Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
What are the motifs in Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach?
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Intactness is a recurring idea. Roach imagines herself winding up as an anatomy skeleton, even fantasizing that she might return from the afterlife to look upon her articulated skeletal remains. She is discouraged however when she learns that it is not an option. No one in the U.S. still creates anatomical skeletons. Roach is similarly taken by the idea of donating her brain to the Harvard brain bank, but is again discouraged the fact that her brain will likely be dissected rather than displayed as a "brain in a jar."