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’s Alan Moore, talking to the Guardian newspaper about the Occupy and Anonymous movements using the mask from V for Vendetta as ways of identifying themselves (while, obviously, obscuring themselves at the same time). Moore’s co-creator on V, David Lloyd, has spoken about the use of the mask he created before, including pointing out that Anonymous seems to have missed the point of the character in the original book, as opposed to the movie adaptation:
I guess they’re forming a union and wanting a unifying image, which in one sense is against the true concept of V from the book, where he stands for individualism. But the image in the movie of the mass protest of ‘Vs’ was one of a unified front of resistance against tyranny, so I can understand how that could promote the concept of one group with one collective face. And, of course, the more stylish an image is the more attractive and impressive it is for anyone wanting a brand.
November 29th, 2011 at 6:54 am
I frggin’ love that movie. I actually think that it’s quite a fitting legacy for anonymous to use the mask, regardless of Alan Moore hating what was a very good movie.
He would dig what they do.
November 29th, 2011 at 8:07 am
“He would dig that they do.”
But again there is that word “they”. His story is about the rights of the individual, not the efforts of a collective.
November 29th, 2011 at 8:31 am
See, if Mr. Moore thought like Grant Morrison, he’s be saying, “well, of course it’s happening.” In that wacky docu about Morrison, the Bald Scotsman says “if both nuclear bombs and Superman are ideas that someone had, why should one be real and not the other?” That people are making a work of fiction real only echoes Morrison’s ideas.
As well as Moore’s, even if the movie altered the premise from 80s anarchism to post-9/11 anti-PATRIOT Act protest. And even if the Guy Fawkes mask is a lot older than Moore.
I just hope that Anonymous are not buying the officially licensed V masks any more. It was just too ironic that Time Warner was getting a profit from their protests.