Hi, this is an anthology of the book All That Remains: A Life in Death by Sue Black. I wrote this for my AP Lang & Comp class, after reading the books, which I would highly recommend if you are interested in autobiographies, forensic science and anatomy. I chose this book, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, but I really enjoyed reading this book, it has a good message and shares the authors story in a fluid way. For this anthology, I started by addressing the rhetorical situation around the author (which I have included below), and I then wrote to the prompt of ‘My author’s story is true,’ which is something that is hard to argue since I have never met Dame Sue Black, though I think all autobiographies have a mix of truth and storytelling. Anyways, I hope you enjoy reading this, and maybe even read the book as well:)
Rhetorical Situation
Author/Exigence:
Dame Sue Black, who was born in 1961, is a Scottish forensic anthropologist, anatomist, and academic. She attended secondary school at Inverness Royal Academy and later attended the University of Aberdeen. Sue graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in human anatomy in 1982. In 1986, she graduated with a Doctor of philosophy degree for her thesis on “Identification from the Human Skeleton.” Her career in forensic anthropology first began when she was working as a lecturer of Anatomy at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London. From here, she undertook contract work for both the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the United Nations where she worked to identify victims and perpetrators involved in various conflicts (Wikipedia contributors). Sue got married to her second husband, Tom, in 1993 and has three daughters, Elisabeth, Grace and Anna (Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome Facts for Kids).
Audience:
In an interview, Sue Black said that she wrote All That Remains for her daughters so “they hear her stories, in her words, when she is gone” (Staff). This book is also aimed towards a broader audience. Anyone who likes true crime, learning about forensics, or is interested in death is likely to enjoy this book.
Context:
Throughout Sue Black’s life, she has lived through and participated in many different experiences. She spent time in Kosovo during the Kosovo War of 1999-2000 as the lead forensics anthropologist to the British Forensics Team. She took two tours in Iraq in 2003, and in 2005 she contributed to the Thai Tsunami VIctim Identification operation as part of the international response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquakes and tsunami (Wikipedia contributors). In the time that Dame Sue Black is writing “All That Remains,” there are few major events happening in Scotland, where she was living at the time. The Art school of Glasgow burned down in June, and a missing man’s body was found in the River Elbe (BBC News). Also in June of 2018, Sue left the University of Dundee for Lancaster University where she had been appointed the pro-vice-chancellor for engagement (Wikipedia contributors).
Message(s):
The message that Dame Sue Black is sharing in her book All That Remains is that Death is something that we should come to understand rather than fear. In her introduction she writes, “In return, I ask only one thing of you: suspend your preconceptions of death for a moment, any sense of distrust, fear and loathing, and perhaps you will begin to see her as I do. You may even begin to warm to her company, get to know her a little better and cease to be afraid of her” (Black, 11).
The Author’s Story is True
My author’s story is true. Dame Sue Black, a renowned forensic anthropologist in Scotland wrote her book All that Remains when she was about 57 years old, and throughout the book she details many of the biggest events in her life. As she is someone who almost always works with the remains of others, there were no major instances in this book in which she talked badly about another person. When I was completing prompt 8, the only instance that caught my eye was when she made a rude comment about the nurse taking care of her mother in the hospital. She writes, “The auxiliary nurse taking care of her final needs was simply going through the motions. She wasn’t in any way cruel or neglectful, but she showed no empathy or understanding for either my mother or for us. She had a job to do and we were almost irrelevant” (Black, 83). This was the only time I could find in the entire book where she spoke badly about someone. I do not believe she owes anything to this nurse, as this is Black’s story, her life, and if she were to alter it to protect someone’s feelings, the story would no longer be genuine and true.
Dame Sue Black tells her story how it is, and she isn’t afraid to share her opinions, especially those that people believe are controversial. She expresses herself and her thoughts throughout this book, and this did cause some controversy as those who read her book do not always agree. I decided to look for controversy on Goodreads, specifically in the one star reviews as people may have found controversy and written about it there. One of the reviews I found said, “Listening to the audio version, the author’s insistence in referring to death as ‘she’ was grating and repetitive” and another wrote, “The personal opinions on death and morality in general came off as snarky at times and were too much for me” (“All That Remains: A Life in Death”). This suggests that many of the individuals who read this book and rated it poorly believed that they were getting into a non-fiction book not a biography/memoir, which is something other reviews have mentioned. Another topic of the book that sparked disagreements among readers is that Black refers to death as a woman, which goes against the popular usage of identifying death as a man. This sparked controversy with some of the readers who did not want to change their perception of death, and even believed that it was wrong or annoying that she was sharing her opinions. While some individuals may feel this way, it would not be fair if Black changed her way of saying something to appeal to the people. If she were to change her opinions, or share things that she doesn’t believe are true, her story wouldn’t be true. She wouldn’t be writing as her authentic self, therefore she would be writing from a false perspective. Since she sticks true to who she is throughout the book, shares her opinions, and her story, I believe that it is the truth, because it is her story.
Sources Cited:
Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome – Wikipedia
Sue Black, Baroness Black of Strome Facts for Kids
Professor Dame Sue Black on why ‘Death may be the best experience of your entire life’ | The Herald
Your most-read Scottish stories of 2018
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35212990-all-that-remains?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=TWIh4wvDGT&rank=2