Light of Thy Countenance

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.