Black Flies Post #2

In the book Black Flies, so far all the reader knows is that Ollie is a new paramedic struggling to deal with the gruesome and disgusting scenes he encounters in his job of being an EMT. At the beginning we don't know much about his life before his job of being an EMT but later on we get some more insight. Ollie went to college and didn't get in to medical school right away, so he decided to take a year off and become a medic and apply the nest year. Ollie is not only struggling with the horrific events, he is struggling with how his co workers deal with the situations. His partner Rutkovsky, isn't fazed with any of the tragedies he sees, and even has bars under his badge to prove it. Ollie asks Rutkovsky, "... he only displayed a single black bar over his badge...From when I was in the war. It's a kill bar. For a confirmed kill"(16 Burke). Ollie has a difficult time wrapping his brain around the idea that Rutkovsky had killed anyone, and isn't even fazed by it. Ollie continues to be ridiculed about him being new, but one day he gets his chance to prove his skills to his co workers. Burke writes, "I lines up behind the head, set the laryngoscope up, and went in with the scope, trying to find the vocal cords. I couldn't see them" and later Ollie received help from Rutkovsky "Now! Rutkobsky hissed. I stabbed inward with the tube... As the air went in the guys skin flushed and his heart rate went up into the sixties..."(12, 13 Burke). At first Ollie is scared and doesn't believe he can accomplish the job, so he receives some help from Rutkovsky and ends up completing the task and saving the man's life. Although Ollie saves this man's life all his coworkers still make fun of him because he wasn't confident and almost killed the man.

The gruesome details are still there but the story is getting much more interesting. The story is beginning to get some plot behind the basic idea and is really becoming interesting. I'm curious to see how Ollie deals with all the pressure that is put upon him, if he will crack or rise to the occasion. I also enjoy how Burke writes about how Ollie is trying to cope with this new job, but leaves out how others cope with all the blood and gore. I'm really interested to if the views of the other workers and even Ollie change later on.

Burke, Shannon. Black Flies. New York: Soft Skull P, 2008.*Black Flies should be underlined

Black Flies Post #1

I'm reading the novel Black Flies by Shannon Burke. This book follows the story a man Ollie who is new to his profession, being an EMT. Ollie is a new guy so he is not accustom to all the gore and death that is experienced in the job, because of this he is made fun of by the veteran EMT's. This book has a huge amount of detail making the scene's very easy to visualize, even though they might be gory and terrible to think about. A crime scene is described, "A half dissected cadaver lay on a steel table, the interior cavity of the body exposed, the organs visible. the grayish formaldehyde poled in the folds of the plastic wrapping, and all around us high shelves held jars with floating hearts, brains, kidneys, fetuses, and encephalopathy babies"(8). This line was an amazing description of a tiny room with jars all around the walls. While reading this I had a vivid picture of the scene in my head. Although this isn't the best picture to have in your head, it enhancs your reading and understanding of the book. In this scene Ollie is unable take it all in, the gore and death is too much for him to handle. Due to his incapablility to handle all the graphic deaths his coworkers taunt him and ridicule him, they even go so far as putting a dead decaying pig in his car.

At the beginning this book seems as thought the plot is thin, but as you read on the story becomes more and more interesting. Not only does the graphic deatailing enhance the story but it gives the book "style" and makes important details and parts to the story stand out even more. Burke has done an excelent job putting this extremely difficult and gory job into terms that the reader can begin to understand. Although I'm only at the beginning this book is very intriguing and is very well written. So far I'm enjoying the book Black Flies.

Burke, Shannon. Black Flies. New York: Soft Skull P, 2008.*Black Flies should be underlined