ENG 4433: Topics in World Lit

Plenty of people talk about themes of anarchy and rebellion and revolution in v for vendetta. But V for vendetta is very similar to a Russian matryoshka doll. Anarchy, rebellion, and revolution are the outer doll, the most notable part. What do you see on the page where V blows up Parliament? It clearly seems like an act of anarchy and rebellion. But what if I was to make the claim that the main theme of the graphic novel was not anarchy, rebellion, and revolution? What if the theme of V for vendetta is actually a call to action aimed at the audience? Now you might be thinking “what kind of call to action?”. Well let me assure you it's probably not the one you’re thinking of, probably not. But rather, it is a call to action against complacency. It takes the quote “the only thing needed for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing” very seriously. It rages against the idea of simply accepting your circumstances and being a cog in a machine you have no faith in. It is complacen...

I was going to talk about Aya life in Yop City but I ended up reading Aya Love in Yop City because the library has it cataloged wrong. I should have read the spine of the book because the front of the book was covered buy a sticker and I didn't read it closely enough. Because of this I want to talk about Aya Love in Yop City. Hopefully because they are both text from the same culture it will count. One of the things love in Yop City does to show that it is for an audience outside of Cote d Ivoire, is introduces to a character named Innocent. He arrives in Paris and instantly you start to see the cultural differences and his struggle with learning new social norms. There is a scene in the novel where he is trying to catch pigeons for food and freaks out an old lady who keeps calling for the police. Not knowing the people in France don't eat City pigeons. It can also be seen at the beginning of the novel the difficulty and learning directions in a new environment. The no...

Hello everyone. Today I'd like to talk about a graphic novel I recently read called As the World Burns and a graphic novel series that I've loved for many years call X1999. This may take a bit so please make sure you have popcorn soda and anything else that you may need during this reading. Also, emergency exits are to the right and to the left depending on your political preference as I am sure that both sides will in some way disagree with me in the course of this reading. As the World Burns is a graphic novel by Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan. It's a graphic novel with a very pessimistic view of the future. The novel is incredibly well-grounded and self-aware of its themes. It's a story about the environmental crisis and people's blindness to the fact that simply doing small things on a checklist won't save the world. However, the tone of the book changes about halfway through and starts to shift towards a more extremist point of view. While I ...

Are you a social activist? Do you do your part to make the world a better place? Even small acts can make a difference. First, I’d like to point out that a social activist is someone that takes a stand, someone who campaigns for a social change, an advocate that stands for what is right, it is someone who promotes environmental, social, political, and economic reforms to make that change in society. Now that I have defined it, let me explain some acts of social activism. Volunteering at any local shelters, whether it be for babies, kids, adults, and even to help to care for animals, your time makes a difference. You’d be amazed at how rewarding it is for yourself, as well as giving than receiving will make a whole positive change to your persona. Another example of social activism is going green. Recycling papers, boxes, and plastics, makes a whole positive change into saving our earth, as well as saving the ocean alongside the animal’s habitats, and stopping global warming. ...

Wow! That was my exact reaction after reading Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. It was a whole roller-coaster ride of emotions throughout the whole comic. To begin, I would have to state that at first, I was not over the top to read this comic. It did not look interesting to me. Although the front cover of the book did quite look interesting to say the least. The cover art showed a picture of the protagonist. It also gave me a sense of a serious tone for the mood of the comic for my first expression. I took in that phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover.” And so, my adventure to read it began. After reading the introduction, it gave me as sense of the book being from another country, and culture. The author even stated how “a nation should not be judged, and so writing Persepolis was very important, it was also so that Iranians would not be forgotten. That was a very powerful statement that even sparked me to further continue to read. Foreign to me means something unknown, and so...

As an English major and being a lover of books, I have a great idea on what fiction and non-fiction books differ. Non-fiction works is something that is based on a true story. It is based on facts, real people, and real events. Whereas fiction means something that is false. Something that is make believe and made up of people’s imagination. The real question is…. can a novel be a non-fiction text? Yes, yes it can. It would be classified as history, or a biography. Maus by Art Spiegelman is a non-fiction novel that is indeed based on a true story. It uses story telling techniques of fiction, while also giving a sense of a novel since it is indeed a book length story. A story can be non-fiction and have the art form be in comics, or any other kind of medium. Just because an author chooses to use art forms and sequential art, it does not take away from a story being true. If anything, portraying a non-fiction story and then adding it to a comic makes it even more fun and worth readi...

Earlier this year, Billie Eilish told her followers to “be smarter” and go vegan after sharing a graphic video of what is pretty much industry standard. She’s been an open advocate for veganism, but many still debate the individual consumer’s impact on the animal product industry. I’m vegan, which I don’t tell people often because I live in Texas and I honestly don’t care if other people are or aren’t vegan or vegetarian at all. I wasn’t always vegan, but people do not enjoy stories of my goat-slaughtering youth. We often hear the statistic that the meat industry is the biggest contributor to climate change, so capitalists can put the blame on individuals instead of industry. It still gets tossed around in young adult spaces. I’m going to assume for now that young adults are the primary audience for any kind of activist-encouragement, which is what As the World Burns, a satirical graphic novel about climate change… tries to do? I want to start off by saying I don’t ac...