Alan Moore On the Impact V for Vendetta Has Had On the Occupy Protests
Alan Moore the creator of V for Vendetta chimes in on the Occupy Movement and how the Guy Fawkes mask has become a symbol for the protests around the globe.
By nailbiter111 - 11/27/2011
Alan Moore is an interesting guy, there is no doubt about that. You would think a writer would be overjoyed to watch his creations become a full featured film, but he isn't like most writers. He even asked to have his name removed from the credits of 2006's film version of V for Vendetta. He felt as though Time Warner had prostituted his "baby".
And now the Occupy Movement, like Occupy Wall Street has latched on to the Guy Fawkes mask as a symbol, Alan Moore is back in the spotlight. He sees the parallels of the graphic novel and the state of affairs in many countries. He points out how in the 1982 comic the fictional police state relied on CCTV cameras on every street corner to help control the public.
And perhaps the most satisfy parallel that Alan Moore draws upon from his 1980's ten-issue series is how the crusade is successful. He said, "The reason V's fictional crusade against the state is ultimately successful is that the state, in V for Vendetta, relies upon a centralised computer network which he has been able to hack. Not an obvious idea in 1981, but it struck me as the sort of thing that might be down the line. This was just something I made up because I thought it would make an interesting adventure story. Thirty years go by and you find yourself living it."
What follows is an excerpt from
The Guardian:
"I suppose when I was writing V for Vendetta I would in my secret heart of hearts have thought: wouldn't it be great if these ideas actually made an impact? So when you start to see that idle fantasy intrude on the regular world… It's peculiar. It feels like a character I created 30 years ago has somehow escaped the realm of fiction."
"That smile is so haunting," says Moore. "I tried to use the cryptic nature of it to dramatic effect. We could show a picture of the character just standing there, silently, with an expression that could have been pleasant, breezy or more sinister." As well as the mask, Occupy protesters have taken up as a marrying slogan "We are the 99%"; a reference, originally, to American dissatisfaction with the richest 1% of the US population having such vast control over the country. "And when you've got a sea of V masks, I suppose it makes the protesters appear to be almost a single organism – this "99%" we hear so much about. That in itself is formidable. I can see why the protesters have taken to it."
"I find it comical, watching Time Warner try to walk this precarious tightrope." Through contacts in the comics industry, he explains, he has heard that boosted sales of the masks have become a troubling issue for the company. "It's a bit embarrassing to be a corporation that seems to be profiting from an anti-corporate protest. It's not really anything that they want to be associated with. And yet they really don't like turning down money – it goes against all of their instincts." Moore chuckles. "I find it more funny than irksome."
"At the moment, the demonstrators seem to me to be making clearly moral moves, protesting against the ridiculous state that our banks and corporations and political leaders have brought us to."
This is a great article by Guardian and should be read in it's entirety by clicking the guardian.co.uk link below.
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