literature

I do consider Alan Moore’s, Light of Thy Countenance, a literary text. To me, literature is any written piece of work and this graphic novel falls into that category. Light of Thy Countenance is a fictional story about a TV star Maureen Cooper. But then that story seems to disappear and Moore focuses on how the world revolves around the television. This strange series of events portrayed into a comic book is literary work. Instead of being a just book with filled with words, it also includes illustrations to help the reader picture the bizarre and complicated story line.

The point of this story is to illustrate the negative influences of the television. As new media and technology are emerging every day, they seem to take over people’s lives causing them to forget about reality. Moore is trying to get this thought across to his audience by stating examples like man being so hypnotized by the characters on television that he does not even care for his loved one anymore. I believe that Moore is being a bit harsh and exaggerated with his point of view on televisions. The way he portrays televisions make them seem powerful with the ability to have power over their viewers. But in reality, we all know that this is not possible.

Even though this graphic novel was a hard read, it has a lot to offer. Stories written from a television’s perspective are not very common so when Moore personifies the television, a different aspect of imagination is created for the readers. This story is also relevant to average people because it provides insight about the history of television and also the effect televisions have on people. Moore’s anti-technology perspective is bluntly illustrated in this graphic novel. But after reading this story, my thought on televisions have not changed because I still believe that they are good source for providing entertainment and relieving stress.

m butterfly

 The play “M Butterfly”, by David Henry Hwang, is about the love relationship between a French diplomat, Rene Gallimard and Song Liling, a male Peking opera singer. Throughout the story, themes of Western vs. Eastern culture, race/ethnicity, and gender are illustrated.

Song compares Western men to Chinese men by stating that “one of the exciting things about loving a Western man… [is that he is not] threatened by a woman’s education” (43). This comparison of different cultures gives Gallimard the impression that Chinese women tend to be more attracted to Western men due to the fact that men like him are more accepting and open minded to women. When song stated that Western men are not threatened by a woman’s education, she implied that Chinese men are. Back then, Chinese people were very traditional and believed that men should always be the strongest and most powerful figure in a relationship. Unlike the Easter cultures, Westerners were more understanding of equality between the genders.

When Song wondered why the roles of women in Peking operas were always played by men, he came the conclusion that this was “because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act” (63).  The mindset that Song had was sexism against women. He believes that only a man would know how a woman should behave because women should always behave how men want them to. By playing a woman in his opera performances, Song showed his audiences how women should act in society. Decades ago, when the time frame for this play was set, it was highly likely that women were inferior to men. The power that the men had gave them the idea that they were allowed to have control over women and expected women to behave accordingly. Those men probably already created an image of the ideal woman in their minds which they expect all women should conform to.  

social networks

The novel, Pattern Recognition, was heavily influenced by the ease of communication and retrieving information through the internet and social networks. From the start of the novel, Cayce established that “the forum has become one of the most consistent places in her life…” (4). The forum, F:F:F: was the center of Cayce’s life. On that site, she was able to see all of the uploaded video segments and posts by other users. Cayce herself frequently posted her thoughts onto that forum and through there was where she befriended Parkaboy. Without the internet, it would have been impossible to find the makers of the videos.

It seemed like Parkaboy was already one of Cayce’s good friends even though they have only talked through the web. They constantly emailed each other about the videos but have never met face to face. How much could she have known about Parkaboy without having met him? But nonetheless, Cayce trusted Parkaboy enough to fly him to Moscow. When Parkaboy tells Cayce that his name is Peter Gilbert, his “name feels strange on her tongue” (279). After knowing Peter as Parkaboy for so long, it was weird calling him some other name. Cayce most likely tried to give Parkaboy a face to go with his name, but when his name changed, the image of him also changed in her head. Cayce finally met Peter in reality when he found her wandering around somewhere in Russia. Being a true friend that he was, he found her and saved her from death.

While Peter was only Cayce’s online friend, Boone was her partner in trying to uncover the makers of the footage. It would be logical that Cayce should have been able to have complete trust in Boone because they were working side by side but that was not the case. Boone ended up as “the guy who’s been hacking [Cayce’s] hotmail for Bigend” (328). Bigend knew that Cayce was good at doing her job so he used Boone to steal information from Cayce. It is not difficult to understand why it seemed like Cayce had no other friends. There was so much going on in her life that it was hard for her to trust many people.

Although the relationship Cayce formed with Peter was through emails, their friendship lasted longer than Boone and Cayce’s did. It is possible that meeting someone online is not as scary as many people conclude it to be. There is nothing to hide when talking to a random stranger because the chance of meeting is minute.