Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Welcome!
Hello! Welcome to my blog for the ENG4U ISU. Through this weblog, I will be analyzing the first major work of Canadian author Doctor Vincent Lam: Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. It is my intention to conduct an extensive examination of style, theme and purpose in Lam’s writing, as well as discover his ideas on the Canadian identity. By doing so, I hope to establish Vincent Lam’s significance as a Canadian author, and unveil Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures contribution to the canon of Canadian literature.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Links List
Baetz, Joel and Stephanie Nixon. “Review of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam.” Philosophy, Ethics and Humanities in Medicine. BioMed Central Ltd. 15 July 2007. Web. 24 October 2009.
“Canadian Literature.” EncartaMSN.com. Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2009. Web. 21 October 2009.
CBC Arts. “Toronto’s Vincent Lam wins Giller Prize.” CBCNews.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 08 November 2006. Web. 21 October 2009.
CBC News. “Vincent Lam shortlisted for U.S. Story Prize.” CBCNews.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 09 January 2008. Web. 23 October 2009.
CTV.ca News Staff. “Giller Prize Nominees Bio: Vincent Lam.” CTV.ca. CTV Incorporated. 06 November 2006. Web. 21 October 2009.
Fillon, Kate. “Interview with Vincent Lam, doctor and Giller winner.” Macleans. Rogers Publishing Limited. 20 November 2006. Web. 22 October 2009.
“Four Hot Authors for Fall.” EW.com. Entertainment Weekly. 12 September 2009. Web 23 October 2009.
Frenette, Brad. “Vincent Lam’s ‘Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures’ to be made into TV series.” The Ampersand. The National Post. 08 June 2009. Web. 23 October 2009.
Hughes, Evan. “Doctors in Distress.” NYTimes.com. The New York Times. 28 October 2007. Web. 22 October 2009.
“Lam, Vincent.” Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database. New York University. 2009. Web. 21 October 2009.
McBride, Jason. "Q&A: Vincent Lam." TorontoLife.com. Toronto Life Publishing Limited. March 2006. Web. 21 October 2009.
Mukherjee, Neel. “Medical Breakthrough.” Time.com. Time Incorporated. 21 August 2008. Web. 23 October 2009.
N., Maria. “Doctors in Distress.” CanLit.ca. Canadian Literature. 2007. Web. 23 October 2009.
Toronto. Toronto.ca, 2009. Web. 23 October 2009.
“Vincent Lam.” RandomHouse.ca. Random House of Canada Limited. 2009. Web. 21 October 2009.
Vincent Lam | Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. VincentLam.ca, 2009. Web. 21 October 2009.
“Canadian Literature.” EncartaMSN.com. Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2009. Web. 21 October 2009.
CBC Arts. “Toronto’s Vincent Lam wins Giller Prize.” CBCNews.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 08 November 2006. Web. 21 October 2009.
CBC News. “Vincent Lam shortlisted for U.S. Story Prize.” CBCNews.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 09 January 2008. Web. 23 October 2009.
CTV.ca News Staff. “Giller Prize Nominees Bio: Vincent Lam.” CTV.ca. CTV Incorporated. 06 November 2006. Web. 21 October 2009.
Fillon, Kate. “Interview with Vincent Lam, doctor and Giller winner.” Macleans. Rogers Publishing Limited. 20 November 2006. Web. 22 October 2009.
“Four Hot Authors for Fall.” EW.com. Entertainment Weekly. 12 September 2009. Web 23 October 2009.
Frenette, Brad. “Vincent Lam’s ‘Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures’ to be made into TV series.” The Ampersand. The National Post. 08 June 2009. Web. 23 October 2009.
Hughes, Evan. “Doctors in Distress.” NYTimes.com. The New York Times. 28 October 2007. Web. 22 October 2009.
“Lam, Vincent.” Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database. New York University. 2009. Web. 21 October 2009.
McBride, Jason. "Q&A: Vincent Lam." TorontoLife.com. Toronto Life Publishing Limited. March 2006. Web. 21 October 2009.
Mukherjee, Neel. “Medical Breakthrough.” Time.com. Time Incorporated. 21 August 2008. Web. 23 October 2009.
N., Maria. “Doctors in Distress.” CanLit.ca. Canadian Literature. 2007. Web. 23 October 2009.
Toronto. Toronto.ca, 2009. Web. 23 October 2009.
“Vincent Lam.” RandomHouse.ca. Random House of Canada Limited. 2009. Web. 21 October 2009.
Vincent Lam | Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. VincentLam.ca, 2009. Web. 21 October 2009.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Reading Response #4
The final three stories of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam are heavily interconnected, and focus on the lives of Dr. Fitzgerald and Dr. Chen. Night Flight fast forwards in Fitz’s life, where he now works as part of a transport team to bring patients from foreign locations back to Canada. In this particular episode, he is to transport a stroke patient from Guatemala to Toronto. After hours of traveling, Fitz realizes that it was all in vain. The conditions of the Guatemalan hospital were subpar at best, and Fitz notes, “We do not say it directly, but we talk around the regret of a lost opportunity: the narrow time frame in which an expanding death in the form of a bloody intracranial expansion can perhaps be drained, can sometimes be sucked out like an evil spirit to leave the scintillating brain intact” (246). Ironically, the team still frantically rushes to the airport. On the plane, the patient dies. Still, Fitz performs resuscitation (again, in vain) in hopes of comforting the patient’s wife. Accepting the death of her husband, Mrs. Amiel asks if this would have happened at a Canadian hospital. Again to protect Mrs. Amiel, “with the greatest tenderness I have within me, I lie” (262). Fitz tells the woman that it would have been the same in Toronto. “Lies are about belief, about a reality suspended because we want to believe the lie” (262). Lam raises more questions of ethics. Fitzgerald has already been shown defying the medical oath (in Eli) and is doing so again in Night Flight. Still, is the comfort of a white lie more ethical than the pain of the truth? Fitzgerald supplies an answer to this question later on in the story, when he and the rest of the transport crew are playing a parlor game at the hotel. When asked if he would want to know if his wife cheated on him, his answer is no. However, he contrasts this idea by stating that if he were the one to cheat, he would tell his wife. This entire scenario makes Fitzgerald out to be quite callous. However, one could also recognize the character as sympathetic. These consistent contrasting ideas about Fitz lead the reader to question his role as a doctor, and I am left wondering if medicine is the profession for him.
Contact Tracing, the penultimate story, is extremely powerful. I found myself heavily engrossed in the story, as I could relate to the SARS pandemic. Immediately I remembered the heightened fear of society, and even now can equate the situation to the current Swine Flu outbreak. It is in this story that I fully realize how realistic the characters Lam has constructed truly are. Faced with the prospect of losing the characters I have become so attached to through Lam’s beautiful writing, I read on fearful for their fate, and hoping as if they were my own friends that they survive. Contact Tracing portrays the risks in which doctors and nurses face to save others. However, the story also illustrates camaraderie and sacrifice. The now alcoholic Fitz, whose condition is worsening everyday, demands to sign a DNR it avoid giving SARS to his friends who would try to save him. He is willing to sacrifice himself, and tells Chen, “It’s not so bad, if we die with only a few hundred others, we’ll be SARS martyrs. If thousands get it but they find a cure and our deaths help, then it’s worthwhile. If this thing just goes wild and the whole world dies by the millions, then we’ll miss the worst of it. See? Can’t lose” (296). It is also ironic that throughout this passage, Fitz and Ming bond. The two men, who were once rivals in love (for Ming), are now partners in death. Spotlight is also given to a new character in this passage, Dolores, a nurse who was randomly selected to work in the SARS unit. Her character fully demonstrates the paranoia of the public. Her daycare refuses to take her children, and Dolores herself begins to crack. While in line, she is convinced that she has contracted the disease - feeling hot and coughing. When she rushes home, her temperature is normal. This focus reinforced the strong respect I have for doctors and nurses. Physical risks aside, working with peoples’ lives bares a strong psychological burden - medical workers are able to look past this, and save the lives of others.
The ending of Contact Tracing provides closure on the Fitz/Ming/Chen love triangle. In an excerpt from a fictitious CBC news report, it is described that Dr. Fitzgerald went into respiratory distress while in quarantine. Dr. Chen broke the glass between their rooms to rush in, in an attempt to save Fitz’s life. Claiming, “In a critical situation, it takes too long to put on the SARS gear; and people die in the delay, but I’ve already got SARS, so I don’t need the protection” (305). Seeing the lengths in which Chen went to save Fitz’s life provides comfort, knowing the two became could friends, and that all three of them were happy. This makes it easier to accept the fact that Fitz has (albeit implicitly) passed.
Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures ends with a satisfying lack of closure. Before Light is simply a day in the life of Chen as he works the night shift in the emergency room. He treats many patients, serious and simple. The passage gives insight into the life of doctors. Though there will often be extreme situations, for the most part, physicians’ day-to-day pattern is formulaic. For the average human, death is this large, insurmountable thing that strikes us few times in our lives, but holds immense impact. For doctors, death is a part of life - an everyday fact. Before Light gives one message, the strong paradox that has been an underlying theme throughout the stories - life goes on, even after death.
Contact Tracing, the penultimate story, is extremely powerful. I found myself heavily engrossed in the story, as I could relate to the SARS pandemic. Immediately I remembered the heightened fear of society, and even now can equate the situation to the current Swine Flu outbreak. It is in this story that I fully realize how realistic the characters Lam has constructed truly are. Faced with the prospect of losing the characters I have become so attached to through Lam’s beautiful writing, I read on fearful for their fate, and hoping as if they were my own friends that they survive. Contact Tracing portrays the risks in which doctors and nurses face to save others. However, the story also illustrates camaraderie and sacrifice. The now alcoholic Fitz, whose condition is worsening everyday, demands to sign a DNR it avoid giving SARS to his friends who would try to save him. He is willing to sacrifice himself, and tells Chen, “It’s not so bad, if we die with only a few hundred others, we’ll be SARS martyrs. If thousands get it but they find a cure and our deaths help, then it’s worthwhile. If this thing just goes wild and the whole world dies by the millions, then we’ll miss the worst of it. See? Can’t lose” (296). It is also ironic that throughout this passage, Fitz and Ming bond. The two men, who were once rivals in love (for Ming), are now partners in death. Spotlight is also given to a new character in this passage, Dolores, a nurse who was randomly selected to work in the SARS unit. Her character fully demonstrates the paranoia of the public. Her daycare refuses to take her children, and Dolores herself begins to crack. While in line, she is convinced that she has contracted the disease - feeling hot and coughing. When she rushes home, her temperature is normal. This focus reinforced the strong respect I have for doctors and nurses. Physical risks aside, working with peoples’ lives bares a strong psychological burden - medical workers are able to look past this, and save the lives of others.
The ending of Contact Tracing provides closure on the Fitz/Ming/Chen love triangle. In an excerpt from a fictitious CBC news report, it is described that Dr. Fitzgerald went into respiratory distress while in quarantine. Dr. Chen broke the glass between their rooms to rush in, in an attempt to save Fitz’s life. Claiming, “In a critical situation, it takes too long to put on the SARS gear; and people die in the delay, but I’ve already got SARS, so I don’t need the protection” (305). Seeing the lengths in which Chen went to save Fitz’s life provides comfort, knowing the two became could friends, and that all three of them were happy. This makes it easier to accept the fact that Fitz has (albeit implicitly) passed.
Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures ends with a satisfying lack of closure. Before Light is simply a day in the life of Chen as he works the night shift in the emergency room. He treats many patients, serious and simple. The passage gives insight into the life of doctors. Though there will often be extreme situations, for the most part, physicians’ day-to-day pattern is formulaic. For the average human, death is this large, insurmountable thing that strikes us few times in our lives, but holds immense impact. For doctors, death is a part of life - an everyday fact. Before Light gives one message, the strong paradox that has been an underlying theme throughout the stories - life goes on, even after death.
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