(no subject)

[learnedax]

Finished V for Vendetta this morning. It's good. It's very good. I disagree, however, with jducoeur and alexx_kay that it is Alan Moore's best work. My central issue with it is that the story is, odd as this might sound, traditional to the point of not saying much. I had no foreknowledge of this book, and nothing in it surprised me. Great art can of course be made as process rather than product, and this is quite good art on those terms, but it also seems to go to great lengths to shake up the reader and tell them something interesting and new. I really wanted it to be both, but for me at least the latter aspect winds up coming off rather weakly.

Mine may also be a less than typical perspective. I'm a rabid fan of The Prisoner, and I saw a lot of parallels between it and this book (sure, all dystopiae look similar, but I see far more large and small echoes of McGoohan here than Huxley or Orwell).

Comments

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Taken in the context of its time-- Thatcher's Britain-- it was quite a different experience. V for Vendetta is very much of its time, though, as much as any of Alan Moore's other works. He tends to write about what's going on around him, and captures the times in his books-- V for Vendetta and Watchmen are both about the 80's, although they take on different aspects.

From my camp

[cristovau.livejournal.com]

The reason I like V for Vendetta is the concentration camp elements. Moore weaves that horror together effectively, and shows the multi-faceted complexity of the situation by unveiling one character's involvement or interaction at a time. It's a better holocaust story than dystopia story.

Having said this, he's more heavy handed in V than in other works. That is the big difference between V and Watchmen IMHO.

You're comment on The Prisoner is an interesting one. Both deal heavily with how to be more than a cog in the machine. I need to see more episodes to compare them intelligently.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

nothing in it surprised me

Huh. Not even the part with Evey on the rooftop in the rain? (vagueness to avoid spoilers for those who haven't read it)

I'm also a rabid Prisoner fan, but I din't notice the parallels. Now that you mention it, they certainly are there to be found.

Also, I said that it was perhaps AM's best *comic book* work. The Moon And Serpent Grand Egyptian Theater of Marvels is certainly in the running for best creation overall. IMNSHO, of course :-)

[The first four books of Promethea are also in the running, but I think that book five is being significantly weakened (as Art) by becoming so strongly tied to "the ABC Universe".]

Re:

[cristovau.livejournal.com]

The Moon And Serpent Grand Egyptian Theater of Marvels is certainly in the running for best creation overall. IMNSHO, of course :-)

Agreed, though my pagan identity and admiration for David J might be showing. I find that listening to this ups the syllable count in my everyday speech. If you like the mystic moments of Promethea, this performance piece is for you.

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[learnedax.livejournal.com]

I can see that the effect would be notably different in the right context, much as the nuclear aspects of Watchmen connect very strongly with the fears of the mid-80s. But on the other hand, truly great art should be timeless or at least longevous, right?

Re: From my camp

[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Hmm. The holocaustic side of the story seemed to me a contributing factor rather than the main story, although its impact is certainly seen throughout. If we're looking at perspectives on holocausts I have to mention Maus, as I don't think anyone has captured the complexities and depth of emotional response more effectively.

What? Not seen all of The Prisoner? I guess you'll have to be in on the marathon we've been thinking needs to happen. Many of the major themes (and hence parallels with V) really come to the fore in the last two episodes, which are extremely philosophically dense.

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[learnedax.livejournal.com]

Not even the part with Evey on the rooftop in the rain?

That was a very emotionally powerful sequence, and I wasn't positive that it would be resolved the way it was. But I had some suspicions from the beginning of that thread, and by the end I was mainly unsure because I couldn't think of a plausible explanation for how it had been done. In fact I was thinking along the wrong lines: they never bothered to explain exactly how it was done, because the book is about ideas, not mechanics.

It helped that I was seeing Prisoner parallels by then. But then, I tend to see parallels to everything all over.

I am yet young in the works of AM. I will need to find out more about this Theater of Marvels of which you speak.

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[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, which is why I think you're a total heathen. 8)

Actually, V wasn't my favorite of his-- I think it's interesting, but is really more of a relic of its time than even Watchmen. I think it's a good story, though, but, as others have noted here, much more heavy-handed than later works...

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[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

TMaSGEToM was the first (and, so far, best) of a series of live performance-art pieces (spoken word with music, dance, fire-breathing, and other random multimedia thrown in), which have been subsequently released on CD (well, the audio portions at least). Musical collaboration is generally with David J and/or Tim Perkins. [Coming back around to V, David J wrote the music for the "Vicious Cabaret" episode. Recordings of it exist, but I haven't yet tracked one down.] Alan isn't a great singer, but his spoken-word stuff is insanely potent.

I will happily put some of these into the loaner queue for after you've returned the current batch :-)

But then, I tend to see parallels to everything all over.

One of the reasons it's so much fun to talk with you!

[jducoeur]

Well, there's obviously an element of taste in it. I find V especially powerful, but I am a great fan of both psychological and political fiction, and this one hits very squarely in those areas. The transformation of Evey over the course of the story is fascinating to me. And while I don't entirely agree with the political prescription of the story, I think it's a really extraordinary contrast of the extremes of fascism and anarchy, taking both deadly seriously.

(It's also possible that, as previously mentioned, it speaks more strongly to those of us who were politically aware during the Reagan/Thatcher years...)