351. The well (V)

I did a little research into the life of Alan Moore, a comic book writer who is most notable for his Watchmen and V for Vendetta comics—both subsequently made into movies, although Moore quibbled with Hollywood and the comic book publishers over both adaptations. Although Moore’s works are typically pitched as “dark”, “mature”, and “adult” as compared with, say, Marvel’s childish fare he is really a left-wing ideologue; it is just that he is further to the left than most mainstream comic publications and the movie industry, even though these are both already well to the left.

As I watched a documentary about Moore in the 1980s I heard him explain in what ways his comics were more “adult” or “mature” than previous throwaway productions; for Moore, it was because he discussed issues such as the holocaust and homosexual rights—the latter made me smile, for to say that today would probably provoke censure from the left; but at the time Moore was at the vanguard of ideologically-correct speech.

Moore is a difficult man; his colleague, Grant Morrison, reported receiving an intemperate letter from him when he was asked to take over a character Moore had previously written—and Moore has fallen out with various studios and comic book publishers, seeing these as being too capitalistic or authoritarian. His products are often linked with the term “graphic novel”—an attempt to increase the cultural value of comics. Moore rejects the term, although really “graphic novel” could be taken to mean “comic with left-wing causes, such as the holocaust and homosexual rights, inserted into the plot”. The left traditionally hated comics—Britain’s Communist Party explicitly campaigned against them in the 1950s—because comics represent individualism, heroism, and vigilante justice. Retribution for crime in comic books is immediate—there are no clever lawyers to twist things round—and this upsets left-wing people, since they live by manipulating procedural outcomes. The above can be said for cowboy films, a genre that has disappeared because it is politically unacceptable.

Moore was born to a working-class family in Northampton and has never really left his hometown; intelligent, he went to grammar school but was expelled for drug use. Although he claims to be deeply rooted to the place it would be a mistake to see this connection as affectionate. When Moore talks about Northampton he heavily criticises the town’s main industry—boot manufacture—often pointing out, horror of horrors, that Northampton sold boots to the Confederacy; perhaps they too will, when the Leviathan gets round to it, be forced to pay substantial reparations. He is also keen to point out that the town once held a little pogrom back in medieval times.

Moore makes much of the fact that he asks everyone in his old neighbourhood to “treat him like everyone else” despite his fame. The real motivation behind this false modesty is probably to be a big fish in a small pond. By staying close to his roots—his old working-class neighbourhood—instead of moving to a metropolis Moore can lord it over his contemporaries while pretending to be “just an ordinary bloke”; this is typical leftist behaviour, to rule covertly like a woman.

Indeed, in his occult practices, Moore worships the feminine. He venerates the snake-god Glycon—identified by Lucian as a false god from its inception. Glycon was reputed to be a puppet; and Moore himself says that he prefers to worship an invented god. Esoterically, this could be taken to mean that Moore worships the demiurge; the false creator-god or puppet, rather than the true hidden divinity. Moore venerates feminine nature and claims it must be protected from man’s despoliation; he sees no negative side to nature, no need for real industry. As with all leftists he has “scarcity mindset”; he thinks some people hoard the wealth and will exhaust nature; yet he himself, despite liberal use of magic, moralises against its use for profit and love—for he hoards what truly can be hoarded, information.