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.

The Two Worlds

In M Butterfly, one of the predominant themes that David Henry Hwang builds throughout the entire play is the perception that the Eastern culture is ancient and deteriorating while the Western is new and thriving. While reading the play, a few characters bring up the fact that the Chinese people always mention how old China is - Helga: “What is it that Madame Su says? ‘We are a very old civilization.’” And then Gallimard comments from a Western perspective: “I walk around here, all I hear every day, everywhere is how old this culture is. The fact that ‘old’ may be synonymous with ‘senile’ doesn’t occur to them” (Act 1, Scene 7, p. 18). The way the east perceives itself is completely the opposite of what the West sees it as. While the Chinese believe that they are preserving their “ancient” culture in modern times, the West sees it as being arrogant and unwilling to adapt to a changing time. But it is surprising when Song, while talking to Galliard, states:

“France. France is a country living in the modern era. Perhaps even ahead of it. China is a nation whose soul is firmly rooted two thousand years in the past. What I do even pouring the tea for you now…it has… implications. The walls and windows say so. Even my own heart, strapped inside this Western dress… even it says things – things I don’t care to hear” (Act 1, Scene 10, p. 29).

Everything in China somehow relates back to their culture, from pouring a cup of tea to the windows. There are few aspects that make Song’s statement interesting. First is the fact that he is going against what the Eastern world treasures - its ancient culture. Even though he understands that the culture is within him and there is nothing he can do about it, he doesn’t want to listen to that nagging voice. This shows that the culture stereotype the West imposed on the East is truly just a stereotype. China might seem to hold on to its culture but many citizens actually would like to step aside and enter the modern world.

Globalization

During the last few decades, the concept of globalization started to surface in conversations more and more. When one thinks of globalization enormous corporations, such as Wal Mart and McDonalds, come to mind and then only talks about its negative aspects. In the novel Pattern Recognition, William Gibson shows the audience a different side of globalization that people often forget to look at or simply choose to ignore.

Throughout the entire novel, Gibson emphasizes the massive effect that globalization has on the identity of a society or even the types of brands they use. This theme is so predominant that it can be seen within the first three pages of the novel. The narrator uses the name of the nationality in the description of objects (that Cayce notices in Damien’s apartment) to bluntly show the globalization of products. The first sentence of the novel, “Five hours' New York jet lag and Cayce Pollard wakes in Camden Town…” (1) contains the first of the many nationality descriptions. Later she notices the “German fridge” (1) and then the narrator comments on her clothes that seem to be from an “English prep school” (2) that have buttons that puzzled a “Korean locksmith” (2). The first chapter isn’t over, yet Gibson mentioned eight different objects from various parts of the world. It is even more interesting that Gibson decides to bring the concept of globalization into the novel while describing the heroine of the story. By doing this, he once again shows how globalization has an impact not only on Cayce’s life but also on the reader’s life.

Gibson used the first three pages to make sure that the reader noticed the presence of globalization and then discusses the different aspects of it in the rest of the novel. The first aspect of globalization that Gibson discusses is its effect on third world countries. When Cayce rejects a potential footwear logo, she

“briefly… imagines the countless Asian workers who might, should she say yes, spend years of their lives applying versions of this symbol to an endless and unyielding flood of footwear… Would it work its way into their dreams, eventually? Would their children chalk it in doorways before they knew its meaning as a trademark?” (12)

Large corporations often manufacture their products in third world countries because the labor force is cheaper. This is often the reason why people are against globalization. Which then brings the reader to consider that through Cayce’s thought process, Gibson might be creating an anti-globalization tone. But at this point in the novel it is too early to differentiate his true tone because later on in the novel Gibson employs specific situations to suggest otherwise.

Meeting Science Fiction/ Internet and the Prospects of Online Social Networks

Meeting Science Fiction

When I started reading the book, the only thing I knew that it was classified as a science fiction novel. That’s when I thought cool – looking forward to futuristic aspects like in Star Wars or the typical movie that is set in 2050. But as I turned each page, I didn’t see any laser guns or flying cars. I guess, I could do without the laser guns and flying cars but at this point in the novel, I really didn’t see anything that would seem to exist in the future that already didn’t exist. After paying a little more attention, I understood that Pattern Recognition wasn’t the typical science fiction novel that we are used to seeing. In a way, Gibson writes science fiction about the present time. He describes a world that we live in but in a different perspective than anyone is used to seeing it in. In this type of science fiction novel the world Gibson presents plays a crucial part in the story. Gibson wouldn’t be able to convey his themes without establishing a foundation – this futuristic-present world.

Internet and the Prospects of Online Social Networks

I believe Gibson constantly emphasizes the internet and the online social networks throughout the novel. In the first chapter, after Cayce finishes describing Damien’s apartment, she goes on her computer to check her blog. And when she does so, she gives the reader an insight about the importance of the forum, “It is a way now, approximately, of being home. The forum has become one of the most consistent places in her life, like a familiar café that exists somehow outside of geography and beyond time zones” (4). The forum has become a place that she can turn to no matter in what corner of the world she is in. This is becoming true for more and more people in the world we live in. People feel more comfortable socializing online than in person but this might be due to the fact that one can be anywhere and still talk to the people they know. The forum symbolizes the consistency people want to have in a world that far from consistent.

A Rose for Emily - Tobe and Homer's Version

If Faulkner wrote “A Rose for Emily” in first person singular instead of first person plural point-of-view, the reader would only get the perspective from one character. In the original story, different characters put their pieces of knowledge about Miss Emily together in order to form a general picture of what went on with her. With this shift in narrator, the plot of the story would change dramatically. With the plural point-of-view, the narrator didn’t know much about what went inside Miss Emily’s house; most of the time they had to speculate things about her. For example, they didn’t know why her house had an unbearable smell and why she never left her house. They even had to assume that she got married to Homer because of all the things she bought. If it was written in Tobe’s point-of-view, the exact opposite would of happen. The narrator would know everything that went instead the house and wouldn’t know what the people on the outside thought about Miss Emily. But with this shift, the entire mystery in the story would be lost because Tobe would know what Miss Emily was up to. Unless, Miss Emily was sneaky old gal and did everything while Tobe was out of the house buying groceries. But he should be able to put the pieces together. I would also assume that the perception of Miss Emily would change because Tobe knew her more closely that the people in the neighborhood. But I doubt that her motives would be known to Tobe because even though he had access to her house, she was still quite a mysterious woman. The theme of isolation would be more emphasized because Tobe was closer to her and saw how isolated she really was, but once again the reader doesn’t really know how close the two really were. The story would also been even more different if it was written in Homer’s point-of-view. Not only because he comes later into the story but also because he dies before it has finished. The story would have to end when Miss Emily poisoned him and we wouldn’t find out that she has been sleeping with his corpse. Practically we would get an abridged version of the story with many important gaps missing. Through his perspective, the theme of isolation wouldn’t be obvious because the two of them had a close relationship. Since Homer was always in the middle of the crowd, the theme of isolation might be completely lost in his version. 

The Two Perspectives

Richard Brautigan’s poem "All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace" can be seen as having a pro-technology tone and message. In the first strophe, Brautigan begins to create a utopia where technology and nature coexist peacefully with each other. He plays with two juxtaposing ideas using phrases, such as, “a cybernetic meadow” in line 3 and “live together in mutually/ programming harmony” in lines 5 and 6 to promote the possibility of the perfect utopia. He continues to use the same juxtaposition between the two ideas in strophe 2 and 3 in order to maintain a pro-technology tone throughout the entire poem. Brautigan also employs figurative language to emphasize his pro-technology tone. The simile at the end of the first strophe compares the relationship between mammals and computers to “pure water touching clear sky”. The imagery gives an insight into Brautigan’s opinion of technology; he believes the two elements can work perfectly together. The adjectives he uses to describe water and sky also emphasize his view on technology and nature. Both of the adjectives “pure” and “clear” have a positive connotation and therefore Brautigan, once again, shows that nature cannot ruin the beauty of technology nor can technology ruin the beauty of nature.

The same literal devices that Brautigan employed to create a pro-technology tone could also be interpreted to create an anti-technology tone. Both the juxtaposition and the figurative language found throughout the poem have a sarcastic and satirical underline. The juxtaposing phrases in the third line of each strophe propose almost make the reader laugh because the two opposing ideas presented would never be able to coexist mutually together in one domain. When one thinks of computers and electronics, a mental picture of meadow or a forest never follows. When the Industrial Revolution hit Britain, preserving nature wasn’t a thought that followed after.  Brautigan also arranges the juxtaposing ideas in the third line of each strophe in a specific order. In the first strophe, he mentions a “cybernetic meadow” (3). In the next strophe he uses a different setting, a “cybernetic forest” (11). In the final strophe, Brautigan jumps to the extreme and uses a “cybernetic ecology” (19) setting. As each strophe progresses, the area of where technology becomes dominant also progresses, until technology takes over the entire ecology. And the similes just continue to contribute to the sarcasm and satire. The sarcasm and the satire found throughout the poem create a sly but persistent anti-technology tone.

After reading the poem dozens of times and analyzing it from both perspectives, I believe the anti-technology theme is more convincing when one knows the context of the period when Brautigan wrote this poem and the type of poems that he generally writes. But when looking at the poem without any background knowledge, I would have to say that the pro-technology tone is more appealing just because his idea is so farfetched. And the juxtaposition and figurative language prompt the reader to see the poem as having a pro-technology message and tone by creating a constant feeling of harmony between technology and nature throughout the poem.          

Design of Darkness

Images found in "Design By Robert Frost: dimpled, white and fat spider, white heal-all, rigid satin cloth, death/blight, ingredients of a witches' broth, snow-drop spider, paper kite, dead wings. 

Robert Frost’s poem “Design” follows the standard Petrarchan sonnet form. In the first eight lines, Frost seems to be telling a story about a spider while playing with the contrast between white and black. The first three lines of the poem, “I found a dimpled spider, fat and white/ On a white heal-all…/ Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth,” Frost emphasizes the color white. The color of the spider becomes relevant because when one thinks of spiders, the color white rarely comes to mind. We know of spiders to be mostly a dark color, such as black or brown. He then mentions that the white spider is on a white heal-all. The type of flower that Frost chose the spider to be on also becomes important to the contrast between white and black. The flower’s name, heal-all, creates a feeling of healing and life but more importantly it is rare that such a flower to be white in nature. After the image of the flower, Frost compares the moth to a “white piece rigid satin cloth,” which again seems not to fit with the general view of a moth.

In lines 8-12, the images change from being described as white and started to take a form of darkness. Words like “death,” “blight” and” witches’ broth” start to reveal the true characteristics of the spider mentioned in the first line. Also, Frost emphasizes in line 6, that the spider like the “ingredients of a witches’ broth” were ready to start the day “right.” In order to continue the contrast between white and black, Frost used the word “right” to make the reader think of “white.”  The volta in line 9, changes the direction of the poem from a story to an answer in the form of rhetorical questions. In lines 9-1, “What had that flower to do with being white, /The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?/ What brought the kindred spider to that height,/ Then steered the white moth thither in the night?” Frost questions the reason why the spider ate the moth. The rhetorical questions allow the reader to realize that they were all brought together by the designer.

All of the emphasized images found in the poem serve as the foundation or even an example of Frost’s argument about the designer or God. The argument that Frost proposes is that there is a god who created everything beautiful in this world to prove that there must exist a higher power. But even though the world is a beautiful place, it is also filled with much disappointment and darkness. The spider, heal-all and the moth are beautiful by themselves because they are the designs of the designer. But in the last two lines of the poem, Frost expresses the horror of the “design of darkness.” Even though the spider has a beautiful white design, the darkness of the design leads it to kill the moth. The constant contrast between white and dark images in the poem, allowed Foster to show the contrasting sides in the design and helped him make his argument more vivid.