Alan Moore talks to John Higgs about the 20th Century

Поділитися
Вставка
  • Опубліковано 28 гру 2024

КОМЕНТАРІ • 578

  • @peterpandemonium3032
    @peterpandemonium3032 9 років тому +847

    I like to think that Swamp Thing has the same voice as Alan Moore

    • @dreadedthread2163
      @dreadedthread2163 8 років тому +23

      Hahaha so Im not the only one

    • @siestaface
      @siestaface 8 років тому +36

      who has conversations with a John Constantine that sounds like Garth Ennis

    • @JETJOOBOY
      @JETJOOBOY 8 років тому +1

      definitely

    • @nicholasmurray4421
      @nicholasmurray4421 8 років тому +1

      hilarious

    • @rorysyers8457
      @rorysyers8457 7 років тому +8

      So Swamp Thing has a Northampton accent?

  • @TheDharr
    @TheDharr 8 років тому +366

    I could listen to Moore all day.

    • @oldgit4260
      @oldgit4260 7 років тому +2

      Paul Harris agree

    • @eazye3023
      @eazye3023 5 років тому

      Does moore have the same philosophy as the joker

    • @Vinavil1996
      @Vinavil1996 5 років тому +11

      ​@biggs949597 s i'd like to reply, but without any punctuation i'm having serious issues in understanding your comment..

    • @magneto9210
      @magneto9210 5 років тому +3

      @@eazye3023 Alan Moore is responsible for much of the modern Joker's beliefs and philosophies, though I don't think he personally subscribes to them.
      Most modern interpretations of the Joker depict him as a kind of nihilist, whereas Moore himself is more of an anarchist. There's common ground between the two, to be sure, but his brand of anarchy is about an idyllic kind of freedom where we no longer need leaders or authority to keep order in society. The Joker's nihilism, on the other hand, is about outrage; shouting into the void at the random, senseless, meaningless nature of our own existence. In the Joker's case, however, it's more of a maniacal laughter than a shout.

    • @vikingfinn7250
      @vikingfinn7250 5 років тому

      He’s just another left wing goofball. Whiner.

  • @jacob_ian_decoursey_the_author
    @jacob_ian_decoursey_the_author 6 років тому +156

    Dear Mr. Moore:
    Please never ever die.
    Best regards.

  • @christopherbell4543
    @christopherbell4543 4 роки тому +62

    It's sad that Alan will probably never see any of these glowing comments since he hardly ever goes on the internet. However if perchance he does see this, Alan we love you.

  • @paulmuaddib451
    @paulmuaddib451 5 років тому +126

    Best thing about this is the interviewer let's Alan Moore *answer* the question without trying to move him along as quickly as possible.

    • @michaelroseagain
      @michaelroseagain 3 роки тому +7

      John Higgs is a good man, read his books if you've not yet

  • @cosmikronic9353
    @cosmikronic9353 5 років тому +95

    5:40 the auto captions say [music] when he pauses to take a breath.

    • @vinayseth1114
      @vinayseth1114 4 роки тому +6

      :D Quite an homage to his personality!

  • @amnesiacradar
    @amnesiacradar 4 роки тому +52

    I've been a Moore fan since aged 10 reading 2000AD, I'm still a fan at 50 so probably my most enduring influence. Always a pleasure to listen to and be educated by such an eclectic mind.

  • @scoon2117
    @scoon2117 7 місяців тому +3

    Cool to see Alan all over youtube lately.

  • @samcostello2861
    @samcostello2861 5 років тому +30

    It's easy to look at a single photograph of Alan Moore and imagine him as a barking looney. How refreshing it is to actually listen to the man and find him to be a very intelligent, eloquent, and insightful human being.

    • @Spekd
      @Spekd 5 років тому

      I run 3 a time. Rule of cool.

  • @patrickbrownson1
    @patrickbrownson1 7 років тому +91

    Jesus Christ this guy is so thoughtful and intellectually powerful. I have always primarily read novels, and ignored graphic novels- until I read Moore. And I’m assuming I’m not the only Literature lover who had that experience.

    • @kengillespie7797
      @kengillespie7797 5 років тому +10

      If you haven't read any other noteworthy graphic novels besides Moore's, you should really give Neil Gaiman's Sandman series a go. Another comics writer with some really big ideas and interesting things to say.

    • @Bredaxe
      @Bredaxe 5 років тому +8

      @@kengillespie7797 It's interesting that Moore and now Gaiman, are outspoken about the downward spiral of the big blacklisting comic companies. I've listened to Gaiman on Ethan Van Scivers channel. These guys are now going at it independently by self publishing and bypassing the current Marvel/DC political and social narratives. Moore would have kept all his characters and profits if the avenues available today, were open in his prime.

    • @magneto44
      @magneto44 5 років тому +4

      if you like Moore, I’d also recommend Grant Morrison, both are giants in the field of writing regardless of genre

    • @Jamesharveycomics
      @Jamesharveycomics 3 роки тому +1

      @@magneto44 Grant Morrison is shite. Although credit where credit's due he did once communicate with the ghost of John Lennon who taught him a new Beatles song

  • @TheInexorableWordNerd
    @TheInexorableWordNerd 5 років тому +36

    "Our approach to culture in the mainstream has degenerated. The values people used to put into a work of art, has eroded." What a beautiful interview and always good to see Mr. Moore open and showing his range of free thought. Awesome Mr. Higgs.

  • @chutupfool
    @chutupfool 4 роки тому +23

    This is one of the most amazing perspectives on Lovecraft I have ever been exposed to

  • @AllOneVoice
    @AllOneVoice 5 років тому +62

    Most probably our most talented and intelligent writer and creative thinker Damn.. His ability is so broad that it is seemingly limitless. Even as a human, he is absurdly brilliant. He speaks in more eloquent and articulately well-arranged sentences than most people could hope to write in. He's also down-to-earth, a total badass, a lover of the little-guy, a progressive thinker, a fiercely ambitious creator and believer in art and its important and power as well as a stubborn defender of challenging and thoughtful art. Not to mention has an insane work-ethic. Amazing. One of my favorite people.

    • @LandoFabrizian
      @LandoFabrizian 2 роки тому

      Just really getting into exploring him. Please give me a great place to start:) I am currently reading watchmen!

    • @eripley481
      @eripley481 2 роки тому +1

      @@LandoFabrizian That's a perfect place to start. You should also read From Hell which is his masterpiece imo.

    • @LandoFabrizian
      @LandoFabrizian 2 роки тому

      @@eripley481 thanks I really appreciate you:)

    • @vladavram9209
      @vladavram9209 2 роки тому

      @@eripley481 i just fimished from hell and came here. It is definetly a masterpiece. I'm not one to criticize comics for being "lesser art". I love them very much. However it is a medium that mostly relates to entertaining rather than artistic literature. This book is art. This book deserves a place along any great book of the 20th century.

    • @mattheww797
      @mattheww797 Рік тому

      uh no he's not the most intelligent writer

  • @electrojones
    @electrojones 4 роки тому +26

    Moore has an extraordinary mind. He's been tricked, robbed, and abused, but his intelligence and his heart remain unbroken.

    • @zebulynnhanson791
      @zebulynnhanson791 3 роки тому +6

      Its a shame too. This guy is on a whole other level of brilliance. Every interview when asked a question he doesnt answer it. He explains it & tells you why you psycologically wanted to ask that in the first place. Then tell you how he came up w/ that idea. Seriously brilliant

  • @hyperion9062
    @hyperion9062 7 років тому +54

    First time watching an interview with Alan Moore, the guy is as amazing as I thought he would be.

  • @johninloes8817
    @johninloes8817 9 років тому +698

    Why do I get the feeling that Alan Moore understands American culture more than most Americans do? How our lack of historical continuity shapes our fiction and eventually shapes our future history.

    • @foolishswami3186
      @foolishswami3186 9 років тому +74

      +John Inloes It's because Alan Moore understands culture. Period.

    • @JohnSmith-wj7ge
      @JohnSmith-wj7ge 9 років тому +26

      +John Inloes He's very well read.

    • @1BlessEdYou
      @1BlessEdYou 9 років тому +70

      +John Inloes
      Aside from his being far smarter and more insightful than the average bear, how often do you think most Americans (or people generally, really) spend thinking about culture? And even if they do there's the problem of asking a fish to describe water, it's so omnipresent, it might as well not exist, in a sense.

    • @jonaskromwell4464
      @jonaskromwell4464 9 років тому +37

      Watchmen made a clear statement to me about Moore's very clear view of American justice and politics. Extremely insightful and changed my perspective for life.

    • @notno4717
      @notno4717 9 років тому +6

      +Jonas Kromwell And yet the fucking world hasn't ended yet. Go figure, moron. America = best political system on the planet. If you disagree, you're a moron.

  • @iansmith9125
    @iansmith9125 Рік тому +8

    However accurate it is; the idea that the ripper murders ushered in the 20th century is just so dramatic & portentous, it’s an amazing idea & makes the book that much more chilling.

  • @zazenbo
    @zazenbo Рік тому +4

    This interview means so much to me! Thank you.

  • @pikppa
    @pikppa 9 років тому +225

    Every time Mr Moore speak about society, whenever in his comics or in interviews, I always can't help agree with him. His vision may be cynical but it's realistic. There's a huge lack of inventivity and originality and the fact that the mayor movies of this year are sequel to masterpieces made 30 years ago is a cruel proof of that.

    • @jebadiahjackson
      @jebadiahjackson 7 років тому +1

      Calling them sequels now is a cruel misrepresentation of whatever the fuck the new Ghost Busters is...

    • @TheClassicWorld
      @TheClassicWorld 7 років тому +6

      I think that cinema died in 2010. I think 2017 was the worst year of cinema in history. However, it has been going down since 2000 (some say the 1990s -- I don't). And, well, it seems music started to fall in the 1990s (some say 2000s/1980s (well, some say like the 1920s)).
      In fact, everything started to fall in the 2000s, it seems. Or maybe it all just became clearer. Now we're in a mass moral panic and politics is madness. Now, opinions are the same as facts. Rightists are righteous and leftists are evil. The earth is flat and history is false. Gravity doesn't exist and news is all fake. Trump is the greatest president in history and China invented climate change. The world has gone mad.
      We don't know what 'equality' is but say we know more than ever and force it onto others (ironic). Video games, of course, went up, but I don't know now. Tabletop wargaming is falling, in a way. Creative writing has become a mess. Tolkien is evil for only having whites in his English mythology and Game of Thrones is the best show ever, being, in a way, a fictional Roman Empire displaying endless murderous kings and rape. Truth has become boring and expertise has become overrated. Universities have become un-safe 'safe spaces'. America is literally destroying democracy. Some say some or all of this started in the 1980s-1990s and we're just seeing it unfold now (2010-ish-2018).
      All is being lost or maybe all is being found and re-invented... only time will tell.

    • @davidm1926
      @davidm1926 6 років тому +5

      "I think that cinema died in 2010." - Possible, but it's widely pointed out that a lot of more sophisticated storytelling is on TV, now. At this point, teenagers pay for movie tickets, and homeowners pay for cable.
      "Game of Thrones is the best show ever, being, in a way, a fictional Roman Empire displaying endless murderous kings and rape." Eh...
      For one thing, there's a little bit more to the show, but I can understand you writing it off as that (I think it's rather grounded in medieval history for its precedents, but there is a certain Roman quality to it). To me, the first season felt pretty innovative for TV - it was just different in a way that...well, didn't resonate with you.
      I'll put one detail on the table - its wallowing in depravity is a critique of romanticized views of medieval-type heroic tropes, and, by contrast, a vindication of modern enlightened society (at least its aspirations if not its practices, depending on your views of the contributing factors to suffering in the modern world). Minor point, but it was interesting to me in the first season.
      I'm a fan of GoT, and, more grudgingly, of The Walking Dead. I think these are just popular shows with strong fandoms, I don't know that critics regard them as Best Shows Ever. For that, look to stuff like The Wire, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Mad Men. Not that those are necessarily the best, but that's what comes to mind. It seems like there are so many shows that come and go on cable, and I don't have time to check everything i hear about (I have a vague backlog list of Stuff To Watch alongside my vague list of Stuff To Read).
      So, while is may not stop civilization from collapsing around us, there is innovation and creativity that is coming out of TV recently that I think you're being unfair to.
      And let's leave aside the fact that neither of us feels like weighing in on the state of the written word today. I believe there are many other authors out there publishing besides J.K. Rowling (who I'm a fan of, but it would be a travesty if the only books available were Harry Potter).

    • @davesargent7304
      @davesargent7304 5 років тому +2

      film studios can almost guarantee a profit from a sequel or remake. That's why it's that way. It's all about $$.

    • @cicerogsuphoesdown7723
      @cicerogsuphoesdown7723 5 років тому +1

      Inventivity. Jesus man.

  • @theendarkenedilluminatus4342
    @theendarkenedilluminatus4342 Рік тому +1

    Always a lesson when listening to Alan Moore. Every time I see him speak, I learn history all over again, and am reminded of the responsibility of practicing magic well.

  • @comedicallyaccurate
    @comedicallyaccurate Рік тому +1

    he just seems like a pleasant man to speak to, good on em

  • @blacquesjacques7239
    @blacquesjacques7239 8 років тому +178

    Studying the real world can feed the best of fiction

    • @noisemarine561
      @noisemarine561 5 років тому +3

      Pretty accurate.

    • @ReverbCanvas
      @ReverbCanvas 5 років тому +6

      That's the only way actually. Other than that is not fiction, pure fantasy.

    • @TheProtagonizer
      @TheProtagonizer 3 роки тому

      YES!

    • @Eyecyou64
      @Eyecyou64 3 роки тому

      Not can, does

    • @victoryoso4955
      @victoryoso4955 3 роки тому +1

      The membrane between reality and fiction is P E R M E A B L E

  • @rapperfreakquency
    @rapperfreakquency 5 років тому +5

    I feel so connected to this writer and I have no idea why

    • @geert574
      @geert574 5 років тому

      Because you're 14 and feel connected to anything you read?

  • @mr.invisible3123
    @mr.invisible3123 8 років тому +24

    genius and eccentric brilliance

  • @willy1986tralara
    @willy1986tralara 8 років тому +21

    listening to this guy is mesmerizing

  • @someokiedude9549
    @someokiedude9549 5 років тому +10

    Great interview. His almost scholarly knowledge on the history of genre fiction is impressive.

  • @karlisande8308
    @karlisande8308 Рік тому

    In a sodden state, I’ve located a video of two of favourites sharing a space and allowing us a listen. Suddenly I’ve got a use for the internet. Thanks again!

  • @bryansteele832
    @bryansteele832 9 місяців тому +1

    One of my main comic book bucket lists is to have a marathon and read all this guy's stuff in chronological order. Well not all of it but a lot.

  • @jmp01a24
    @jmp01a24 Місяць тому

    The Magus of words and stories has spoken, and I listened.

  • @goforward8697
    @goforward8697 8 років тому +8

    So rad. This is an amazing conversation to share in.

  • @PeterSodhi
    @PeterSodhi 2 роки тому +2

    Good for the human race that we can count Alan Moore as one of us!

  • @Eyecyou64
    @Eyecyou64 3 роки тому +16

    It's not that Alan Moore is a time watching wizard He's just an educated man that can see clearly the way the world is going.

  • @SABRENOSE
    @SABRENOSE 8 років тому +2

    I could watch this so many more times and have before. It's such a treat to hear sharp tongued Alan Moore.

  • @russelltyler9363
    @russelltyler9363 5 років тому +2

    The lighting, angle and background on the shots of Alan are great. The way this conversation is lit is just great!

  • @thereisnosanctuary6184
    @thereisnosanctuary6184 2 роки тому +4

    He's not just DC Comic God, he is our historian and voice of conscience.

  • @Magneira
    @Magneira 5 років тому +34

    Hearing him talk about Lovecraft shows how much this guy is a Genius and an empathetic human being.

    • @DrCruel
      @DrCruel 2 роки тому +1

      You mean, watching him fall into lockstep with the Left fascists? Oh, what a shock. When he speaks out about the racism and anti-Semitism of Karl Marx or Friedrich Engels, or the anti-socialism and particularly the anti-Bolshevism of Lovecraft, let me know.

    • @Magneira
      @Magneira 2 роки тому +2

      @@DrCruel left fascism. I guess we live in a different dimension.

    • @DrCruel
      @DrCruel 2 роки тому

      @@Magneira I live in the dimension that includes the German KPD and Antifaschistische Aktion. the militant pro-Stalinist terrorists in 1930s Germany which helped the National Socialists into power and which the present-day Left fascist Antifa is named after, the Russo-German Pact and Otto Rühle's angry essay about it. What dimension are you from?

    • @Magneira
      @Magneira 2 роки тому +3

      @@DrCruel hahaha shit...

    • @DrCruel
      @DrCruel 2 роки тому

      @@Magneira The Ha Ha Ha Shit dimension? Sounds like Portland.

  • @Notjustmovies296
    @Notjustmovies296 5 років тому +4

    Wish Moore have given some names of some of the postwar sci-fi he holds in esteem. Always great to hear him talk and realize what a thoughtful, researched man he is.

  • @beathaven303
    @beathaven303 8 років тому +23

    Superbly well read with a great memory. Would love to have a few pints with him but he'd likely be bored by my lack of knowledge :(

  • @LMaddix93
    @LMaddix93 9 років тому +2

    Finally had a chance to watch this since your fixing the audio: it's as riveting and inspiring a conversation as I'd hoped. Thank you very much for this.

  • @iamsaztak
    @iamsaztak 7 років тому +20

    Also, if you're actually John Higgs, great job on the interview. I see some people push him a little too hard for 'fast tv-friendly answers' and moore just doesn't work like that. props!

  • @JayLeePoe
    @JayLeePoe 5 років тому +6

    It's funny as they talk about Lovecraft's reflecting the 20th century, Clive Barker's work kind of blossoms in hindsight even more than it had already. The Books of Blood certainly feel like the liminal bridge between the eras just the same. As clear as a baton in hand, passed to another

    • @youraveragecrownofthorns8919
      @youraveragecrownofthorns8919 5 років тому

      I'm not disagreeing with what you say about Barker, but i would probably give that credit to Karl Edward Wagner first. Much of both writers early horror work has a very similar style and flavor.

    • @JayLeePoe
      @JayLeePoe 5 років тому +1

      ​@@youraveragecrownofthorns8919 ha, I'd guess you to be a Kane fan, then, Lightbringer? I think he definitely had good taste. Conan is a fantastic universe to spin from-- practically The Guts universe in Japanese-land. Kane has both arms and a reasonably sized sword though, yeah?
      Anyway, it's funny how you draw the comparison because I do remember some of Barker's imagery about hellhounds stalking and ... other... things just as well as though I saw them like a vivid comic. Doing that well is true power in Horror.

    • @youraveragecrownofthorns8919
      @youraveragecrownofthorns8919 5 років тому

      @@JayLeePoe you have me figured well...you should read Barker's Midnight Meat Train and then read Wagner's .220 Swift to see how they compare. Have a good one!

  • @appidydafoo
    @appidydafoo 6 місяців тому

    Brilliant, thank you so much

  • @RodM.Peters
    @RodM.Peters 5 років тому +6

    Fantastic, the sort of individual I can only dream of having as a close friend for endless chats in cozy pubs over a pint of beer.

  • @ThePurityControl
    @ThePurityControl 7 років тому +8

    Very interesting, reminds me of some of Neil Gaiman's ideas around distance in UK being about distance in time whereas distance in US is about geographical distance. Which loosely meshes with Doctor Who and Star Trek as creations of those cultures (admittedly both shows veered into each other's territory at times).

  • @leighfoulkes7297
    @leighfoulkes7297 5 років тому +8

    The future of horror will not deal with the supernatural but it will focus on the horrors of man and their creations, at least for me. Nothing scares the shit out of me more than other humans.

  • @foolishswami3186
    @foolishswami3186 9 років тому +108

    God I love him.

  • @daniarmstrong3023
    @daniarmstrong3023 2 роки тому +2

    Greatest Comics Writer Ever.. staggeringly brilliant

  • @ryandudley3616
    @ryandudley3616 Рік тому +1

    Absolutely fascinating

  • @mikecunningham4682
    @mikecunningham4682 8 місяців тому +1

    I'd forgotten about the Northampton Clown. What a wild thing

  • @chefmark1751
    @chefmark1751 8 років тому +6

    I love hearing this guy speak. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wished they could have jumped in on this back and forth.

  • @svensvenkill
    @svensvenkill 4 роки тому

    Wonderful interview. Thank you.

  • @SABRENOSE
    @SABRENOSE 8 років тому +27

    My god this educational

  • @natruto
    @natruto 9 років тому +56

    Alan Moore talks to Jon Higgs about the writings of Lovecraft. (shut up and click, "like")

  • @steve1978ger
    @steve1978ger 9 років тому +13

    I was already delighted how Alan Moore handed it to George Lucas and his "piece of fundamentalist SF if ever there was one" (18:52), when they segued to David Cameron and how "we all know that in his secret soul David Cameron is exactly the man who would something like that" (21:21).

    • @oknow8267
      @oknow8267 5 років тому +4

      I always thought it was pretty racist but Moore Calling it ‘fundamentalist’ perfectly describes it! Star Wars epitomizes my country’s lack of awareness of it’s racism, sexism, and conformity to ‘normative’ ideas about violence. As an artist I appreciate the craft and liked the imagery as a child but the morality and values embodies in Lucas’s vision are fairly retrograde and without nuance. It is movie fast food: promoting war propaganda and unquestioned white supremacy.

    • @dallas317
      @dallas317 5 років тому

      what you going to do about it? nothing@@oknow8267

    •  5 років тому

      Ok Now you’re a fucking clown, lmao. Let me guess, you like the Watchmen HBO show?

    • @magneto44
      @magneto44 4 роки тому +1

      Ok Now actually, Lucas has said Star Wars was his commentary on the Vietnam war, with the USA being the Empire

  • @messiahgodstar7609
    @messiahgodstar7609 3 роки тому +9

    When he says "I gave birth to the twentieth century" It's just revealing the grandiose self view and relentless ego serial killers have.

    • @leonevelake
      @leonevelake 3 роки тому +7

      It's that and a comment on Moores view about how that and the way people reacted to it was the start of the 20 century in media

  • @boxant
    @boxant 9 років тому +3

    Great. Thanks.

  • @arturomorales966
    @arturomorales966 4 роки тому

    The greatest sign of intelligence is a manifest politeness and compassion. Alan Moore irradiates intelligence.

  • @Pyro-Moloch
    @Pyro-Moloch 6 років тому +2

    Providence is mindblowing. I think, probably the most significant comic book ever made.

  • @aspookyfox
    @aspookyfox 2 роки тому +3

    Alan Moore’s brain is a world heritage site.

  • @emza4527
    @emza4527 5 років тому

    increíble entrevista, muchas veces lo mejor que puede hacer un entrevistador es callarse y escuchar... genial

  • @dominickeefe2454
    @dominickeefe2454 6 місяців тому

    Moore is consistently fascinating. His knowledge and insight into social history and its literary cliques is amazing. I'd always dismissed Lovecraft as an inspired but technically dreadful writer with sad social neuroses. Moore's convinced me of his universal and timeless genius. And his point abut the differences in new world science fiction and looking to an optimistic future as it didn't have a documented past.

  • @Goblincow
    @Goblincow 5 років тому +5

    I love this interview. I transcribed a bunch of my favourite stuff from it (mostly stuff relevant to an essay I'm writing), so here's the stuff about horror and Lovecraft, sci-fi and America, and David Cameron fucking a pig.
    ---
    "[Lovecraft] was homophobic, this at a time when gay men - principally gay men, some gay women as well but that was different - were starting to emerge quite vocally and very visibly onto the streets of New York. There was a huge gay subculture in early 20th-century New York... and these were becoming more visible; you'd got women - I mean Lovecraft was certainly not a misogynist, but he was perhaps somewhat awkward or conflicted in his relationships with women. This was at a time when women were just about to get the vote; there had been twenty years of the biggest influx of immigrants that America had ever seen up until 1910/1920, and that had lead to conservative fears that American identity was going to be lost beneath a tidal wave of miscegenation, in-breeding... all of these fears were exactly those of the white, middle-class, common man - I mean the Russian revolution had just happened in 1917, and in America there were all of these strikes which at the time looked like "oh it's going to happen over here... and in some ways Lovecraft became a perfect barometer because he was so sensitive, so unbearably sensitive, [to] all of the fears of the 20th century - including the fears of man's relegation in importance given what we were starting to understand about the cosmos. Lovecraft was unlike other people of his day, he actually understood that stuff. He was very quick, he didn't like Einstein but he was very quick to assimilate Einstein's ideas. He didn't like quantum theory, but he almost understood it. This was it. In some ways,his stories represented the kind of landscape of fear, the territory of fear, for the 20th century as a whole... he hated Gertrude Stein, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce... but you actually look at Lovecraft's writing and much as he's decrying all of the modernists, and much as he's bigging up his favourite 18th century authors, people like Pope, actually Lovecraft is a modernist: he's using stream of consciousness techniques; he is using glossolalia more impenetrable than anything in Finnegan's Wake; he is using techniques of deliberately alienating the reader or confusing the reader; his descriptions tend to be along the lines of "here's three things Cthulhu doesn't look like", or he'll describe the Colour out of Space as "only a colour by analogy,"... These are deliberate techniques, they're not flaws, they are techniques of alienating the reader, of putting the reader into an uncanny space where language is no longer capable of describing the experience... All horror - or most horror - up til Lovecraft had all been predicated on the Gothic tradition, which is a tradition where you have an enormous vertical weight in time that is bearing down upon a fragile present - a history of dark things in the past that are leading up to some terrifying denouement in the present day. With Lovecraft there is an awful lot of talking about antiquity and the past, but with Lovecraft I think that it's a much more present horror of the future. He's talking about that time when man will be able to organise all of his knowledge and when that time comes the only question is whether we will embrace this new illuminating light or whether we will flee from it into the reassuring shadows of a new dark age - which is very prescient given, say, current fundamentalism, which is a response to too much knowledge, too much information, lets take it back to something were sure of, that god created the world in six days. In that way... he is still a very contemporary writer. I think that if you wanted to do, as Michael Moorcock did in the 60's - Michael Moorcock was mainly interested in Modernism. He noticed that the science-fiction genre was laying around with its wheels off and that nobody was doing much with it apart from kind of cowboys in space, so he thought why don't we hijack this and make science fiction a vehicle for Modernism: and then J.G. Ballard, all the rest."
    "I think that it's a fair comment that our approach to culture, in the mainstream, has degenerated. That the values that people used to put into a work of art, those have been eroded. I was trying to express that in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen because the whole of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, it's about this massive planet of fiction that has been a kind of counterpart to our own world for as long as we've had fiction. That we've made up this world, that it's the world we want, the exciting world where exciting things happen and meaningful things happen, and if you look at those two worlds there's interesting points of comparison - that they had similar events that shaped them, that were slightly different and they worked out slightly differently. So in [League of Extraordinary Gentlemen] Century it was using the League to look at the 20th century from the point of view of 20th century culture, and to draw what conclusions seemed accurate... I was saying that mainstream culture was becoming repetitive, was not having original ideas, would no longer be capable with coming up with a performance, let alone a thrupenny opera... I think it's interesting the way that science fiction was handled in the 20th century. I mean science fiction - alright, there's a lot of precursors for it - but a non-controversial starting point would probably be Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and then you'd move on to people like Wells and Verne, about a century later. Now, all of those are actually kind of grim warning visions of the potential future. They are potentially alarmist about the nature of technology and what it will mean. With Mary Shelley she was reacting to the Industrial Revolution which was actually starting up around her while she was writing Frankenstein in 1814 or whenever it was. Wells, all of his science-fiction books are for the most part dystopias: The Time Machine, with its view of the class system of Wells' day even more stratified, literally, so that you've got working class cannibals living underground and feeding upon these dopey, drippy, middle-class food animals, basically... And Jules Verne: now obviously Jules Verne is getting much more of a kick out of his big machines, but he always says "and imagine if these machines were to fall in the hands of a mad-man, like Captain Nemo" - who I secretly admire - but at least it is a warning. 1910/1915, America discovers science fiction in the form of Tom Swift, and it is a different thing all together. It is not about giving dire warnings for the future, it is about saying "look how great America's going to be in the future". It's almost like, I suspect, the tendency in older nations when we want to big ourselves up is to reach back to the past, to something imaginary in the past like King Arthur or something like that - America hasn't got that amount of history to deal with. So in some ways, what America needs is science fiction. When we're trying to say "look at what we were", then America more or less has to say "look at what we will be", and so their science fiction from the 1920's with the boom of the pulp magazines, it was all of this bright, optimistic new frontier stuff where it was going to be cowboys and indians all over again only it was going to be earth men and neptunians, but you could just go through the whole of the tropes of the Western genre and pioneer fiction but in space... In my opinion that was probably one of the worst things to ever happen to science-fiction. It took until the late 1940's, after Hiroshima, for these new voices that had got a radical sense of doubt to start to creep back into science-fiction, and that gave a brilliant era - probably the best era - of science-fiction, from the late '40s to the mid-'70s when George Lucas brought out Star Wars - a piece of fundamentalist science-fiction if ever there was one - and turned the clock back to the science-fiction ideas of 50 years before."
    "I believe that the membrane between fiction and fact is porous and semi-permeable, and i have become used to my most ridiculous ideas - whether that be coming up with V for Vendetta and then suddenly seeing a load of Guy Fawkes masked Anarchists invading the world stage - which is a good thing - or having coming up with the idea related to my film project Jimmy's End, of having a sinister clown manifesting in various locations around Northampton, and returning from holiday and finding that a sinister clown had manifested in Northampton at the end of my street about a hundred yards from my front door. You start to get the impression that yes, sometimes things can kind of percolate through from the realm of ideas into the realm of actuality. I would say to Charlie Brooker that it's his own fault, that he shouldn't have written about British Prime Ministers in an unholy relationship with a pig if he didn't want it to happen, so: happy now?... I remember somebody - this might have been someone like Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo - saying about the idea of Donnie and Marie Osmond being married. He was saying "yeah I know that that's not really true, but in my heart it's true," and I think that that is the way that I feel about the revelations about David Cameron: we all know that in his sacred soul, David Cameron is exactly the man who would do something like that - if has not done it literally, he has certainly done it metaphorically. So yeah I say, without a shred of evidence, that I am going to believe that for the rest of my life."

  • @jaydarklighter1989
    @jaydarklighter1989 5 років тому +27

    Alan Moore's long-form version of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire'

  • @shoddyworkmanship4934
    @shoddyworkmanship4934 5 років тому +3

    "If he has not done it literally, he has done it metaphorically." Something to muse over.

  • @juicesoundsystem
    @juicesoundsystem 9 місяців тому +1

    Alan Moore's brain is excellent.

  • @peterbaxter2913
    @peterbaxter2913 7 років тому +4

    Is that shirt available - commercially - for all dandruff sufferers?

  • @markletts2000
    @markletts2000 5 років тому

    Great questions\interview..👏🇬🇧

  • @apophatos824
    @apophatos824 8 років тому +42

    Interesting that Moore considers the course of popular culture to have degenerated, which is also a strong and recurrent theme of Lovecraft, as well as RE Howard, for that matter.

    • @tvtitlechampion3238
      @tvtitlechampion3238 5 років тому +4

      and ancient Greeks. Homer touched on this in The Iliad.

    • @SuperTonyony
      @SuperTonyony 5 років тому +5

      I've been reading Oswald Spengler, and his comments on how societies decline are eerily similar to the world outside my window.

    • @Mcmoothemilkmaster
      @Mcmoothemilkmaster 5 років тому

      @@SuperTonyony You have found the new Bible. Welcome to the truth.

    • @MCArt25
      @MCArt25 5 років тому +1

      as well as every single other rich man over 60

    • @2-bitsampler841
      @2-bitsampler841 5 років тому

      As well as norse mythology

  • @cameronnnnnnnnnnnnn
    @cameronnnnnnnnnnnnn 7 років тому +1

    Very insightful. A literary genius

  • @andrecnb9848
    @andrecnb9848 9 років тому +58

    i will never understand how fox wasted 300 million dollars to make specter and there isn't a studio that asks for a guy like alan moore or grant morrison to write a scrit for a movie, the studio invest 80 million, gets a great team to make the movie and create art on the big screen instead of the same old boring crap hollywood gives us

    • @dreadedthread2163
      @dreadedthread2163 8 років тому +9

      Unfortunately. An Alan Moore film would be amazing

    • @mightytaiger3000
      @mightytaiger3000 8 років тому +14

      +Andre CnB because they invest on keeping the population dumb and with shit taste in things

    • @bevrosity
      @bevrosity 8 років тому +1

      +Andre CnB i've thought for awhile now that hollywood is actually afraid of alan moore and grant morrison themselves. or at least afraid to work directly with them.

    • @bevrosity
      @bevrosity 8 років тому

      +R and A i've almost no doubt that moore could find a way to finance a film if he so chooses. i just don't think he has much of an interest in it right now.

    • @andrecnb9848
      @andrecnb9848 8 років тому +1

      bevrosity
      studios don't need to work with grant morrison or alan moore. just give them a royalty, put their name in the credits as the creators of the comics and make a 2 part invisible movie with a 100 million dollar budget and take a risk. if it works then make more vertigo adaptations
      i know new line studios is going to make vertigo adaptations and a justice league dark movie but it's taking forever

  • @keenanmeyer5511
    @keenanmeyer5511 8 років тому +244

    He sounds like Haggred, Looks like Gandalf, and probably has the mind of the joker and magneto.

    • @9Asabov3SoBelow6
      @9Asabov3SoBelow6 8 років тому +3

      OMFGS HE DOES SOUND LIKE HAGGRED!

    • @TheAlmightyAss
      @TheAlmightyAss 7 років тому +6

      AsAbove SoBelow does he? haggred sounds Scottish and Moore sounds like he's from Northampton :D

    • @zootsanchez
      @zootsanchez 7 років тому +7

      Hagrid has a South-West English accent

    • @PeterStellenberg
      @PeterStellenberg 7 років тому +1

      Magneto ? You mean he's an extremist specist and racist ?

    • @Eliel20117
      @Eliel20117 6 років тому

      Peter Stellenberg get over it special snowflake

  • @infiddle_8810
    @infiddle_8810 5 років тому +3

    my mom and my aunt were in the ocean in florida and had gotten dragged out by the current without realizing.. until a group of dolphins swam up to them and started breaching around them at which point they realized how far out they'd gotten and freaked out.... they were lookin out. dolphins are dope.

  • @johnshannon9656
    @johnshannon9656 5 років тому +3

    Alan Moore strikes me as a very nice man.

    • @smoog
      @smoog 5 років тому +3

      To a point. He doesn't suffer fools gladly.

  • @MrShadowthrone
    @MrShadowthrone 8 років тому +5

    As of October 2016 (I don't know when this interview was originally taken) - my mind is officially blown by his clown statement at 21:00. So - SO much fun :D

  • @Paulysolo
    @Paulysolo 5 років тому +73

    Why is he being interviewed by Hbomber guy 20 years from now?

    • @icshlangus
      @icshlangus 5 років тому +4

      Paul Power woah dude yer blowing my mind here

    • @TheSuperQuail
      @TheSuperQuail 5 років тому +9

      As if hbomber would ever be that talented...

    • @Paulysolo
      @Paulysolo 5 років тому +1

      @@TheSuperQuail I wasn't being literal

    • @mrl9418
      @mrl9418 5 років тому +6

      Because all Brits have exactly the same face and body. It's why Alan Moore grew a beard and aged himself, so people could tell him apart. Everyone who doesn't look like that is wearing a mask, or had fantastic levels of plastic surgery.

    • @Paulysolo
      @Paulysolo 5 років тому +1

      @@mrl9418 It's like a Moorobouros

  • @Blazin-yk4kz
    @Blazin-yk4kz 8 років тому +18

    Nice topman tshirt Alan

    • @MegaRaet
      @MegaRaet 8 років тому

      Blazin 420 he wears the best shirt.

  • @talbrott
    @talbrott 4 роки тому +1

    Just finished the KLF book, wow.

  • @TheGreatGodPan
    @TheGreatGodPan 7 років тому +18

    No doubt Moore does have the odd left/"anarchist" bias but he talks like a proper historian or scholar, talks a lot of sense about Lovecraft and it's good to see someone who likes his work talking about him fairly for a change, rather than just dismissing him as an ultra-conservative racist.

    • @gabrielp9646
      @gabrielp9646 6 років тому +10

      Its weird how many genious artists and brilliant scientits have "the odd left/anarchist bias..."
      It makes you think a little bit about it, doesn´t it..?? xDxD

    • @K_E_Robin
      @K_E_Robin 6 років тому +4

      That's because the odd left/anarchists are more commonly attuned to the world than the odd right.

    • @gabrielp9646
      @gabrielp9646 6 років тому

      @milster True... But to find creative and succesful people who lean to the right you have to look back to the 1920s... xDxD After then you can just find one or two, like ted nuggent (and they´re always part of a trend that is full of left-winged people, who usually invented the thing, and that´s why they stand out in the first place...)

    • @gabrielp9646
      @gabrielp9646 6 років тому +3

      @milster I was trying to say you need to be a little dumb to be homophobic in the 21st century... Is not propaganda. Is just common sense xDxD (its kind of similar to what you are complainning about, putting a person automatically in a cathegory just because the way they think, or the way they look...) But yes, I think its impossible to be a genius and be homophobic in the 21st century, in the first world.

    • @gabrielp9646
      @gabrielp9646 6 років тому +2

      @milster Jesus christ dude, I can´t say it clearer or in a more polite way... IM NOT SAYING LEFT WINGED PEOPLE ARE BETTER AT MAKING ART, IM SAYING THEY USUALLY ARE MUCH MORE SMARTER IN GENERAL, AT EVERYTHING xDxD (but there are entitled know-it-alls, like everywere else) Cause for instance, I keep seeing people hating feminism, but the last time I cheked (last week) there were 146 women killed by their husbands this year in my country (only 44 million people) and just 2 fake reports detected. The last time I checked, there are 4 rape reports in my country every day, and less than 12% of them even get an investigation opened. So I don´t like people like you, who starts to cry like a baby when his life gets about 1% less easy or confortable (and who preffers to make it difficult for others just to keep having it easy himself...) but I don´t hate you, I just feel sorry for you... So what, straight white guys are getting tyred of being judged and insulted..?? They are getting tyred of being told what they should say or not, or how to behave..?? Tyred of being put in a bag or cathegorized as a "type of person" just for having a certain sexual orientation, or skin color ?? Yeah, white men are starting to get a little grasp of what every minority in the world had to deal with every day since hundreds of years ago and maan, they can´t stop crying about it... xDxDxD That´s what is called equality, bitch xDxD You have to learn how to deal with what a feminist says (not to accept it or agree with it...) Ive seen some feminist who are pretty dumb and self-entitled, I think they´re enfuriating, but I want you to know I see the exact same thing when I read your comment :S:S

  • @jakeen64
    @jakeen64 8 років тому +2

    Moore is so astute in his views...his conclusion that the Communist Scare of America is not one of the 1950s but rather the first decades of the 20th century makes so much sense if you think of it...

  • @matthewwood9335
    @matthewwood9335 8 років тому +1

    Love the shirt!

  • @1BlessEdYou
    @1BlessEdYou 9 років тому +2

    Can you tell me what sort of camera you used to film this, Mr. Higgs? The video quality is fantastic and I'd like to get an idea of what was needed to achieve that. Thanks

  • @skullknight5945
    @skullknight5945 3 роки тому

    Superb!

  • @blacquesjacques7239
    @blacquesjacques7239 8 років тому +2

    Having reached my midlife crisis I can say that looking back at culture and education standards of my youth have left me with a shallow draft . I now really feel the effects of intellectual neglect in that now I understand how much more there could have been in terms of understanding nuance and texture . Prefabism is retarding us .

    • @tvtitlechampion3238
      @tvtitlechampion3238 5 років тому

      Education put through the meat-grinding effect of marketing concepts. Cliff Notes in the age of TMI.

  • @chrisschumacher8553
    @chrisschumacher8553 3 роки тому +7

    Why does Alan Moore always sound so angry in print interviews, but when you see the actual interview he's just talking in a normal, friendly way?

    • @thereisnosanctuary6184
      @thereisnosanctuary6184 2 роки тому +2

      Well a print interview is filtered through the transcriber and the reader's mind.

    • @pnrg1354
      @pnrg1354 Рік тому

      Partly it's his wit and dry sense of humour not coming across (as) well in print. Partly, it's the topics/questions he's asked (over and over again) and his righteous anger regarding the subject matter. And partly, it's commentators and readers projecting Angry Old Alan Moore onto whatever mildly sarcastic over-reaction he's voiced and tarring his bear-poking barbs with a brush of bitterness that is rarely his underlying tone.

  • @GlintzKollide
    @GlintzKollide 8 років тому +5

    Magnificent beard.

  • @nick932200
    @nick932200 5 років тому +1

    If it's not already been said,"Alan Moore,knows the score!"-Riffs

  • @arnavrawat9864
    @arnavrawat9864 5 років тому +14

    This guy wrote watchmen. Imagine that. A human writing that masterpiece.

  • @davecrowson448
    @davecrowson448 5 років тому

    Hey, I've got that same shirt Higgs is wearing. Moore is great.

  • @Spuds4Supper
    @Spuds4Supper 8 років тому

    What author does moore mention at 10:07? Malcolm Walcott? Markham Walcock?

  • @JohnSmith-wj7ge
    @JohnSmith-wj7ge 9 років тому +9

    If anyone hasn't read Moorcock, go grab a copy of Elric of Melnibone.

    • @generaldom
      @generaldom 9 років тому

      +John Smith Lot of material to get through though, isn't it?

    • @JohnSmith-wj7ge
      @JohnSmith-wj7ge 9 років тому +5

      There are lots of Elric stories but you don't have to read them all to understand the story. The first one, Stormbringer is the best place to start and can stand alone as its own thing without having to read the rest (though you should).

    • @simonmitchell3968
      @simonmitchell3968 5 років тому

      Or Mother London.

  • @CosmoShidan
    @CosmoShidan 3 роки тому +1

    I wonder what Alan Moore's comments about the recent post-revisionist space western Space Sweepers would be? It's very interesting to hear his criticism of space westerns and the space opera, especially Star Wars. Ironically, he wrote a few Star Wars stories before his adoption of New Wave Sci-fi.

  • @SEN0BRM
    @SEN0BRM 5 років тому +4

    If they taught history as a whole in school
    We would all think like this
    Which is why we can’t stay in our little bubbles and must start looking at the world iin the macro

  • @nakedmolerat43
    @nakedmolerat43 9 років тому +5

    Now I know Im an idiot after listening to this guy.
    Always so fascinating, every interview

  • @itsthorsday
    @itsthorsday 3 роки тому

    Did you wear that Slaughterhouse 5 shirt because you were meeting Alan Moore who wrote V for Vendetta who's main character was also imprisoned in building/room 5?

  • @antoniog.p808
    @antoniog.p808 4 роки тому +1

    I gotta stop smoking "herb" just to actually listen to this guy... mommy is proud

  • @lordsaccharine
    @lordsaccharine 2 роки тому +1

    You know what, I could go for a book where you give Moore the KLF/Blake treatment.

  • @nigelgeiger6020
    @nigelgeiger6020 5 років тому +2

    Are we in a time where nothing else can be created without a massive cultural shift?

    • @burner1303
      @burner1303 5 років тому +2

      He's talking about mainstream culture. There are always new and interesting things outside the mainstream if you look for them.

  • @sleepyjoebiden2756
    @sleepyjoebiden2756 8 років тому +27

    This might be the most English thing I've ever watched.

  • @TheOldMPClub
    @TheOldMPClub 4 роки тому +1

    I watched this interview back in the past but coming back from seeing how Tempest ended, you see some of his ideas were on display even then. I just didn't have the missing pieces to understand the whole back then.
    Mind you, no I don't agree with him on a lot. But I can understand it.

  • @warmecanic
    @warmecanic 9 років тому +2

    Alan Moore attitude is like: Please, don´t make me stupid questions.