Eastern Illinois University The Keep Masters Theses Student Theses & Publications 2016 Render Down Nathan Hinote Eastern Illinois University This research is a product of the graduate program in English at Eastern Illinois University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation Hinote, Nathan, "Render Down" (2016). Masters Theses. 2469. https://thekeep.eiu.edu/theses/2469 This is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses & Publications at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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Render Down (TITLE) BY Nathan Hinote THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Arts in English IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS 2016 YEAR I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE GRADUATE DEGREE CITED ABOVE T'jESIS COMMITTEE CHAIR V DATE DEPARTMENT/SCHOOL CHAIR DATE OR CHAIR'S DESIGNEE �-s-llt I THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER DATE THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER DATE DATE I Ht::::;i;:::; l,.;UMMI I I C::C:: MC::MOC::I"\ DATE THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER Hinote 1 Render Down by Nathan Hinote Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English in the graduate school, Eastern Ill inois University Charleston, Illinois Spring 2016 Hinote 2 Table of Contents Cr i ti caI I ntrodu ct ion ------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 Chapter One ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- l 4 Ch apter Two ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 42 Chapter Three ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 5 Hinote 3 "The Rules Keep Changing": A Critical Introduction to Render Dml'n In the Greek tragedy, Oedipus Rex, the protagonist tries "escaping ...a fate that is given by the gods," but ultimately failsand "is punished" for "embod[ying] ...hubris," definedas "overweening pride or insolence ...that results in [his] misfortune" (Eliot 88; Harmon and Holman 254). The more Oedipus struggles to know and escape the fate thatthe gods chose forhim, the more he fulfillsit and the more he is further punished. This pattern reveals a rule governing this storyworld: Man cannot become "equal to the Gods" (Eliot 288). For breaking this rule, Oedipus is punished with a kingdom-wide disaster-a plague of infertility on crops, animals, and people-as well as the personal disaster of unwittingly killing his father and marrying his mother. The plague that punishes his kingdom makes Oedipus Rex a disaster narrative, which Maurice Yacowar describes as, "a situation of normalcy erupt[ing] into a persuasive image of death," where the author, as God, "is no copilot" to the characters and is not ·'on [their] side'' (3 I 3, 325). Acts of god or twists of fate are often rife in disaster narratives. leaving readers and characters wondering how to explain them. Was a mysterious god or cruel devil actually to blame? Or was it some other force like fate, luck, or karma? Yacowar suggests that "poetic justice," a key convention in disaster narratives, holds some answers to that question when he writes, "there is some relationship between a [character's] due and his or her doom" (328). This notion of poetic justice is another way of describing how works like Oedipus Rex use a concept called "moral law"-a cosmic rule in a story that, when broken, has "calamitous results" (Harmon and Holman 254). Thousands of years later, this concept of moral law still lingers in contemporary narrative forms, including the comic book. In fact, disaster narratives in the comic book format like The Walking Dead, Preacher, and Hellboy feature moral laws frequently. In the first volume of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead, the protagonist, Rick, wakes from a coma to find society collapsed after a zombie outbreak. He learns the rules of this new world when Morgan, another survivor, tells him, "You can't let it get to you" (Kirkman 28). Rick breaks this moral law when he cries for a zombifiedcyc list that he sees on the street. The storypunishes him by introducing a boy who mistakes him fora zombie and nearly kills him with a shovel (Kirkman 21, 24). Later, when he cries while thinking about his son's birth and how the world is no longer as beautifulas it was on that day, his punishment is getting surrounded by a horde of zombies (Kirkman 42, 44). Hinote 4 However, the moral law of this world sometimes changes. Another character, Glenn, gives him a new rule to live by later: "From this point on is where we'll need to be careful... keep your eyes open" (Kirkman 52). What sounds like simple advice is actually a replacement forth e last moral law, which no longer leads to punishment. In fact, the next time Rick cries, the story actually rewards him, and he finds his family just two pages later (Kirkman 54, 56). As Glenn warned, now characters must stay aware because carelessness is what the story punishes now. For instance, when a group of women let their guard down briefly,they are immediately attacked (Kirkman 73 ). Carelessness is punished again later when Glenn and Rick, wearing zombie guts as a kind of scent camouflage, fail to account for looming rain clouds. Their protective scent washes away and leads to them getting attacked (Kirkman 93). As the version of Rick fromthe television adaptation states, "The rules keep changing" ("The Distance"). Other important comics also explore moral law. In an interview about his bestselling Batman story arc "Zero Year," author Scott Snyder claims that his nearly post-apocalyptic version of Gotham punishes people who choose to only do what is expected of them, while rewarding people who go beyond expectations (Snyder, "Batman Writer"). Put simply, Gotham's moral law is "Do more than what is expected of you." Snyder shows that law in action when his iteration of Bruce Wayne tries to become a vigilante without a costume or a symbol-a strategy that fails. After being beaten close to death, he learns that he must become more than a mere man, and he declares that he will become a bat-or in this case, a bat-costumed vigilante with a symbol that is greater than himself (Snyder, Zero Year). He soon defeats the villains of this nearly post-apocalyptic Gotham, proving that his city rewards obedience to this moral law. This concept extends much further into disaster comics. Garth Ennis's Preacher features a moral law that teaches characters to trust only themselves to take care of