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Metaphor |
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The Chapters |
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Introduction |
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Language of Metaphors |
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Genetics of Alphabet Soup |
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Inherent Programming |
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The Fractal Chemist |
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Nanosemaphore |
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Knowgramming |
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Fun Stuff |
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The Usual |
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What is Taxidermy? (Reader Inquiry)
| Definition: the art of preserving
and mounting the skins of creatures in order that they may appear lifelike.
From Greek; taxis = movement; derma = skin. Literally Moving
skin.
Compassion, coveting and substitution - the prerequisites of taxidermy. Don't touch my stuffed bear! I want him with me always! It's
sooo lifelike! The dearly-departed-come-diamond technology (which I cut out of "What is Embalming?" for length), is a removal process similar to dehydration but broader in scope. This is matched closely by the common Asian practice of garnishing ones neck with a small cache of loved ones' ashes, both put in loving order via crystallization or ornamental housing, respectively. In both cases, the new "housing of the soul" is treated as a cat treats its surrogate child. A way of possessing a desired soul without the muss, fuss and maggots. |
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From the teeth draped around the neck, through a snakes rattle on a wand, to the feathers of a headdress, the dead are reduced to their meaning with taxidermy. The shrunken head process is technically a gripping read, as we deem it frightful, yet a rabbits foot is merely charming.
Taxidermy, then, seems more a process of preserving "meaning" rather than "form", which leads to this statement: Embalming saves ones' matter and taxidermy preserves ones energy. Both issue a sense of permanence, with embalming tending to contract ones' space - as a mass would, even being placed in stone, metal or ceramic; and taxidermy tending to insist on an eternal expression of space through movement - bears' paws up, birds' wings out or fish's tail curved.An object at rest will stay at rest unless acted on by a force (namely: life); an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an equal and opposite force (namely: death).
Embalming keeps the dead from living and taxidermy keeps the living from dying.
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