Stiff - Discussion
February 5, 2008 12:44 pm Currently Reading, Discussion, January 08, Non-FictionOfficial discussion thread for Mary Roach’s “Stiff” (Amazon)
Non-Fiction book of the month, February 2008
Description:
“Uproariously funny” doesn’t seem a likely description for a book on cadavers. However, Roach, a Salon and Reader’s Digest columnist, has done the nearly impossible and written a book as informative and respectful as it is irreverent and witty. From her opening lines (”The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back”), it is clear that she’s taking a unique approach to issues surrounding death. Roach delves into the many productive uses to which cadavers have been put, from medical experimentation to applications in transportation safety research (in a chapter archly called “Dead Man Driving”) to work by forensic scientists quantifying rates of decay under a wide array of bizarre circumstances. There are also chapters on cannibalism, including an aside on dumplings allegedly filled with human remains from a Chinese crematorium, methods of disposal (burial, cremation, composting) and “beating-heart” cadavers used in organ transplants. Roach has a fabulous eye and a wonderful voice as she describes such macabre situations as a plastic surgery seminar with doctors practicing face-lifts on decapitated human heads and her trip to China in search of the cannibalistic dumpling makers. Even Roach’s digressions and footnotes are captivating, helping to make the book impossible to put down.Please leave your comments below. Be sure to include your reading progress as you post.
February 7th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Well, I thought I would take a minute to go ahead and leave a comment on this book. I’m on pg 110 or thereabouts. It really has been an interesting one. While the topic is a bit morbid, I suppose, Roach does a very good job of trying to get the reader to realize that the cadaver is just a dead body, that’s it. We, as humans, have a hard time looking at a person, alive or dead, without putting a personality to it or becoming somehow emotionally attached. For certain things in life, dissection, surgical training, even crash testing, nothing can replace an actual human body to know how it will effect the human body. Roach has definitely supplied some rather horrific details but has managed not to completely gross the reader out by giving a decent amount of humor and even some ‘fun facts’ along the way. It’s been an enjoyable and very enlightening [on the subject of cadavers and surgery] so far.
February 7th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Well I’m a few chapters in (page 50 or so, IIRC), and I really like this book so far! Yes, it’s been a bit gruesome at times, but that doesn’t really bother me. I think I have the same warped thinking & sense of humor as the author, so it hasn’t really been bothering me.
I’ve been really shocked/impressed by some of the trivia so far though, especially about the way surgeries took place in the “olden days”. The whole body-snatching section was enthralling and fascinating!
I like this type of book - educational, funny, enjoyable to read and a little bit off the wall. Wouldn’t mind finding more like it. Though not necessarily about cadavers.
February 11th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Wow, so I polished this one off last night and I gotta say it was very enlightening. I’ve gained a lot of new info on being dead and options as far as what to do with my dead body, lol. There was a chapter in there that had some really creepy stuff that disturbed me a little which I won’t talk about yet so as not to spoil it for you. As an animal lover though, I could have done without some of that info.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Ha, ok, awesome! Yeah, I’m about 1/3 through it - didn’t get any time to read this weekend so I have some catching up to do. I’ve been getting up at 5:30 to work out and spend any extra time reading, though, so hopefully I’ll be back on track soon.
I really enjoyed the chapter on “life after death” - the stuff on decomposition of the body was fascinating to me.