In past pots, I believe I have mentioned my own personal white whale, a photograph of me when I was three-years-old standing the walrus enclosure at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma Washington with E.T. the walrus.
I have been searching for this photograph for a number of years now and have yet to find it. Somewhere buried in the basement clutter of my parent's home is a box of photographs I failed to search and it will be in there. I have believe that my encounter with the walrus is something that can't be easily paralleled. Toddlers are not allowed around megafauna. Hell, only a handful of privileged few are allowed into the enclosures of the large beasts of the world. Think of the people who swim with orcas at Seaworld...
The contrast between mounted trophy and live specimen (even if confined to a zoo) is blatantly obvious to me. But the awkwardness of the walrus, the bulk, the tusk, the impossible shape and muscle mass, both alive rendered are terrific in the classical sense of the word.
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