The precious Anarchy

As we have seen in classes, the novel V for Vendetta set a clash between two adverse ideologies, fascism and anarchy, in a time in which it was difficult to explicitly express it. Thus, the graphic novel was a paraliterary resource that the author, Alan Moore, used for conveying his anarchist ideas and reactions to what he was living, since comics or graphic novels “are the perfect medium for political stories, because they can get away with more” (Hoppenstand, 2006 in Call, 2008)

Plot and Context of production

The graphic novel V for Vendetta  has two main characters, Evey and V who are living in a time in which the political disorder allowed the arousal of a fascist administration in Britain, hence, throughout the whole story, V is searching for revenge and trying to improve society by setting an ideology clash between fascism (the regime in Britain) and anarchy (Muise, 2010). However, if we pay attention to the context of production of the graphic novel, it is possible to notice that V for Vendetta is a reaction to what it was ocurring in that time in which Ronald Reagan had been just elected President of the US and Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister in the UK, therefore, both countries were politically conservative and completely adverse to left-wing parties representation. Therefore, Moore’s graphic novel V for Vendetta was the perfect way in which he could express his political ideas.

The land of Do-as-you-please

Furthermore,  in the novel anarchy appears as V’s mistress after he left Madam Justice which represents a libertarian issue and Moore’s critique of the political matters during Cold War since he wasn’t fond of neither Soviet communism nor Anglo-American capitalism, hence, his only option left is anarchy. Moreover, that anarchy has two different views in the novel, the one of Evey, which is the most common one, and the one of V. Evey’s view of anarchy is one in which everybody do what they want to, everything is disordered and chaotic, the land of do-as you-please, however, V’s view represents the Moore’s idea of anarchy, as expressed in the following extract of the novel

E: 'All this riot and uproar, V ... is this anarchy?'
'Is this the land of do-as-you-please?'

V: No. This is only the land of take-what-you-want. Anarchy means "without leaders", not "without order". With anarchy comes an age or ordnung, of true order, which is to say voluntary order... this age of ordung will begin when the mad and incoherent cycle of verwirrung that these bulletins reveal has run its course...

Consequently, V’s perspective and view of anarchy is a more modern one since he sees it as an opportunity to create  'in anarchy, there is another way. With anarchy, from rubble comes new life, hope re-instated' (258). What’s more, V questions the individual responsibility since the citizens were the ones who elected those corrupt and liars, therefore, they were responsible for the arousal of the fascist regime in Britain due to the fact that they give them the power for governing     

Therefore, as communism and capitalism are ruled out, the option left for V and, obviously, for the author is anarchy as he believe that  

"Anarchy is and always has been a romance. It’s clearly the best way and the only morally sensible way to run the world - that everybody should be the master of their own destiny. Everybody should be their own leader. This is something that I still believe I think that even a cursory look around the world at the moment – particularly at the moment – would reveal that it is about .000001 percent of the world’s population that causes 99.99999 percent of the world’s problems. And that tiny percentage – it’s not the Jewish banking conspiracy, it’s not the asylum-seekers, it’s not the secret homosexual conspiracy running Hollywood, it’s not even the Scientologists: it is leaders. That what we need is an administration at most; we don’t need people to boss us about"(Moore, 2008)

 

All in all, I believe that this perception was what Moore wanted to express through V, due to the fact that more than a man or woman (we never know), V is an idea and that is what makes him/her dangerous (Call, 2008), V cannot die because he’s an idea. But, what do you think? Do you agree with Moore’s idea of anarchy? 

References

Call, L. (2008). A is for Anarchy, V is for Vendetta. Retrieved November 21, 2014, from Digital Commons Cal Poly: http://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=hist_fac

Loy, T. (2008, April 17). Anarchy in Critical Dystopias:An Anatomy of Rebellion. Retrieved November 21, 2014, from Digital Library and Archives, Virginia Tech: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-04272008-112840/unrestricted/Loy_MA_ThesisETD.pdf

Moore, A. (2008). Alan Moore on Anarchism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKfF-nxjDi0

Moore, A. & Lloyd, D. (1988) V for Vendetta. New York: DC Comics, Inc. .

Muise, C. (2010). Major Themes and symbols in V for Vendetta by Alan Moore. Retrieved November 21, 2014, from Hyperink: www.hyperink.com/Major-Themes-And-Symbols-Innbspldquov-For-Vendettardquo-By-Alan-Moore-b260a9