Stiff the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Review



Book Review: "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Man Cadavers" by Mary Roach

Discover the scientific approach to life after death

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Mary Roach'southward "Potent" is by no means a book that was meant for the masses to enjoy. The incredible detail with which the writer documents the important work that corpses have done in the name of science is intensely morbid. And coupled with Roach'southward snarky sense of humor, it can make the book a veritably bitter pill for some to swallow.

At times, still, it does accept on a tone of singularly beautiful hopefulness. Roach'southward blend of sense of humor, explicit detail and introspection are pieced together throughout the volume to offer upwards a new understanding of how to face and cope with death. Although "Stiff" is nearly xi years onetime, to this day information technology is an excellent starting point for curious individuals who are interested in learning well-nigh what happens to our bodies afterwards nosotros die. What'southward more, it shows how we can embark on a particularly useful posthumous career of helping the living in a scientific life later on expiry.

Roach's journeying of discovery takes readers near and far to gross anatomy labs, the infamous "Body Farm" at the University of Tennessee and many other locations throughout the country to interview generous doctors, analysts and other people who work in medicine or deal with death, the dying and the dead on a regular basis.

The first affiliate sets the tone as Roach sits in on a special memorial service that is held for students of the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Schoolhouse, who have worked with and studied homo cadavers in their doctoral training. Hither we learn the truth that many organ donors may end up on the table every bit teaching tools to be used for anything from anatomy lessons to plastic surgery do.

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Roach writes that "Gross anatomy lab is not just well-nigh learning beefcake. It is nigh against death"(56). In many ways this is the underlying conclusion of her interviews with the extraordinary people who must work with cadavers every bit a ways of testing the physical limits of the human body.

In fact, the exercise of dissection is a common theme throughout the book. Later on, her interviewees admit to a range of coping mechanisms. Some seek to personalize their cadaverous companions while others prefer to "focus on the parts, not the person" (116). Herein lies the dazzler of "Stiff": the confrontation that these subjects face equally they clarify the dead for altruistic purposes shows us that in that location is no wrong way to come to terms with mortality.

The book itself is written from a purely scientific perspective, simply in later chapters Roach blurs the line between science and spirituality when she (albeit cynically) recounts the research findings of scientists who utilized cadavers in an endeavour to verify theological mysteries such every bit the claret stains on the shroud of Turin, or the measurements of the precise weight and location of the human soul. Similar the other questions in this volume, these topics are detailed graphically and scientifically, with a pocket-size dose of humor added in for good measure. While these explanations may not help some come to terms with death, the scientific compartmentalization of the processes that Roach explores throughout her piece of work may be a different way to help individuals experience their relationship with death in a new way.

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This entry was posted in Lending Insight and tagged Cadaver, Coping with Decease, Death, Gross anatomy, Mary Roach, Medical School, Roach, San Francisco, Scientific discipline, Shroud of Turin, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Bookmark the permalink.

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