The man from Room Five
V for Vendetta Alan Moore's classic graphic novel stands head and shoulders with other works of classic literature. His vision of a fascist society, based on the 1980s conservatism of the Thatcher administration, rings even truer in the current neo-con dominated America. We are a nation getting wire tapped, spoon fed sound bites, and the voice of dissent is lost. V brings the hope of ideas to a group of people who are imprisoned in their own society. He's cryptic, poetic, and has gone from hell and back to 'set us free'.
"Our masters have not heard the people's voice for generations, Evey, and it is much, much louder than they remember."
David Lloyd's art in V-- shadows, expression, pace are the perfect fit with Moore's words. The lead character V, wears a mask the whole time, but Lloyd manages to portray emotion.
And V is funny, when he confronts the pedophile bishop with "Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth..and taste.". Sympathy for the devil, after the politicos use the church as their bloody pulpit against V? Great!
As a librarian, my profession is one of the few that has been fighting the fight for intellectual freedom. This is my heart. I can handle disagreement or dissent, in fact welcome it-- but don't tell someone they don't have the right to say their opinion. Even if such opinion is derided, ridiculed, by those with a larger and louder forum. I don't think anyone should be denied access to information, or the opportunity to express their opinion.
Any hint of censorship, or a majority boot heel on the neck, hell- I'm there.
I liked the V for Vendetta film, and it was basically true to the source material. But just as Saga of the Swamp Thing, Moore's layers can't be direct to film. Now that Lost Girls book he just did-- has anyone gotten a lookie-loo? 15 years working on a pornographic book, that's commitment.
Recent reads: DMZ 5, S loves MJ 9, 52, Girls 16,Catwoman, BOP 97, Walking Dead 30. Some thoughts soon
posted by RedheadFangirl @ 9:13 PM
6 Comments:
Wow! That was a great write up on V. Yep, I've read Walking Dead, 52, Birds of Prey, 52, DMZ, and a whole slew of others last week.
What a rock-star fangirl you are!
Hi, I'm a friend of PhillyGirl's from The Fuselage. She sent me a link to your blog, and I have been reading and enjoying it for some time, although I'm more of a Silver/Bronze age comics fan. (I got my first comics in 1979.)
Anyway, I consider V For Vendetta one of the great works of literature in any medium, and I appreciate your thoughts on it. You're right, it's eerily relevant to today's perfect storm of corrupt leadership, an apathetic population, a culture of fear and endless war, and a cowed media along for the ride. It chills me to think that we may be one more terror incident away from the Finger, the Voice of Fate, Room Five, and "America Prevails". Thank goodness for activist librarians! :-)
Here's something I wrote about V on the Fuselage: "Moore's dystopian future isn't a tidy little template where the loss of freedom is an abstraction. He lifts up the beast and shows you the nasty dark underbelly of human nature in a world that's lost its way. People do truly, truly horrible things, and moral ambiguities abound." Alan Moore's genius is in the way he draws you into his world.
Nice to meet you. Keep on bloggin'!
Good points made by all. And librarians are heroic, dammit! We're frontline soldiers in the war against the slide into ignorance!
Ramessesix- Please comment any time you want. It's great to see an intelligent post from a comic fan.
M-Librarians, soldiers of freedom!
I watched the movie this weekend and I've got to say I was a bit dissapointed. It didn't do the book justice and they took too many liberties with the story, but now I want to read it again, which is good.
Post a Comment
<< Home