Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Light of Thy Countenance

Alan Moore’s graphic novel Light of Thy Countenance is definitely a piece of literature in my opinion. Even though I am not a big “comic book” fan, I did find this graphic novel quite interesting. I always assumed that graphic novels were either about superheros or anime; I was wrong. Light of Thy Countenance surprised me because it had the characteristics that a piece of literature has yet it doesn’t seem like a piece of literature from the outside. But as the old cliché goes, don’t judge a book by its cover. This piece is intended for more than an easy and relaxing reading. To tell the truth, the first few pages were quite difficult to grasp. Who I thought the initial narrator was turned out to be wrong and when I found out that the television was the actual narrator I didn’t what was going on. Why is the television referring to itself in such a negative tone? Through the graphic novel, Moore criticizes our society on its relationship with the television. As I progressed through the graphic novel, I started to realize how much of what Moore was saying is true in our society. And I unfortunately I agreed with his perspective, these days people would rather sit in front of the television than talk with friends and family. Practically television affects are everyday life in one way or another.
This type of novel is not often seen as literature because people are accustomed to looking at graphic novels as something children and “nerds” read to escape reality but even that defines literature in one aspect. Isn’t literature supposed to have multiple functions? Some are intended to be literary while others utilitarian; both of them have their uses. Even though Light of Thy Countenance doesn’t have impressive and elaborate diction it would still be considered literary because it has ambiguity and thus calls for interpretation. It pushes our society’s boundaries and cultures, it questions the unthinkable, it makes one reflect on their situation; this is literature.

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