Eric L. Berlatsky

Voluble And Valuable

This is a collection of interviews that the famous writer/provocateur/shaman Alan Moore gave between 1982 and 2009. Moore is well-known for his volubility, and fans of this aspect of his personality will not be disappointed by the material collected herein. There is a slight problem with redundancy here (Moore, for example, is quite fond of recounting his process for the plotting of the unfinished comics series Big Numbers, discussions of which occur more than once here), but editor Eric L. Berlatsky has corrected against this by primarily selecting interviews that discuss individual works of Moore's (Watchmen, Lost Girls, etc.)

One of the great pleasures of this collection is the numerous bon mots that Moore creates with such apparent effortlessness. Some examples:

On writing as propaganda: "I'm aware of how words can change people's minds, can change the way people think. So are all of the advertisers, so are all of the politicians, so are all of the people who run our lives. They're not pulling any punches. I would say it is beholden unto any writer to equally not pull any punches on the other side. If you believe something, if you believe something is right or something is wrong then yeah, try and convince other people. Spread the idea around like a designer virus. Make it so other people will repeat it."

On genres: "My experience of life is that it is not divided up into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction, cowboy, detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky."

On the film adaptation of Watchmen: "Putting it cruelly, I guess it's good that there's a children's version for those who couldn't manage to follow a superhero comic from the 1980s."

Briefly put, this book is a kick in the pants. It's also a valuable resource for Moore fans and scholars. If you are one, you'll want to have a copy of this.… (mais)