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Subject: Book Review: BRAIN FREEZE - 321 F by J.P. Polidoro
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 23:51:41 GMT

Book Review: BRAIN FREEZE - 321 F by J.P. Polidoro
Reviewed by Ben Best

The novel BRAIN FREEZE - 321 F strikes me as a sustained 
attack on cryonics. If cryonicists are an ethnic group, I regard 
this as a classic piece of hate literature. The novel is a parody 
of the cryopreservation of Ted Williams by the cryonics 
organization Alcor. The true wishes of Ted Williams to be 
cryopreserved were not as well documented as they should 
have been (although two out of three of Ted's children gave 
sworn statements to the court that their father really wanted to 
be cryopreserved). The author is apparently one of those who 
chose to believe the third (estranged) child, and this may be 
the source of his hostility.

Although Alcor is at the bullseye of the attack, I believe the 
author is deeply contemptuous of all cryonics and cryonics 
organizations. The Prologue deals largely with an Alcor view 
of the  news  that Michigan had labeled cryonics facilities as 
cemeteries because of the State's view that  frozen corpses 
were in fact dead    that  cryonics was merely the freezing 
of a corpse. 

The book contains many sections devoted to an attempt to 
debunk the science behind cryonics which I want to discuss 
before reviewing the story & style of the novel. In my view, 
the author's ignorance of biomedical science and his misconceptions 
of cryonics technology make him into an inept debunker. Additionally,
the references to science are laden with emotional expressions 
of disgust. Vitrification is characterized as a glassing effect of frozen 
internment that turns the skin yellow and causes the investigative 
journalist in the story to vomit. The journalist has another episode 
of nausea upon contemplating a body thawing and exuding a mixture 
of cell contents and vitrification solution. 

Repeatedly the author seems to understand and not understand that 
the water replacement of vitrification eliminates all ice formation. 
The process is deemed irrational because it eliminates the water 
required for vital processes like oxygenation and ion transport. 
And yet the author refers to blood vessels bursting upon freezing 
and invokes the image of a frozen strawberry turning to mush after 
being thawed. The author presents the worst of both worlds   the 
freezing damage that comes from water and the lack of vital function 
that comes from the removal of water to eliminate freezing. 

The reader is authoritatively told that the toxicity due to 
cryoprotectants is irreversible. The author focuses repeatedly 
glycerol, as if that is what is used for vitrification. The author 
confusedly describes the blood brain barrier as the  tight cellular 
junctions between each brain cell and neuron  (the BBB is actually
 tight junctions of endothelial cells).  He says that the BBB is 
a barrier which would prevent large vitrification molecules from 
reaching the brain (false).  For this reason, water in the 
cerebrospinal fluid would fracture the brain. The author would 
presumably be stunned to learn that at the 2005 meeting of the 
Society of Cryobiology a cryobiologist announced that he had 
vitrified a rabbit kidney to -135oC and transplanted the kidney
into a rabbit (after rewarming and cryoprotectant washout) with
 full kidney functionality. 

The description of cryonics protocol is no less confused. The 
injection of heparin is deemed a futile exercise because the 
blood does not circulate after death. This purported non-circulation 
of blood in a cryonics patient is cited as the  smoking gun  in 
the Dora Kent case because of metabolized barbiturate found 
in her body   which could only have been metabolized by a 
functioning circulatory system to transport the drug to the liver 
(meaning she was killed by barbiturate injection). Despite this 
apparent ignorance of cardiopulmonary support to maintain 
circulation in a cryonics patient, the author uses the phrase 
 cardiopulmonary support  to describe blood replacement 
with organ preservation solution in preparation for transport 
to the cryonics facility. Once at the cryonics facility the patient
gets  deanimated  (a process which the author seems to confuse
with vitrification perfusion). A heart-lung machine roller pump 
administers cryoprotectant while the patient is immersed in 
chilled silicone oil. The head is separated from the body using 
garden tools under abysmally non-sterile conditions, and placed 
into a lobster pot. A professional pathologist disgustedly informs 
the investigative journalist in the novel that severing the spinal 
cord is irreversible and makes no sense. In any case, death is
final. Despite this reference to the finality of death, cryonics 
is repeatedly described as human vivisection. 

It would be far too time-consuming to explain to laypeople 
everything that is wrong with the author's mishmash of 
misconceptions. But even those with a smattering of knowledge 
of cryonics technology can probably appreciate the ignorance 
of the author from the above description. What the author misses 
in his lame-brained attempts to discredit cryonics science he 
attempts to compensate for with name-calling. In his parade 
of epithets cryonics is lunatic fringe, an unscrupulous travesty, 
a hoax, beyond science fiction   totally lacking in scientific 
merit and universally vilified by those in science and medicine. 
The author would undoubtedly be shocked to see the 
 Scientists' Open Letter on Cryonics.   http://www.cryoletter.org/

Although the author did his homework on cryonics history, 
he was a mediocre student. He refers to cryonics facilities in 
Europe and describes Steven Mandell as a man who ran a 
failed cryonics organization in New York. 

I believe that the purpose of this novel is to incite hostility against 
cryonics and cryonicists, portraying cryonicists as contemptible. 
The author struggles to present cryonicists as both deluded freaks 
and racketeers who victimize the elderly (which would imply
that cryonicists do not really believe in cryonics). The author 
does not really resolve the dilemma, but makes a weak attempt
 to present cryonics as a cult of deluded followers who are in 
the hypnotic spell of a demi-god. The cult leader in the novel 
is Justin Clement, MD, the CEO of the Arizona cryonics 
company Mizaronics. An important part of the cryopreservation 
protocol is at the end of the procedure when the perfusion team 
gathers in a circle with bowed heads and recites in unison a 
credo that expresses disdain for nonbelievers and the vision 
of being revived in a second coming. 

Characters in a novel are puppets in the hands of the novelist, 
so it is not surprising that Dr. Clement is arrogant, rude and 
insulting.  The author editorializes dialog in a way I have never 
seen before:  'I have no comment on anything   anything you 
have asked or stated,' Clement reiterated with absurdity.  Clement 
spends his time away from work with expensive prostitutes until 
one of his employees, fearing for her job, gives him oral sex in 
his office. 

Although the novel was clearly inspired by  the Ted Williams 
case, the frozen star in the novel is a black baseball player 
( Reggie Sanford ) who struggled to establish himself in face 
of the racial barriers of the early days of baseball. Although 
Mizaronics is proud to have the black baseball hero, 
Dr. Clement does not hesitate to use the  N word . The 
implication that cryonicists are racists is less significant than
the emphasis on the indignity of cryonics procedures applied to 
such a great man who had already arisen above persecution. This 
device also allows Ted Williams to be a living figure in the novel
 where he can express his  true feelings  of absolute contempt
for the crazy and disgraceful practice of cryonics   repeatedly 
and profanely. Being cryopreserved is regarded in this novel 
the same way Americans regarded the 1993 dragging of the 
bodies of killed US soldiers through the streets of Somalia, 
where they were subjected to abuse and refuse. 

Unlike the Ted Williams case, which involved a dispute 
between children of the cryopreserved parent, Reggie 
Sanford is cryopreserved by his only son. Although Reggie 
had requested cremation in his Last Will and Testament, the 
son had discussed cryonics with his father   and they had 
made a verbal pact that the father would be cryopreserved. 
The author clearly believes that the written document takes 
priority and gives no credence that verbal agreements can 
express true wishes. Unlike the Ted Williams case, there 
is no complication of an oil-stained note or the fact that 
two children gave sworn testimony of a pact with their 
father for cryopreservation. 

Reggie's son had requested whole body preservation, but 
the perfusion team accidently began a neuro procedure. In 
the confused mind of the author this somehow prevented 
proper perfusion of the brain. (If a neuro procedure is 
accidently begun, why wouldn't it continue in the usual
fashion. The author's confusion is hard to fathom.)  So the
perfusion team drilled about nine holes in Reggie's head in a 
feeble attempt to inject cryoprotectant through the holes. Then 
the mutilated head and torso of Reggie are stashed in the 
ghastly chamber of  frozen absurdity    deprived of dignified 
finality.  Not only was the great man's body desecrated, but his
 fans were left without a proper place to put flowers. (The author
 is untroubled about the fact that cremation could have the same
result if ashes are scattered.) 

The mutilation of Reggie's body might have remained a secret   
even to Reggie's son   had it not been for a brave young Mizaronics 
employee named Jonathan who risked his job by going to an 
investigative journalist named Rachel to expose the dastardly 
deed. Jonathan is fired and subjected to death-threats, spray-painting 
of his apartment with graffiti and other abuse. He is accused of 
stealing confidential photos and documents. To add spice to the 
story, however, Jonathan and Rachel become beautiful lovers. 
And Ted Williams congratulates Jonathan for rising above 
personal need to do something noble for a great cause. 

In the middle of the night a pair of commandos moves with skill 
and precision to take the Mizaronics night watchman by surprise,
 blast their way into the building and make away with the head 
of Reggie Sanford   leaving a bumper sticker that says  Free 
Reggie . The depiction of the commandos is an extraordinary
 piece of confused characterization for a novelist. He portrays
them as both idealists and extortionists. Why would they demand 
money and the release of Reggie's torso in exchange for Reggie's 
head? Why could they not have taken both the head and the torso 
in such a skillfully-executed raid? The commandos then abduct 
Rachel and take her to their squalid shack where she is raped and 
abused. Pregnant with Jonathan's child, Rachel forced herself to 
comply with their demands to prevent injury to the baby. The 
expert commandos have been transformed into incompetent, 
disgusting slobs who negligently allow Reggie's head to thaw 
and then try to cremate it in a pot. 

The extortionists then demand the exchange of Rachel for 
Reggie's torso. It is unclear how the extortionists are expected
 to benefit from this exchange unless it is a noble effort on their 
part to  free  Reggie and cremate his torso as they did with his 
head (which reportedly had not been their original intention). 
Reggie's son had come to his senses and demanded the release 
of his father's torso in respect for his father's written wishes. 
Dr. Clement would not respond to the son's attorney and he 
refused to exchange the torso for Rachel's life. Clement added 
that Rachel was to blame for the consequences of her 
reprehensible journalism. 

Jonathan, under the mistaken impression that Rachel had been 
killed, hijacked a freshly fueled Mizaronics corporate jet and 
flew it into the Mizaronics facility, incinerating it completely, 
along with himself. A SWAT team located Rachel, killing 
one of her abductors and arresting the other. When the families 
of the cryonics patients sued Mizaronics, Dr. Clement went 
into hiding. This might be a happy ending for the author, but
the reader is left with the tragedy of Jonathan, Rachel and their 
unborn child   fulfilling the author's apparent purpose of 
leaving the reader with more reasons to despise the cryonicists 
who are to blame.  

The cartoon characterizations of cryonics science and of 
cryonicists presented in this book are light-years from reality. 
A valid critique would accurately represent the science & technology
of cryonics and would present cryonicists as they are (at worst 
deluded, but sincere), not as cultists with evil motives. However, 
in my opinion the impetus for writing this book was the author's 
perception that Ted Williams did not really want to be 
cryopreserved. I think that cryonicists should make great efforts
 to ensure that the only people who are cryopreserved are those 
who have documented those wishes indisputable   particularly 
celebrities. 

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