Tow #19 Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

So far in Mary Roach's book Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, she has described several of her numerous journeys with people whose ideas are most charitably described as unconventional, including  talking to a professor of obstetrics, going on a ghost hunting tape recording trip, and taking a "Fundamentals of Mediumship" course in England. Most of the people Roach talks about in Spook are more likely as she calls, "nutters". In these beginning chapters, Roach effectively communicates her journey to tackle the question of whether the afterlife exists to the audience with the use of her witty rhetorical questions, humor and dialogues of her encounters.

Roach's use of humor often integrated throughout the book with other rhetorical devices such as her wacky rhetorical questions she asks herself and the reader. In the chapter, The Large Claims of the Medium: Reaching out to the dead in a University of Arizona lab, Roach muses that dead people never seem to address the obvious things that the not-yet-dead are the most curious about such as "Hey, where are you now? What do you do all day? What's it feel like being dead? Can you see me? Even when I'm on the toilet? Would you cut that out?" With these ludicrous questions, Roach appeals to the audience by making them laugh with her absurd thought process but also connects to the readers by making them feel like she is having a personal conversation them by reflecting back to her thoughts at those exact moments.

To draw the audience even more into the experience, Roach frequently records the highlights of the dialogues that she has with interesting characters she meets. In the chapter You Again: A visit to the Reincarnation Roach records a conversation that a medium has with a ghost who asks it all sorts of bizzare questions from "What do you do every day?" to "what type of "body" do you have?"

With the amusing use of rhetorical questions and dialogues and her always present unique sense of humor, Roach is able to make her audience feel like they are participating in part of her crazy experience.