Alan Moore: "We Need More Ghosts" | Watchmen, V For Vendetta and Killing Joke author (Part 1)
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- Опубліковано 22 тра 2024
- Join the legendary author of Watchmen, Jerusalem, and V For Vendetta for a journey into the fantastical underside of reality.
Few figures make such a seismic impact on their artistic medium that they transform its reputation from childish pulp entertainment to a vital and exhilarating creative form, capable of exploring the great mysteries of metaphysics, science, and the human spirit - but Alan Moore is one.
A modern-day alchemist who transmuted comic books into literary gold, his works not only inspired a later generation of authors who are now household names, from Neil Gaiman to Susanna Clarke, but filmmakers, artists, and storytellers in every medium. Alexandra Ocasio Cortez quotes him online; the Occupy and Anonymous movements adopt the mask of his hero V; and Time magazine honours Watchmen as one of the 20th century’s greatest works of literature.
Alan Moore, born in Northampton in 1953, is a writer, performer, recording artist, activist and magician. His comic-book work includes Lost Girls (2009) with Melinda Gebbie, From Hell (1991) with Eddie Campbell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (for which he won a Bram Stoker Award in 2000) with Kevin O’Neill. He has worked with director Mitch Jenkins on the Show Pieces cycle of short films and on forthcoming feature film The Show, while his novels include Voice of the Fire (1996) and his epic Jerusalem (2016). He lives in Northampton with his wife and collaborator Melinda Gebbie.
Robin Ince is the co-presenter of Radio 4’s multiple award winning The Infinite Monkey Cage. He spent 2019 appearing across the world in the Universal tour with Brian Cox - travelling from LA to Oslo, Wellington to Aberdeen and ending up in Reykjavik after shows at the 02 and Wembley Arena. Robin co-wrote How to Build a Universe (part 1) with Brian Cox and authored other works including The Importance of Being Interested - Adventures in Scientific Curiosity, and his most recent book, Bibliomaniac: An Obsessive’s Tour of the Bookshops of Britain.
The man’s a legend! He has a Crowley-esque altar in his basement. He also paid the extortionate immigration fees for my friend Grahams African wife, so she could live in the U.K. Good man.
He's a Nazi who created hell, by his own admission. Get real
Not exactly a neutral observer then are you , hitler helped people close to him too, so it’s not really a good measure of sincerity or integrity
Traitor to the west. He may as well pump some air into an inflatable raft and get off English land while handing the keys over to whatever diversity replacement wants the space.
@@Vgalloyou think Alan Moore is comparable to HITLER?!?
@@Vgallohitler also drank water. So does Alan Moore. That must mean he's exactly like Hitler.
"We need more ghosts, I don't know what all these exorcists are thinking!" Beautiful. Thank you Alan.
He has to be one of the most eloquent English speakers alive today
easily. and one of the greatest writers and artists in our time or any
Yes, he is very personal in the way he sees the world... Even incredibly personal. Which is what makes him so interesting. Talk about thinking creatively and outside the box! People like him are so rare!!!
Is there anyone more lucid, right, brilliant, humble, charming and necessary? On top of being an insanely gifted, prolific and original writer.... Unreal.
Yep, he possesses superhuman eloquence
Incredibly smart man, with an imagination and work that backs it all up.
01:30 📚 Alan Moore used inventive hard science in his book "Illuminations" to engage scientists and readers.
05:51 🧠 Moore advocates for an expanded rationalism that embraces both science and mystical ideas, allowing room for diverse perspectives.
08:12 🌌 Moore believes humans have the right to determine and supply their own meaning in the universe.
11:04 🌟 Moore emphasizes the importance of individuality in spirituality, advocating for personal interpretation and experience.
16:24 🎨 Moore sees the power of literature and art in re-enchanting forgotten spaces and bringing meaning to the world.
21:45 👻 Moore believes we need more ghosts and reminders of the historical significance of the places we inhabit.
Alan Moore knows the score
Yeah I can dig it
As a child I spent hours wandering around the ancient parts of my town looking for and reimagining the ghosts, it kept me sane.
I still do this, I'm fortunate enough to live near the Mendips, once you scratch the surface there's a lot of pre history coupled with some very arcane practices. You're left to reinterpret it, as the full story is "lost" in time. Some of the places speak to you with a presence.
Alan Moore’s novels (along with those of his peers like Neil Gaiman) had the exact effect on me it seems from this interview he wanted me to have. They reminded me that even if the world will end a cold and meaningless death, even if were all just atoms floating in space, there is more there. That “more,”created by us but also intrinsic within us, gives us all intrinsic and immeasurable value.
I also wrote a full essay in a comic studies class on the difference between objective fact and a much more powerful subjective and human truth. It was specifically applying to Latino testimonio, but I think, as this interview proves, it’s prevalent everywhere.
Finally, because Alan Moore is a genius and I wanna share cool facts relating to what he said, I wanna add that Alan Moore’s ways of not imposing your worldview but still sharing it are rhetorical philosophy that emerged during the more recent feminist movements. While the semantics have been disproven, the message itself still holds true today. It argues that instead of persuading people, which involves changing their worldview to fit our own, we should instead invite people to consensually put themselves in our shoes and witness our worldview, before then using the knowledge they gained to come to their own conclusions.
My son just described the concept of Alan Moore, Robin Ince and Brian Cox being friends as a, “Nightmare blunt rotation.”
no offense then, but your kid can't smoke with me
an Enchanting fellow.
Loved this. Alan’s really got me thinking lately about how powerful writing actually is. I mean you could say the state of the entire world at the moment is thanks (for good or bad) thanks to the Bible and other holy scriptures.
And on a far smaller scale, if a stranger to a town needs the local supermarket and they see a sign for the local Tesco, that’s just changed their life in a very small way. All thanks to a single word on a sign along with an arrow. So I wholeheartedly agree that writing can entirely alter our reality.
I was speaking with someone the other day. On the topic of Alan Moore and the power of the imagination. They said they don't live in their imagination they live in the real world. I then said that literally everything with but a few exceptions to nature that you experience on a daily basis are the imaginings of people before you.
@@APRS it’s a shame people can be so black & white about it. Those who take pride in not using their imagination I’m sure will still daydream about their dream home and job, will imagine themselves in their favourite holiday spot when at work, will imagine their kids faces opening presents at Christmas
I guess a lot of people hear ‘imagination’ and just picture Alice in Wonderland or Lord of the Rings. It’s a shame, they’re missing out on a great tool
@TheHulksMistress yes I agree. I also think a lot of the value in having an imagination has been snubbed out with the ever growing homogenisation of culture through the internet and the modern workplace. I understand the point, which is that imagination without action can be meaningless, it is and we should guard against that. However I think the power of the imagination and its brilliance and creativity is going to be such an enormous commodity (not that it isn't already) in the future when much of labour will be automated. We are going to need creativity to build the next great step forward. I think of physics sometimes where quantum physics has boxed itself into a corner eg we'll never travel faster than the speed of light, and yet interdimensional travel although not fully understood may in fact need an enormous dose of creativity and imagination to explore and develop if it is possible to do so.
'That would be mental'. Touché Alan.🧦
The problem with rationality is that it is so irrational not to comprehend just how limited it is, and how easily corruptible it is. Just take the Witch Hunts for instance, the McCarthy era, voters who trust politicians, those with absolute faith in science, etc.
If we are, indeed, the highest form of consciousness then the Universe is meaningless, mayhapt the greatest Absurdist drama ever written.
Very true about A.O.S, The Elephant was levelled. Like weed that didn’t quite take.
Isn't the White Bear pub he frequented still there in London? A rare exception if so to the kind of desertification Alan's talking about here...
I was just playing Dark Souls 3,so the giant killer crabs comment really stuck with me.
Thoroughly enjoyed this. Bit of a Moore head myself. The inner world, and the outer world. Is magic the changing of the perception of the outer world by changing the person's inner world?
I believe so. I do this in my Punch n Judy Shows. I make the observer believe in a different reality.
“Oh no you didn’t”
As a Punch n Judy-ist, I concur🤡
I first heard Alan watts mention the idea that we are the universe itself and not just an inhabitant. How incredible to see that idea solve the problem of nihilism and even negate the sort of existentialists dilemma by positing that your own meaning is a meaning of the universe itself.
Following his ramblings will get you nowhere. He is an entertainer and in the 33 club
That’s a good way to call mysticism: Suprarationalism
As Steiner would say:supersensible.
Let the Wizard Win.
Smile.
👍❤👍
I am pretty sure rocks think they are the highest consciousness in the universe too 🦔🇿🇦
Moore kept saying "scientific rationalism" while describing "materialist reductionism." It's an important distinction to me. Science doesn't need to restrict itself to materialist reductionism-and it doesn't always among advanced fields-it's just that an overwhelming nihilistic closure of meaning hammered into consciousness by twentieth-century atrocity, as well as revelations of just how mechanistically we can describe the manipulations of an individual by society, advertising, propaganda, etc., emotionally lends itself to an explanation provided by cold, reductionist materialism. Look, it says, we're just dust. The death, the evil, it only matters because we're animals, simple molecule machines, effects of physics.
If that cold reductionist materialism can be buffeted by the name "science," which of course has all the power because look at the atrocities it made and makes possible, that permits a person to dwell confidently in their nihilism. Besides, who doesn't want to be the answer man? Nothing can hurt the answer man.
But, ackshually, dust is miraculous. Molecules? Atoms? Sub-atomic particles? Energy from the beginning of time coalescing into spectrums of waves, waves which exist simultaneously as particles in super-position, neither here nor there until acted upon by other waves/particles, and yet from which consciousness has arisen?!
Phenomena, not matter. That is the root of the problem. Science describes phenomena.
Phenomena are real. Matter remains mystery. Materialist reductionism paints it backwards.
*praise* I was thinking the same, with just a different lens, my guy. Alan uses the Mystic Lens overlay that he's developed over the years and doesn't want to solidify it all the way, I think. Maybe it keeps it more dynamic. It's probably tied to his ADHD and *smoke* usage - *looks at self... yeah, that's it lololol* - I posted some writing on this idea in another comment you may enjoy ;)
I’m saying that mysticism is rational. The difference between mystical thought and scientific thought isn’t that one is rational and the other irrational, but that one (scientific thought) tends to think of “reality” as matter and energy. This is the popular (common) belief anyway, but it’s in no way what scientific practice follows. Scientific thought requires principles, rules of being, a sort of hyper- or meta- reality that determines how matter and energy change. For example, Probability dictates that things occur one way and not another (within a range), but probability is not matter or energy. It’s a principle of existence. People insist on reducing scientific thought to the realm of matter (and energy) because this gives them a sense of control and mastery in the face of bad stuff they can’t prevent; but phenomena are always described in science as acting according to principles. Mysticism also elaborates causation according to principles and states of being (it is rational), it just doesn’t limit the causes to an arena of sanctioned phenomena. Us mystics are not irrational, we’ve just observed phenomena that can only be described by principles-not simply matter and energy, but some a hyper- or meta- reality, as I said also describes scientific rational.
I’m saying that mysticism is rational. The difference between mystical thought and scientific thought isn’t that one is rational and the other irrational, but that one (scientific thought) tends to think of “reality” as matter and energy. This is the popular (common) belief anyway, but it’s in no way what scientific practice follows. Scientific thought requires principles, rules of being, a sort of hyper- or meta- reality that determines how matter and energy change. For example, Probability dictates that things occur one way and not another (within a range), but probability is not matter or energy. It’s a principle of existence. People insist on reducing scientific thought to the realm of matter (and energy) because this gives them a sense of control and mastery in the face of bad stuff they can’t prevent; but phenomena are always described in science as acting according to principles. Mysticism also elaborates causation according to principles and states of being (it is rational), it just doesn’t limit the causes to an arena of sanctioned phenomena. Us mystics are not irrational, we’ve just observed phenomena that can only be described by principles-not simply matter and energy, but some a hyper- or meta- reality, as I said also describes scientific rational.
I’m saying that mysticism is rational. The difference between mystical thought and scientific thought isn’t that one is rational and the other irrational, but that one (scientific thought) tends to think of “reality” as matter and energy. This is the popular (common) belief anyway, but it’s in no way what scientific practice follows. Scientific thought requires principles, rules of being, a sort of hyper- or meta- reality that determines how matter and energy change. For example, Probability dictates that things occur one way and not another (within a range), but probability is not matter or energy. It’s a principle of existence. People insist on reducing scientific thought to the realm of matter (and energy) because this gives them a sense of control and mastery in the face of bad stuff they can’t prevent; but phenomena are always described in science as acting according to principles. Mysticism also elaborates causation according to principles and states of being (it is rational), it just doesn’t limit the causes to an arena of sanctioned phenomena. Us mystics are not irrational, we’ve just observed phenomena that can only be described by principles-not simply matter and energy, but some a hyper- or meta- reality, as I said also describes scientific rational.
I’m saying that mysticism is rational. The difference between mystical thought and scientific thought isn’t that one is rational and the other irrational, but that one (scientific thought) tends to think of “reality” as matter and energy. This is the popular (common) belief anyway, but it’s in no way what scientific practice follows. Scientific thought requires principles, rules of being, a sort of hyper- or meta- reality that determines how matter and energy change. For example, Probability dictates that things occur one way and not another (within a range), but probability is not matter or energy. It’s a principle of existence. People insist on reducing scientific thought to the realm of matter (and energy) because this gives them a sense of control and mastery in the face of bad stuff they can’t prevent; but phenomena are always described in science as acting according to principles. Mysticism also elaborates causation according to principles and states of being (it is rational), it just doesn’t limit the causes to an arena of sanctioned phenomena. Us mystics are not irrational, we’ve just observed phenomena that can only be described by principles-not simply matter and energy, but some a hyper- or meta- reality, as I said also describes scientific rational.
from hell and swamp thing are his most fun imo
You haven't read Tom Strong then!
@@AllOneVoice i have not
@@joshsawyerstreamvods very very much recommend. His lightest most fun world and characters i think. Big hearted, still intellectually rigorous but like a heroic pulpy silver age throwback too. Very worth your time. Plus great spinoffs
Fun? Try the BoJeffries Saga.
Top gag.
I Love how Moore's voice is similar to an AI voice. 😂😂
I've seen double chins,but never double bags under the eyes.Must be some heavy lids.
Robin Ince? Good grief
Most of what he says is good , except he doesn’t seem to understand that diversity on a societal level is destabilising- that’s the trade of for individualism and diversity.
Also Blake was a Christian
Not a traditional one, if you read by biography of him. Visionary hits closer to the mark.
All hail our boltzman brain universe!