Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by lizardgoats
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
5.0
Truth time: I’m not sure I’ve ever thought so practically about death as I have since reading this book. As I assume most adults have, I’ve thought vaguely about cremation, memorial trees, and what I’d like my funeral not to be. Yet, despite all that, there's something essential missing from our social conversations about death.
And that’s really what Mary Roach is accomplishing with Stiff. When you are dead you are dead. You are a corpse—and corpses have pretty interesting lives. Unsightly, decomposing lives that the living prefer not to talk about, but lives all the same. Some of them have careers as crash test dummies, living organs in other people, or what I’m just going to call SCIENCE! (and if you want more details on what that entails, read the book).
My biggest takeaway after reading Stiff is the truly commonplace nature of death. Oh, we can die in all sorts of gorey and tragic ways, but the outcome is the same no matter the story: we are all going to die. And what we decide in life to do with our death is the reoccurring theme of Stiff.
And I’m not going to lie, since I’ve finished this book, I’ve really been thinking about it. And I’ve come to some decisions about my corpse’s “afterlife.” I’m going to go the route of organ donation and SCIENCE! These aren’t exactly tasteful options—the idea of being parcelled out into pieces, even for a good cause, doesn’t sit especially well with me. But then again, I’m a living, breathing person and no one wants that when they are still alive.
But maybe that’s the point? One that, I think, Roach makes admirably. I will really only have a limited say on what happens to my body once I’m dead. And I have to be okay with that. Things like funerals are really for the friends and family left behind. I’m dead, you can’t offend me with the choices you will make that will bring you comfort and peace.
All that being said, I’m really partial to the idea of throwing a party, re: the funeral Data throws Geordi and Ro Laren in the TNG episode “The Next Phase.” I know that’s a very specific reference to make, but what can I say? Nerd until I die.
But enough of all that. One of the primary themes of Stiff is that through learning about the history and practices of death, we can make informed, practical decisions about our lives as corpses. But, perhaps in contradiction to that, any decisions I might make regarding how I want my death handled can always be overturned by the living and their needs.
Death is the ultimate loss of control, which is a frightening thought. But at least for me, learning more about a subject diminishes my fear of it. Even in a subject as socially taboo as corpses. Death can be gross and perhaps undignified, but even as a corpse my “life” goes on. I just won’t be around for it.
Listen to the audiobook on Scribd in 2016. Also have the paperback.
And that’s really what Mary Roach is accomplishing with Stiff. When you are dead you are dead. You are a corpse—and corpses have pretty interesting lives. Unsightly, decomposing lives that the living prefer not to talk about, but lives all the same. Some of them have careers as crash test dummies, living organs in other people, or what I’m just going to call SCIENCE! (and if you want more details on what that entails, read the book).
My biggest takeaway after reading Stiff is the truly commonplace nature of death. Oh, we can die in all sorts of gorey and tragic ways, but the outcome is the same no matter the story: we are all going to die. And what we decide in life to do with our death is the reoccurring theme of Stiff.
And I’m not going to lie, since I’ve finished this book, I’ve really been thinking about it. And I’ve come to some decisions about my corpse’s “afterlife.” I’m going to go the route of organ donation and SCIENCE! These aren’t exactly tasteful options—the idea of being parcelled out into pieces, even for a good cause, doesn’t sit especially well with me. But then again, I’m a living, breathing person and no one wants that when they are still alive.
But maybe that’s the point? One that, I think, Roach makes admirably. I will really only have a limited say on what happens to my body once I’m dead. And I have to be okay with that. Things like funerals are really for the friends and family left behind. I’m dead, you can’t offend me with the choices you will make that will bring you comfort and peace.
All that being said, I’m really partial to the idea of throwing a party, re: the funeral Data throws Geordi and Ro Laren in the TNG episode “The Next Phase.” I know that’s a very specific reference to make, but what can I say? Nerd until I die.
But enough of all that. One of the primary themes of Stiff is that through learning about the history and practices of death, we can make informed, practical decisions about our lives as corpses. But, perhaps in contradiction to that, any decisions I might make regarding how I want my death handled can always be overturned by the living and their needs.
Death is the ultimate loss of control, which is a frightening thought. But at least for me, learning more about a subject diminishes my fear of it. Even in a subject as socially taboo as corpses. Death can be gross and perhaps undignified, but even as a corpse my “life” goes on. I just won’t be around for it.
Listen to the audiobook on Scribd in 2016. Also have the paperback.