TIL Alan Moore, the author of V for Vendetta, has a negative view of the revolutionary cultures/movements he helped inspire
TIL Alan Moore, the author of V for Vendetta, has a negative view of the revolutionary cultures/movements he helped inspire
Alan Moore wrote Rorschach for a fucking reason and it wasn't because "Rorschach was right!"
Moore was clearly aware of people who are sympathetic to great causes but would undermine them and destroy society just to be able to say that they were right.
Rorschach was right in many ways, but he spent his time looking down on everyone and anything else. His hate for the world was visceral and colored his perception. He was happy to destroy the world just so he could prove to himself that the world was beyond redemption.
The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'SAVE US!'...and I'll look down and whisper 'No.'
-Rorschach from Moore's Watchmen
He doesn't support these movements because they're filled to the gills with fucking Rorschachs.
V for Vendetta had a similar message. V was really not all that much better than the people he was fighting. He tortured the fuck out of Evey in order to get her to do his bidding. I'm sure it pissed him off to a huge degree that people started adopting Guy Fawkes masks as an actual symbol of revolution. Moore chose that mask for a reason. That reason is that Guy Fawkes was both fighting oppression and trying to turn England into a theocracy.
What part of rorschach's views are revolutionary? Rorschach is a chud. Maybe his views are extreme but not revolutionary. False equivalence be wilin
It would probably be faster to list the things he doesn't have a negative view about.
I was about to say the same thing. Pretty much the only thing I can think of that he has a positive view of is the hand puppet he worships.
And to his credit, he freely admits it's a hand puppet.
What I came in to say. He's a curmudgeon. A genius, but not the most personable.
What revolutionary culture? I've never seen any evidence that inspired revolutionary culture. Some cringe culture absolutely, but actual revolutionary culture? Nonsense.
Have you never seen Anonymous before? They are a revolutionary group whose motif is the Guy Fawkes Mask, which is a symbol that comes directly from the character V from V for Vendetta, who wears one because his mask "is an idea, and ideas are bulletproof". Anonymous has done a lot of notable things, both good and bad, such as going after the Church of Scientology and trying to take part in the pandemic riots, and it is in response to some of this that Alan Moore has brought up the revelation or fact that Anonymous, he would tell/inform you, is excessive and misses the point, distorting his vision for social action, with him implying the same exact objection about Luigi Mangione and those who support him years later. He made characters regardless of good and evil, not models of it (heck, V admits at one point he sabotaged a train just to get his hands on real butter to go with his breakfast, an unmistakably "this must be an anti-hero" move, but everyone wants to focus on things like the "what they did was monstrous, so they made a monster" justification that wasn't meant to be taken as the doctrine it became), and he did not intend people would weaponize use of it as a platform, though most people are only aware of the initial remark of praise he gave Anonymous for combating the Scientology, which is what made it to the encyclopedias.
You are really understanding Moore's point in V for Vendetta. His whole point is that good and evil are subjective. Which, as far as I can tell, is true in the real world.
V is really not better than the people he is fighting and he has no plan for the aftermath, which will clearly be a horror show.
And I guarantee you plenty of members of Anonymous committed their own horrible acts that would be considered evil by others. Being part of a good cause does not make you a good person.
Anonymous are not a revolutionary group imo. Revolutions are bloody are done the in the streets. They're a nuisance at best.
what they did was monstrous, so they made a monster" justification that wasn't meant to be taken as the doctrine it became), and he did not intend people would weaponize use of it as a platform,
Personally I think that was pretty naive on Moore's part. It resonates with ppl because it's true. Revolution is often bloody and morally black because ppl have reached their breaking point.
I rather don't think the movements he helped inspire would ask about his opinion though.
Hence why appropriation is a thing.
UK here - never used stone, LBs or pints as a measurement
If I was measuring bodyweight, I would use KG. Grams for anything light.
The only time I see Milk measured in pints, is bottles or cartons of standard dairy milk in supermarkets. Any other milk is litres, including dairy such as Jersey / Cream top milk
How old are you? I'm mid 30s and grew up with stone for human weight, and kg for everything else.
LBs never (except baking from old recipe books), and pints for beer only.
I never know where the cutoff is for us lot.
I'm the same age
I found that stone was used for weight commonly up until recent times. I've been asked in person and one form what my weight is in kg (I think maybe health insurance?)
Same with Lbs and pints, but also milk. Every standard plastic milk carton is measured in pints, usually with ml/l printed on them these days. Smallest carton? 1 pint. Most common? 4. Giant carton 6 etc
TBF Alan Moore has a negative view of the idea that anyone has ever read or enjoyed his work.
TLDR; Angry British man, angry about stuff.
Links to his 2011 and 2024 interviews on the fandoms his work inspired.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/27/alan-moore-v-vendetta-mask-protest
Yeah, the part two thirds of the way down in the first one corresponds to where it becomes what is being referred to in the TIL.
