【avant-garde eroticism】

CHICAGO — The avant-garde eroticismAmerican Writers Museum, which opened its doors to the public Tuesday here in the Windy City, doesn't look like much from the outside.

It occupies the second floor of a nondescript office building in the middle of downtown, plain old 180 N. Michigan Ave., and your biggest problem getting here is that you might walk into the Citibank downstairs by mistake.

But the first rule of literature applies here: Don't judge a book by its cover.

Inside is a surprising little gem filled with 13 interactive exhibits that are the opposite of a stodgy old library. The curators of this, the first-ever museum devoted to American writing, have taken pains to appeal to people of all races, genders, and creeds, even if they're not big readers.

And they're thinking a lot about how to inspire you, allof you, to become writers yourselves.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Because this isn't just about books. Truth be told, it should be called the American Storytelling Museum. But founder Malcolm O'Hagan, 76, a manufacturing executive and literature-loving Irish American, was inspired by the Dublin Writers Museum and incensed that such a thing didn't exist in America, so here we are.

"It has to be spectacular or not at all," O'Hagan said four years into his 8-year, $10 million project. After seeing a preview, we're leaning toward the "spectacular" side of the equation — or at least, highly unusual.

The entire back section of the museum is dedicated to the very interactive stuff. On comfy seats around giant touchscreens, you can play literary games of Mad Libs (extra points for using the words the original author used) and fridge poetry.

Fridge poetry, the high-tech version. Credit: AP/REX/Shutterstock

For analog lovers, there's a table full of old typewriters (where all the journalists gravitated at the opening party). You're encouraged to type as long as you want, then pin your sheets of prose to the wall and create one large ongoing story. "Keep it clean!" begs the sign.

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In a neat bit of juxtaposition, you can pop next door and get inspired by the original scroll of On the Roadthat Jack Kerouac bashed out in three days on a typewriter just like these.

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He was full of Benzedrine, but he kept it clean.

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As much as they celebrate glorious hazy dreamers like Kerouac, O'Hagan's curators are not shy about the nasty aspects of American history either.

Here you'll find the Sioux educator Zitkála-Šá (who wrote passionately about "the stain on America's fair name" resulting from the treatment of Native Americans) represented more than, say, Henry James. People you might not think of as writers — rap artists like Tupac Shakur, or orators like Sojourner Truth — are given equal time.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

There are almost as many women writers as men represented in the exhibits. Although as the author Rosellen Brown thundered to me at the opening, there are also some odd omissions. "Where's Ursula K Le Guin?" she wondered, also noting a dearth of science fiction in general.

With limited space, the museum is going to run into this kind of problem a lot. Fans of the Broadway, Chicago, and San Francisco show Hamilton, for example, are going to explode when they see Thomas Jefferson and James Madison represented in the museum's hall of fame, but not their beloved Alexander.

Why not, when as we now all know he penned the other 51 of the Federalist Papers, and in general wrote like he was running out of time?

Still, the museum hopes to expand to a second floor soon, and is making many bold statements about its willingness to evolve and represent more of the literary tastes of guests. It's keeping a running total of what visitors judge to be the best books ever written, among other categories.

That's right: Every form of writing is represented here, including the humble listicle and the comments section.

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There are a few more intriguing exhibits of note, such as "All Awake in the Darkness," a room full of palms where you get to hear whispers of the poems selected by American poetry legend W.S. Merwin (who has, as a hobby, spent his life building a massive palm grove in Hawaii).

But the coup de grace is a surprisingly non-digital exhibit called the Word Waterfall. Pinpoint projection picks out particular words on a wall filled with them, forming one quote after another on the essential meaning of America. The other words are used for vast colorful pixelated animations, while the room is awash in sound effects.

Here's a particularly interesting juxtaposition of quotes, from Woody Guthrie and George Carlin:

The American Writers Museum will cost you $15 ($13 for students and seniors), and your kids a big fat nothing.

Maybe there's hope for the next generation of American writers after all.

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Topics Books