Thursday, April 21, 2005

Book 25: V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

Many people will say that graphic novels shouldn't count in my quest to complete this year's 50 Book Challenge, and that's fine with me. V for Vendetta isn't the first one I've read this year, nor will it be the last. I still feel compelled to do my normal "book report".

Having read Moore's Watchmen and now this book, I can say that I'm starting to find him to be one of the most compelling writers working in the comics industry today. After the mediocre film that was From Hell and the disaster that was League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, I actually never held out much hope that his books could possibly be much good. I'm really glad I decided to give them a shot, though, because both Watchmen and V for Vendetta are so remarkable that I want to pick up Moore's other stuff just to see where the hell the movies went wrong.

V for Vendetta is actually being made into a movie as well, not that Moore will make a dime from the adaptation. He announced some time ago that he wanted any proceeds that he might earn to go to the other artists who contributed to the creation of the book rather than to him. It's a generous gesture, but it also allows him to distance himself from any adaptations that might go awry.

The movie, which will be released in November on Guy Fawkes Day, has a screenplay by the infamous Wachowski brothers and is being directed by James McTeigue, who was an assistant director on films like The Matrix and the recent Star Wars stuff. Whether they can translate a movie that essentially deals with terrorism to a mass audience product remains to be seen; however, they so far at least seem to "get it".

V for Vendetta's story takes place in a dystopic England, where the lone survivors of a nuclear holocaust survive under strict rule by a few. The nation is exclusively Caucasian. Anyone who was "different" - whether they be African, Pakistani, Indian or homosexual - has been eliminated. The news is pre-recorded and sent out via one "voice". Cameras are everywhere, and people simply accept that this way of life is natural.

Well, most people, anyway. A terrorist known only as "V" emerges one Guy Fawkes Day and blows up Parliament. This sets events in motion that affect all of society and this is shown through various characters who have positions in the government. Along with "V", the other primary persona is a young woman named Evey, who is taken under the terrorist's wing.

While it might be difficult for some to read about terrorism as being valuable in a post-9/11 world, the book does an outstanding job of creating a believable world in which such events might unfold. Really, is it so hard to imagine that there would be a set of individuals so hungry for power that they would exterminate whole subsets of society? It's obviously happened in the past, and since the human heart is a dark place, I see it as an absolute possibility for the future, however sickening that may be. The idea for the story clearly germinated in some of Moore's unhappiness with the state of British society at the time, and sadly, since the comic series was published between 1982 and 1983, things don't really seem to have improved much. The book and its notions are bleak to be sure, but well worth the time spent.

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