Alan Moore...Moore like Alan Boore

That title's not entirely true, it just seemed like a fun way to start off the post. It was originally "alan moore, more like alan bore." But then I realized that 'more' could be spelled "Moore" and then it would be his last name. At that point though, I had to add the ... to give some space between the two uses of Moore (and to indicate a dramatic pause). But back to class stuff...

I have now read two of Moore's books, so I think I can talk about him in a quasi-general way. When reading him, I can't help but think of a saying a heard at some point in my education. It went "Focus on the soldier, not the war." This is in regards to storytelling. A more interesting piece is one that focuses on the individual instead of a larger conflict. For instance, if someone wanted to make a movie they could

-make a movie that focuses on two families struggle with changing times such as Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

or

-make a generalized overview of a dozen poorly connected racists that uses popular notions and stereotypes in an attempt to appear 'important' such as the movie Crash.

In this example, Guess Who is a great small scope story that at its center is a very important contemporary issue (how big issues affect individuals) whereas Crash is a presentation of a problem in its broadest sense. Guess Who is a more personalized and persuasive film.

With this, I feel Moore's work falls onto the Crash side of things. And this is the guy that made a facebook group called "No Seriously, Crash is a Horrible Movie" so that's not a good thing. Moore's work presents the problems of the Reagan-era Cold War by presenting... the Reagan-era Cold War but with SUPERHEROES! Oh My GOD! It's not a fictionalized, fascist version of England...IT's US!!! What can we do!?!

This especially comes out in the film adaptation, where we are basically told... hey, this is like the patriot act etc, put on masks and cause some ruckus.

Admittedly, big issues have to be tackled in a super hero-esque story but I feel that there should be some subtlty. Is that how you spell that, it looks weird... but yeah I think it's either insulting to the reader's intelligence by trying to persue a blatant political agenda or it's exploitive because it takes common beliefs and feelings and therefore makes the reader involved and think it's an important piece of work. Either way, not a huge fan.

But I do enjoy reading them, it's just I don't think we should let Alan Moore think he's as important as he'd like to think...