Literature, and how we define it, has changed over the centuries. It has changed with different outlooks due to different times, and as time progresses, perspectives change and more ideas are created which broadens the creativity of literature. To me, any written piece of work that is useful in enriching life, escapism, luxury, or just something that can be used to pass the time can be defined as literature.
I find Alan Moore's Light of Thy Countenance to be an interesting piece of literature because illustrations and images are provided along with the text, giving visuals for the readers to see what exactly the writer wants the reader to see. I believe Moore's work is similar to a comic book because it provides words with pictures, which also reminded me of the digital story that we have read by Charles Cumming called "21 Steps" because Cumming was also creative with his work by adding images so that we can click on. Both Cumming's and Moore's work were entertaining and fun to read because I spent time looking at the pictures and trying to read the story through the pictures.
In Light of Thy Countenance, Moore was trying to show the negative effects of television and how it has the power to distract us from life. For example, there was a part in the book where we see the man giving his undivided attention to the television that he no longer gives recognition to the presence of his significant other. I believe that Moore's exaggeration on the negative effects of television and technology is somewhat true because I, myself, have experienced such things before. For example, when I would become a "couch potato" by sitting on the couch and watching t.v. all day, my mother would get irritated by the sight of this, and so she would assign chores for me to do, and yet, I don't listen to her and end up not doing the chores because I am so interested in watching what was on the television. Overall, I believe that advances in technology will lead to more distractions to humans.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
M. Butterfly
The play, "Madame Butterfly", written by David Henry Hwang, explores stereotypes between Eastern and Western culture and also between man and woman, and how these stereotypes affect social relationships. The play starts out with Rene Gallimard, a french diplomat, who was locked up in prison because he had been deceived by a Chinese opera singer. He mentions that he has fallen in love with the "Perfect Woman", which is the opera singer, but little did he know, this "woman" was actually a man.
In the play, the line, "The West thinks of itself as masculine--big guns, big industry, big money--so the East is feminine--weak, delicate, poor...but good at art, and full of inscrutable wisdom--the feminine mystique" (Act 3, Scene 1, p.83) describes how many viewed race and gender in the world. The West was viewed as masculine and strong, whereas the East was viewed as feminine and submissive. How the East was viewed didn't show any difference between men and women in the East, because to the world, as long as men were from the East, then they were viewed as weak.
Rene Gallimard believed that asian women were submissive and catered to men's needs, just like Rene's favorite opera that he had introduced in the beginning that was called, "Madame Butterfly". He described the asian female character, "Cio-Cio-San", who was also known as "Butterfly", as a woman who gave up everything to her man, Pinkerton, who was a US Navy. Rene described Pinkerton as a man who was "not very good looking, not too bright, and pretty much a wimp" (Act 1, Scene 3, p. 10). This shows us that because Butterfly is from the East, she probably views the men from the West as strong, and so she falls in love with Pinkerton, even though Pinkerton is viewed as a "wimp". Madame Butterfly could be Rene's favorite opera show because Rene probably had the same views as Pinkerton, and that perhaps, Rene is interested in finding a submissive lady from the East so that he could feel powerful. Because he was blinded by his beliefs, he was deceived by Song Liling, the opera singer. Song pretended to be a woman, and had fooled Rene into revealing important information that lead to his punishment.
In the play, the line, "The West thinks of itself as masculine--big guns, big industry, big money--so the East is feminine--weak, delicate, poor...but good at art, and full of inscrutable wisdom--the feminine mystique" (Act 3, Scene 1, p.83) describes how many viewed race and gender in the world. The West was viewed as masculine and strong, whereas the East was viewed as feminine and submissive. How the East was viewed didn't show any difference between men and women in the East, because to the world, as long as men were from the East, then they were viewed as weak.
Rene Gallimard believed that asian women were submissive and catered to men's needs, just like Rene's favorite opera that he had introduced in the beginning that was called, "Madame Butterfly". He described the asian female character, "Cio-Cio-San", who was also known as "Butterfly", as a woman who gave up everything to her man, Pinkerton, who was a US Navy. Rene described Pinkerton as a man who was "not very good looking, not too bright, and pretty much a wimp" (Act 1, Scene 3, p. 10). This shows us that because Butterfly is from the East, she probably views the men from the West as strong, and so she falls in love with Pinkerton, even though Pinkerton is viewed as a "wimp". Madame Butterfly could be Rene's favorite opera show because Rene probably had the same views as Pinkerton, and that perhaps, Rene is interested in finding a submissive lady from the East so that he could feel powerful. Because he was blinded by his beliefs, he was deceived by Song Liling, the opera singer. Song pretended to be a woman, and had fooled Rene into revealing important information that lead to his punishment.
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