Personal Reflection

Writing this blog has been both time consuming and stressful, but at the same time it opened my mind to aspects of this book I would never have looked into. By researching the author, the book took on more meaning than I would’ve gathered. The fact that his racial background is brought into the book or that he himself is actually a doctor would’ve been lost on me.

This project got me thinking and questioning things that I normally would’ve just read, interpreted and digested as concrete. By examining the way in which he wrote this and the topics that he covered I have a greater understanding of my Canadian identity and what it means to be Canadian.

A misconception that many people have, and that I may have subconsciously had before working on this project, is that Canadian forms of media aren’t as good as their American and British counterparts. This book showed me that Canadian literature is just as good as any other book I have read (as I did truly enjoy reading Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures) in the past. It also opened up in my mind the reality that is the Canadian film and television industry, and I intend to watch the show based off of Vincent Lam’s book as soon as it debuts (I probably would have no idea it existed if it weren’t for this project).

Writing this project in blog form helped me strengthen my proofreading skills. I didn’t work first in a word processor, I instead wrote directly into my blog from start to finish, and everything in between. Where my word processor checks my grammar and spelling, the blog does not, and by doing it this way I was forced to do something I haven’t done in years.

This book and project not only helped further shape my Canadian identity, but it alleviated my subconscious underestimation of Canadian media and culture. It also showed me that doctors are people too, which is something I don’t really remember whenever I find myself in a doctor’s office or hospital. I also like to think that with everything I write, my skills as a writer are improved, just as my proofreading skills were rediscovered over the course of the project. I hope that next book I read, I am inspired to look at it (perhaps not as) in depth because it truly helped my understanding and gave the book a much deeper meaning.

Word Count: 408

Works Cited

Works Cited

"The Canadian Film and Television Production Industry." Canada Heritage. 11 Aug. 2005. Government of Canada. 5 Nov. 2008 http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/ac-ca/pubs/ic-ci/pubs/profile2002/3_e.cfm.

Lam, Vincent. "About the Author." Vincent Lam. 5 Nov. 2008 http://www.vincentlam.ca/about.php.

Lam, Vincent. Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures : Stories. New York: Anchor Canada, 2006.

Lam, Vincent. "Cholon, Near Forgotten." Vincent Lam. 5 Nov. 2008 http://www.vincentlam.ca/cholon-near-forgotten.php.

Straker, David, comp. "Georges Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations." Changing Minds. Syque. 15 Nov. 2008 http://changingminds.org/disciplines/storytelling/plots/polti_situations/polti_situations.htm.

"Television viewing by type of programme." Statistics Canada. 5 June 2008. Government of Canada. 5 Nov. 2008 http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/arts22a-eng.htm?sdi=religion.

Explication of Georges Polti’s twenty second Dramatic Situation in Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam

I chose Polti’s twenty second Dramatic Situation “all sacrificed for passion” because I felt it related very well to the chapter “Winston” from Vincent Lam’s Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. Originally I was going to analyze this section with Polti’s sixteenth Dramatic Situation, “madness”, but I felt that “all sacrificed for passion” was more all-encompassing. Polti also said that this situation could exemplify “ruin of mind, health and life” as well as “a future ruined by a passion”. Both of these concepts are apparent in this chapter.

Within this chapter we see a young man named Winston struggling with insomnia and as the chapter progresses we begin to realize that Winston is in fact rather insane. As the chapter continues he continually explains that he was “poisoned” by his neighbor at a Halloween party because she was secretly in love with him. Dr. Sri explains his story from an unbiased perspective in his notes after speaking with Winston at a clinic,

“Winston is a twenty-two-year-old man with no previous psychiatric history who believes that he was poisoned by his upstairs neighbor Adrienne. He believes that after secretly administering a drug to him in a blue-coloured beverage, she seduced him at a Halloween party. He is sexually and romantically obsessed with her and feels that she is secretly in love with him and that she wants to abandon her husband, Claude. Winston believes that the drug produced a temporary amnesia and also has caused his profound sleep disturbance… The patient reports multiple somatic complaints, a sense of hyper vigilance, and has paranoid ideation concerning this woman and her husband. There is a suggestion of auditory hallucination – whispers heard in the night – and perhaps of thought implantation. Winston is paranoid, with some morbid thoughts, but has no homicidal or suicidal ideation. His thought process is at times tangential, his speech borders on being pressured, and my overall impression is one of a first-break psychosis”.

(page 124)

This is the first insight we see into Winston that is not from his own perspective, but by the end we’re granted a piece of information that actually astounds the reader.

Dr. Sri goes to Winston’s apartment building to talk to both him and Adrienne, but Winston enters a fit of psychosis that is so extreme Dr. Sri has to involve the authorities. While they wait for the police, Adrienne and Sri have a conversation about Winston. Within this conversation it is revealed that Adrienne was not in town on Halloween, that she does not have a husband named Claude but instead a roommate named Claudia and that she rarely sees her roommate because she works nights. Everything we have been told through Winston’s narration throughout this chapter is proven to be false by these three facts. He has not been hearing conversation between Adrienne and her husband and she was not even in town to poison him on Halloween. This knowledge also gives the fact that he was spying on her a new realm of emotion. It’s creepy to think of a crazy man viewing Adrienne in this way, but at the same time his insanity is justification for his actions. Although one may find his actions inappropriate, Winston has no way of accounting for them and therefore cannot be blamed.

What Winston has sacrificed for his passion for Adrienne is made clear by the last few lines of this chapter. It is quite simple: Winston has sacrificed everything for her. He has sacrificed sleep, comfort, his dignity and his sanity. He has psychotic with thoughts of murder, making him a potential criminal as well. His love for Adrienne has caused him to sacrifice his life in the sense he can no longer live it, but yet he still goes on living. Adrienne has caused his complete corruption, and at the same time she doesn’t even know it. To her, Winston is just her downstairs neighbour. She doesn’t know that he listens to her take baths, or to every move that she makes. She has no idea that he has made up entire dialogues involving her and her non-existent husband – or that he “hears” her have sex with this same non-existent husband. These dialogues have no basis in real life, but Winston substitutes them for his own twisted reality.

Dr. Sri has tried to help Winston. He has given him medication to help him rest. His lack of sleep only adds to his mounting psychosis, however Winston is too far gone to help himself. He can’t think straight and has reached a point in which everyone is out to get him. He thinks thoughts that are broken and very accusatory and inquisitive. “Why should I have to eat pills? Why not an injection, a surgical procedure? This is a perfect way to make me take something, to make me look like I wanted to take it. Is that the deal?” (page 143). It’s questions like these that show us insight into his character, that demonstrate his thought process. Winston wants an alternative, but at the same time the reader knows that this alternative would in turn provoke the same questions that he has been asking at every bend in the story.

The Dramatic Situation “all sacrificed for passion” requires three things: a lover, an object the lover desires, and what the lover sacrifices for the desire. The situation itself can be summarized as “The Lover is impassioned by the Object to the point where they give up the Person or Thing, perhaps unwisely, blinded as they are their passion.” In Winston’s case this is exactly what happened. He is the lover, Adrienne is the object of his desire and his future is what he sacrifices. The word “future” is also applied loosely as he gives up his present life and part of the past for her as well. He is wholly occupied by the desire to be with her and now will spend his future in an asylum until the point where he returns to sanity. We do not know if he will ever reach this point. This Dramatic Situation truly emphasizes Winston’s individual situation and even though “madness” would be a fitting situation, Winston sacrifices a lot more than his sanity for Adrienne.

Word count: 997
(But 203 words were found in quotes)

Apologia

The book Bloodlettting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam should be considered great Canadian literature for more than one reason. Not only does it demonstrate Canadian themes and culture, but it was written by a Canadian author who was born, raised and schooled in Canada. The fact that the author is the son of two immigrants also demonstrates the wealth of cultures found within our borders.

The author, Vincent Lam, is a new Canadian novelist but very well accomplished in his area of writing. Unlike many authors, he doesn't thoroughly research a topic before writing about it he actually experiences it first. Before writing Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, Vincent Lam gained experience as a doctor and continues to practice medicine to this day. He graduated from the University of Toronto, a great Canadian university, and many of the stories within his book are anecdotes from his own medical career. Anything that the characters in this book felt was felt first by Vincent Lam, and are an exaggerated version of his past. This writing method is consistent, his new novel (which will be published soon) focuses on aspects of his Vietnamese and Chinese backgrounds which are also touched on by some of the characters from Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures.

Vincent Lam has said more than once that he'd never give up practising medicine for writing. He loves doing both and this makes him not only a great Canadian author but also a genuine Canadian author. He fulfills both an important professional role in aiding Canadian citizens as well as entertains people who don't even necessarily have to live in our country.

The fact that this novel won The Scotiabank Giller Prize illustrates that it is a landmark in Canadian literature to more than just me. The book and its author were recognized by a panel of Canadian judges and awarded a Canadian prize, sustained with Canadian money, honouring a Canadian citizen. The Scotiabank Giller prize alone is proof enough that this book is true Canadian literature.

The Canadian television industry is not very big and because of this networks are selective. Only 37% of what Canadian citizens watch on television is Canadian content (ie: created by the Canadian television industry). Also, the industry itself is heavily influenced by the American television industry, although most Americans will never see or hear of Canadian television their entire lives. The fact that a TV show will debut about this book shows that it has made waves in more than one form of Canadian media and culture. This television show will air on the Movie Network here in Canada, and a spokesperson for the Movie Network has said "ER is a medical drama for conventional television. Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures is a medical drama for pay television." The air date and cast for the show has yet to be released, but it is currently in production.

This book is not only written by a Canadian author but focuses on contemporary Canadian life. It talks about life in Ottawa and Toronto in modern times and gives people from outside of our country a good understanding of our culture and way of life. It gives an insight into the Canadian medical system and the trials that seemingly perfect doctors have to go through. It shows us that the people we see in our culture as being "perfect" and "flawless" actually have flaws of their own. This isn't only demonstrated through showing flaws with doctors, but also with police officers at one point. This book is essentially a reality check for Canadians and an informative piece for those who do not live within our borders.

Word Count: 610

Links List/Research (Question #5)

1. Vincent Lam's official website.
Includes autobiographical information about the author as well as a list of news articles that he and his book are mentioned in including book reviews. It also includes other articles written by Dr. Vincent Lam.

• Dr. Vincent Lam was born in London, Ontario, and grew up in Ottawa.
• His first book, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, won the 2006 Giller Prize.
• Dr. Lam's first novel, Cholon, Near Forgotten, about a Chinese compulsive gambler and headmaster of an English school in Saigon during the Vietnam War, will be published soon.

2. University of Toronto's official website.
Includes campus and program information. This is the setting of the majority of the book and all the main characters attended this university.

• The University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine. This would be the faculty the characters would've been enrolled in.
• This campus map would give a better idea for the setting of this book.
  
• There is an academy associated with the school called FitzGerald which is sometimes referred to as "Fitz". This makes me wonder if that is where the character Fitz' name came from.
  

3. An Interview with Vincent Lam: Published in Toronto Life.
A more personal look at Vincent Lam's life at the beginning, moving into a discussion of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, and then into an in depth view of medical politics.

• "If the book became a best-seller, would you give up practising medicine?
  No, I love practising medicine. If I have a tough day writing, it's just great to get out of the house, see some patients. Writing is very satisfying, but it's also very introspective... Maybe when I'm 85 years old I won't be practising emergency medicine, but right now, I don't foresee the end of it."
  

I thought this quote was interesting. It made Vincent Lam seem very genuine, and therefore I now assume his writing to be genuine as well and drawn almost entirely from his personal experience.


4. The City of Ottawa: Official Website
Having travelled to Ottawa myself, the locations at the beginning of the story were very familiar, but this website helped fill in a few gaps.

• A helpful map.
  

5. A Review of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures.
An in-depth look (biased because it's a review) of the strengths and weaknesses within the book - but the author of the review believes that the strengths and weaknesses are the same points. It also has similar views to the points I expressed in my four journal posts.

• "Lam's characters remind us of all the things that doctors can't fix. It is a demystification of medicine. We see doctors guessing, lying, screwing up. We see death shrugged off as part of the business"
• "And yet, the same things that are the book's strengths are also its weaknesses. Sometimes, the language is too sterile to allow emotion, sometimes the characters are too flawed, too foolish, to evoke sympathy...Reading these stories is like peering through the ice at the waters beneath; there is a coldness, a distance to them, but there is also something flowing and deep below."
• "I can understand why someone might not like this book, but it is different from anything else I have read this year, and I don't think I will forget it anytime soon."

6. An Article About the Television Show Based off of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures.

• The drama series, based on a book written by Vincent Lam, a Toronto-based emergency-room physician, is being developed for The Movie Network in Canada.
• “E.R. is a medical drama for conventional television; Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures is a medical drama for pay television,”

I'm going to look out for it on the Movie Network.


7. The Scotiabank Giller Prize Official Website.
All the information about the prize that Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures was nominated for and won.

• The Giller Prize was founded in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch... The award recognized excellence in Canadian fiction – long format or short stories – and endowed a cash prize annually of $25,000.00, the largest purse for literature in the country.
• In 2005, The Giller Prize teamed up with Scotiabank to create The Scotiabank Giller Prize. It is the first ever co-sponsorship for Canada’s richest literary award for fiction. Under the new agreement, the purse will double, growing to Cdn. $50,000 with $40,000 going to the winner, and $2,500 being given to each of the four finalists.

8. A Secondary Biographical Website: Vincent Lam.
A more in-depth and unbiased look at his life.

• Dr. Vincent Lam was born in London, Ontario. His family emigrated from Vietnam during the Vietnam War and he grew up in Ottawa speaking Cantonese at home. He did his medical training in Toronto, where he now lives and works as an emergency physician. He also does international air evacuation work and expedition medicine on Arctic and Antarctic ships.

When it is worded like that, it makes his book seem a lot more personal.


9. The News Article Announcing that Vincent Lam Won the Giller Prize
This article explains why the book won and gives a brief explanation of Vincent Lam's biography as well.

• The News Report associated with this article. (video)

10. Interview With Vincent Lam: Talking About Giller Prize Win.
More look into the steps he took to win the Giller Prize. 5:00 interview from CBC.

Response #4

The last part that I thought was significant (or more significant than the other chapters) was the SARS chapter.

This chapter spoke to me because it was something I could relate to - or at least remember - and gave a sense of reality to me as I read it. It was also another instance that reminded us that the doctors were human, which was of course apparent throughout the book but it seemed most obvious for me here when both Dr. Chen and Dr. Fitzgerald became sick with SARS.

It was also in this chapter that we are brought back to the beginning of the book. We are reminded of Fitz and Ming's relationship and shocked as a reader when Chen and Fitz talk to each other regularly from their hospital beds. Fitz is still resentful for his loss of Ming but he puts that aside for some good company and learns a lot about Chen in the process.

Also in this chapter, Fitz' alcoholism is addressed - another reminder that he is perfectly human. Not only is Fitz affected by SARS but he possesses a simple human weakness/addiction that can be apart of anyone's life. Chen also draws attention to the reader the fact that this book is all based on perspective and each chapter has it's own bias relating to the narrator. When I read chapters narrated by Fitz he spoke about his alcoholism being under control and how he rarely drank and when he did it was in moderation. Over the course of his chapters, I as the reader, noticed that it was a more frequent occurance and began to happen on the job - but never once did I really think of it as an issue until this chapter. Chen also says:
"...the night when Fitz arrived for a shift with the sweet smell on his breath, his speech
slurred, and was asked to leave and stop seeing patients, it didn't make a difference
whether people knew he was withdrawing" (p.288)
It is only one line in the book, but it is enough to show us that Fitz' problem is a lot worse than he seems to think it is.

Also within this chapter (as I mentioned above) we see Chen and Fitz truly bond which reflects a lot on Chen's personality which was pretty skewed due to Fitz' hatred for him. They talk like old friends as opposed to old enemies, and when Fitz collapses and nearly dies, Chen breaks through the glass wall separating their rooms to save him.
"Fitz said, 'You think we'll die?'
'Maybe.' the laughter continued.
'Me, more likely. I'm on a hundred percent'" (p.296)
This is the kind of conversation that you'd share only with the closest of companions as it demonstrates weakness which is something no-one would want their enemies to witness.

Response #3

After writing a brilliant response, my computer crashed so let's try this again and see if it's better or worse the second time around.

Again, choosing a "significant" point to pause and write about proved to be difficult. I chose the Janice chapter because it stood out for me.

Janice is not only left to deal with giving birth, but during this she is thrown a lot of challenging situations to deal with on top of it. Her husband is out of town (and having a lot of trouble making it back home), she is having a very slow and painful labour and to top it all off she is at high risk of fetal mortality and then has a caesarian section without the proper anesthetic.

I think that this chapter caught my eye because it breaks with the rest of the book in the way it is approached. The style seems to read as more of a soap opera than the rest of the stories do. The characters seem almost two dimensional and less personal whereas in the other chapters we see further into the lives of all characters - primary, secondary and sometimes even tertiary. In this instance we see the characters like so:

• Janice is very intricately described as she is the narrator.
• Dr. Ming (who we now know is an obstetrician) seems sweeter than normal. She candy-coats the situation and doesn't give straight answers. However, she acts with the same sort of initiative as she always has in previous chapters.
• Janice's husband seems distant and uncaring. He is never explained in depth but what we do learn of him makes the reader want to slap him.
• The nurses are merely there. They do their job with little to no conversation whereas in the other chapters nurses are always described and/or conversed with.

Also, the way that this chapter is written is mostly internal and almost completely narrated by Janice's thoughts more than her actions. It flips between her reality and her dreams (focusing on beach scenes and relaxtion) which gives contrast between her sleeping peace and waking turmoil.