mary roach stiff

8/10/2019 Mary Roach Stiff

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s m M O

M S N


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Stiff: The Curious Lives of

Human

Cadavers

ary Roach

What will you nee to use

this

guide?

This guide will require that

you

annotate your book

To

annotate

means to

take

notes and write

down

comments

directly

in your book. This is

an

important strategy

for

good readers

to use to

help them better

understand

what

they

have

read

as well as to use a

tool

to review what

they

have

read. Annotating is a skill that you will use throughout your

life

What is in this guide?

This reading guide will give

you the

help

you

need

to

make sense

of

this

novel.

Here is

what

you

will find:

• Background nforma tion'- It is

important

that you read this

information before

you

begin reading.

t

will tell

you some

basic

facts about

the

book

and the author.

• Focus:

This

book is

divided into chapters

that

don't necessarily

go in any particular order. Each chapter is its own section and

is designated with

a

title with what

it is

about.

In

some

instances, the

title

of the chapter

will give

you

enough

background

about what the chapter is about.

•

Words

and

information

to know:

Throughout

the book

there

are a

number

of

"footnotes" designated

by a star.

These

sections of the chapters are

for extra

information. Y ou are not

required to read these starred sections, but might want to if

yo u

are

interested. They will help

you to

further understand

the

author's

descriptions.

•

Keep track:

By reading with a

highlighter

and a pen/pencil in

hand, you'll become a more

active

reader. As you go through

this guide, there

will be suggested material to

look

for in each

chapter. This

will help

you to

keep

track of

what

you

have read

and what is most important. Of course, you might find

others

items of importance and that is great Make sure to designate

in writing why you have

highlighted

a particular section,

this

will

help

you

when

you go back to review the book at the beginning

of the school year.



• Pause and reflect: It is

important

to take

time

to write down

reactions to the material you have just read. Y ou only need to

respond

to

what

you

have read

in

about

2 3

sentences

at the

end

of

each

chapter. This

will help

you to better

summarize

a

chapter. Y ou are

also encouraged

to

write comments

and

questions about what you have read while you are reading and to

make any connections to your everyday life.

ackground Information:

About th e

Au th o r

1

-

Mary Roach is a journalis t who has w ri t ten fo r Outside, GQ

Vogue, and The New

York

Times Magazine. The form er Salon co lum nist now wri tes the

humor co lumn M y Planet in Reader s Digest and is a con tr ibut ing edi tor for Discover

magazine. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and stepdaughter.

Roach's first book, S t i f f The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

(Apr i l 03,

W . W .

Nor ton) ,

is a

comical-but-scientif ic explora t ion

of the

many

fascinating

ways

in

which

cadavers

have

been used to advance the hu ma n condi tion . She visits a research

facility

at

the U nive rsi ty of Tennessee where they s tudy hum an decay for forensic purposes , and

sh e goes to

facial anatomy

la b

where

sh e

encoun ters

40

severed heads

in

roasting pans.

Addi t iona l ly ,

she talk s abo ut how corpses have been used as hum an crash test dum m ies,

as ancient confections, and even as

crucif ixion

experiments. Never a

dull

m om ent in th is

book.

About the Book: This is a book about dead bodies. As Mary Roach

demonstrates

in

her new book, some

bodies

go o n to do

remarkable things, such

as

he lp ing FA A

investigators understand

why a

p lane crashed

or help ing

auto-makers design safety

features that save thousands

of

lives. Others

are

asked

to do

noth ing more than

r ot

away

quietly at a research lab where forensic

scientists

study decomposition in order to

improve cr ime scene investiga tion techniq ues. Some are pu t to slightly more quest ionable

uses,

such as the severed heads used by plas t ic surgeons to practice their facelift

technique (surely

not

what people

had in

min d when they donated their bodies

to

science).

Others

have had even m ore

bizarre

adventures. Cadavers have been nailed to a

cross in order to prove

th e

authent ic i ty o f the shroud o f T u rin . Severed heads have been

poked, prodded, and

given

transfusions in an attempt to revive them long

after

they and

their bodies have parted ways.

The ano nym ous cadavers that are the subjects of ST IFF c ould hardly have asked for a

l ivelier o r more sympathet ic chronicler than M ary Roach, who has m anaged to

write

a

book that balances

sensitivity

and respect with a

wonderful ly

sharp wit. In fact, STIFF is

unexpectedly and qui te

blessedly

hi lar io us, al tho ug h the humo r never

comes

at the

expense at the dead bodies

that

populate i ts pages. Instead, Roach uses humo r as a k ind of

psychic safety valve, a vital and much-appreciated tension release from what is, at times,

some

very

intense subject

matter.



The real

h i g h l i g h t s

o f

t h i s

book are t h e

sect ions th a t

de lve

in to some

of the more

disrep utable uses of cadavers . There i s a drol l and

u t t e r l y h i l a r i o u s

h i s to ry o f body

s n a t c h i n g

and a short overv iew of med i c ina l cann iba l i sm human m um m y confect ion ,

anyone? .

There

i s a

fa sc ina t ing

ca ta log of the

m e t h o d s

h i s to r ica l l y

used

to

make su re

t h a t

a dead body was in fact dead . Th i s chap te r cu lmi na te s in wha t i s su re ly the

m o s t

spec tacular ly s t range sec t ion

of the

book,

in

which Roach re la tes

the story of Dr. Robert

W h i t e , a

neu rosu rgeon

who in the mid-1960s

performed

a ser ies o f

su rge r i e s cons t i t u t ing

what could be considered the f i rs t head t ransplant or u l l body t ransplant , depending on

yo u r p o i n t

o f

v i e w ) .

A w o n d e r f u l l y

engros s ing book

on a

sub jec t mos t

of us are

re luc tan t

to

t a lk abou t .

Completing

the

Interactive Reading Guide:

Use the

attached guide

AS

YOU READ

The

statements

are in

order

and

will take you

from

the beginning, through each

section

of the book, and to

the end.

You should

make all marks and comments directly in the

book.

In

addition to any marks you have been directed to mark, you might

want

to put

a

?

next

to any

confusing passages

and a *

next

to any

words

that you

don't

understand. (Again,

those

words

might

be better explained in the

starred

sections

as you go through the

novel,

so make

sure

to check there as well.)

Good

luck and happy reading Enjoy your summer



Chapter 1: A Head Is a

Terrible thing

to Waste

Practicing surgery

on the dead

Things to Highlight/Annotate for:

• Primary reason for dissecting heads.

Mark this with

reason.

• How heads are

displayed

and treated by the surgeons. Mark

this

with

respect.

• Early

ways

surgery was learned and practiced. Mark

this

with past

surgery.

• Why cadavers

were

introduced into

college

anatomy programs. Mark

this

with

surgery

now.

Chapter 2: Crimes of Anatomy

Body snatching and other

sordid tales from

the dawn of human dissection

Things to highlight/annotate

for:

• The

main difference between

how

students/anatomists treat cadavers

today than long ago. Mark this with cadaver

treatment

in the margin.

• Why anatomists needed to steal cadavers Mark this with stealing.

• Why cadavers were not

stolen

as much in the

summer.

• How

cadaver

stealing was combated. Mark

this

with stopping stealing.

•

Difference between grave robbing

and

body snatching. Mark

each

definition in the margin.

• Reasons bodies

were

stolen. Mark this with why in the margin.

• What people exchanged for dead bodies. Mark

this

with exchange.

• Why people

think

dissection is necessary Mark this with dissection.

• Why

w hole body

cadaver dissection is being

phased

out. Mark this

with phasing out.



Chapter 3: Life After Death

On human decay

and

what

can be

done about

it

Things to

highlight/annotate

for:

• Reasons

for

studying stages of decay. Mark this with stages of decay.

• Label and number the different stages of decay. Mark the stages

with numbers in the margin.

•

Eyecaps and what they are used for. Mark this with eyecaps.

• What decedents are. Mark

this

with decedents.

Chapter

4:

Dead

Man

Driving

Human

crash

test

dummies and the ghastly necessary science of impact

tolerance

Things

to

highlight/annotate

for:

• The use of animals in crash

tests Mark

this with animals.

• Main use of cadavers instead of crash

test

dummies. Mark this with

cadavers.

Chapter

5:

Beyond

the

Black

Box

When

the

bodies

of the

passengers must tell

the

story

of a

crash

Things

to highlight/annotate

for:

• The

mood

wanted

at

crash

sites Mark

this

with

mood.

•

Difference between bombs depressurization

and

water impact

on

bodies. Mark each category with the respective wording.

Chapter

6: The Cadaver who Joined the

Army

The sticky ethics of bullets and bombs

Things

to highlight/annotate

for:

•

Early uses

of cadavers in the military

Mark this with early

times

•

Animal uses

to

t st

ballistics Mark

this

with

animals

•

Reasons

and Uses of Human Tissue Simulant.

Mark

this with Human

Tissue

•

Cadaver

use to

test body armor. Mark this with body armor.



Chapter 7:

Holy Cadaver

The

crucifixion experiments

Things to

highlight/annotate

for

•

Differences between Barbet

and Zugibe did to

find evidence

of

crucifixion.

Mark each person s tests with

the

respective

name.

• Results of crucifixion. Mark this with results.

Chapter

8: How to

Know

if You re Dead

Beating

heart

cadavers, live

burial

and the

scientific

search for the soul

Things to

highlight/annotate

for:

• Requirements for a

beating heart

cadaver to be an organ donor.

Mark

this

with requirements.

• History of defining

death

and how t is defined

now. Mark

this

with

definition of

death then

and definition of

death today.

• Different theories of a

soul.

Mark these with soul.

Chapter 9:

Just

a

Head

Decapitation,

reanimation and the human head transplant

Things to highlight/annotate for:

•

Techniques

for

keeping

a

head alive after

it is

decapitated. Mark this

with

technique.

• Process of human/animal head

transplant through

the eyes of Dr.

White. Mark this with Dr. White.

Chapter 10: Eat Me

Medicinal

cannibalism and the

case

of the human

dumplings


•

Different

uses of human

remains

as

prescriptions. Mark this with

prescriptions.

•

Details

of

authors trip

to

China

and her findings.

Mark

this

with

Human Dumplings.



Chapter

11: Out of the

Fire.

nto the Compost Bin

And other

new

ways

to end up

Things

to highlight/annotate for:

• Process and advantages of tissue digestion in animals and humans

Mark this with tissue digestion.

•

Process

of the digester.

Mark this with

digester.

•

History

and

reasons

for

cremation.

Mark

this

with

cremation.

• Alternative to the cremation

process

Mark this with

compost

Chapter

12: Remains of the Author

Will she or wont she?


• Authors

first

reason

for being a donor. Mark this with brain.

• The process and

definition

of plastination. Mark this with

plastination.

•

Author's wishes

for her

body. Mark

this

with final wishes.

mary roach stiff

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