V for Vendetta

Alan Moore's "V for Vendetta" presents to it's readers an opportunity to make our own decisions regarding the morality of certain actions. The main character, V, seems to be a force of resistance and rebellion against the established order. He blows up the House of Parliament and the Statue of Justice, and targets high-profile individuals. This kind of society seems to be oppressive and keeps a watch on the people at all times, signified by the government having "eyes, nose, and ears." At times, V's actions are questionable because he is a terrorist and a murderer, traits that do not exactly constitute a hero.  But at the same time, when we learn of his personal past and enduring a concentration camp, we somewhat start to accept his actions. When he kidnaps the voice of "Fate", the computer that the people venerate as God, he does not kill him. He burns the dolls which he adores above all else, but we do not despise V for that action considering burning porcelain is not nearly as devastating as burning human beings. Also, when he goes to kill the doctor from the concentration camp, he does so in a humane way. He injected her while she was in her sleep, and let's her die as peacefully as possible. Thus we are torn between deciding if V is an honorable character or not. His actions seem to be geared towards both personal and social gain, but the fact that he kills people and uses Evey to help him kill is highly questionable.

This novel's use of graphics is extremely helpful. There are several times where the graphics made the dialogues more engaging and draws the reader in by helping to visualize the situation. One particular moment was when V burned the dolls, and he says "Yet it's odd isn't it? How you can show so much concern for porcelain and plastic and show so little for flesh and blood." The graphics show a whole army of dolls that have blank, staring faces and are thrown into a fire. The doll owner's face was also completely devastated by this action, and it is really effective that we are able to visualize this situation. Another moment where the graphics were helpful was in the scene with the female doctor. We see that several frames of a man walking with fire in the background, and we get the feeling that she constantly looks back at that event and is devastated. Then V says "I killed you ten minutes ago while you were asleep." We see a picture of V holding a needle, and so we can safely assume that he injected poison into her while she was sleeping. If that picture were not there, we would be wondering how he killed her in her sleep. This adds to the drama of the moment and draws us into the moment. The use of graphics in this novel is very effective and helps us put our mind in the book.

A Different Approach to Literature

In Franco Moretti's article "Graphs, Maps, and Trees," he approaches the study of literature in a way that most of us are not accustomed to. Most of us are extremely familiar with the idea of studying several well-known novels by close reading and careful analysis, but Moretti offers a different approach. He integrates scientific methods into the study of literature as a whole, not individual novels. He believes that by only focusing on a few novels we miss out of the majority of what literature has to offer us. We will read less than one percent of all novels, and so he focuses on studying literature in the big picture over time. He incorporates graphs into his article based on studies to show that they are certain trends, or cycles, in the development of literary works. He finds that the trends mark the rise and fall of certain genres and tries to offer explanations as to why these genres rise or fall.

There are several advantages of this method. Graphs can offer a great visual to present information, as sometimes it is easier to see things and to notice trends than trying to read them. Scientific methods for gathering information are also independent of interpretation, or are unbiased. This is a straightforward gathering of true events. This helps us to not miss out on the other 99% of literature if we look at it as a collection. We can also attempt to describe trends in literature according to the time period, and determine if social events had effects on literature. The drawbacks of such a method are that we do not focus on individual novels and the specific messages they have to offer. We only look at the genre as a whole and relate it to events in real life, but each novel has something different to offer.

Social, biological, and physical sciences have much to benefit from a method proposed by Moretti. Making graphs and using scientific methods are unbiased sources that can be used to prove a hypothesis and generalize things such as laws of nature or principles. These fields need to find generalizations, whereas literature may require closer and more careful interpretations.

A different approach to SSTLS could be to first focus on the social context, such as a dystopian movement. We could then try to see if there has been a trend towards literature of the same kind and quickly interpret messages they have to offer in order to relate that to SSTLS.

Compare/Contrast: SSTLS and M. Butterfly

Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story shares both similarities and differences with the film M. Butterfly. Super Sad True Love Story features a middle-aged white man in a quest for true love to satisfy his seemingly deteriorating life. M. Butterfly features a middle-aged white man who falls in love with the lead performer in a play. The play is about a young Oriental woman who falls in love with a white westerner who leaves her, and she is completely overwhelmed by her love for him that she kills herself.

SSTLS and M. Butterfly also portray conflicts of identities. Both Lenny and Rene have reached points in their lives where they are not content with their relationship status. Lenny seems to be aging quickly in a society that praises youth and the window of opportunity to meet a girl seems to be passing by until he finally meets Eunice. He glorifies this young girl and describes her as this perfect human. At one point Lenny talks about how he needs this steady relationship with Eunice in an attempt to keep him young and deny who he really is. Rene, although he is already married, becomes fascinated by Song and sees her as an escape from his old life. He describes her as his butterfly, a perfect woman whom he needs to have. He spends twenty years with this girl and never even realizes that she is actually a man. He is so destroyed by this realization  and the love that he had for her that he kills himself at the end after declaring that he was both Renee Gallimard and Madame Butterfly, an obvious clash of identities.   

The societies portrayed in both of these works are incredibly different. In SSTLS, a near-future America is portrayed where sexuality has become such an open issue. People can access others’ sexual ratings at any point in time, and the thing most people are concerned with is sex. When Noah is streaming video of Lenny talking about Eunice, he says that he is losing ratings and that the people just want to know if he has had sex with her yet or not. In M. Butterfly, sexuality seems to be very closed and personal. Rene and Song had been together for twenty years before he finally found out that she was a man, which means that they were never overly sexual. Song claimed that Rene never saw him naked, so he never could have known. Even though both societies seem to be facing great turmoil, they are completely different when it comes to socialization.

Depictions of Gender

In Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story, a near-future American society is portrayed where the roles of gender are completely separate and defined. The interactions between characters demonstrate a central theme in the novel--that of the gender roles. We can see several instances where there seems to be a return to an old-style, traditional, patriarchal society. One example of this theme comes in the multiple times that the males, especially Lenny, refers to Eunice as petite. Eunice is seen as a small, which is very typical in a male-dominated society. This gives Eunice a sense of submissiveness compared to the males and may imply the need for protection. In fact, there are several times where Lenny, who is soft on the inside, pretends to act tough because he wants Eunice to feel a sense of protection from him as they are traveling through Central Park and are witnesses to a quarrel. Oddly enough, it can be argued that throughout the novel Eunice actually seems like the tougher of the too, but Lenny has this idea instilled in him that he NEEDS to protect petite Eunice. Shteyngart also shows us the extent to which women have became objectified. Various times throughout the novel, many of the young girls desire and use very provocative clothing. Also, people are reduced to ratings on "fuckability", and they lose most of the rest of the important things that make up a person. These girls care a lot about their appearances and want to be desired by other men and increase their ratings. These instances all connect to the larger picture that the novel is painting. Our society is moving in a direction where people are starting to lose their identities. The technology and innovations in this future America have reduced people to simple statistics and numbers that anyone can access at anytime. This is even starting to happen now with the advances in social networking. Also, women are feeling more and more pressure from society to be "desirable" to men and think they have to be this impossibly perfect sexual being to the point where nothing else about them even matters anymore. This type of society, as portrayed in the novel, is quickly spiraling downward.

In a Perfect World...

Richard Brautigan's poem "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" is about a world in which technology and mankind live together harmoniously. The poem is written in such a way that it is left up for interpretation. Some may view it as an anti-technology poem, but on the other hand it can be interpreted as advocating the increased usage of technology in our everyday lives. Brautigan effectively employs the literary device tone in such a way that the audience is left wondering what his stance on technology was. If he had a pro-technology perspective, there is definitely evidence to support that claim. The entire poem, if taken straightforward and literally, seems to advocate a world where man and artificial intelligence can live side by side as equals. Every stanza begins with the four words “I like to think,” and he goes on to describe how perfect such a world would be, like a utopia. He also uses beautiful words to describe this world, such as “mutually programming harmony like pure water touching clear sky,” “flowers with spinning blossoms,” and machines of loving grace.” A peaceful and tranquil world with these descriptions seems so inviting that hardly anyone would want to deny such a utopia.

On the other hand, if one pays close attention to the tone of the poem, there can be evidence to show that Brautigan was actually against this extreme advancement of technology. Right after he says “I like to think” in each stanza, it is immediately followed by phrases such as “and the sooner the better!”, “right now, please!”, and “it has to be!” These phrases are also all in parentheses, which seems to throw off the flow because the phrases feel like they are an aside of the poem. The exclamation points also make the statements seem very enthusiastic, to the point where they appear to be sarcastic. The sarcasm nullifies his “I like to think” statements and the audience begins to question the actual truth of every other line. His descriptions of this perfect utopia start to seem exaggerated intentionally in order to demonstrate his actual feelings that these utopian worlds are not possible.

I believe the most convincing view is that Brautigan was anti-technology. When the poem is read literally, it may appear that he is pro-technology. But the true meaning of any good poem can usually never be taken at face value—it’s not that easy. The sarcastic tone that can be found in the poem implies that he in fact does not believe everything that he is saying. At the end of the poem, he portrays the dangers of such a society when he says “and all watched over by machines of loving grace.” This seems to imply that if we were to come to the point where man and machine were equal, machines will begin watch over us and become superior to us. It seems like he is comparing such a role to that of a god.

Diving into the Wreck

Imagery

-book of myths

-camera

-knife-blade

-body-armor of black rubber

-absurd flippers

-grave and awkward mask

-ladder

-different colors of light/air

-the deep sea

-treasure

-shipwreck

-mermaid/merman

-half-destroyed instruments

I chose to focus on Rich’s poem “Diving into the Wreck” because it is embedded with themes that have applied to history and even continue into modern times. The poem is about a female adventurer on a quest to obtain knowledge. I believe the knowledge she seeks is about the relationship between the two sexes, a topic that has plagued our history and some may say still haunts us today to some extent. This adventurer begins her quest for knowledge with a book, a symbol for knowledge. She first reads this “book of myths” about the topic, and is curious to discover if these “myths” are actually facts. She prepares herself with the proper equipment for the trip and then she mentions a ladder, saying that “the ladder is always there”. I believe this piece of imagery defines the separation between the sexes, since ladders are used when two objects are of different heights. Relating the permanence of the ladder to the sexes, one gender is above the other, and that’s the way it has been and always will be. She travels down the ladder as the colors begin to change, turning from blue to green to black as she gets closer to a grim discovery. She is on a quest to find the truth, the “buried treasure” in the wreck, to understand how things may have been. She states that she has come for “the wreck and not the story of the wreck/ the thing itself and not the myth”. She needs to see for herself if the myths in fact hold any truth. She reaches her destination, and she finds everything in ruins. She describes the wreck as “ribs of the disaster” and the “evidence of damage/worn by salt and away into this threadbare beauty”. She realizes that she is in the right place, and  this is where one begins to see the subject matter of her desired knowledge. She calls herself both the mermaid with dark black hair and the merman in his armored body. She later says “I am she: I am he”. She embodies both sexes in order to demonstrate that the wreck was caused by the treatment of women in a patriarchal society. The source of the history—these myths—define the roles of men and women in society even to today. The poem ends with a reference back to the book of myths, but a book in which their names do not appear. The women’s movement has been all about reaching equality so that women can also have their names in history.

My Title

My title is a phrase that was spoken by someone very close to me. We were discussing literature when she looked at a peacock feather on her wall, then looked back to me and said "A feather is a feather... except when I'm reading." It immediately caught my attention. It was one of those moments where you say to yourself: "Wow, that sounds profound." Her passion for books surpasses that of any other person I know, so I thought it was one of those fancy phrases I just would not understand. But it actually came to me quickly, and I'm sure anyone who has had to read a book for literature class understands it too. This phrase represents one term-- symbolism. It doesn't just work with a feather, it can work with most things you can think of. Just look around and you will find that most things can symbolize something. In the real world, we think of these things as plainly as they appear. Rain is rain, the color red is the color red, a rose is a rose, a feather is a feather. But the beauty of literature is that it creates a different world where these things are not plain and simple. They become a mystery in themselves. One simple word can mean a thousand different things to many people, and they can all be right. You cannot read a good book without running into myriads of symbols, and you begin to gain a deeper appreciation for the work. Symbols become so fascinating that you being to realize that the author purposely embedded them into his or her work. The rain foreshadowed future events, the flag was red for a reason, it was not a coincidence that the only flower left was a rose, the feather was not there by chance. All these things truly made me realize that a story is not just a story, but a work of art. When you are reading, things are not always as they appear to be. Maybe that feather is not just a feather.