On the first day of class we were asked to define literature. The first thing that popped into my mind was Shakespeare, Emily Dickenson, and the hard to read novel Great Expectations. Never would I have believed that a comic book could even remotely be considered as a literary text. All comics seem to be about imaginary superheroes fighting off the villains. However, this is not what the reader finds when they read Alan Moore’s comic book.
Alan Moore’s Light of Thy Countenance is a literary text. Although this form of literature is fairly new and is not considered as literature by many critics, it is timeless. Moore goes through decades of history and incorporates them with today’s issues: the television. This comic book will be classic for the now, a new generation of literature. It is timeless. One hundred years from now, this comic book will still have relevance in a class room. Perhaps more relevance than it has today. I think this is the biggest characteristic of literature. Any text that can be read years down the line, with a new generation living on this world and it still has meaning to it. It sheds light as to what the worries were when he wrote it. This comic is not like the Batman comics that are all about fighting crime against people that do not exist. Moore’s comic fights technology and its “evil” effects on society since the first one was turned on.
Many of the literary texts we read this quarter had the same effect. Mary Shelly shows us in Frankenstein the issues with the advancement in technology. Even Allan Ginsberg’s poem, “A Supermarket in California”, advises the reader of the issues in America and the capitalism of the entire American life. Thus, Light of Thy Countenance does fit in with the other literary texts. I can see why some people would have an issue with accepting it as such. A comic is seen as something adolescent boys read instead of doing their homework. It is not something that should be placed on a reading list. But eventually people will notice the difference and will jump onto the boat to accept it.
The movie Blade Runner is a lot like Capek’s drama Rossum’s Universal Robots. We see that the robots in Blade Runner wanted to learn the secret of their life, just like the robots wanted the manual on how they were made. Both creatures had the intention of attempting to expand their life span. The movie also shows the fear of technology, after the technology had already been introduced to the world. We notice this when the head of police tells Deckard that no one was going to find out that three “Replicants” had killed twenty-three people, taken over a ship and returned to earth. It is just like Victor Frankenstein had created a monster and kept it a secret. Although Victor was kept his secret because everyone would think he was a lunatic, there was still a danger roaming around and citizens were unable to prepare to defend themselves if they did come in contact with them. There is also the feeling of calmness from the people that created these creatures. The reader does not feel a sense of urgency in R.U.R. until close to the end when the robots final go through the gates and into the factory. It is the same way in the movie, there is no sense of urgency until the final fight scene. The police officers and Deckard himself seem to have a nonchalant attitude towards the fact that there are dangerous creatures running the streets.
I think that Roy Baty decides to spare Deckard at the end because he wanted to show that he had developed feelings. Although he was able to kill his creator and others that had had a part in creating him, Deckard had spent his life to destroying “Replicants”. Maybe with this gesture, Deckard would learn to live with the robots and help others to live with them as well. The dialog, or monologue since Deckard was not doing much talking, had to do with the fear of living life as a slave. The possibility that Deckard was over powered by Roy alone showed him that if the robots really wanted to, they could take over and make people their slaves very easily.
