Blog Post 1

Chapters 1 - 3

Summary of the Main Ideas

Subject: Stiff details the human anatomy, the normal body processes it undergoes upon death, and the various manners it can be used for. The chapters focus on practicing surgery on cadavers, human dissection, and human decay.

Speaker: The author of Stiff is Mary Roach, a writer who travels to certain places such as the University of California, the University of Tennessee Medical Center, and the San Francisco College of Mortuary Science to research for the content in her book. There are also other speakers that discuss the functions and reasonings during Mary's research such as Theresa, a few university students, Arpad Vass, and Theo Martinez.

Audience: The intended audience is anyone who decides to read the book. The other audience is also Mary Roach because the experts are addressing her during her research.

Message: Bodies have many other uses beyond death. They can be used to practice surgical procedures on, but it is done in a respectful manner to the corpse. Human dissection has dark origins, but it has been a crucial aid in understanding the human body. The body goes through different stages of decay, and preparing a body for funerals can influence the decay.

Purpose: The purpose of Stiff is to educate readers about the anatomy and physiology of the human body as well as the different ways bodies are used after death. It informs the audience about the body's natural processes and teaches us not to fear them.

Context: Cadavers have been involved in various innovations throughout time such as when developing the guillotine, surgeries, and debunking myths about the human body. They have contributed to so many things without enduring anything.

Exigence: Mary Roach's admiration for the many contributions cadavers have been key parts of influenced her in exploring more about them and writing Stiff. Her first experience with a cadaver also encouraged her scientific curiosity.

Choices: The author uses a lot of humor to provide some comedic relief in grim and disturbing situations. She jokes that unveiling the cadavers faces "could be as Julia Child skinning poultry before a studio audience", and that the cadaver heads look like Halloween masks "Here we are at the rubber mask factory. Look at the nice men and women working on the masks", in the first chapter that discusses how medical students use cadaver heads to practice surgical procedures. Mary Roach alludes to various historical figures to describe their contributions in anatomy with and without the use of human dissection. She mentions Andreas Vesalius, who was a firm believer in human dissection-something that allowed him to produce De Humani Corporis Fabrica (a book filled with extremely detailed drawings of the human body) . The speakers also use vivid imagery to explain how the body decays. For example, Arpad describes characteristics of the last stage by saying "Dead people...basically dissolve; they collapse and sink in upon themselves and eventually seep out onto the ground...it becomes like a soup in there...chicken soup. It's yellow".

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"Cadavers are our superheroes: They brave fire without flinching, withstand falls from tall buildings and head- on car crashes into walls. You can fire a gun at them or run a speedboat over their legs, and it will not faze them. Their heads can be removed with no deleterious effect. They can be in six places at once."

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Summary of Events

This section of Stiff discusses the use of cadaver heads for dissection purposes, the grim history behind human dissection, body decomposition, and the process the body undergoes for an open casket funeral. In the first chapter Mary Roach observes university students practicing surgical procedures on the patients and is informed about the measures taken to set up the seminar, including beheading the cadavers. Roach considers if those who donated their body to science ever wonders what will be done with their body, but then decides that it is an altruistic form of disposing a body. She notes that the students still hold the cadavers with the utmost respect and treat them as one would if they were still alive. Cadavers provide the students with an adequate setting to practice procedures on because there is minimal bleeding, no movement, optimal viewing, and allows room for mistakes. Practicing on cadavers can help avoid mistakes when performing live surgery and aid in the development of new techniques. In the past, use of cadavers was not really approved of. Few people performed them in the early days such as King Ptolemy I and Herophilus. When the need for cadavers rose, anatomists resorted to buying them off of the poor, charging cadavers for tuition, dissecting their dead friends and family, and perform body snatching or pay someone else to do it for you. Human dissection was seen as an essential part of anatomy, and Roach compares it with the contributions others have made without dissecting humans. In the end, she proves that human dissections play a key role in identifying the structures of the body, but has less necessity now that everything has been discovered. As a result, demand in cadavers is widely decreasing and students are now learning how to confront death by being taught about death and dying. Roach then describes how the body naturally decomposes including some of their stages (fresh, bloat, and decay). The stage of body decomposition helps investigators identify the time of death and whether the body has been moved. She views three cadavers that represent the different stages. In the "fresh" stage the skin falls off (skin slip/gloving), in the "bloat" stage the gas builds up in the body and enlarges some areas, in the decay stage the body breaks down into itself and the tissues liquify. Mary Roach then observes a cadaver being prepared for viewing at a funeral. She notes the specific measures taken such as filling the eye with cotton and using eye caps to keep them shut, cleaning the cadaver, aspirating purge, shaving the cadaver, circulating embalming fluid , and sewing the mouth shut. Overall disposing of a body is not very pleasant, no-matter which way it is done.

Personal Response

So far, I like the novel. I think it is interesting and it has vivid imagery of the disgusting, but totally natural processes our body undergoes. I enjoy being able to picture the scenarios in my head, but sometimes there are some things that are too much, like Arpad Vass accidentally having a fly enter his throat and hearing it buzz. I enjoy learning about the history of human dissections and it amazes me how some were able to correctly identify some functions and organs of the body without dissecting a human. I recognized some medical terms and historical people in the medical field that allowed me to better understand the complicated procedures the experts were explaining. I think that in the next chapters, Mary Roach will discuss the other uses cadavers have such as in testing safety equipment or safety measures.

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