The Mindscape of Alan Moore

Un documentar foarte misto despre Alan Moore. Nu trebuie sa fii amator de comics ca sa te poti uita la el. Alan Moore, pe langa faptul ca e considerat de multi cel mai mare comic artist in viata, e si un personaj neobisnuit. Vreme de 70 de minute isi descrie inceputurile carierei, cum a ajuns sa scrie comics-uri, impactul celebritatii, conceptele descrise in cele mai cunoscute lucrari ale sale (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing, From Hell, Lost Girls) dar si viziunea sa despre arta si cultura, orientarea spre neopaganism, samanism, ezoterism, etc. E o personalitate cu niste cunostinte vaste si principii foarte articulat enuntate. Se discuta despre stiinta vs magie, spiritualitate, fizica cuantica si Apocalipsa vazuta ca o "revelatie" sub forma unei schimbari fundamentale de paradigma. Idei despre care n-am auzit pana acum (informatia ca substanta bizara esentiala a universului sau campul morfogenetic in care zac ideile) sunt privite prin filtrul unui saman modern, a unui scriitor care foloseste cuvantul pentru a elibera constiinta oamenilor.

Cateva citate din gura lui Moore:

"Quitting my day job and starting my life as a writer was a tremendous risk, it was a fool's leap, a shot in the dark. But anything of any value in our lives whether that be a career, a work of art, a relationship, will always start with such a leap. And in order to be able to make it, you have to put aside the fear of failing and the desire of succeeding. You have to do these things completely purely without fear, without desire. Because things that we do without lust of result, are the purest actions that we shall ever take."


"I decided that if I wanted to write about this grim present, the best way to do it, was in the form of a story set in the future, which is by no means a new trend. Most dystopian science fiction is not actually about the future, it s about the times in which it was written."


"I think that Watchmen if it offered anything, offered new possibilities as to how we perceive the environment surrounding us and the interactions and relationships of the people within it."

"I'd never signed up to be a celebrity and I came to the realization that it was nothing that I was very comfortable with. I realized that celebrities are a kind of an industry, there a kind of a crop. Media moguls like Rupert Murdoch or people who run the big networks, they need a constant stream of celebrities to fill the column space in their magazines, to fill time upon their TV shows and because celebrities tend to burn out quickly you have to constantly create new ones."


"There is some confusion as to what magic actually is. I think this can be cleared up. If you just look at the very earliest descriptions of magic, magic in its earliest form is often referred to as "the art". I believe that this is completely literal. I believe that magic is art and that art, whether that'd be writing, music, sculpture or any other form is literally magic. Art is, like magic, the science of manipulating symbols, words or images to achieve changes in consciousness.
The very language of magic seems to be talking as much about writing or art as it is about supernatural events. A grimmoir for example, the book of spells is simply a fancy way of saying grammar. Indeed, to cast a spell is simply to spell, to manipulate words, to change people's consciousness. And I believe this is why an artist or writer is the closest thing in the contemporary world that you are likely to see to a shaman."


"I believe all culture must have arisen from cult. Originally, all of the facets of our culture, whether they'd be in the arts or the sciences were the province of the shaman. The fact that in present times, this magical power has degenerated to the level of cheap entertainment and manipulation is I think a tragedy. At the moment the people who are using shamanism and magic to shape our culture are advertisers. Rather than try to wake people up their shamanism is used as an opiate to tranquillize people, to make people more manipulable. Their magic box of television, and by their magic words, their jingles can cause everybody in the country to be thinking the same words and have the same banal thoughts all at exactly the same moment."


"It is not the job of artists to give the audience what the audience want. If the audience knew what they needed, then they wouldn't be the audience. They would be the artist. It is the job of artists to give the audience what they need."


"The one place in which Gods and demons inarguably exist is in the human mind where they are real in all their grandeur and monstrosity."


"The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory is that conspiracy theorists actually believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is chaotic. The truth is, that it is not the Jewish banking conspiracy or the grey aliens or the 12 foot reptiloids from another dimension that is in control. The truth is far more frightening, nobody is in control. The world s rudderless..."