Taxidermy Gone Wrong: The Funniest, Freakiest (and Outright Creepiest) Beastly Vignettes by Rob Colson
My rating: 5/5 cats
i know, i knooooow taxidermy is one of those highly divisive practices that makes some people go all squicky, so for those of you triggered by this particular juxtaposition of the grotesque and the whimsical, feel free to reroute yourself to a review of any of nancy rose’s books*, in which she photographs her real live backyard squirrels across various tableaux. i love her, i am using her wall calendar:
and i envy her whole squirrel-filled life. but my panimal heart can love rodents in motion and also love them in a preserved state.
i saw a dead mouse on my way to work the other day, and it was such a bummer, but if i had instead seen this
or this
it would have been a much nicer start to my day.
for me, it’s all about balance and compartmentalization—i have rescued at least three mice from glue traps (very traumatic experiences), i catch and release houseflies, but i still eat meat and i think this is hi-larious:
the way i see it, anything jenny lawson’s into has got to be okay.
but first things first—this book’s title is absolutely a lie. i’ve read and reviewed Get Stuffed: 24 Projects for the Bereaved Pet Owner, Crap Taxidermy and Much Ado about Stuffing: The Best and Worst of @CrapTaxidermy, all of which which featured examples of truly horrific taxidermy:
NONE of the projects in this book qualify as an example of something going ‘wrong,’ unless you object to taxidermy on principle. these are not products of unskilled taxidermists:
the work itself, capturing movement and giving the animals postmortem personalities is extremely accomplished
and there’s a lot of creativity and care in their construction
and a humor i appreciate, even especially when it gets dark
this piece made me think of t. kingfisher’s The Hollow Places, which had some extremely shivery taxidermy-based scenes:
and this one:
naturally made me think of this:
bet those skeksis wish they had a taxidermist on staff…
and if i can’t have a frosty or a pumpkin of my own, because their clever little hands would dismantle everything i own, maybe i could pretend with one of these:
and you knew you weren’t getting out of a karen-review without me talking about BIRDS!
just look at these little monsters breaking their accomplices out of prison:
and thinking about rapping schoolchildren’s knuckles with rulers:
recently, i have become rather adept at hand-feeding (if not photographing-whilst-hand-feeding) the local squirrel population, but this:
is (nearly) enough to make a girl reconsider this practice.
IN CONCLUSION, whether or not it’s delusional to believe that all these animals died naturally of old age or through misadventure, i’m doing it anyway, and now that it’s FINALLY been released after many delays, i’m about to read Best Friends Forever: The Greatest Collection of Taxidermy Dogs on Earth and i might even get choked up.
* or wait for greg to publish a book of his photographs of saratoga’s wildlife:
read my book reviews on goodreads
