I watched this clip at work, then came home to kids with colds and a wife who insisted on taking the older ones to a hockey game, leaving me with the younger, sicker, crankier ones, so my thoughts about this have yet to coalesce.

A dozen years ago or so, I recall a news story about a "virtual human" that was being created for students of anatomy to study. The body of an executed prisoner was to be used, with that person's pre-execution permission I seem to recall, and sliced with lasers to millimeter-thin proportions, then digitally mapped down to the smallest possible measure.

This particular person was a killer, and I remember thinking, perhaps unreasonably "is that the body we want students of anatomy studying?"

Obviously this is a bit silly on the surface. It's not as though the millimeter-thin slices are likely to help us "map" the "killing part." That, and, Students need to be able to study bodies, and sometimes cadavers are in short supply, and sometimes the item being studied does not warrant use of a cadaver . . . so a project like that makes sense to me.

What makes less sense to me, about the clip you posted, is why we need these bizarre creatures of plastic taxidermy at all, aside from their freak-show potential.

Skeletons of once-living people are on display in many places (classrooms, museums) throughout the world, as are mummies and other forms of the long dead. The issue of appropriation of human remains for study is hotly contested in some quarters, since many peoples believe that their ancestors are contemporary with us in some fashion or other, or at least are not to be disturbed. (I happen to think that there is value in studying ancient remains, but at the same time I think that there is value in respecting traditional beliefs.)

But I digress. The part of the film that is most disturbing to me is not the fact that these bodies may belong to political prisoners who have been executed. I suppose I just don't find it all that surprising that political prisoners are killed on a routine basis in many countries throughout the world. And what happens to their bodies after they're dead . . . well, I'm not sure how much it matters. (Emphasis on "not sure.")

What surprised me the most was the bizarre artistry and comic allusions of the displays. The epidermis and dermis are cut to ribbons, revealing the muscles beneath, but not entirely--patterns are established, so that the contour of a muscle can be detected on both the outer and inner layer . . . and then a football is inserted into the scene. (Or a basketball.)

I found that somewhat incongruous. Shouldn't the football be cut up as well?

As I said . . . my thoughts on the matter have yet to coalesce.

Herring405