Ubalblog

[  Mood: Amused ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
You want to know what Alan Moore was thinking about as he was writing The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier?

Sex.

Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex.

Oh yeah, and sex.

This book is supposed to be the hidden history of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Gathered as a series of different clippings, such as articles, postcards, and "boys comics", by the government in a Black Dossier to document the actions of the league. These clippings are stolen by Mina Harper and Alan Quartermaine, and it is their story of escaping with the dossier that weaves the book together.

As they read the dossier, so do we, and a very interesting story it presents. We get the altered history of England, a place where literary characters are real, with various incarnations of the League working to bring down enemies of the Crown. We also see how much the government changed under an Orwellian inspired government after the war, and how our once heroes are now fugitives from Justice.

Did I mention there was lots of sex? Almost every piece of work has sex and nudity woven through it. The comic story of Orlando, the gender switching companion to Prospero and Sinbad who literally had sex with ever character of historical significance they encountered. The further adventures of Fanny Hill who also seems to have sex with everyone she encounters. There is even some totalitarian pornography tucked in with an exert from a pulp novel. Even Mina and Alan are lying around in various positions involving nudity, bathing, post-coital bliss.

I get that many of the memorable female characters in literary history that would be likely to take up with the league are the sexually scandalous ones, but I wonder if Moore was not attracted to them because of sexual promiscuity rather than their tendency to take risks. Would he have chose chaste Elizabeth Bennett for the league, even though she is seen as an early feminist heroine by many readers.

This is the most sexual of Moore’s works that I have read, and I have to wonder if he was going through Andropause at the time of crafting this.

The better parts of the book are the cartoons, as Moore shows his ability to tell story and create character. Some of the articles are interesting, but others seem at times to be a chance for Moore to write like Shakespeare.

It’s a good read, but not to the same level as the earlier volumes.