V for Vendetta

In V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore, the themes of vengeance and revolution plays a critical role in the whole story. V’s vendetta appears to be on the faculty that overlooked the events at Larkhill. However, his revenge on those people appears to be a revenge for the people that were victims in the government’s change and the citizens that are living in the “prison” that the government created. This microcosm of his revolution eventually overtakes the whole country. In one passage, Finch explains to the leader that V’s actions can have two intentions. One was for himself and what they did to him at Larkhill and the other one was something bigger. The way the novel reflects revolution is that it takes a great turning point to stir the heart of the public. For Evey, she had to go through the horrifying torture that V set up for her in order for her to understand the reason V was doing all of it. For the public to be stirred and brought to actualization, V had to broadcast his video and audio, bomb parliament, and kill many people. The novel illustrates that revolution is in everyone’s heart but it takes something big to bring it to life.


The novel’s illustration served the imagination to visualize the events that were happening. Each scene setting and section had a certain color tone to help construct moods and feelings in the passages. The pictures were not always vivid or clearly drawn, but they captivated the important details. For example, in the passages when Evey was kept in the cell by V, we saw the dark gloomy colors interrupted by Valerie’s story which was in brighter colors. This suggests that Valerie’s story was the only highlight and good part of the whole imprisonment. Later on, we see Evey’s tired face and hollowed cheeks that showed how she endured the starvation and torment. In another passage when Prothero’s dolls were being thrown into the oven, the vivid picture of the dolls melting face and Prothero’s screaming red face makes that moment pop out of the page. It feels as if the reader can hear the scream and fire burning. Sometimes a drawing or simple expression in the face can tell the viewer things that cannot be put into words. It is interesting to see the effect of words with images on perception of the novel. Like the cover of the book, the smiling mask already intrigues the reader before the title does. After all, they do say that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Moretti's Graph, Maps,Trees

In Moretti's article, "Graph, Maps, Trees," he proposes a new way to study literature. Instead of the usual close reading we are all accustomed to, Moretti believes that studying literature as a whole will provide a broader analysis because we will only read less than one percent of all the novels in the world in our lifetime. By using graphs and statistical data he collected, Moretti describes the trends of literature according to historical and geographical factors.

This approach to analyzing literature can be helpful because it covers all the novels as a whole and provides information about the timeline of novels from different areas. This way, we can incorporate the novels that we will never get a chance to read. This method also provides logical reasons as to why there were fluctuations in the popularity of the novel and popularity of what genres the novel took. Since this method is based on facts and solid data, it cuts out the arguments and disagreements among interpretations of the novel.

Although facts are irrefutable and provide some insight on these trends, they do not encompass the essence of what literature is meant for. Authors did not write novels to simply tell a story that reflects their time period or popular genre at the time. Novels were written so that every reader can experience something different. By using a quantitative approach, it degrades the greatness of a single novel and its author. In other words, novels, even in a collective view are not simple enough to explain with data.

Other interdisciplinary projects that combine literature with numbers, graphs, and data should always keep an open mind on the events that cannot be put into numbers and curves. Even though accurate data can provide solid theories, there are two sides to a story. As long as there is equal attention to both the objective and subjective side of the project, there will be less information missed.

Another way to approach SSTLS is to compare the book with other dystopian or futuristic novels. We can compare the book to the genre it is in and discover why it is this type of novel instead of another. Instead o analyzing the subthemes in the novel separately, we can compare SSTLS’s themes with the similar themes in other novels within the same genre. This way we can explore more than one novel at a time as well.

M Butterfly and SSTLS

In both M Butterfly and SSTLS, there are similarities in their themes about culture, gender, and politics. Even though M Butterfly is set in the past approximately 50 years ago and SSTLS 50 years ahead from now, the depiction of Asian women is similar. They appear to be delicate and tragic if they fall in love with a white man. This was surprising because the roles of Asian countries and the United States/ European countries have switched dominancy roles and I expected some stereotypes to disappear. I think this is also because culture plays a big role in Asian countries. In M Butterfly, the women are not allowed to let a man in their home because it is taboo to do so. Similarly in SSTLS Eunice's parents are always concerned about her "mystery." This shows that certain aspects of Asian culture have persevered through time. In both stories, the women hold loyalty in their role, which is a custom in Asian culture. While Butterfly held loyalty to her/his own country, Eunice tried to fulfill her role as the person who takes care of her family. Both also did not let love interfere with their roles. Butterfly still carried out her betrayal even though she seemed to love Rene in the end. Eunice did not let Joshie or Lenny steer her away from her family until she knew that they were okay. However, in both stories, political turmoil and issues brought the lovers together and it also tore them away from each other. From this film and SSTLS, I learned that some things in humanity do not change over time. Even if the settings and historical periods are different, there will be certain aspects of society that will persist due to culture and love. Those aspects are what makes us human.

Effects of Living Life Through Your Apparat

In Shteyngart's novel, Super Sad True Love Story, everyone who is anyone owns an apparat. On the apparat, people can shop, check stocks, search up people, view ratings, and basically do anything in the virtual world. Despite how convenient and useful this device is, it has turned human beings into shallow people with low self-esteem.

"The world they needed was right around them, flickering and beeping, and it demanded every bit of strength and attention they could spare." (p.86)

When Lenny meets up with his friends, they are in a bar hanging out, but buried in their devices and paying very little attention to one another. This is not a very social thing to do when we go out with friends today, but later we see how Noah came out to broadcast his show and is only worried about his number of viewers. In this case, his friends seem less important than the anonymous people viewing his show.

"My father looked away in some shame...So this was at the heart of their anger with me. i had told them so many times not to look at any streams or data about me."(p.141)

When Lenny visits his parents, they confront him about being on the list of people to feel sorry for and his low rankings. Even his own parents are judging their own son. Since there is practically no privacy anymore, everyone is able to access information about another. Since it is his own parents criticizing and judging him, Lenny has developed a low self esteem as we can see in his character throughout the book so far.

"So he's brain-smart. Who cares??? It's not like he's some superstar Media guy or VP at LandOLakes... Anyway, looking good is the new smart, and i don't think you should have kids with him because you'll have really ugly children." (p.147)

Precious Pony writes to Eunice who feels intimidated by Lenny's smartness. Normally, a guy who cares a lot and smart is a good catch. In their world, even though the nation is full of poor and unsuccessful people, the youth is still hypnotized by the good looking, rich, successful, and famous people. Eunice's low self esteem and her friend's shallowness is a good example of the side effect of being exposed to so much artificial culture made accessible by the apparat.

"All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace" by Richard Brautigan

In Brautigan’s poem, he describes two contrasting ideas as harmony together. The ironic thing is that nature and technology has always repelled each other. Although his words, if read literally, describes how wonderful technology has come together with nature, the overall tone is more sarcastic because of the word choices he uses.


In the title itself, “All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace,” the personification of machines loving seems to be odd. Machines are viewed as artificial technology that has no capacity for feelings. In the first stanza, he uses the words “programming harmony.” Even though harmony is a good thing, the word programming makes it seem artificial which makes it fake. In the second stanza, he describes a scene where electronics are all over the forest and nature. The scene does not seem appealing because it degrades the beauty of nature. In the last stanza, Brautigan says that in a “cybernetic ecology” we will be “joined back to nature, returned to our mammal brothers and sisters.” This seems like technology has taken over and mankind will be degraded back to living in the wilderness along with all the other animals that have been affected by our technological dominance. His urgency in the parenthesis also suggests that technology is growing fast and soon it will take over.


Even if nature and technology overwhelm each other, Brautigan’s poem can be seen as hopeful that technology and nature will come together in harmony to create some sort of utopia. During his time, technology was becoming a great hit and created great convenience for everyone.


This poem can also be viewed as pro-technology because Brautigan implies machines as a God by saying we are “all watched over by machines of loving grace,” and at the same time “we are free of our labors.” It can also be interpreted that machines and technology take over so we can go back to being in nature and be carefree.


Although Brautigan’s poem can be read both ways, I think the anti-technology interpretation is a better way to see it. Since the poem was written in the hippie era, I believe many people did not want technology to dominate and many were in favor of a more natural environment. The poem also described very unlikely images of machines and nature working together, thus enhancing the irony that these two can coexist.

Imagery in Robert Frost's "Design"

Images:
dimpled spider fat and white
white heal-all
moth
white piece of rigid satin cloth
ingredients of a witches' broth
snow drop spider
flower like a froth
dead wings like a paper kite
flower being white
wayside blue and innocent heal-all
kindred spider
white moth
design of darkness

In Robert Frost's sonnet, "Design," he creates a scene about a spider eating or killing a moth in a flower. The words dimpled and fat, which are used to describe the spider suggests that he has eaten or is living well in the flower. The peculiar thing about this seemingly normal scene is that the flower, spider, and moth are all white. He uses the lines "assorted characters of death and blight" and "like the ingredients of a witches' broth" to point out that the three things have to come together for this scene of death to happen. Even though the first stanza is describing a scene, the subjective adjectives suggest that it is something unpleasant and possibly wrong. There is a bit of irony in this scene because death happens in a heal-all flower.

In the second stanza, Frost starts to ask questions about why this has to happen. Frost uses adjectives like "innocent" and "kindred" to bring the whole scene to a more philosophical point of view. He ponders why the flower had to be white, what made the spider do this, and why the moth had to fly by. The answer to his own questions are answered at the volta where it means that everything was already predestined so each organism had no choice of what their fate is; therefore the outcome of this scene was already decided or "designed" by a creator or higher being. Frost probably used the color white to oppose the "darkness" in this design. Since white is a color that represents purity and innocence, then why did something dark (the killing of another creature) had to happen? In Frost's last line he writes, "if design govern in a thing so small." This line can be the answer to the previous question and it can be interpreted as how even the small things in life are all designed or destined to do what they do and we can not help it.

This small scene about the spider eating a moth in a flower is a microscopic view of a bigger picture. The reader can walk away with many interpretations of this poem. The death in the flower can suggests that no place is actually safe because we don’t know what is lurking beyond. As for the moth and spider, it was destined that they would meet and the moth becomes food.

TITLE OF MY BLOG

My middle school days were the most carefree times of my life. It was the period of my life where I got in trouble the most yet I had a lot of fun. I was finally able to roam the city without a chaperon and my curfew was extended to 8 p.m. In those few years, my friends and newfound environment laid a foundation for who I am today. This was also when I was labeled with the nickname "Monster." "Monster" was not given to me because I was mean or because I terrified other children; however, it was because my friends thought I was "dangerous in an adventurous sense." I climbed trees, jumped off roofs, and did things girls normally wouldn't do. I remember that "Monster" was given to me when I was hanging out with all my friends at a local KFC where we all gave each other nicknames. Although my friends I made in college and some from high school do not know this nickname, my friends from middle school still call me Monster and it has grown onto me. Monster is not just a nickname given to me by my friends; it is also a precious memory of my earlier years where those experiences and moments led me to understand how the real world really is. 

Lil or Lilz has always been a shortcut to say my name. Ever since elementary school, my friends and other classmates have called me by a shorter version of my name. So with the combination of my two nicknames, I’ve chosen Monsterlil as my title. Although my nickname has no relevance to literature, it is the first significant thing that comes to mind when naming a blog because it represents me.