Wednesday 11 September 2013

Free at random in the British Museum

I used to dislike the British Museum. Too big, overwhelming, and obscure; a pile of too many confusing and inexplicable objects, propped up in glass cases. 

To make it all worse, those scuttling keepers stole my ordinary letters, numbers, and punctuation, and turned them into indecipherable Curator Code IBP 6757-2/1 db

I can be kind to myself and say that museums have come a long way in making their stock accessible. But I suspect I was just young. I liked a simple narrative and a solvable problem. It made moving on that much quicker.

But now, now, when I am older, I want to fill my time with unfinished business. I hanker after unknowables, un-thought-about problems, and puzzles I have not met before. I want no prospect of completion, no story with conclusion.

Have three of my finds today.




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