palms facing up and for some reason penis erect) then it would be incredable dull.

There is a great movement in modern art to shock as much as can be, as soon as a boundary is set in art it is broken. The is this art debate has been dragged on for so long that it's virtually pointless. However the Proffessor is not an artist, these pieces are not for sale and he hasn't entered them in traditional art galleries. Yes he hired an art gallery to exhbit at for space reasons.

My personal view in summary is that the proffessor is opening up what were previously secrets of the medical proffession to the general public who are very interested in them. By doing so he's transgressing the boundarys bettween the Doctor and the Patient.

Z! You've just said what I was about to express.

His name is Gunther von Hagen - not 'Hagens' or 'von Hagens'.

I've seen the work too and I must say the allegations that von Hagen would be doing it only for the effect ( & publicity) are exaggerated. The 'drawer' exhibit is one of *many* and really isn't much enough to make up an opinion on the whole thing.

I left the exhibition wondering how on Earth it is possible to 'develop' such a overwhelmingly filigrane, complicated, interwoven and marvellous system that our body is, even if your name was 'God' or 'Nature' or and even if you were given millions of years to make it work.

It left me wondering just how many conditions, from oxygene in the atmosphere over the composition of plants and animals we feed on, to contamination of the environment, need to be in balance so we can simply *exist*.

It left me wondering how at all it might be possible for medicine to work out *all* the effects a certain medicine or substance may have on the chemistry going on there.

Somewhere it says that the whole human genetic code, if converted to binary, would fit onto a 2GByte harddrive. I can't imagine how all the necessary information can be squeezed into such a small space: how to build the system of nerves, how to let them control the processes and muscles, defining where blood vessels are, how to make insuline, how to make insuline making cells, and so on, and so on.

Oops?

Hey, there's definitely a gap in the Guide here! Please balance it out and keep it in PR (or stick it back) so you won't lose another week before it's going in!

I've taken it out.

Ok that's fine but please add the extra bits! cos as Bossel says there's a gap in the guide here!

Certainly Von hagen deserves a guide entry.

Mina and Myself went to see the exhibition recently in London, and I must confess I came away feeling much the same as Bossel. I was amazed and moved by the exhibition in ways I had not thought I would be, and thoroughly recommend it to anyone with the slightest curiousity about how their body works.

The thing that kept going through my mind throughout was Wordsworth's 'Intimations of Mortality'. The exhibition proved to me (not that I had *much* doubt before) that life is a wonderful and fragile gift.

I'm not saying that it's not a wonderful gift that von Hagen has given us, but when I wrote this essay for my English Higher it was his saying that he could be compared to the great anatomical artists.

I would go and see this show purely on the bases that I've done so much in relation to it over my 5th year at school, I wrote essays, I did talks for it, researched on the net and sat through very graphic television programs about how it all occurred.

Going to the show would certainly enlighten me on what I was talking about, as I was purely working from the bases of all the uproar the exhibition created. Unfortunately due to school, only being 17 and all other timing problems I could go to London to see it, and I don't believe it's been up anywhere near me, if it came to Edinburgh or Glasgow I'd certainly go. And I'm sure my opinion on this would change.

It was at his more outragious figures that the essay was aimed at, the Drawer Man for example, because to me these don't appear to be showing the human body but are trying to be artistic (following an idea from a painting by Dali) others such as the man playing Chess and similarly less posed of the figures I can see the reason for. These are showing how the body works.

The problem I found and the reason I took it out of PR is the fact that I'm not altogether sure how to improve it, it took me months to write for school as it is, I got an A for it and I think because I haven't seen the exhibition and the moral complaints I've heard (that and feeling distinctly like I was going to throw up whilst watching the program on how he did it all) have left me wondering how to get this other angle in.

I would be grateful for any help with getting it up to standard and I will then resubmit it to PR

Emily
XX

That's the problem with second-source information

My suggestion would be to start with describing what types of exhibits are there (like, the skeleton, the muscles, the nerve system etc) and putting the technique involved into a section of its own. The controversy would be best left as it is, ie: under 'pro' you could quote Blues and me, under 'con' you could put the concerns that are already there.

How does that sound?

Maybe also a bit about the history of anatomy. The artistic litographies where the 'model' stands in a natural pose but has muscles hanging down showing the ones underneath etc. Disections in front of an audience of physicians. The occasional grave-robbery to keep up the supply of corpses.
On the controversy issue I agree that von Hagen has gone a little too far. On the other hand I might have felt so even if he'd left out the most shocking pieces, just because of the general freakishness of displaying actual dead bodies in such a manner. And I'm not really opposed to it on those grounds. Hmm... this is getting to be too much for my brain, have to shut it down.

I see Em is back in the building

I hope when you get control of your account once again you can submit this once again for the Edited Guide.

Even though your entry's been sitting here in its unedited state, you may be interested to know that it has already been cited in no less than three publications:

Social Semiotics, Volume 17, Issue 3 Sep 2007, pages 313 - 326

The emotions: a cultural reader (Berg, 2007)

Positioning the Profession: the Tenth International Congress on Medical Librarianship, Aug 31-Sep 4, 2009

(There's some more info on these citations available via this page: A46972182)

You've clearly written a very definitive article, and I'd love to see it re-submitted for the Edited Guide

Icy