First 9 Pages Response

Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder certainly has a unique air to its writing style. At first I didn't feel as though this work was actually non-fiction, but after looking up several of the topics covered within the book, I then realized what it was trying to accomplish and be. I would compare it somewhat to the film Russian Ark, as it feels like a storybook-like tour of the historical oddities and interests of these 20th century discoveries located in this museum that I would presume is an actual physical place. I rather enjoyed what I read because of it, as it ended up conveying information I most likely would have never looked into or ever even known about in an interesting and creative way. I think the reason I can readily believe this information though is the fact that Weschler does cite Sonnabend and Griffith's publications, provides images relating to the information he's giving out, and of course the fact that I can look up this information online to confirm that it's true. Thus, despite the work acting as a major source of secondary research due to its writing style of telling what these researchers discovered, it does provide primary research and resources as well so the validity of these "stories" doesn't need to be brought into question. I can tell that this work is a good example of a well written ethnographic piece of information on the intriguing natural science culture this museum, and understand the importance of why we’re reading it in order to get an idea for how our research should eventually end up sounding.