To celebrate Chris' birthday, a whole bunch of us (Dan'l, Brenda, me-self, Steve, Bridget, Dave Tebby, BHAM!, Matty Price, and also Chris) went to the Science Centre yesterday to look at the corpsified bodies. It was a big ol' field trip. We made permission slips and everything. Occasionally we did head counts to make sure everyone was still with the group and not lost amongst the learning. I even brought my camera:

Approaching the Science Centre.

Chris with the permission slips.

Daniel with his head up the ass of a box.

Then those nazis told me I couldn't take my camera inside, lest the science be photographed, so that was the end of that. They also told me that it would be $25 to see the exhibit, which let me exclaim "They're in it for the money, not the science!" in an actual relevant context, which is #37 on the list of 100 random, pointless things I need to do before I die. So that's cool. We stood around in line for 45 minutes debating the spelling of aureolae (and consequently fantasizing about their tissuey goodness), and then we went to see a bunch of dead bodies.

The exhibit on the whole is very interesting. It's a bit dry in parts and frankly you get a bit tired of reading the science-speak at every single stop along the way, but this actually works out okay because in Body Works 2's case, there's a whole other point alongside the science, and that's the sheer godfuck craziness of staring at a bunch of people with their skin gone, doing weird shit like riding skateboards and doing yoga. There was a human head made up of nothing but blood vessels. There was an army of prosciutto people. There was "The Exploded Human," a complete human body in all of its parts, but with all of the parts expanded outwards to allow complete view of every single element. I went around behind that one, did a deep forward bend to get my head underneath it, and then cranked my head around to look straight up, and was generally pleased to see that from that angle, the exploded human looks pretty much like the entire cosmos, in prettier colours. I then sublime-ridiculated by accidentally tripping my ear on one of the exploded human's suspension wires on my way out, causing the right leg to kick. I ran like hell.

The elements that really fucked me up, though, were threefold:

The brain. Sure, I've had a bit too much schooling lately in the relative pointlessness of all human existence and the futility of life, but staring at a preserved human brain in a glass case and realizing that this small (much smaller than you'd expect), reddish lump of meat is the sum vessel for my entire awareness and everything that I am, was... well... really upsetting. I was reading something recently about how the relative interior importance of reality versus fantasy has actually shifted in the 20th century, because we're inured with so much media (fantasy) that it's more real to us than reality... and I'm sitting there staring at that brain and thinking, fuck it all: I might just as well give "reality" a clean miss and let my brain bathe itself in the happy endorphens that come from imagining that my life is a damn sight better than it is. After all, no matter what I do - from a complete and stringent effort at improving the reality of my existence, to an out-and-out nervous breakdown skullfucking - my small, reddish lump of meat is going to be long dust at some point, and much sooner than I think. Hello? Pointless much?

The lungs. We've all had that "scare 'em straight" moment at some point in our lives where they showed us a smoker's lung and how ridiculously gross it is, but there's nothing like seeing a smoker's lung right alongside a healthy one. It's about half the size, because the smoke has so utterly destroyed the tissue that it's basically not even the same thing any more. Imagine: not even being able to breathe half the amount of air you're supposed to. This part of the exhibit just made me really sad. There was a cross-section of a smoker's tumour-riddled lung nearby, and all I could think of was this older guy I know, who's probably already got the beginnings of tumours throughout his lungs on both sides, and how he's thoroughly rendered his body unable to ever function as it was supposed to, ever again. Honestly, the lungs made me want to leave, or sit down and cry.

The pregnant woman. Maybe the most beautiful (if in a very strange way) thing I've seen in a very long while. I think pregnant women are generally among the most beautiful things ever, but this was a strikingly profound variation on the theme. The Body Worlds 2 pregnant woman was in her fifth month when she died with the fetus inside her; she was posed in a standing position and her midsection was gently teased open to reveal the baby. Man, I just zoned out and stared at that thing for about ten minutes. I can't even really describe the effect or the hold that it had on me, except that it set the deepest strings of me humming in chords. There are moments here and there in my life when I am reminded why, all bi-fun-n'-gaming aside, I am completely, perfectly, resiliently heterosexual. This possibly one of the strongest ones.