TOW #16 - Stiff (IRB)

In the course of reading this book, I've had a few people ask me what it's about. As if they can't tell from the cover image, I explain, "Cadavers." Sometimes they just change the topic from there.

I imagine that, as Roach wrote her book, she had to find a way to make her subject matter more palatable. While I do agree that cadaver research is fascinating, it is probably a rather small audience who feels this way. To make the storylines and information more appealing, Roach employs a narrative style of writing. Combined with primary documents, interviews with morticians, and descriptions of automobile crash tests, Roach's narratives bring a bit of life to her writing.

In one chapter, Roach discusses an experiment in which a researcher, Dr. Pierre Barbet, was determined to prove the authenticity of the Shroud, the cloth in which Jesus was wrapped for burial. Roach begins the chapter by writing, "The year was 1931. French doctors and medical students were gathered in Paris for an annual affair called the Laennec conference. Late one morning, a priest appeared on the fringes of the gathering. He wore the long black cassock and roman collar of the Catholic Church, and he carried a worn leather portfolio beneath one arm" (159). Roach's narrative works to draw the interests of a wider audience. For those who have no interest in cold science, or for those who are reluctant to read more about cadavers, narratives provide an easy transition into the subject. With such an opening, readers are able to familiarize themselves with the time and place, the people, and the questions at hand. They are not intimidated by scientific jargon or morbid descriptions. Rather, they are simply reading a story, one that happens to involve a doctor chopping off arms and nailing them to a makeshift cross--but nevertheless, a story.

As I said in my last post, I had a bit of trouble deciphering Roach's true purpose. There is always someone in English class who wonders, "What if the author just didn't care? And we're sitting here making stuff up?" While I've shared that same thought on occasion, I just don't think that's the case with Stiff. One doesn't take all the time and effort in researching and writing a book for no reason. I said last time that I believed Roach's purpose was to enlighten her audience with the contributions of cadavers to science. I maintain that view, as I believe the narrative style helped expose the wonders (and weirdness) that cadaver research has produced.