Light of Thy Countenance: Fate of overdosing pictures and destrucion of literature

I would say that the Light of Thy Countenance by Alan Moore is a literature. It is mainly different from poem and novels with just words because graphic novel, like this one, is basically all pictures with very few amount of words, unlike Pattern Recognition and many others, however. The point of literature is to express the authors feeling, thoughts and ideas. Traditionally, words and possibly structures, mainly in poems, are the only methods to express them. As, time pass, visualization through picture became part of that method to express authors' thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

Picture provides additional dimension for more definite understanding in Moore's novel. Visualization not only provide clear and quicker understanding in concepts and ideas, but also helps readers to feel them with one of more powerful sense, our visions. With combination of Moore's poetic writing style, this novel brings the depth of writing but with much clear understanding from graphics. For example, there is a scene where couples watches TV. The narrator of this novel, TV says “You listen to my voice in rapt attention, yet grow bored or easily distracted when your lived one speaks” (45). Narration simply describes the situation but the picture shows the couples emotions and readers have more clear understanding of what is going on in the novel. 

In this scenes and many other ones, TV's attitudes is very pompous and superior to the human kind. Regardless of it's great usage and quality of picture as literature tool, Moore is trying to telling the readers that too much of visualization can damage our ability to express our thoughts, feeling, and ideas that are biggest part of our identities. One of the image from the novel shows a girl with a head made of TV, showing couple kissing with quote, “you learned to kiss in Peyton Place” (44), meaning that our expression, such as kissing, is from what we see from TV, not of our own unique and original expression. In addition, the full pages of picture may allows the readers to ignore the small texts in the novel, missing the authors thoughts and feelings. 

Picture is great tool for literature, allowing the readers to have more clear understanding; however, when the readers ignore the texts in the novel, it no long possess its function as a piece of literature.

M Butterfly: Capitalism for Song

In Hwang's “M Butterfly,” the conversation between Song Liling, a male Beijing opera actor who masquerade in female role, and Comrade Chin, a female revolutionary friend of Song show the switch in their gender roles.

Chin greatly respect her country's political view, Communism, and despise anyone who act against it. “Don't forget: there is no homosexuality in China!” (p.48) Chin very suspicious of Song's relationship with Rene, a Frenchman diplomat, she warns Song further relationship with Rene. This shows Chin's respect towards her country as well as her masculine characteristic, demanding Song not to counter act against communism principle. In addition, this quote foreshadows Song as corrupted character who does not believe in communism principle. Although Song says, “I'll try to imagine the Chairman taking my positions” (p.48) meaning that he will do this part for the Chinese community, he takes his own words very lightly and this line may be referred to his mockery towards the Chairman, one of the most prosed person in Chinese history, because later in this play Song show his self motivation and strong individualistic characteristic which contradicts communism principle.

Possibly due to his career in opera actor, Song has many opportunity to interact with the Westerners such as Rene, and be influenced by capitalistic idea of lifestyle. When Rene tries to convince Song to get married with him, Song disagrees and reasons him, stating capitalistic view of argument. Song says, “Rene, we Chinese are realists. We understand rice, gold, and guns. You are a diplomat. Your career is skyrocketing. Now, what would happen if you divorced your wife to marry a Communist Chinese actress?” (p. 65) In here, Song points out the importance of Rene's career and back up his words mentioning that even the communistic Chinese concerns about their career, making money to buy “rice, gold, and guns.” He is able to reason against him with capitalistic ideals because his influence of the Western culture allowed him to pursue for his own individual wealth, goals, and lifestyle.

Pattern Recognition: Brain storm

Internet and the prospects of online social networks:

F:F:F becomes big part of Cayce's life

Cayce makes friends over F:F:F

She travels to find the creator of F:F:F with the help of her friends and her connections

Her interaction in cyberspace (social network), caused by the interaction among social network, becomes more of her reality than the current job with Blue Ant Corp. owned by Bigend.

Gibson provide few allusions to indicate Cayce's desire for cyberspace as her reality.

Allusion of Peter Pan statue.

Peter Pan is fictional character, similar to virtual reality; however, children are polishing the statue, showing that virtual reality can provide love and comfort to real person. Just like how Cayce feels strongly about her journey to find the creator, effected by F:F:F

Mentioning Coleridge.

Coleridge, 18^th century poet, is a founder of the Romantic Movement, which “was a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement” (wikipedia) so it was pro Industrial Revolution and “against aristocratic social and political norms” (wikipedia) meaning that Cayce is pro technology, in this case cyberspace or social network like F:F:F. And she doesn't really trust Bigend so her rebellious attitude towards Bigend is shown in allusion of Coleridge.

Marketing and/ or Commodification- how trends become products

Cayce works for Blue Ant, owned by Bigend.

Her job as “coolhunter” is to recognize the coming trend and to inform to Blue Ant.

She has this ability to recognize the trend because of her allergy to those things.

However, Cayce can hunt cool and it is produced not because they are mainly good quality goods but because they are advertised well by others.

Magda's job effect into commodifiers

Magda basically sits on the bar and find people who looks somewhat fashionable and have conversation with them about fashion. If the opponent says something positive about his/her fashion or that of others, Mada's job is to flatter him/her or the others about their fashion. Cayce targets these people and the praised trends become the products.

Sudden disappearance of Cayce's allergy

At the end of the novel, her allergy suddenly disappears. This is allusion, showing that majority of the produced goods, the cool and fashionable products, are not actually cool or fashionable

Pattern Recognition: Virtual reality as Real life

         In William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, social network, more specifically the blog site “F:F:F” becomes big part of Cayce Pollard's life. “F:F:F” brings new interest (hobby) to Cayce and aside from her real job as “coolhunter,” she pursues adventure to find out the creator of “F:F:F,” traveling all over the world looking for clues that lead to the creator of F:F:F. Through her journey, she meets new friends: Parkaboy, Ivy, etc. from F:F:F and indirectly interact with them, deepening their friendship. Her passionate interaction in F:F:F becomes her virtual reality, having surreal journey to find the creator with help of friends whom she meets through F:F:F and associates of friends. Although she face multiple hardships throughout her journey, Cayce truly feels content with her virtual reality as her real life.

         Cayce expresses her happiness and gratitude towards the creator through e-mail when she gets the creator's e-mail address. Cayce starts off with her introdution: name, age, current place, and even her personal life. Her introduction seems very odd knowing that Cayce is very intellectual figure. Especially with recent unpleasant events during the course of her journey, it is very odd for her to give her personal information and her life story about some stranger she has never met. Her inconsiderate about her personal information shows that she is comfortable talking about herself to the creator and this could also indicate her gratitude towards the creator.

         The creator's F:F:F is the middle piece to connect Cayce and other friends whom she met in F:F:F. Being an intellectual person, Cayce expresses her gratitude by saying, quoting Parkaboy, “He says it's like Coleridge” and “He says it's shamanic.” (p.255) Coleridge is English philosopher, poet, and a founder of the Romantic Movement in 18^th century (Wiki). Cayce is referring F:F:F as act of Romantic Movement because she felt that her involvement in F:F:F was a form of revolt against her real life of being “coolhunter” under Bigend, who is the power figure in Cayce's life and in this novel. When F:F:F is referred to as “shamanic,” Cayce believes that it pieced together her and her friends, like a shaman who connects with the spiritual world, allowing people from the the real world to communicate through shaman.

         Cayce sees Parkaboy and Ivy as friends from “spirited world” or virtual reality and she enjoys her relationship among them. While she is messaging the creator, “She stops, and looks over at Peter Pan, noticing how the bronze ears of the rabbits at his base are kept polished by the hang of children.” (p.255) In here, Gibson gives children who are affectionate to Peter Pan, as supporting evidence of Cayce's happiness in virtual reality as her real life. Peter Pan is fictional character yet children are affectionate and show the sign of love by polishing the rabbits that is under Peter Pan.

"A Rose for Emily"-- Townspeople vs. Homer

If “A Rose for Emily” were narrated in first person singular by Homer, the contractor and Emily's love interest, there would be drastic changes in overall story line, such as the background of Jefferson, which is the townspeople's thought regarding to Emily. The background is essential to the original story line because it brings up pre-existing relationship between the Grierson and townspeople, leading us to believe that the connection between these two provides some sort of clue that the readers can apply to solve what is going on in the story. Similarly, the relationship between Emily and her father creates townspeople's assumptions, which become the readers' clue as well. In addition, there will be much more background information regarding to Homer.

More subtle change can be made if the new narrator were from Jefferson, like Tobe, Emily's servant, or the druggist. Although Tobe is much closer to Emily than any other characters in the story so Tobe's relatively close relationship with Emily may affect the original pov. of story line, the effect of Tobe as narrator depends on Tobe's characteristic. If he cared for Emily and felt interested in her personal life, story may change; otherwise, Tobe would be just other townspeople.

Going back to Homer as the narrator, Emily's true character will become more visible because Homer would spend more time with Emily getting to know who she really is. On the other hand, the background between Emily and townspeople prior to Homers arrival in Jefferson will be hidden because Homer is outsider who came to Jefferson for his work.

The change in narrator would affect the theme, Emily's madness towards her love, because the townspeople may see that her father might has to do with the cause of her madness but Homer would just think he is just crazy person.

Machines of "Loving Grace"

Without giving much thought reading the poem, Richard Brautigan's All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace, it can be summarized as a wishful poem about the coexistence of machines and nature. However, there are several factors that make the poem to be more of an satire, rather than genuine hope of coexistence between technology and organic components.

Brautigan's poem is divided into 3 short paragraphs and the first two lines of each paragraph begins with “I like to think,” immediately followed by “(and the sooner the better!)” for first paragraph, “(right now, please!)”, for second, and “(it has to be!)” for last. The phrase “I like to think” is a wishful remark but it is used as a sarcasm, because of the parenthesized phrases. The purpose of parentheses are to send the message or meaning of previously mentioned word or phrase as direct as possible. However, In poems, poets use more clever way to express their thoughts or feelings into their work, yet, Brautigan uses parentheses to further emphasize the phrase, “I like to think” shows that Brautigan actually does not want or believe in coexistence of machines and nature.

Although the parentheses might be deliberate part of Brautigan's poem, the description of machine and nature are clearly shown. First paragraph take place in “cybernetic meadow,” “cybernetic forest” in second, and “cybernetic ecology” for the last. There is clear progression in the scale of place where “mammals and computers/ live together in mutually” and “deer stroll peacefully/ pass computers.”

Up until this point, Brautigan's poem can be viewed either pro-coexistence or con-coexistence between machine and nature. However, the last two lines of the poem, “and all watched over/ by machines of loving grace.” which is also the title of this poem brings more negative side of relationship between machine and nature. The last two lines give the feeling of restriction, control, and dominance by the machines. Brautigan brings the possibilities of machines and nature being together and pursuit of peace and harmony; however, natures are “watched over” like they have been checked by surveillance camera throughout this poem. In the end, the wishfulness of coexistence is crushed and nature is full of “machines of loving grace.”

Analysis--“Design” by Robert Frost

Images: design, white, dimpled spider, heal-all (type of flower), moth, witches' broth, height, darkness

Among all the images that I listed above, “design” and “white” are essential images in this poem.

“Design” is, as you can see, the title of this poem and it appears twice in the last two lines, which is provides Robert Frost's, the author, thoughts or reasons for writing this poem. Term “white” appears multiple times in this poem and it connects all species: dimpled spider, heal-all, and moth that appear in this poem. These three species might be similar in color; a dimpled spider is the most distinctive of all.

In the first eight lines, Frost describes the dominance of the dimpled spider, preying on heal-all and moth. Further distinction of the dimple spider heal-all and moth can be seen on line four when Frost mentions “Assorted characters,” showing that the differences of 3 species, regardless of unity in their color white. And in line six, “a witches' broth” is a simile to the dimple spider's web to capture the prey.   In addition, “witch” can be directly referring to the dimple spider itself, emphasizing that the dimple spider is “witch” who takes the form of human being. Although 3 species are similar in color, the dimpled spider is somewhat dominant character compare to heal-all and moth.

From line nine to fourteen, Robert Frost asks question why the dimpled spider is different from the other species and points out what made it so dominant. Although Frost only asks why the dimpled spider is different from other species, “kindred spider” on line eleven shows that having similar outward appearance does not necessarily means having the same ability or power. In last two lines, the word “design” appears twice. My analysis up until this point gives me clues that “design” might be referred to as some kind of structure, possibly a food chain or social structure of these three species. On last two lines, Frost shows how horrified he is with the “design” because such tiny species have the 'survival of fittest' “design.”

Robert Frost is telling us that the “design” is the main structure of ALL the species in this world