Stiff

Stiff:

The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers

Sam Cole

Isabel Young

Kristen Gould

Anna Lautzenheiser

By: Mary Roach

PASSAGE

DEATH AT ITS FINEST

"She never heard of this story. She says she has known all her workers, and she has been here for more than ten years and she would know about this kind of story. And she cannot help you." I would love to see a full transcript of the director's reply, and then again I wouldn't.

Back in the cab, I explained myself to Sandy as best I could. apologized for putting her through this. She laughed. We both laughed. We laughed so hard that the cab driver demanded to know what we were laughing about, and he laughed too. The driver had grown up in Haikou, but he hadn't heard the story of the Guang brothers. Neither, it later turned out, had any of Sandy's friends. We had the driver let us off at the Haikou public library to look for the original article. As it turns out, no paper named "The Hainan Special Zone Daily" exists, only "The Hainan Special Zone Times," which is a weekly. Sandy looked through the papers for the week of Match 23, 1991, but there was no mention of the human dumplings. She also check the old phone books for the White Temple Restaurant and found nothing." (Roach, 244)

RESPONSE

Final Response

Overall, I would not recommend this book as a personal reading project. Inflammatory comments and irrelevant tangents made the book very hard to read for enjoyment. However, most facts in the book are well researched and are experienced by the author, giving much credibility to Roach. The only time I would recommend this book is if for some reason specific research was needed on the subject of cadavers and their path to experimentation.

Read it?

Why Not?

Why?

Accusing a business of formerly employing

cannibals is disrespectful, especially when talking to a busy woman who took time out

of her schedule in order to talk to Roach. If

she had ample evidence, perhaps it would at

least be an interesting thing to add to her book.

However, after all of the fuss, she finds proof that

was available to her in the first place that her allegations were impossible, and she just had not bothered to check out any other sources before going on a wild goose chase and wasting her own time as well as that of others. Her lack of research sheds light on her character and her absence of dedication to her work.

Background

However offputting the author’s personal style choices are for the writing of this book, she leaves very little to the imagination and definitely gives all information desired on the topics of cadavers and their history. Her information goes very deep, often times she goes the distance to firsthand show cadavers’ experience in the afterlife . Her strange sense of humor will definitely satisfy some readers, though it can easily be considered too brass for the majority of non-fiction enthusiasts.

Stiff, like any piece of literature based on a controversial subject, requires a specific audience to be wholly loved and admired. The author, Mary Roach tries to find a balance between both science and spirituality, and somehow manages to mix in her odd sense of Humor. The nonfiction prose is not for the sensitive, or light of heart. One of the many low points of the book is in part to the authors insensitivity to minorities. Her ableist views give the book an air of unprofessionalism and Her poorly timed humor does not help clear up her muddled sense of reality and fiction. An entire chapter in the book is filled with uncited Wives Tales that “may or may not be true”. Besides her bad storytelling in a nonfiction piece of literature, the author continually attempts to mix religion into an informational work.

The passage we chose was set in China. Mary Roach made a poorly planned trip to a place called Hainan Province where she sought to prove (or ultimately disprove) the truth behind an urban myth about two brothers, one being a restaurant owner and the other working at an unnamed crematorium, who cut and served the "buttocks of the deceased in the form of dumplings" to unsuspecting customers. According to the initial information, they were caught by a family requesting one last look before cremation of a beloved deceased, lacking the aforementioned pieces.

Citation

Roach, Mary. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. New York: W.W. Norton, 2003. Print.

Mary Roach: Author, Informer, Friend of the Dead

Style Choices

Mary Roach tried. She really did. She gave us hard fact. She gave us poorly timed humor. She gave us quite the experience.

Purpose?

Overall, the purpose is to inform the audience of a decent amount of opportunities a body has in order to contribute to the "greater good" after death, as well as give an interesting documentary of the experiences and knowledge she gained through the process of "investigative journalism."

Diction/Word Choices?

She used a variety of terms to convey her thoughts and experiences, ranging from highly scientific to borderline childish. She mixed the uncomfortable information with puns and the knowledge she was trying to convey with inappropriate hypothetical inquiries. She used medical terms and scientific vocabulary, but then reversed her credibility. Her style is exceedingly casual for the complexity of the subject, as most of the passages seem to resemble a conversation with run-on sentences and a fair amount of use of the word "and." However, she did present valid information and kept an interesting outlook on historical science.

7-12

Tone?

The tone of this book, overall, is somber yet witty, with a hint of poorly made attempts at humor. The author voices that she wishes to come off as respectful, but the comical relief sways her professional outlook. Granted, the topic is heavy and can create a sense of either horror or disgusted admiration for the ethical sacrifice made by those who work within or donated themselves to the fields of study, yet the author represents an air of naivety that wasn't expected.

This book covers a wide range of gripping and thought provoking topics. In the span of six chapters, Mary Roach gave insight into the fascinating world of the more gory subjects such as decapitation and cannibalism, as well as the more controversial religious/spiritual aspects. In chapter seven, the entirety focuses on the potential actions taken by the crucified Jesus in order to explain a strange red marking on the cross presumably made by blood, and in turn discovering the method and angle of which he was nailed to the cross. Chapter eight touches on the resolve and courage it takes nurses and doctors to utilize the internal organs of brain-dead patients to save another life, and at the same time tie in the ever-so-puzzling "quest for the soul" debate. In chapter nine, past work is displayed to find if bodies aren't vital to mental survival, and chapter ten show that eating bits and pieces of your neighbor can both confuse the author (and send her on a wild-goose-chase)** as well as create a questionable medical theory. Eleven shows that in the future there can be a positive effect on the environment. To end it all, chapter twelve is a recap on the entirety of the book and gives the authors opinion on the improvements that cadaver research can have on upcoming generations.

* * See Passage For Details

Rhetoric Triangle

Pathos

In this book, Mary Roach tries to relate emotion to her audience in the forms of respectful condolences and humorous quips. She goes in depth on topics that are heavy and slightly depressing, then tries to lighten the mood in order to keep her audience interested and involved. Balancing the levels of happy and sad in her writing is vital to the success of this novel, and at points it's questionable whether or not she achieved this, but not for the lack of trying.

i want to die

please kill me

Ethos

Throughout the book, Roach proves her credibility to readers by referencing the work of various researchers who have studied and worked with cadavers. In every chapter, Roach referred to multiple different people of whom she visited and learned from, or the works of other analysts. By sharing her experience with these credible researchers, Roach proved to the readers that she was presenting honest information throughout her book. Roach also wrote confidently and clearly, leading a reader to believe that she was qualified to be writing her book.

Logos

Roach often uses facts and statistics to get her point across. Her chapters are filled with everything from lists of the supposed medicinal uses of corpses to in depth scientific explanations of complex scientific concepts such as the blurred line between life and death. In fact her use of Logos stood out as impressive throughout the book. At no point did she leave concepts with stones

unturned or interesting tidbits

unmentioned.