John C.A. Manley

Ideas are bulletproof. People aren't.

That's the big theme in the graphic novel, V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore....

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Continuing with part three of my multi-post review of the graphic novel, its bulletproof ideas are what I'd like to focus on today.

The depth of philosophy in the graphic novel exceeds that of the film (despite the movie adaptation's unforgettable televised speech about how people normalize oppression). In contrast, the graphic novel does not focus so much on the evils of government as on the glories of liberty, anarchy, and spontaneous order.

For example, there is a moving scene in the novel where V is talking to a statue of Lady Justice, telling her how he used to stare at her from the streets as a child and tell his father, "Isn't she pretty?"

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"But please don't think it was merely physical," his older self tells her now, "I know you're not that sort of girl. No, I loved you as a person, as an ideal. That was a long time ago. I'm afraid there's someone else now."

That someone else is anarchy. Not chaos. But the ability to live without rulers (who get to decide who is right and who is wrong).

V accuses Lady Justice of having an affair with power, betraying him and everybody she promised to protect. The government claims the right to dictate justice, promising safety in exchange for our freedom. The result is ultimately oppression, for even the most enormous wrongs can be justified with a law, a vote and a crisis.

Ultimately, the story is about people and communities taking responsibility for their own lives, as V says:

“Since mankind's dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We've seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse.”

"Vann's World is younger, geologically, than Earth, with more water. It's a wild, terrifying, exciting world of volcanoes and huge storms that make hurricanes look pleasant — especially around the equator. It has three moons, so enormous tides, and it is just bursting with life — where everything tries to eat everything else, in its fertile seas and across hundreds of chains of volcanic islands, forming and eroding away."

Ideas are bulletproof. People aren't.

That's the big theme in the graphic novel, V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore....

[image]

Continuing with part three of my multi-post review of the graphic novel, its bulletproof ideas are what I'd like to focus on today.

The depth of philosophy in the graphic novel exceeds that of the film (despite the movie adaptation's unforgettable televised speech about how people normalize oppression). In contrast, the graphic novel does not focus so much on the evils of government as on the glories of liberty, anarchy, and spontaneous order.

For example, there is a moving scene in the novel where V is talking to a statue of Lady Justice, telling her how he used to stare at her from the streets as a child and tell his father, "Isn't she pretty?"

[image]

"But please don't think it was merely physical," his older self tells her now, "I know you're not that sort of girl. No, I loved you as a person, as an ideal. That was a long time ago. I'm afraid there's someone else now."

That someone else is anarchy. Not chaos. But the ability to live without rulers (who get to decide who is right and who is wrong).

V accuses Lady Justice of having an affair with power, betraying him and everybody she promised to protect. The government claims the right to dictate justice, promising safety in exchange for our freedom. The result is ultimately oppression, for even the most enormous wrongs can be justified with a law, a vote and a crisis.

Ultimately, the story is about people and communities taking responsibility for their own lives, as V says:

“Since mankind's dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We've seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse.”

"Vann's World is younger, geologically, than Earth, with more water. It's a wild, terrifying, exciting world of volcanoes and huge storms that make hurricanes look pleasant — especially around the equator. It has three moons, so enormous tides, and it is just bursting with life — where everything tries to eat everything else, in its fertile seas and across hundreds of chains of volcanic islands, forming and eroding away."