Nonetheless, this 'cataclysmic' event is how the author sets up the rest of the story. This could be mocking the theories that some people come up with about other events in the past. He explains that postal rates reduced and the entire North American civilization was buried under brochures and fliers and 'small containers called free.' It is a rather comical way to open his book and quite the explanation for what happened to the civilization.

He uses Latin words pollutantus literati in a comical way to describe what has covered the the continent.

The author begins the book by describing what happened to the world in 1985 and what it looks like now in 4022. The images do add to the humour in their content and the way that they are created. I think that the the illustrations could have been a little more detailed and not so juvenile however I think the author/illustrator does this to make the images appear to be sketches and drawings that workers/archaeologists would create in the field. These descriptive words are accompanied by some interesting illustrations. In addition to this I think he does this to add to the comedic and mockery nature of the book. This may be because he hoped this would make the book more appealing to a larger audience. In that I think that a lot of the time the author put more thought into the descriptive words than he did the content and archaeological terminology. However, children would not understand the archaeological references but they would understand and possibly be excited by the flowery and descriptive writing that seems to 'dumb it down,' for lack of a better phrase. Upon signing out Macaulay's Motel of the Mysteries I was surprised to see that it was less than a 100 pages and appeared to be more of a picture book for children than a novel.

When my professor informed me of this book and how it specifically mocks this tendency of archaeologists and I knew I had to read it for my book review. I, myself, have my own issues, I have blogged about, with how archaeologists tend to refer to items that they are not sure about as being religious or ceremonial or sacred. I say attempt but he does so seemingly without difficulty. In David Macaulay's Motel of the Mysteries he attempts to mock the current methods and procedures of archaeologists.

Motel of mysteries