Assignment #5 [Due 2/26]

     "Lifelike" is a story written by Susan Orlean that was published in The New Yorker in June of  2003. Her story focuses the topic of taxidermy and the intense details that go behind 
     When the idea of taxidermy comes to mind we tend to just think of those weird life like stuffed animals that people mount on their walls. When in all reality there is a lot more behind it. 
     In my opinion the job seems morbid and I don't understand how anyone could find enjoyment in skinning dead animals only to preserve them to make them look real again. Susan even mentions that people tend to think that the job is disturbing and would make most people feel uncomfortable. I could never see myself being part of a job in that industry. 
     f I were to guess Susan's purpose on why she wrote such an article I would have to think that she is trying to show us that there is a to more to taxidermy than just the stuffing of dead animals. There are a lot of steps behind the curtain of this complex process that we don't tend to see. 
     Taxidermists take a lot of pride in their work. It may start out as a hobby but it looks like it turns into more of an obsession if anything. I feel as though this type of work takes over their life. 
    Like many other hobbies- there comes competitions. Taxidermists take large amounts of there time perfecting their work to make it successful. They bring their pieces form competition to competition to be judged and critiqued and on their work to see what others think of their work. 
     In my opinion I didn't enjoy this article. It wasn't something that I would go out of my way to read or even enjoy reading. I found it disturbing and morbid. There are hobbies all around the world that you can chose from, but to chose something like this is a hobby that is very time consuming and can take up a large part of one's life. 
     I am from a small town hick area where almost all my friends have some sort of animal mounted on their walls, and I always found it disturbing. I don't see where someone would come across the idea that they would want to become a taxidermist- none the less how they would go about actually doing it. But, everyone makes their own choices. I just don't think that their was a point to this article really. It had little to no point, and the target audience is a very small group of people who would be interested in such a topic.


Questions for the class:
1. Did the article seem interesting to anyone?
2. Would any of you actually consider being a taxidermist?
3. Do you think that this is a 'normal' hobby? or more of a weird obsession?