"Ideas Are Bulletproof"
(Part Three of My V for Vendetta Review)

Blazing Reader,

Ideas are bulletproof. People aren't.

That's the big theme in the graphic novel, V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore....

Continuing with part three of my multi-post review of the graphic novel, its bulletproof ideas are what I'd like to focus on today.

The depth of philosophy in the graphic novel exceeds that of the film (despite the movie adaptation's unforgettable televised speech about how people normalize oppression). In contrast, the graphic novel does not focus so much on the evils of government as on the glories of liberty, anarchy, and spontaneous order.

For example, there is a moving scene in the novel where V is talking to a statue of Lady Justice, telling her how he used to stare at her from the streets as a child and tell his father, "Isn't she pretty?"

"But please don't think it was merely physical," his older self tells her now, "I know you're not that sort of girl. No, I loved you as a person, as an ideal. That was a long time ago. I'm afraid there's someone else now."

That someone else is anarchy. Not chaos. But the ability to live without rulers (who get to decide who is right and who is wrong).

V accuses Lady Justice of having an affair with power, betraying him and everybody she promised to protect. The government claims the right to dictate justice, promising safety in exchange for our freedom. The result is ultimately oppression, for even the most enormous wrongs can be justified with a law, a vote and a crisis.

Ultimately, the story is about people and communities taking responsibility for their own lives, as V says:

“Since mankind's dawn, a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives that we should have accepted for ourselves. By doing so, they took our power. By doing nothing, we gave it away. We've seen where their way leads, through camps and wars, towards the slaughterhouse.”

John C.A. Manley

P.S. I have more to say about this wonderful and controversial graphic novel, but I'll make this the end of my three-part review. If you missed part one, you can read it here.

P.P.S. And if you haven't yet, you can purchase your copy of the V for Vendetta graphic novel — full of "bulletproof" ideas — through my Blazing Bookshop.

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona, All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of philosophical fiction that are "so completely engaging that you find yourself alternately laughing, gasping, hanging on for dear life." Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber.