The Great Gatsby

I've had a very hard time trying to define what I think a Literary Work is. I ended up googling it and the most popular answer was "The work of the writer expressed in the letters of the alphabet especially when considered the point of view of style and effect." This is really broad. After reading this I started to come up with my own interpretation of literary work. I feel that all literary works are setting out to make a point about a topic. 

For this week we read the Great Gatsby with the recent release of the movie The New Yorker reviewed the movie saying "Baz Luhrmann’s "The Great Gatsby" is lurid, shallow, glamorous, trashy, tasteless, seductive, sentimental, aloof, and artificial. It’s an excellent adaptation, in other words, of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s melodramatic American classic." I think this is the most perfect definition of the Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby just feels like a trashy reality tv show from the 1920's. The book glorifies the idea of the American Dream, and how incredibly unachievable it is. The environment of the West Egg is so artificial, and everything is done just to impress others. Gatsby who is the symbol for the American Dream who has created this bootleg empire. Is never totally accepted by the wealthy society. He tries to be even more opulent then the old money crowd by throwing extravagant parties every week. It is sad to see his struggle to try and have everything which in his circumstance is pretty impossible.

Even though I am not very fond of the book it still is a literary work. The point of the book seems to focus on the death of the American dream. It also touches on the giant gap between the rich and the poor. I think that these themes are still pretty relevant in todays society. The rich like in the Great Gatsby have no care or disregard for the poor. They are just stuck in their own little worlds of opulence and overindulgence.

Blurring the Lines

Comics are a great example of a lowbrow form of literature, and transformed into more of a highbrow form like the graphic novel. At first comics just seemed to be like a quick disposable form of entertainment, with enticing visuals. A perfect example would be Windsor McCay. His Little Nemo in Slumberland comic is incredibly well drawn, and makes use of color in a attention grabbing way. The comic never leaves off on a cliff hanger everything is always resolved by  Nemo waking up.

While the content of Little Nemo stayed pretty static, the Tin Tin series changed over the years. Tin Tin is a very dull flat character was well towards the beginning. He just seems to just show up and say the catch phrase and be the hero. Towards the early part of the Tin Tin series Herge was pretty racist. Tin Tin in the Congo is an incredibly racist colonial piece of propaganda literature. I call this piece of literature propaganda it targets children, and gives them false assumptions of black people. It makes kids believe they are superior and more sophisticated than "savages from Africa"
Later in Herges career with Tin Tin, the stories start to morph. Tin Tin becomes a more interesting character, he starts to develop a personality that isn't like a wall. I read Tin Tin in Tibet and felt myself caring more about him and the search for his friend. It's relieving to see Herge grow of the colonial racist attitude. All of the excitement and adventure really hooked me as a child. Reading the series again gives I still get the feeling when reading the later books.
Also the format of Tin Tin makes it a transitional piece from disposable comic to  sustainable literature. Most comics are usually printed on cheap newsprint which makes it easy to consume and dispose of. Tin Tin is a cardboard bound book which makes it more sturdier, and something a reader would want to put on their bookshelf.