Assignment 6 [Due: February 28]

The article 'Lifelike' was written by Susan Orlean and published in The New Yorker. The New Yorker is a weekly magazine that covers a wide variety of topics such as cartoons, blogs, fiction, reviews, and criticisms for things such as movies and restaurants. I think that The New Yorker was a good place for Orlean's article, because with a variety of genres of writing comes a variety of readers as well. This allows her to target not only the people already knowledgeable on taxidermy, but also the people who are interested in it, and even the people who know nothing about it.

Susan Orlean is a journalist, and in my opinion a very good one. She showed us readers first hand the types of articles you can produce by being an immersion journalist. Orlean lived through her work. You can tell in the beginning she was new to the topic of taxidermy as well, but by the end of the article she could fit right in at championships and taxidermy contests. I think that this helps Orleans more relatable to us readers. When the author is learning with you it helps her credibility and also helps us to maintain interest.  Reading a list of facts tends to be dry and dull- whereas we have the opportunity to put ourselves into Susan's writing.

You can tell Orlean's work was important to her because she dedicated time and effort to her experience. Not only did she spend her time researching her topic on the internet, but she traveled to the World Taxidermy Championship. This makes me view Orlean as a more credible resource because she not only used resources that were readily available to her, but traveled half way across the country to immerse herself in the topic. She went to the Crown Plaza hotel in Springfield, Illinois for the 2003 World Taxidermy Championship. She was intent on learning more about the world of taxidermy and being a part of these peoples life. She studied the animals, talked with people, and also listened to conversations between taxidermists.

Orlean takes a very unbiased  open minded approach with this piece. You can tell she does so because of her even writing. She gives us a lot of information that helps show us what an art taxidermy really is. She is intrigued by certain animals such as the panda, and the sabertooth- you can tell because otherwise they wouldn't be a part of her writing. She is very informative about the hard work and dedication that goes behind taxidermy. Certain things show Orlean may not have been on board with the idea of taxidermy such as the man on the bottom of page two who seems to have some kind of obsession with deer. I think Orlean taking such a neutral view allows us as readers to take our own path of judgement. She doesn't try to persuade us in any certain way more so just shows us what really goes on behind closed doors and that there really is more to taxidermy than we think, and that those people take pride in their art.

Before reading this article all taxidermy was to me was creepy deer heads on the wall in peoples houses with oddly humanistic eyes. Orlean showed me how seriously these people take their jobs. Taxidermy is an art form whether we recognize it as one or not. The people who practice it take it very serious and make sure to perfect their pieces. Some of us find it gruesome or grotesque- but without it people wouldn't be able to freeze that animal in time. People get sculptures as remembrances of animals, or hunting momentous, or just to preserve history, and without someone doing that job saving these moments wouldn't be possible.