This article appeared on XL Republic, November issue 2008. To reduce
Alan Moore, the man to whom we owe such masterpieces as Watchmen and V for Vendetta, to the rank of a simple author / writer, one commits a mortal sin from the pen of this fifty five bearded looking a bit 'Mephisto a bit 'late-hippie came out some of the legends that have most effect on pop culture Nowadays, going to affect other giants of the art of comics such as Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison. Well rounded writer, occultist, anarchist, poet, prophet and why not, Moore has envisioned futuristic metropolis crushed by terror (the London V for Vendetta) and parallel worlds to the brink of disaster (the "anti-superhero" Watchmen) but what is more curious is that everything eventually returns to Northampton, a city of 200,000 inhabitants, even in the heart of the English Midlands. From here you have to start to understand the universe's most visionary protagonist of the comic world, and here Alan Moore talking on the phone in what is a conversation with implications both ironic and complex: "Northampton is not the most beautiful city in the world, but it is a special place: the Middle Ages was a land of saints and miracles, wars, crusades, missions to the Holy Land. It is the geographical center of England, and even Hitler planned to occupy it. In my new novel, Jerusalem, I explain a bit 'of things: too many coincidences, too many suspicious events, there must be something in ... "
The coincidences for Moore, never one case. His world view and print explicitly magical, just turn the pages of Promethea - a bit 'a summary of his poetry, published in Italy by Magic Press is going to send printing in the fifth and final volume in the series - to realize this: "In Promethea I tried to summarize my interpretations in the field of Kabbalah, the esoteric, magic and art," says, and the work is done huge fresco in which tensions coexist apocalyptic symbolism and archaic, with a lot of raids and excellent references ranging from Aleister Crowley ("The Great Beast" considered, rightly or wrongly, the father of modern Satanism) John Dee (the magician of the court Elizabeth I), through what Moore is the acknowledged master, namely Austin Osman Spare: "It was one of the greatest people that the environments occultists '900 have never expressed. If Crowley was interesting, Spare was original: he was born into a middle class family and at sixteen was already an established painter, but instead chose to devote himself to his artistic career move to Brixton in south London, in the midst of thieves and prostitutes. He lived surrounded by cats and invented a series of rituals are highly personal, revolutionary, restoring his vision in the form of sketches, drawings and works of art. He became poor, but he did not use the magic power to benefit, as opposed to what Crowley did. And politically, could be distinguished: the magicians of the period often flirted with the right. Spare not. Hitler himself asked for a portrait, Spare and said, 'Mr. Hitler, if you're a superman, then I'm happy to be a monkey'. A few years after his studio was destroyed in the German bombing of London ... "
Austin Osman Spare is considered the ancestor of the so-called Chaos Magick, or" chaos magic "of which he is a member Prince Moore. Promethea works have inspired as herds of occultists "do it yourself", with happily anarchic spirit, do not worry more, no dogma or formula in some obscure language forgotten. It is a completely private, personal, echoing Moore when he speaks of his relationship with the artist Melinda Gebbie: “Decisamente, c’è qualcosa di alchemico sia nel rapporto che ci lega, sia nel nostro lavoro assieme. L’alchimia ha a che fare con l’uso dell’oro e dell’argento, vale a dire con le energie maschili e femminili, e quando abbiamo progettato Lost Girls qualcosa deve essere entrato in funzione.” Come Promethea, Lost Girls è un’opera dal sapore post-femminista, ed è anche il progetto “pornografico” della coppia Alan & Melinda: pubblicato anch’esso in Italia da Magic Press, riprende le eroine di tre classici della letteratura per l’infanzia – la Wendy di Peter Pan, l’Alice di Alice nel Paese delle Meraviglie, e la Dorothy The Wizard of Oz - and adulthood in key ferries openly erotic, though Moore does not like the term "so-called erotic literature is pretentious, dishonest, even class. Eros means love, but Lost Girls is not intended as a graphic novel about love: he wants to talk about sex. Work is pornographic, inspired by a certain type of pornography is not that of hardcore movies that run now. If anything, porn is a Victorian-inspired, late nineteenth century ... "And as usual with Moore, even pornography - like magic - the importance of political overtones, the reference to the Victorian era is not so random:" A those days you could not talk about sex. Even contraceptives were synonymous with obscenity. The only place where the topic was addressed, was precisely the pornographic literature: in times of repression meant the breaking of a taboo, something quite liberal, subversive. Who wrote the stories or draw those pictures, he tried to introduce elements serious, important, liberating: a comparison of the garbage that runs today, the Victorian era was a golden age of pornography. "
would be say a lot of Alan Moore: of his conflicted relationship with Hollywood, the film versions of his works, his musical projects, and its battles in the days of Thatcher's England. But Northampton's called, and the commitments we make urgent: "I must go home to my friend, his name is Joe Brown and a guy here. We are carrying out a project based on sound recordings and various samples, rather 'an attempt to make music of Austin Osman Spare. Every Wednesday we meet and we write our songs. " Northampton, central England. Where work the last great magician of the millennium.
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