Mary Roach is the very amusing and comical author of STIFF (2003), she narrates her very own learning experience as an investigating journalist seeking the truths of cadavers- dead bodies used to practice medicine- and writes of her discoveries of the dead (literally). The author first justifies the practicing of surgery on the dead with a logical antithesis, explaining it should not be the other way around - practicing with patients who are alive! She defends her argument with euphemism explaining that the dead (now cadavers) are treated with respect and even given proper memorial services like the one she witnessed at the University of California, San Francisco of Medical School (UCSF).
Chapter one is about Roach's experience at a surgery seminar, where she witnesses heads or pieces of cadavers and speaks on the value and usefulness they have. Roach makes humorous similes like the following : " This is why cadavers in photographs in pathology and forensics journals have black bars over their eyes, like women on the Dos and Dont's pages of Glamour. You have to assume that people don't want to be photographed dead.." (32) in order to provide a soft and funny tone, rather than a creepy one. She includes dialogues in her writing that are of her interviewing surgeon teachers who are all respectful of the dead, one who after finishing a surgical seminar sweetly said "May she rest in peace." (33).
In Chapter two, Roach writes of her invitation to visit a gross anatomy lab at UCSF Medical School and how exceptionally well the students are benefiting from the program. She then continues with non- fictional stories of the history of surgeries (before anesthesia came along) and body snatching (from graves) used for fast cash, sold to be used for the practice of early medicine and tells of other awful crimes of anatomy in the 1800s.
Next in Chapter 3, Roach explains the process of human decay by paradox, in order to expose the reality that all human bodies (deceased) rot- its own bacteria eats the body. Roach describes her behind the scenes trip to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, a field research facility of human decay. And tells the history of mortuaries.
Her purpose is to bravely write about the dead and the science and history behind cadavers in order to expose this secretive world to her audience.She seems to have a young, science interested audience in mind because she uses lots of satire and includes factual information regarding surgeries of the dead!
Vocab.
1. subcutaneous - under the skin
2. intermittently- (adj) coming and going, not continuous
3. catherizations- medical procedure to inspect the heart flow and heart
4. gratuitous- (adj.) un-called for, given free of charge
5. reciprocity- (n) the quality or state of being reciprocal (equal)
6. vernacular- (adj) using language native to a particular region rather than a foreign language
Tone: appealing, agreeable, honest, considerate
Rhetorical Strategies:
1. Anecdote: "Even cremation, when you get right down to it - as W.E.D. Evans, former Senior Lecturer in Morbid Anatomy at the University of London, did in his 1963 book The Chemistry of Death -isn't a pretty event: " (Page 83)
2. Allegory : " This is a book about notable achievements made while dead. There are people long forgotten for their contributions while alive, but immortalized in the pages of books and journals." (10)
3. Ambiguity (two or more possible meanings): " One woman confessed that her group had passed comment on the "extremely large genitalia" of their cadaver..... Even then, reverence, not mockery, colored the remark."(39)
4. Persona : " My end of the conversation takes place entirely in my head and consists of a single repeated line. You cut off heads. You cut off heads. You cut off heads. Meanwhile, I've missed the unveiling of the faces." (22)
5. Allusion/ Analogy: " Do you recall the Margaret Hamilton death scene in The Wizard of Oz? ( "I'm melting!") Putrefaction is more or less slowed-down version of this." (68)
Questions:
1. What could be the author's motives for writing the history of mortification?
2. What kinds of Satire is the author most fond of using?
3. Would you consider becoming a cadaver after death? (I would...!)
Memorable Quote:
" What she perhaps didn't realize is that the embalming fluid pumped into the veins expands the body's erectile tissues, with the result that male anatomy lab cadavers may be markedly better endowed in death than they were in life." (39)
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