Stiff starts off with the author Mary Roach, attending a facial anatomy course, watching professionals such as Theresa deal with the chopped heads. The first question that had risen to Mary’s mind was, how do they cope with seeing these once alive faces? She had spoken to Theresa about how she coped with it and was told “that they have to think of them as objects, in her case she had thought of them as wax.” Some of the others had thought of the faces as Halloween masks. Mary had later stopped by an anatomy lab to watch students who were working with the dead (aka stiffs). While watching the students’ at work, she had noticed that the students had personal attachments to their cadavers, and had even given them names such as Ben. Not only had …show more content…
She had mentioned how Dr. Pierre Barbet wanted to prove that the blood spatter on the burial cloth was caused by Jesus repositioning his body to avoid suffocation. Barbet had tested this theory about the Shroud of Turin with the use of Cadavers. Not only had Roach learned about the use of cadavers to prove theories or ballistics, but had also witnessed a beating-heart cadaver, which are cadavers that are brain-dead, but still have function organs. She had learned that from these brain dead cadavers, they can help save lives of those who are in need of a new functioning organ such as livers, kidneys, and …show more content…
I like books that show imagery, sometimes with the use of gore. Such as when Mary Roach had talked about the guillotine on page two-hundred. It had said “Don’t you know that the seat of the feelings and appreciation is in the brain, that this seat of consciousness can continue to operate even when the circulation of the blood is cut off from the brain…?” I found this quote in the book interesting because I can actually imagine this, someone communicating by the use of blinking, after the head has been decapitated. Not only had I felt the book interesting and dull at the same time, but I also had felt some parts were a little too disturbing in a sense. Such as on page two-hundred and thirty-four when it says “People were swallowing decayed human cadaver for the treatment of bruises.” Not only that, but on the same page it says “...human-sourced pharmaceuticals surely causing more distress than they relieved include strips of cadaver skin tied around the calves to prevent cramping.” These are parts of the book that I thought were a little too
This book was a good read for me, but I also read book reviews to help me keep track on what I am reading. These book reviews just made a better understanding of what I was reading.
To me, the challenging part of the book was reading a book on a topic that I do not know much about. I am starting to become familiar with the legal system, however I am nowhere near that of a lawyer. This is why I stumbled at times on some of the legal lingo that the book contained. In addition to that, I did find myself with a better understanding of our legal system. I felt like I was along for the ride on the whole legal process. Also, I would like to note that I thoroughly enjoyed the chapter on the autopsy because I thought it was very interesting how they performed those procedures in that time period. I loved the detail that the author went into when describing how it all took place.
This book is a very interesting read, if you have some self discipline. I mean that you need some self discipline because this book didn’t really captivate me in the sense that I couldn’t put it down. But after reading it for a while, I started to appreciate the author’s way of describing the characters and actions in this book.
In the beginning of the book, Roach observes a facial anatomy and face-lift refresher course in which surgeons practice their surgical technique on human cadaver heads. Roach explains how the human cadaver heads are from people who died in the past few days, so embalming
I have a few dislikes about the book. My first dislike about the book is that it was full of vulgar language. I did not like the use of vulgar language in this book. I see no need in having it. Another dislike about the book is that it did not have any pictures. Pictures help people visualize what is happening in a story better.
While reading the book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach it opened my eyes and showed me that human cadavers are used for so many things in this world. By me reading this book it enlightened me on the many different ways cadavers can be used. In Each chapter I learned something new that I did not know before hand or expect.
All in all, this novel is a good read, so long as the reader takes the time to think about everything that goes into it.
The book “Stiff, The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” was written by Mary Roach, and published by W.W. Norton & Company in 2003. The book has a total of 304 pages as well. In the book, Mary goes to a facial anatomy class and watches surgeons practicing on beheaded humans. The surgeons say the best way to deal with dead bodies is thinking of them as wax. She also discovers how bodies decay and factors that speed or slow the process.
For centuries, other cultures have tried to preserve their dead. The Egyptians were the first know society to preserve their dead through embalming techniques (“Brief,” par 2). After the collapse of the Egyptian society there were few reports of embalming (2). European Catholic dignitaries, monarchs, and aristocrats first used funeral embalming techniques in the 13th century to transport mortal bodies across long distances (Pascale and Lemonnier, 9). . The mortal bodies were filled with expensive scented herbs that had antiseptic qualities (10). It was not until the Civil War during 1860 that embalming the dead was practiced in the United States (“Brief,” par 7). Today, in the 21st century, this popular and traditional choice is made by most United States citizens. In our egotistical society, the cost of $500 to $1,200 is paid without hesitation to ensure we still look presentable for our last gathering with friends and family.
parts and put them together and used a special technique to bring the corpse to
This is my personal reflection about this book. First and foremost, I would like to say that this book is very thick and long to read. There are about nineteen chapters and 278 pages altogether. As a slow reader, it is a quite hard for me to finish reading it within time. It took me weeks to finish reading it as a whole. Furthermore, it is written in English version. My English is just in average so sometimes I need to refer to dictionary for certain words. Sometimes I use google translate and ask my friends to explain the meaning of certain terms.
My overall opinion of this book is good I really liked it and recommend it to anyone. It is a good book to read and it keep you interested throughout the whole book.
I must say that this book is a hard read. I am sure that there are many nuances and ideas that I missed along the way. It does take sometime to get accustom to the style of writing since we are some use to the linear approach to reading and seldom do we engage a book written in a poetic or prose structure. I am sure that if I read the book two or three times again, I will find new things that I missed on the first read. This book, in my opinion, is not a book that is written for public consumption, rather I think that this is a niche book and finds a home in the hands of philosophy or religion students who are looking for a challenging yet thought provoking read. For those who might have a hard time understanding the book and the ideas within it, researching the author before reading the book might prove beneficial and add context and background to the readings.
... cross my mind but I find myself thinking differently since enrolling in this class. I enjoyed this book because it allowed me to relate to the main character, reflect on my life, and try to change myself in the process of reading it. I was able to see the parts of my life that had not been even fathomed before. When reading the book I found it difficult to read and somewhat boring but once I thought about the concepts and people involved in our class it gave me a better understanding of the book. One piece of advice would be to have the five people/ five concepts before reading these books because I feel I missed some key points looking back on the book. I feel that knowing these people/concepts before reading the book would have helped me understand the book better. This book was and interesting one and allows for every reader to have their own interpretation of it.
A small part that stuck out to me that I kind of disliked was how Ben described the church as his mistress at the beginning of chapter one. Not my favorite word choice, but I did not completely dislike it because I saw where he was coming from when making this point. Also, after hearing other people’s opinions on the book this part was something that many people complained about which could have swayed my opinion on it. Ben makes many points throughout the book that gets the reader thinking and he does not force his views on the readers; he simply gives his findings for what he researched and how he applied it to his personal life and work life. I did not like some of the decisions he made in his life, but it was those decisions that lead him to do his research and better his life for. I did not like the decisions because they were choices I would not have made, but he is not me and I am not him. If he had not made the choices he did, the research he had collected would not