MCLC: CCTV airs V for Vendetta (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Sean Macdonald <smacdon2005 at gmail.com>
Subject: CCTV airs V for Vendetta (1)
***********************************************************

An interesting development for TV, but the film can be viewed online in
the PRC with no trouble (see for example V字仇杀队 on
http://my.tv.sohu.com/u/vw/32810300). So one could ask whether this is a
question of relaxing censorship, or just catching up with the online
audience (which I realize can sometimes have similar consequences).

I have to admit, I haven't really watched the whole film, but I admire
Alan Moore's work (the writer of the "comic book" referred to in the
Guardian article). V for Vendetta is an an incredible collaboration
between Moore (script) and David Lloyd (illustrator) and the Guy Fawkes
mask worn by the protagonist has become a kind of tropic fashion statement
by political protesters, perhaps made most famous by the hacker network
called "Anonymous."

As with the reference to Guy Fawkes, one of the members of the 1605
assassination plot of King Charles I, the narrative is a dense political
allegory of Thatcher's England and is in some ways very much a work of
it's time, the 1980s. The political aspects of the work are in no way
unambiguous, as the protagonist, V, while challenging the absolute
dictatorship of his/her time (V's "gender" is not clear) also ends up
taking some fairly extreme measures that may or may not, in the final
analysis, lead to actual political liberation.

Sorry for the long-windedness, but I found this posting interesting, the
Guardian piece seems to simply trump ideas of censorship without taking
into account the nuanced nature of the content in question.

With regard to censorship, a recent Moore collaboration has made the news,
this time right here in the U.S., with the withdrawal of Neonomicon from
the shelves of a library in Greenville, South Carolina

http://cbldf.org/banned-comic/banned-challenged-comics/case-study-neonomico
n/

All the best,

Sean