Page 99: Stiff and Spook

Right now I'm in the process of reading Mary Roach's third research novel Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. I love love love her writing style and how she presents information. Love. So I thought I would Page 99 her two previous books Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about! Review for Bonk should be up soon!

Stiff

"Oh, yes," he answers. "I mean, I would never use this kind of stitch." He has begun stitching more widely spaced, comparatively crude loops, rather than tight, hidden stitches used on the living.
I rephrase the question: Does it feel odd to perform surgery on someone who isn't alive?
His answer is surprising. "The patient was alive." I suppose surgeons are used to thinking about patients- particularly ones they've never met- as no more than what they see of them: open plots of organs. And as far as that goes, I guess you could say H was alive. Because of the cloths covering all but her opened torso, the young man never saw her face, didn't know if she was male or female.
While the resident sews, a nurse picks stray danglies of skin and fat off the operating table with a pair of tongs and drops them inside the body cavity, as though H were a handy wastebasket. The nurse explains that this is done intentionally: "Anything not donated stays with her." The jigsaw puzzle put back in its box.
The incision is complete, and a nurse washes H off and covers her with a blanket for the trip to the morgue. Out of habit or respect, he chooses a fresh one. The transplant coordinator, Von, and the nurse lift H onto a gurney. Von wheels H into an elevator and down a hallway to the morgue. The workers are behind a set of swinging doors, in a back room. "Can we leave this here?" Von shouts. H has become a "this." We are instructed to wheel the gurney into the cooler, where it joins five others. H appears no different from the corpses already here.*

*Unless H's family is planning a naked open-casket service, no one at her funeral will be able to tell she's had organs removed. Only with tissue harvesting, which often includes leg and arm bones, does the body take on a slightly altered profile, and in this case PVC piping or dowels are inserted to normalize the form and make life easier for mortuary staff and others who need to move the otherwise somewhat noodle-ized body.

Spook

Mason published a three-part article, including discography, on the topic of seance recording sessions. While the early efforts were merely recorded documents of the sittings- one particularly vigorous medium held forth sufficeintly long to fill nine twelve-inch double-sided 78s- very soon the mediums took to singing while in trance, in the persona and voice of the spirit guide. Not surprisingly, given the preponderance of female mediums, the spirit guides (most of them male) tended to be tenors. It was an odd coupling: the high, sweet tones of handles like Power or Hotep. Perhaps this explains the appearance, in 1930, of an Italian spirit guide. Sabbatini, the Italian tenor, began turning up at the seances of prominent Cape Town medium Mrs. T. H. Butters. Mason quotes a description of a Sabbatini performance in a 1931 issue of The Two Worlds, the newspaper of the Spiritualists' National Union: "While the sitters by singing Italian songs in a ringing tenor voice, and so powerful were the manifestaitons that in March this year the friends of Mrs. Butters decided to make a gramophone record of the voice." The recording quality was diminished somewhat by Mrs. Butters's tendency to stray from the microphone and move about the room "making operatic gestures," but was otherwise deemed to be of excellent quality.
This obsure musical genre reached its peak on April 3, 1939, when London's Balham Psychic Research Society held a seance inside the studios of the Decca Freocrd Company. Presaging

So what do you think, about Stiff, Spook, Mary Roach? Go ahead, judge by their pages 99!

Thoughts: A Typology of Domestic Violence

In this path-breaking reassessment of thirty years of domestic violence research, sociologist Michael J. Johnson argues the domestic violence is not a unitary phenomenon. Instead, he delineates three major, dramatically different forms of domestic violence- intimate violence terrorism, violent resistance, and situational couple violence- and shows that the failure to distinguish among these types of partner violence has produced a research literature that is plagued by both overgeneralizations and ostensibly contradictory findings. By creating the theoretical framework to differentiate among types of partner violence, this volume represents the crucial first step to a better understanding of domestic violence among scholars, social scientists, policy makers, and service providers.

Okay, so A Typology of Domestic Violence doesn't seem like a read you want to snuggle under the covers with, and probably sounds like something that might be taught in a family violence course. For me, this book qualified in both categories, and happens to be the best late night/early morning cram session book I've ever read (yes, I know, not saying much, but here me out). At a short 86 pages, I read this in one sitting and actually enjoyed it. I thought I would fall asleep after two pages of more domestic violence statistics and research, like other texts for this class, but this book was excellent. It's about different types of violent partners, something that has not been researched thoroughly or enough, according to the author. It does not require you to know any theories related to family violence, and is written for someone who has never studied the topic. And, best yet: It's actually an interesting read!

Now, I'm going to assume most people are not sold on this book, and that's understandable- it's certainly not something I would pick up off the shelf if my grade didn't depend on it. But I would recommend it to anyone who wants a better understanding of domestic violence, for personal reasons or otherwise. It was an enlightening read and was enjoyable at the same time. There is one account given as an example of one typology, and there is a warning before reading- pay attention to that warning! I felt sick after reading it, and it was the first time I had felt uncomfortable after taking a semester on the topic.

Thoughts: Tao Te Ching

I have wanted to read the Tao Te Ching for a long time now. For anyone unfamiliar, the Tao is the force that flows through all living things. It is a spiritual book, Taoism being one the main religions of ancient China. It can be eye opening at times, and made me think about how I act. Although each proverb, if you will, is short, it is rather poetic and deserves to be read slowly and thought about. I recommend finding a copy with notes, but not a full a on analysis- think through it for yourself and find what it means to you. Good for anyone feeling overwhelmed by the world in general- the Tao will teach you how to relax and go with the flow. I enjoyed this book greatly, because it's one of those reads that make you stop and think. It's difficult giving a review- I feel like some chapters will receive very different reactions. I wish I had someone to discuss specific proverbs with, it would make the experience (yes, reading this was an experience) all the better.


Quotes: Tao Te Ching

(Harmonizes)

When the sage lives with people, she harmonizes with them
And conceals her mind for them.
The sages treat them as their little children

(Illumination)

Seeing the subtle is illumination.
Keeping flexible is called strength
Use the illumination, but return to the light.
Don't bring harm to yourself.

(Nothing Can Alter It)

Nothing in the world is softer than water,
Yet nothing is better at overcoming the hard and strong.
This is because nothing can alter it.

Other Quotes

Quotes: America's War on Sex

American's War on Sex, by Marty Klein:

(Last Refuse of Scoundrels)

Concern about the "secondary effects" of adult entertainment is the last refuge of scoundrels.

Quotes: Tao Te Ching

Some favorite quotes from the Tao Te Ching, by loa tzu:

(Mysterious Virtue)

Pacify the agitated material soul and holding to oneness:
Are you able to avoid separation?
Focusing your energy on the release of tension:
Can you be like an infant?
In purifying your insight:
Can you un-obstruct it?
Loving the people and ruling the state:
Can you avoid over-manipulation?
In opening and closing the gate of Heaven:
Can you be the female?
In illuminating the whole universe:
Can you be free of rationality?

Give birth to it and nourish it.
Produce it but don't possess it.
Act without expectation.
Excel, but don't take charge.

This is called Mysterious Virtue

(Absence Equals Usefulness)

Cut doors and windows to make a room
It is because of its emptiness that the room is useful.
Therefore, what is present is used for profit.

But it is absence that there is usefulness.

(Keep Stillness Whole)

Effect emptiness to the extreme.
Keep stillness whole.

(Perfect Continuity)

If even Heaven and Earth cannot force perfect continuity
How can people expect to?

Quotes: Three Cups of Tea

Some favorite quotes from Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson:

(Cement Details)

Balanced unsteadily on a toy stool, Mortenson blew on his fifth thimbleful of green tea and tried to decipher Abudls conversation with a trio of aged tea-shop customers, their white beards stained yellow with nicotine. They seemed to be conversing with great passion and Mortenson was sure the details about cement were pouring out.

(Fabric of Twilight)

After dark, fortified with strong green tea and three plates of dhal chana, a curry of yellow lentils, from a roadside stand, Mortenson lay back in his nest on top of the truck and watched individual stars pinprick the fabric of twilight.