Everyone can be V

Black mirror is a British TV series in which it is shown how technology has affected our life in socity in an exagerated but not completely improbable way. It is described as a "real life dystopian horror movie".

The first episode is called "The National Anthem". A terrorist threat spread in a video in youtube, the Princess of England was kidnapped by someone who was asking the PM to "make it" with a pig in nationwide broadcasting with a series of requirements in order to set the Princess free. At the end of the chapter, the PM was on nationwide broadcast with the pig, the whole nation was expecting the show but then it was not funny at all, the Princess was found in a bridge, she was released 30 minutes before the broadcasting, and the kidnapper hang himself n his place.

I related ths episode with the kidnapping of Lewis Prothero, the voice of fate. Prothero was "tortured" by V, and the Pm was obliged to do so, torturing himself so as to fulfill the expectations of the population. Without Prothero, the government would have had several problems with the social order, demonstrations, riots, and so on.

In a so technologyc society as ours, it is much easier to be an "annonymous terrorist", only uploading a video in a socialnetwork threatening a public figure and chaos is on. The influence of socialnetwroks and digital platforms that spread information, and the globalwide character of internet, fosters the "rebelion", everyone can be hear, even though there is censure on TV or Newspapers, internet is free.
At the end, we all can be the terrorist, everyone can be V



References:

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/black-mirror-episode-1-the-national-anthem-pig-bang-theory/
http://www.endemoluk.com/news/black-mirror-a-new-drama-from-charlie-brooker

The main character is always right

In his short story The Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe presents us with something that seems to be one of the key stones of his writing: The use of anonymous main characters. After considering this, we might be wondering: Why does he do it? Is there any purpose behind it?

First of all, it is important to remember that most of Poe’s main characters –especially in his horror stories—are murderers, rapists and other type of outlaws that could be easily deemed as socially unacceptable people; however, we do not use to judge them like that so easily, let me ask you: Why do you think is that? From my opinion, it has to do with two factors: 1. The fact that we are told the story from exactly THAT character’s perspective, which obviously make it really easy to sympathize with that character’s motivations, situation and problems; and 2. The fact that we are told the story from the point of view of a NAMELESS character gives room to thoughts like: what if any of us were in the situation of that character? Or even further, what if I was in that character’s situation?

The impact of these possibilities also deeply resonates in Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta. Why can we sympathise so easily with V’s actions despite we could –easily—call them just “terrorism” if we heard of them in “real life”? I believe it has to do with exactly the same means used by Poe to somehow redeem his characters as: 1. We are aware of V’s motivations, we are able to understand why he does what he does, and 2. By not giving us V’s true identity, the possibility of any of us being V is left open.

Although the last possibility is made forcefully explicit in the movie, I believe it does not challenge Moore’s original intention of showing us that anyone could actually have been V. These ideas clearly resonates with Poe’s in the sense that –by being able to identify with the characters, even up to the point of sharing their identities—we become able to sympathize with them at a much higher level and, for that reason, we also become able to understand, justify, and even support their actions.

Have you ever considered how much our opinion of a murder or a terrorist act could change if we could look at it from the “terrorist” eyes? Have you ever thought on how important it is to consider which side we are looking act before judging someone else’s action? I believe the title of this entry pretty much summarises it: The main character –the one whose side is closer to us—will always be the one on the right, as it is the perspective that provides us with the most information. 

Reference

Edgar Allan Poe, and Cheloniidae Press. The black cat. United Holdings Group, 1984.

The Passage… recycled literature?

I am currently in the process of enjoying Justin Cronin’s trilogy of The Passage. It is a story that spans over a 100 years, and it begins with the disintegration of society due to the manufacturing of a biological weapon gone wrong, which unleashed a virus. The story then jumps 100 years into the future and the author shows us different societies that have formed in this post -apocalyptic world: One of them is quite medieval, not just technology wise, but custom wise. The second one is more industrializes, ran by a military like group of people. The third society is ran by a single man known as The Director, whom lives in a wonderful palace, wears suits and ties, has technology at his fingertips, and his lifestyle is sustained thanks to the concentration –camp- like facilities he runs. The Director’s wife pretends that none of this is happening, that there is no virus, that she is still married to her late husband, and lives in her own delusions (Blanche Dubois?)

I would love to tell you more about the plot but I don´t want to spoil the books in case you want to read them, and also the third and final instalment will not be released until 2015, so I don´t know how it ends.

I can however, tell you that as I read, I realized that Cronin must have been inspired by the books we read this semester (and some we read last semester too).

One of the main characters, Sara, goes into The Director´s camp. She is taken against her will. She is made to strip, her head is shaved, she is assigned a number and told she is no longer Sara Fisher. A metal plate with a number is surgically embedded on her arm, with the number: “94801. That’s who you are now, the doctor had explained” (Cronin 253).

Within this highly controlled environment, the undernourished workers have one hope and one hope only. His name is Sergio. Inside the camp, some prisoners blow themselves up, taking entire buildings with them. Before they detonate the bomb they always yell one thing “Sergio lives!”. Later in the novel we find out there is no Sergio. We are told  “People need a name. Something to focus on, a face to attach to the idea. That’s our face. Sergio”(Cronin 277). This statement reminded me of V for Vendetta:

 In Cronin’s novel, any members of the resistance can be killed and it won’t make a difference, because Sergio can never die, because he is an invention created to embody an idea. If there is no Sergio, then Sergio can live forever. Alan Moore´s V can pass on the mask, and in this way, never die, because just as in Cronin’s novel, the one man is not important, what is important is the idea he represents, and the hope that the people will rise and change the tide.

Also within The Director´s camps, the character Sara Fisher narrates the humiliation one particular Officer of Human Resources likes to inflict on the prisoners, which seems to be inspired in George Orwell’s novel 1984. She says “The only thing you could do was take it, gritting your teeth through the misery of your aching bladder or empty stomach or exhausted limbs, knowing that soon Whistler’s attention would pass to another, though this only made things worse and seemed to be the point of the entire exercise; you found yourself wishing for the suffering to befall somebody else, and thus you became complicit, part of the system, a cog in a wheel of torment that never stopped turning.”(Cronin 257)

This resonates with “Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don´t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!” (Orwell 289).

In addition, the people of The Director’s camps are made to shout “One People! One Homeland! One Director!” (Cronin 260), and shout it like they mean it every morning before breakfast. In Orwell’s novel the mantra is “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength” (Orwell 6). The words are not alike, but in both cases they are drilled into people´s minds whether they like it or not.

It is natural for writers in this era (and in most of the eras) to look for inspiration in books from previous times. Cronin writes of a post -apocalyptic world, and of humans living a nightmare of their own making, just as Orwell and Moore did, so it is quite likely he used them for inspiration. And it is good. Contemporary author have the power to make relevant what has been forgotten, and bring it in a new form to new generations of readers. Recycling is never bad, it is by definition making something new out of something old. It is also important to note that literature is often a reflection of the times, so if Orwell and Moore reacted in print to their fears of a totalitarian regime, weather it was right or left wing, then Cronin is reacting to a fear that biological warfare will end us all, and those that survive will bring hell to earth. 

References:

Moore, Alan. V for Vendetta. Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2006.
Orwell, George. 1984. New York: The New American Library Inc., 1983.
Cronin, Justin. The Twelve (Book Two of The Passage Trilogy): A Novel. penguen, 2012.

Room 101

The room where the Ministry of Love inflicts its worst torture subjecting you to whatever you fear the most.


There is no doubt that Room 101 represents a person's worst fears. But, more that, it also represents the subjectivity of every single thing in every human action or thought, the subjectivity driven by fear. The power that governments have by driving people through fear.

"That is, fear appeals rely on a threat to an individual’s well-being that motivates him or her toward action, e.g., increasing control over a situation or preventing an unwanted outcome."
Do you think that fear enough to give up and betray our beloved ones? Is fear enough to convince a whole world and each person on it on what must they do? Is fear that enough that we just do what we are supposed to do because there might be consequences? Are those consequences enough to keep the world moving as it has been doing so? 

and the most important: Have you ever thought that fear drives the world already?

In the classroms, at home, when we want to meet our boyfirnd's or girlfriend's mother, when we want other to have a good impression of us, when we want to pass a course, etc. Many things that we do and the way we behave is just because of FEAR.

What do you think that would have happened to Winston if he overcame his fear?
Probaly nothing else would have been a probem to him anymore because he would be stronger. Once you fight a fear nothing else seems to matter anymore.
"The use of fear appeals is common in many types of marketing communications. "

BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU
(FEAR HIM)

                         

"[...] there seemed to be no color in anything, except the posters that were plastered everywhere. The black mustachioed face gazed down from every commanding corner. There was one on the house-front immediately opposite. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption said, while the dark eyes looked deep into Winston's own." 

Many rulers in history have used fear, the third reich was build on a basis of nationalism, racism and fear. Two secret police forces were created during the reich named: the Gestao and the SS, which were similar to vision of police in 1984.

But the reason why governments make us fear them is because they fear us too:

"People simply disappeared, always during the night. Your name was removed from the registers, every record of everything you had ever done was wiped out, and your one-time existence was denied and then forgotten. You were abolished, annihilated: vaporized was the usual word. " p.16
The only way  in which Partys can deal with subversive people is making them disappear, and subsequently, removing them from history altogether because of FEAR. As if they were saying: "If they don't fear us, let's make them disappear, or we will suffer the consequences"


What's your room 101?






C. Williams, Kaylene . "Fear appeal theory." Research in Business and Economics Journal 6 (2012): 1.


Orwell, George. Nineteen eighty-four.  Ed. Erich Fromm.  New York: Harcourt, 1949.

V for Vendetta vs. Watchmen

Alan Moore is the author of highly recognized graphic novels, such as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Captain Britain, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, etc. The last two graphic novels are the center of this post due to their importance and criticism against society and politics. I want to compare and contrast these comics because they are really thought-provoking and try to make us realize of our actions; also they are among the most relevant works of Moore and there is no comparison of them on the internet in a deeper level, only an analysis of the movies, their qualities and effects.

• Dystopias: What those two works have in common is the context. Their stories are based on the idea of society ruled by an authoritarian government that oppresses people in order to control them, leading to the most terrible actions against humanity at any level. Although in Watchmen is not really explicit, the division of the world and the constant fear to the midnight watch make society lose the common sense in certain occasions. In V for Vendetta, it is totally clear the oppression people suffer, injustice and abuse are part of the motivations for V to begin a revolution.  It is important to mention the historical contexts of both graphic novels: Watchmen is based on the Cold War and all its fears and implications of the arms race, the demonstration of the superiority of one country over another and the existence of only two options (black or white, there is no grey). On the other hand, V for vendetta is based on the criticism of Margaret Thatcher’s government and its characteristics of oppression, conservationism, etc.

• Heroes: After reading the comics and watching the movies, I believe that the main heroes in these two graphic novels are Rorschach, Evey and V. Albeit Rorschach and V can be considered anti-heroes because of their actions, they are the key for the change; without them and their decisions, their worlds probably would get worse. Despite their personalities and actions, Alan Moore describe them (and the rest of the super heroes in Watchmen) as more human than heroes: they were too humans rather than super heroes, their sense of humanity, justice and their way of thinking are not the conventional ones for a superhero; a superhero regularly is seen as a figure of strength, and superiority with high levels of morality and justice, they are almost perfect but V and Rorschach are commonly trapped in human situations and decisions, they tend to act first as a person and then as someone that has the power to help people (hero). In this case, V’s motivation is revenge, which is not the regular motivation of most of the superheroes we know.

• Fear of the political future: Both graphic novels reflect the possibilities of our world in a future in which politics and governments are mixed with a little of corruption, abuse and empowerment. They show us the possible reality of society if Cold War had ended with the confrontation of USA and USSR and its negative consequences (Watchmen) or the results of a government in which people depend and trust so much that it abuses of that situation and starts corrupting and controlling people for bad purposes (V for Vendetta). 

• Eliminating society: In V for Vendetta, V’s final aim was to eliminate all the corrupted guys in the government in order to create and start from zero a new and free society, giving people the power to rule. In Watchmen, the antagonist was more radical and wanted to kill enormous amount of people in order to start a new society, taking people to the edge of crisis and fear to make them aware of the necessity of a change.

To conclude, Moore's the graphic novel are a revolution in the genre, not only because he changes the typical image of a superhero but also because he changes the way to express ideas and giving messages through the graphic novels, due to the several possibilities that drawings give to the author. In this way, dystopia, heroes, fear, opporesion, politics and society can all be part of one element and create the terrific comics we know nowadays.

What if the world ends like one of the realities described in Moore's graphic novels? Do you think we could do something about it in order to change it? Also, Which of the graphic novels presented in this post is your favorite one? Why?

As a bonus, here is a video in which Alan Moore talks about V for Vendetta and Watchmen, their characteristics and his motivation to create these graphic novels.

References:

Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. Watchmen. DC Comics; Gph edition, 1995.

Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. V for Vendetta." V for Vendetta. N.p: Vertigo, 1995. Print.

Androgynous Evey: Innocence corrupted

"First published in 1982, the comic series V for Vendetta charted a masked vigilante's attempt to bring down a fascist British government and its complicit media" (Moore).

As everybody thinks, V for Vendetta tells the story of V, this anarchist who tries to return British people what they were taken, for example freedom. In the meantime, he gets to know Evey Hammond, a 16-year-old girl who is about to be killed and abused. Thanks to V, she is rescued and from now on, they get to know each other while revolution is just starting.

The interesting part about this graphic novel is that even tough V is always recognized as the main character, Evey Hammond is the one who suffers from changes, not only physically, but also psychologically.

The purpose of this post is to show the evolution of Evey as the main character, the way she loses her fear and how she became an androgynous character with a corrupted innocence. 

At first, we are presented this girl who wears a lot of make-up and short dress. Since she needed more money, she decided to prostitute herself, despite the fact she knows the consequences of being caught. When the fingermen found her, she is absolutely terrified, until this strange man appears and kills them. Then, V takes her to his place in order to protect her. Here we are shown this innocent girl who does not even know how prostitution world works, making this clumsy attempt to get a customer. She is really naive and easily frightened. 

This combinations of panels shows V and Evey talking. She confesses her fear of not knowing where he has been while she cries on his shoulder expressing how she feels about not knowing what is happening. He hugs her while the narrator says "... and Evey Hammond sobs like the child she is" (26). Even though she does not know what to do, she realizes V is her only salvation. 

In this panel, we see Evey performing as a little girl who visits the Bishop. She is characterized as a fifteen-year-old girl who is about to be abused by him. As Lilliman says, he is astonished by her beauty and youth. Nevertheless, he changes his mind after being hit by her. Here we can see how Evey appears as an innocent girl who has learnt how to protect herself.

Here, Evey asks V why they have not slept together despite the fact they have been together quite a while. Now we can see how she was expecting something else to happen between them, maybe a kiss or something else. The innocence that she showed at the beginning of the graphic novel is starting vanishing. 

These following panels show a great contrast between what our perception of Evey was and how this character evolved, smoking and drinking. The innocence was clearly corrupted as the following pictures also show. 

After that, many things happen in the graphic novel. One of the most important moment for Evey is when she is caught. Her hair is cut, she is constantly tortured and little by little she starts being dehumanized. She leaves her fears aside and after a tough process, she gets free from her boundaries. 

Here is the climax of her transformation. She is released from the prison, V confesses that he created this situation to set her free and takes here to the roof where the rain is falling. This not-clear figure is Evey, who now is not afraid of anything, who has been able to left her innocent and child-like behavior aside in order to be free and take things seriously.

In the end, after V's death, she realized that everyone is V, even herself. That is one of the reason why she decides to continue with his legacy and becoming V. Then she asserts that she felt enthusiastic but not scared anymore, since there is no time for those useless feelings.

After seeing these panels, we can confirm one main fact:

As we discussed in class, Moore shows us how Evey evolved surprisingly fast from the naive and innocent girl who hid from danger to a strong, astute and clever woman, after passing through a process who made her an androgynous being. 

To finish this post, I encourage you to read more about gender in V for Vendetta. I found this interesting post called Gender Binary in V for Vendetta. The author analyzes women and men roles within the whole graphic novel and their importance. 

http://genderlitutopiadystopia.wikia.com/wiki/Gender_Binary_in_V_for_Vendetta_by_Zach_Rolfs

As a final question, would you agree with the innocence corruption that happens in the graphic novel? Are there other instances in which Evey evolves as either an androgynous character or as strong woman? 

In order to end, here there is a joke I found some time ago.

References:

Moore, Alan. Viewpoint: V for Vendetta and the rise of  Anonymous. BBC News, 2012, 22 Nov 2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-16968689>
Moore, Alan. V for Vendetta. DC Comics, 1988. PDF file.

Corruption: V for Vendetta vs Reality

After having reading 1984 and V for Vendetta I realized that truth is stranger than fiction and it is not necessary that we would be under a totalitarianism regime for some things to happen. 

One of the events that caught my attention the most when reading V for Vendetta was the part in which there is this priest that actually is a pedophile, and I was glad that this panel was shown in class because I was able to understand some details that I could not get when I was first reading the graphic novel.

It caught my attention because it was a well known secret the behavior of this priest and what he was used to do and with whom. However, it was accepted anyway by the government. Maybe I was not that surprised when I was reading the book, but in a way it still shocked me. Today happens something similar in that matter. Everybody knows that the Catholic Church has been through hard times due to cases of pedophilia among some of its members. The similarity here is that even though it is not morally correct, some of those cases have been hidden from the public eye by the Church itself.

So in a way, even though we are not inside of a totalitarian system, we are able to see how different manisfestations of corruption occurs in our democratic society.

References

Moore, Alan and Lloyd. V for Vendetta. New York: Vertigo, DC Comics, 1982. Print.