Saturday afternoon was spent wandering the halls of the natural history museum in London. Somehow I’d never been before, though the related sections of the museum in Edinburgh are similar in concept – skeletons, taxidermy, fossils. The building itself is architecturally impressive (and vast), with some beautiful details, such as monkeys climbing the columns. Prior to museums becoming ‘cool’ in the 80s, I imagine it would have been pretty much the stereotype for a huge, echoey building full of glass cases.
Yesterday however, the echoes were not audible over the screaming of children of all sizes and flavour, accompanied by their owners. It’s interesting to note that in a world containing video games consoles, a life-sized animatronic T-rex or blue whale skeleton can still captivate impressionable young minds, and be used as a vehicle to sell countless stuffed toys.
An aside – skulls of elephants (complete with tusks) are not the ideal thing to gaze upon having just been reading Lovecraft. I’m pretty sure I only screamed on the inside. Fhtagn.
