Light of thy countenance. Is it literature?

I think literature is anything that is meant to be read for fun can be considered literature, even comic books. I would definitely consider Light of Thy Countenance a piece of literature. What makes it different from most literature is that is has visual illustrations to make up for the smaller quantity of words. I don’t think the illustrations necessarily take away from the experience of reading the book, it just gives glimpse into the world of the book in which the reader fills in the rest of the blanks using his/her imagination. For Light of Thy Countenance, the visual illustrations would have been absolutely necessary for the reader to understand and visualize everything that’s going because everything in this book is so abstract. Though it is only a very short book which could be read in nearly an hour, it has a lot to offer to the reader because there are so many interpretations to the pictures that the book presents as well as the words. The book is definitely not easy to interpret like most comic books are and the language is a little bit subtle at first, but definitely gives the author’s opinion to the readers in a very quick and efficient way. The book basically talks about the effects television has on people and how it is changing humanity as a whole. For instance, television is changing the way we think about sex and romance. Because we’ve seen it on television so many times, we basically all have the same idea of what romance should look like. In a way, we have all lost our individuality because of television. With television comes pornography, which we see at the end of the book. In a way pornography is almost like having sex with the television, which the personification of television implies, saying “I am the only pure and true relationship that you will ever know.” One of the advantages that pornography offers is sex without all the bad things in relationships, which is one reason why some people may prefer pornography over real sex. We see in the book’s illustration, a man and his female partner parting indifferently and the man watching pornography afterwards. There are also a lot of similarities of themes between Light of Thy Countenance and R.U.R, such as the rising of technology. In both of the books, we see humanity eventually loses control of their own technology and fall victim to their own creations. Both books seem to warn us about the future of technology and how it will negatively affect humanity. 

M butterfly

M butterfly portrays western attitudes towards eastern cultures on a political and social level. In the story, Gallimard believes he is the dominant figure in his relationship with Song when in fact it was the other way around. Song played the submissive and shy Chinese girl only to manipulate Gallimard into giving up secret information on western governments. By the end of the book, he dresses up as a woman and commits suicide. Before he does, he tells the audience, “My name is Rene Gallimard – also known as Madame Butterfly (93).” At first glance, most people would believe that the title of the book refers to Song when in fact it was Gallimard. It was Gallimard who had all the characteristics that were ultimately deemed effeminate despite the fact that it was Song who dressed up as a woman. In a traditional sense, it would be the woman who falls head over heels over a man and it is the woman who eventually kills herself because the man she loved probably betrayed her in some way. But M butterfly defies this tradition and turns the tables around. Through the relationship between Song and Gallimard, the novel portrays the ignorance of western culture and shows us that the belief that eastern cultures are weak and submissive towards a greater force is clearly wrong.

            Though M Butterfly portrays some obvious differences in both eastern and western culture, it also shows us the similarities between the two cultures. For instance, the issue of gender inequality is universal and is found throughout the world, even in societies as progressive as the west. All cultures have an idea what they consider feminine and masculine and western culture is no different. In one of the scenes, Gallimard tries to undress Song after ignoring her for three weeks and Song tries to keep her/his clothes on by saying “please…it all frightens me. I’m a modest Chinese girl (40).” Gallimard believed that Song was a woman based on the false assumptions that weakness, vulnerability, passiveness, and servility are all characteristics of females. Because Song is a man, Song is able to understand what men have come to expect from women and she/he plays on those expectations to make Gallimand fall in love. 

globalization and social networking

Pattern recognition is a very modern novel that is unlike any books that have ever been seen before. Unlike many modern novels, Gibson touches on globalization, social networking, and the emergence of a monoculture.

Globalization is apparent when we see Cayce traveling from country to country. Traveling, which is usually considered an exciting journey to exotic places is made easy and even a little bit boring with the invention of passenger planes. When Cayce arrives in Japan, “she sees the Coca-Cola logo pulsing on a huge screen, high up on a building (125).” Half-way around the world in a place westerners usually consider exotic and we already see the many things Japan has in common with the rest of the modernized world: slogans, advertisement, enterprise, and marketing culture. No matter which part of the hemisphere you are looking at, there is bound to be marketing culture and the familiar modern city with its tall skyscrapers. Only a while ago, this would not be true. But now globalization is happening everywhere and it is happening faster and faster as the world becomes more uniform, producing a single culture that the rest of the world has in common: a monoculture. The fact that Cayce interacts with people of different ethnicities and cultures is also evidence of the world’s progress in globalization. We get Boone Chu, who is Chinese American; Voytek and Magda, who are Polish; Bigend, who is Belgian but raised in England; and many more.

But what is Gibson’s tone towards globalization? It’s hard to tell but he illustrates both positive and negative effects of globalization. On the positive side, we see that globalization has made countries such as Japan and Russia significantly richer. Tokyo is the world’s largest metropolis and Russia is quickly rising out of poverty. With Russia’s new cultivated wealth, privatized prisons are created giving prisoners better living conditions and to prevent disease. However, this new wealth illustrated in the novel is in the hands of very shady figures like Bigend and Volkov, who always seem to have ulterior motives. These business figures seem to act on self-interest alone and operate in a shroud of secrecy. It is unnerving to think that it is these figures that control the media and drive the globalization process.

One thing that emerges from globalization that seems to have a powerful and widespread effect on society is social networking. Throughout the novel, we see Cayce interacting with people all over the world and developing friendships, such as Ivy and Parkaboy, through the internet. With the invention of the internet, you can talk to anyone on the globe that has a computer and an online connection. You can do this on a telephone, but it’s too personal and less convenient. The invention of the internet has connected so many people globally that a new culture is born: a cyber culture; a culture that makes communication so easy that you can do it anywhere, anytime, twenty four seven. For anyone in the virtual world, there is no limit to how many friends you can have, whether you prefer a few friends or five hundred friends. You can even forge a new identity in the online world. And this is everywhere and it has only been around for less than a decade. Everywhere you see there are people texting, chatting online, or posting comments on Facebook. But are all these online relationships healthy? Up until now, we use to go over to our friend’s house if we wanted to socialize. But now, we have five hundred friends, many of them who we almost never see face to face, which we communicate through words posted on the internet. Our idea of what a relationship should look like is changing so fast that when Parkaboy tells Cayce his real name for the first time over the phone, his “name feels strange on her tongue (279).” Even after all the years that Cayce has known Parkaboy over the internet, she feels strange and awkward speaking to him for the first time. Parkaboy’s voice wasn’t really what Cayce expected and she realizes that she doesn’t really know much about his personal life despite being friends for a very long time. Today, some of us might find this shocking and weird, and for others, not so much. But it isn’t completely farfetched that someday, all of us will have online friends all over the world. The fact that this future is a lot closer than we think is mind boggling and baffling. 

Themes and motifs brainstorm

One of the themes or motifs in the story is commercial advertisement and brands. Throughout the entire book Cayce encounters all of these different logos, brands, and advertisement, which is present in all of her surroundings. She is highly sensitive to these brand names and logos and seems to have an allergic-like reaction whenever she sees the Michelin man. Through Cayce’s perspective, we become more aware of the world’s globalization and commercialization. With billboards and logos at every corner, it almost feels like a nightmare for Cayce. Ironically, her job is to spend time around all of these brands and logos to learn about the fashion trend. Cayce’s job is to find out new fashion trends so that blue ante can tailor their products to sell more. Blue ante has even gone as far as hiring Magda to start new trends so that people would watch a certain movie or buy a certain product. All Magda has to do is simply talk to someone at a bar and mention something like a movie and that will cause that person to either watch that movie or bring it up in another conversation with someone else, thus starting a new trend. When Cayce reaches Tokyo, we see that commercialization has reached to far corners of the world and that it is almost everywhere. Gibson shows us that originality is lost when all businesses seem to care about is using advertisement to sell their products.

Another theme or motif in the story is globalization. Everything is modern now. In Tokyo, you get large skyscrapers with advertisements and electric billboards everywhere, which isn’t unfamiliar where Cayce comes from. Japan is depicted as an ultra-modern country, which really isn’t that much different from the rest of the world. Brands that can be found in Japan can be found in other parts of the world as well, like hello kitty.  Everyone uses cell phones and computers and everyone is connected to each other online. We also get characters from different ethnic backgrounds like Boone and Voytek. The world is basically becoming more uniform and that comes with good things and bad things. The world is more connected and similar, but there is a loss of cultural identity and originality.  Eventually, when the entire world is globalized and communications between one end of the globe to the other become effortless, the barriers that keep cultural identities distinct will come down, creating a single super-culture of brands, advertisement, and consumerism.  

A rose for emily

If the story were to change from first person plural to first person singular by Tobe or Homer, a lot of the subtleties in the story involving Emily’s life would become clearer. The biggest change to the story is the addition of all the details and events that would have happened over the course of Emily’s life. Since Emily so secretive, we can only infer so much about her story from the account of the townspeople, who barely even know her personally. If we see through the eyes of her lover, who is homer, we’ll get to see much more of the intimacy between the characters and what went wrong in their relationship. If we see through the eyes of Tobe, we get to see a little less of the relationship since he isn’t as involved in the story as Homer is. However, Tobe’s story would probably be more reliable since he isn’t directly involved with Emily’s love life but he does get to see what’s going on inside the house. Therefore, Tobe’s account of the story would reveal more about Emily’s life than the first person plural point of view but less than Homer’s point of view in the story. However, since we’ll seeing through the eyes of one character that happens to be more involved in the story’s plot, we’ll also get information that is skewed because of the character’s biases or beliefs. The events that unfold in the story thus because less reliable since we cannot trust the character to tell the truth or present information in an unbiased manner. The townspeople on the other hand are merely spectators and take almost no part in the story. Therefore, they have little reason to lie or be biased. I think writing this story from a different point of view would change the theme of this story because some of the important information in the story is lost when we see through the eyes of Tobe or Homer. For example, Tobe might not have known about the murder and Homer might have been largely unaware of what is in store for him. In the first plural point of view, it is clear that Homer is murdered and that Emily’s killing of Homer is premeditated. Thus, Faulkner gives only enough information so that the readers can fill in the blanks and determine the theme of the story for themselves.

All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace

             The poem “all watched over by machines of loving grace” is anti-technology and written with a satiric tone.  For instance, in the second paragraph, Richard Brautigan writes, “I like to think…of a cybernetic forest filled with pines and electronics where deer stroll peacefully past computers as if they were flowers with spinning blossoms.” The first thing that comes to mind is how ridiculous and absurd this scene is. Historically, nature and technology have never gotten along or coexisted for a very long time. When we think of nature and technology today, we don’t usually think of a deer strolling past a computer in the forest. We think of pollution and sick animals or an oil spill and an ocean animal covered in black goo. The words “spinning blossoms” adds even more absurdity to the scene. It’s almost as if he were trying, “Nature and technology could get along…if we were living in land of the unicorns!” Brautigan writes the words “programming harmony” to give us a clue that this harmony described is fake or synthetic. The fact that this poem is so optimistically pro-technology when read literally that it should hint to the reader that Brautigan is being sarcastic. The last line of the poem plays even more on this optimism of “everything’s fine and dandy” and that the world is becoming a better place. Finally the poem ends with “all watched over by machines of loving grace.” If anyone has ever watched any contemporary movies, he/she would know that in contemporary culture, machines are often depicted as the instruments of apocalyptic scenarios. Movies like The Terminator where cyborgs or robots from the future try to exterminate all of humanity is only one of many other examples. In authoritarian scenarios, technology is often used to spy on people. The classic novel 1984, is a great example of this. To call machines “loving” when contemporary culture has labeled machines as an instrument of doom and destruction is oxymoronic.

On the other hand, this poem could be interpreted as pro-technology. For instance, the first paragraph where it says, “a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computers live together in mutually programming harmony” tells us that nature and technology can get along. Humans are mammals after all and technology has provided people with better and easier lives. Technology, which was created by people, is intended to be used by people. Therefore, there is a harmony. Technology needs to be used otherwise it isn’t technology (ex. a sharp stone isn’t technology until it is used  to cut something) and humans have better lives. In the last paragraph, it talks about how people will be joined back to nature and be free of their labor because of technology. People today are free of labor for many different jobs that had to be done when technology was primitive. For instance we no longer have to hunt for food or walk to get somewhere. Being back to nature can mean being free from labor or responsibilities, which technology can provide, though not completely, but perhaps in the future. Machines are loving perhaps because people try to use technology for the greater good, for instance, making lives easier, feeding the poor (genetically modified foods, transportation of food to poorer countries), or defending a nation (though in this case technology is used to kill).

Of the two arguments, I’m going to have to say that the anti-technology side of the argument sounds much more convincing. All the evidence for that side of the argument just fits a lot better. Besides, Brautigan has been known for being anti-technology and writing satiric poems. One thing that the pro-technology side can’t explain is the second paragraph, because it is just way too absurd. Everything explained by the pro-technology argument can be countered by anti-technology argument. For instance, the paragraph where it talks about people going back to nature and being relieved of their labor sounds very convincingly pro-technology. However, Einstein once said “I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth—rocks!” In this case, humans have been “bombed back to the stone age,” therefore humans will be back with nature. We are also “free of our labors” because ever since technology has grown, people’s responsibilities and jobs have grown even more. In the end, Brautigan is trying to say the technology will eventually destroy humanity. With that said, I rest my case.

This Living Hand

List of images: menacing hand, ghostly hand, haunted grave, icy tomb, ghosts, death, underworld, eerie bedroom, haunted house, blood, beating heart, dark corners, paranoia, suicidal, deathbed, disease, vampires, old age, desire, desperate, near death.

The line, "This living hand, now warm and capable of earnest grasping, would" evokes an image of a last desire before death. Perhaps the writer was in love with a woman who did not feel the same way and wrote this poem to make her feel guilty. Though the owner of that hand is obviously alive at that present moment, the word "now" tells us that his hand won't be warm and capable for long. Perhaps the writer is telling us that he is on his deathbed and wishes to fulfill his longings before he passes away. However, the poem then changes to a different tone. In the line, "if it were cold and in the icy silence of the tomb, so haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights," the writer's tone changes to an almost threatening, even vindictive tone. This line evokes an imagery of a ghostly hand reaching out from beyond the cold icy grave, perhaps to exact punishment or revenge. It almost sounds like the writer is threatening to come back from the grave to haunt the reader, or perhaps a person the writer knows, so that he/she will never feel at peace. Perhaps the writer has been betrayed in some point of his life to feel such vengefulness. The fourth line combined with the line where it says "that thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of blood" sounds like the writer is trying to say "I will haunt you day and night until you'll wish you were dead !" This line makes it seems like the writer's threat is even worse than death itself and thus evoke imagery of a haunted house, an eerie bedroom, or an endless nightmare. The next line, I thought, was quite interesting. The next line reads "So in my veins red life might stream again." This line provokes an image of blood running through veins or a beating heart. Maybe the entire purpose of this poem was so the writer can be "alive" and live forever through the poem and the mind of the readers. What better way to live forever in someone's mind than to haunt them forever? If that's true, than the writer wants nothing more than to simply be remembered when he is gone. Once the reader figures it out he/she will be "conscience-calmed."