What Governs You?

Carlos Espinoza

March 8, 2010

Andrew Hageman

What Governs You?

On the first day of class I did not know how to define literature. I did not know if a graphic novella like Alan Moore’s Light of Thy Countenance would be considered literature or not just because it was in the form of a comic book like structure. At the beginning of the class, I thought that just because a graphic novella is not in book form does not necessary mean that it isn’t literature. At that point in time I did not possess any evidence to support my argument, but now after reading Light of Thy Countenance I now have evidence to back up my claim.

Alan Moore really defies anyone’s perspective of what literature should be. Prior to reading the story I was not expecting such a powerful message to be expressed in the form of a comic book. I believe that any piece of writing can be considered literature if it is telling a story while transcending a message to the reader. Graphic novellas are not recognized as literature by most people because literature has always been portrayed as a big book with nothing up words printed on a page, at least for me.

The purpose of literature I believe is to get a point of view across to the reader. A message that lets the reader ponder about what he author is trying to say through his work. In the case of Alan Moore’s Light of Thy Countenance, the message of how television has taken over people’s lives is eloquently illustrated through story and pictures. In the novella the narrator is television and it describes itself as a God, omniscient and all-knowing. Through out the novel the narrator boasts about how the whole world is enslaved under his presence that you feel a bit proud because you are reading this information instead of watching via television. Just to mess with the reader even more, at the end of the novel the story ends with “Brightness Immortal and The End of Care, coming up next, right after this…” Moore makes it seem that even though you are currently not under the control of the television, you are still under the influence of a book.

Before technological advances brought inventions such as the television and the radio, I believe that reading was a person’s path to learning about events outside of one’s neighborhood. In my opinion nothing comes close to reading literature. Literature allows one’s mind to wander and travel the world through the perspectives of others to a level in which the television can never. The television has become extremely popular because unlike reading literature, watching television is relatively quick in getting information across whether through advertisements or news broadcasts. Books on the other hand take time to analyze because they allow you to draw your own conclusions and point of view instead of having a television dictate them for you. The television has revolutionized world communication, which is why it governs all who indulge in it.