V for Parallax View

V for Vendetta, Alan Moore and David Lloyd (illus.)

My partner, who is far more conversant with graphic novels than I am, recommended that, since I had seen and been intrigued by the film V for Vendetta, I might be interested in reading his copy of the source novel.

So I did, and found that while I enjoyed the film, I enjoyed the source even more, because there are more ambiguities and more questions. While both treatments of the material have as their themes (at least in part) an exploration of fascism and the question of what degree of response is justified – the classic ends and means debate – the film treats V more sympathetically, more heroically, removes the explicit anarchism of the original material and fails to remind the viewer that fascism generally takes power with the people’s tacit consent (in the novel, the fascist regime is legally elected, while in the film, they take power following a (deliberately created) crisis.

I’m very glad I read the original. It made me think, even more than the film did.

Life amid the monsters

Mothers and Other Monsters, Maureen McHugh

Maureen McHugh is one of my favourite authors, who alas has not written nearly enough, due to health issues (this has happened to too many of the women whose work I enjoy reading). This collection of short stories by the author of China Mountain Zhang and Mission Child is a treat to be savoured. And I did.

McHugh’s stories, more often than not, are about people of little power or agency, people who at their core are not really all that unlike most of us, no matter how strange their circumstances may seem – people trying to find ways of surviving, getting by, getting through, doing what they can, managing, but not always successfully. They are often painful, often sad, but also often stories of small victories – which perhaps only seem victories to the person who achieves them.