#177 V For Vendetta (1990)

Authors: Alan Moore & David Lloyd
Title: V For Vendetta
Genre: Graphic Novel
Pages: 300
Origin: borrowed from Plymouth University library and read during July-August 2012
Nod Rating: 4 out of 5

The Worm confesses to developing an infatuation with Alan Moore in recent months. As can be seen in recent reviews, a massive 5 nods was given to his Watchmen graphic novel, whilst a further 3 nods was laid out for his short book on the art of writing for comics. Is this a sign that the Worm is becoming far too generous in his older age? The Worm stresses that these nods are for a fantastic writer who is always on the hunt of widening our imaginations in his story telling.

As such, the Worm thought it best to return to the near beginnings of Moore’s career: V for Vendetta. It is a dystopian story set in the near future, in the world of the late 1990s in which nuclear bombs have been set off, and power in Britain has been taken over by a fascist religious political party. Hidden behind a mask, and dressed in the sartorial style of Guy Fawkes, V is on a one-man quest to bring down the government and show everyone the existence of their chains; and more importantly, the power to break those chains to reclaim their liberty.

The story principally follows V in his underworld alongside his new sidekick, the naïve and uninitiated Evey; as well as the groups who pursue him with their own motivations and reasons. V is at odds with everyone in this nightmarish vision of the future: his love of poetry and good music is a rebellion against the dark skyline, drab coasts and kitchen-sink dramas played out in the city of London. V’s seemingly riddled and flowery prose may be slightly annoying at first, but as each page is turned they are increasingly seen as the light to behold against the dark forces that have taken control of old Blighty. In typical Moore fashion, the “good guys” and the “bad guys” are never clear cut: is V a hero or simply a psychotic murderer? It is up to the readership to decide. Alongside this ambiguity lies stylish and always interesting framing of the page; seen nowhere more clearly than at the beginning of Book Two: The Vicious Cabaret in which sheet music is displayed when connecting all of the various plot strands.

However, V for Vendetta is not an entirely accessible read. Beside the nature of the subject, many of which could find off-putting (in essence, an anarchist terrorist killing fascists), there is the actual storyline itself. There is a heady mix of convoluted plot and an array of characters – many of which are hard to distinguish from one another – which means that this is not a book to merely flipped through in a day. The Worm had the pleasure to read the story over the period of several weeks, continually dipping back towards the beginning, and thumbing through pages to link the various plots. It must be advised that other readers should take the same luxury of an amble walk, rather than power read.

In this handsome edition (containing the full comic strips, prefaces from both writer and artist, as well as extended essay on the genesis of V for Vendetta), Moore discusses just how badly his own predications shown to be: no, Thatcher was not removed from office in the 1983 election, and no, a socialist type government did not take control. Of course, the Falklands factor put paid to Thatcher’s ousting in ’83; but the story is not one based on concrete fact, but rather of ideas. These ideas – of freedom and liberty – remain imbedded within us; as are the threats that these ideas and beliefs face from forces all around us. In the character of V, Moore and Lloyd have created an eternal character that is used to rally the forces of liberty against her would-be destroyers: within the comic’s conclusion, as well as in real life. Such real life similarities can be seen in the choice of the group Anonymous and their V masks as a potent symbol.

Avoid the dull, tame movie from 2006 and instead go full flying into the original comic. It may not be to your political taste, but it will surely inflame and excite the bones in your body.

Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/V-Vendetta-Edition-Alan-Moore/dp/1845762274/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346093967&sr=8-1

Read the review for Watchmen right here:
http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.com/2011/11/watchmen-alan-moore-dave-gibbons.html 

#176 The Sign of the Four (1890) - Arthur Conan Doyle

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
Title: The Sign of the Four (1890)
Genre: Novel
Pages: 160
Origin: Read on Kindle during July 2012
Nod Rating: 3 out of 5

'Which is it to-day?... morphine or cocaine?’

And so begins this story about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and the book’s narrator, Watson. Dulled by a lack of events, Holmes has taken to a bit of recreational drug-use of the kind that would scare those in authority in today. Only the sniff of a good case and putting his deductive reasoning skills to the test will allow him to "just say no" to 'a second dose of cocaine’.

This is the Worm’s second foray into the world of Sherlock Holmes; more than one year ago the first instalment in the series – A Study in Scarlet – was reviewed and given scant applause (see below). The novel itself, as written by Watson, is alluded to in the beginning of The Sign of the Four by a critical Holmes: ‘Honestly, I cannot congratulate you upon it. Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science, and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it with romanticism, which produces the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid.’

Watson retorts: ‘But the romance was there.’ Of course, this clearly shows the divide between Holmes and Watson; a conflict that has endured and delighted readers for more than a century. Much more than the recent movies or other incarnations of the pair, the original books offer so much more character development; as can be seen by Watson’s constant observation and analysis of Holmes: ‘More than once during the years that I had lived with him in Baker Street I had observed that a small vanity underlay my companion’s quiet and didactic manner.’ More strongly, is Watson’s later cry out: ‘You really are an automaton… There is something positively inhuman in you at times.’

The Sign of the Four - also popularly known as The Sign of Four - is the second novel to feature this dynamic duo. It charts the unfolding of a missing fortune, of double-crossing and revenge between an original foursome from the subcontinent of India. Holmes continues to spout his own philsopophy and way of working: ‘Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth.’ Whilst Watson continues to inject the romance into the story, continually questioning his own role, Holmes’ methods, the love-interest (Mrs Morstan), and how the whole story hangs together. In wonderful fashion, all of the threads come crashing together with a final confession and extended flashback from the chief culprit (thankfully, the flashback does not consume more than a third of the book, as was the case with A Study in Scarlet).

Without wishing to spoil any of the main plot threads, the adventure ends as it begins, with Holmes reaching for the ‘cocaine-bottle.’ The novel is a more coherent whole than the earlier A Study in Scarlet; whilst a greater emphasis is added on the stereotypical Sherlock settings. Late Victorian London is detailed in fine Gothic style: ‘The whole place, with its scattered dirt-heaps and ill-grown shrubs, had a blighted, ill-omened look which harmonized with the black tragedy which hung over it.’ Two novels in, and already the legend is being formed; a legend that exists more than one hundred and twenty years later.

The Worm will return to the adventures of Holmes and Watson, and is intent on devouring all the books and short stories in Conon Doyle’s inventive and wonderful series.

Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sign-Four-Arthur-Conan-Doyle/dp/0241952964/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345745407&sr=8-1

A Study in Scarlet review:
http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/study-in-scarlet-sir-arthur-conan-doyle.html

The Top Ten Toughest Reads

This past week The Guardian printed a small article on the supposed ten most difficult reads. This list has been compiled by two book worms at the literary website, the Millions: Emily Colette Wilkinson and Garth Risk Hallberg. Admittedly a top ten would be difficult to nail down, however, the duo apparently took three years to reach the final selection. And here the tough ten:

Nightwood (1936)– Djuna Barnes
A Tale of a Tub (1704) – Jonathan Swift
The Phenomenology of Spirit (1807) – G.F. Hegel
To the Lighthouse (1927) – Virgina Woolf
Clarissa (1748) – Samuel Richardson
Finnegans Wake (1939) – James Joyce
Being and Time (1927) – Martin Heidegger
The Faerie Queene (1596) – Edmund Spenser
Women and Men (1987) – Joseph McElroy

The article writer – Alison Food – laid claim to having read two and a half of these books. The Worm can only meekly note a modest one: Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Furthermore, little is known of many of these books. Of course, Joyce’s Finnegans Wake is a notoriously difficult read, with a group in New York regularly meeting up to dissect a couple of pages of text a time.

Some light research has revealed a world of possible marvels. Nightwood is a 1930s novel that is one of the earliest to deal with homosexuality; Swift’s A Tale of a Tub is a parody on religion; Clarissa lays claim to being a rather long novel; Spenser’s Faerie Queene appears to be warm applause in aid of Queen Elizabeth; Women and Time appears to be a very chaotic and intriguing book centring on New York of the 1970s; whilst the two philosophical works centre on Hegel’s critique of consciousness and Heidegger’s book on the purpose of a person. But as stated, these are only the basic impressions from some light reading. Needless to say, the Worm is hooked and wishes to find out more.

But what actually makes a tough read? The criteria for this top ten was the following: ‘books that are hard to read for their length, or their syntax and style, or their structural and generic strangeness, or their odd experimental techniques, or their abstraction.’ Readers of the Millions website appear to be scornful of the inclusion of To the Lighthouse (one particular comment: “If you think To the Lighthouse is a difficult read you shouldn’t be writing for a literary website”). The Worm cannot comment on the other reads, but has laid down a new challenge for the forthcoming book reading season: to read one further book on this list and to bestow upon it a nod fitting for its quality, and not its notoriety.


Read the review here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/aug/07/most-difficult-books-top-10

Visit the Millions here:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/tip-sheet/article/53409-the-top-10-most-difficult-books.html

2011-12 Season Review

Three, so they say, is the magic number. This blog has reached the grand old age of three years, with three fine book reading seasons now behind it. In the past twelve months, the Worm has read stories about rabbits and Star Trek, about love and polemics, of Batman and the Fantastic Four, from Orwell to Thatcher, of novels, histories, comics, politics and poetry.

In total, fifty-four books were devoured. Books on history – principally that on the Nazis (as ever popular), the Tudors, and the great country of Italy – came out top of the four eyed pops. They were closely followed by novels, as varied from Flaubert to Bret Easton Ellis. Fiction proved a big winner on the eyes, including short stories, plays – thank you, Mr Shakespeare – and poetry. But from this total of fifty-four, only five – yes, count them, five – were given the tremendous rank of “5 Nods”. They join a prestigious – although utterly meaningless – elite of other 5 nodders from book reading seasons gone by, bringing the total to seventeen out of a possible one hundred and seventy-five.

So, onwards to the Worm’s Top Ten Reads of 2011-2012:

1. The Drowned and the Saved (1986) – Primo Levi
Thoughtful, provoking and haunting; Levi’s book on coming to terms with the Holocaust was the Worm’s favourite and most riveting read of 2011-12. What he has to say is never easy to swallow, but it is a dish that the human race must all feed on. As Levi commented: ‘It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say.’ 5 nods.

Read the review here: http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.com/2012/01/drowned-and-saved-primo-levi.html


2. Love in the Time of Cholera (1985) – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A love story that spans decades and events, Marquez has combined talent of telling a story along with commentary on the changes of ideals and values in the modern world. 5 nods.

Read the review here: http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/love-in-time-of-cholera-gabriel-garcia.html


3. Watchmen (1987) – Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
This is the first graphic novel/comic to ever feature in the Worm’s Top Ten list; firmly deserves its place amongst other great reads. Moore and Gibbons’ cynical take on the cult of the superhero asks questions about what it is to be human; further enhanced by great storytelling techniques. 5 nods.

Read the review here: http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.com/2011/11/watchmen-alan-moore-dave-gibbons.html


4. Lord of the Flies (1954) – William Golding
A short book filled with emotion and reflection, of triumph of savagery over progress, of passion against reason, of the id over the ego. This famous story documents ‘the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart’, alongside the menacing mantra: ‘Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood!’ 5 nods.

Read the review here: http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.com/2011/09/lord-of-flies-william-golding.html


5. Notes from Underground (1864) – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Attacks on aspirations of love, western philosophy, the bureaucracy of work, manners and social norms; this man from the underground has a large axe to grind. Riddles abound with Dostoyevsky’s riddles: ‘Gentlemen, you must excuse me for being over-philosophical; it’s the result of forty years underground!’ 5 nods.

Read the review here: http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.com/2011/10/notes-from-underground-fyodor.html


6. Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) – George Orwell
Insightful social commentary, with humorous characters and events. This is a younger Orwell to be enjoyed, the fruits of which go toe-to-toe with his later, fictional works. 4 nods.

Read the review here: http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/down-and-out-in-paris-and-london-george.html


7. God is Not Great (2007) – Christopher Hitchens
The most recently published book in this Top Ten list, and the winner of the Worm’s Thinker Award in this season’s “Noddies” (see below). The late – and of course, great – Hitchens is keen to emphasise the growing reasoning of society, whilst giving the Bible and religion both barrels. 4 nods.

Read the review here: http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/christopher-hitchens-god-is-not-great.html


8. Ceremonial Time (1984) – John Hanson Mitchell
15,000 years of history based on one square mile. An original book that comprises history, science, folklore, topography and emotion. Dig deeper into what it means to be human.

Read the review here: http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/ceremonial-time-john-hanson-mitchell.html


9. Lunar Park (2005) – Bret Easton Ellis
Many books reviewed – 3 previously in the past 2 seasons – and first time his name is on the Top Ten list. Ellis in great lampooning mood, finally bringing a degree of emotion and maturity to his writing. The same psychotic scenes, but tied deeper into the tradition of American literature of Poe and Gothic thrillers.

Read the review here: http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/lunar-park-bret-easton-ellis.html


10. The Course of German History (1945) – A.J.P. Taylor
Controversial and argumentative – this is what a historian should always be! It has dated, but remains a key work of the past one hundred years of a western interpretation of Germany.

Read the review here: http://4eyedbookworm.blogspot.com/2011/11/course-of-german-history-ajp-taylor.html


These were the great, heart-warming reads of the past twelve months; but every journey has its victims and villains: and for the Worm, these were of the 1 nodder variety that have headed towards the sin-bin of doom. These included John Guy’s confusing history on 30s and 40s England, Julia Skinner’s cash-in book on Plymouth, as well as James Gairdner’s pointless history on Richard III.

Meanwhile, in terms of reading material, the Kindle began to flex its metaphorical muscles by consuming seven reads; but the top spot was a straight fight-off between second hand books (fifteen) and those borrowed from libraries (fourteen). As always, nothing beats an old musty book from a darkened corner; second hand books were once young beauties that were courted and initially treated well, and even years of neglect cannot completely destroy them.

Reviewing the past twelve months has allowed the Worm some reflection: far too much time was dedicated on books about Hitler and the Nazis. Despite some interesting reads (including Laurence Ree’s The Nazis: A Warning From History and Milan Hauner’s Hitler chronology), the Worm is now on a Nazi-embargo. No more books on Mr Hitler, none on the Second World War, and none on those swastika wearing henchmen of his. In fact, no pages written about the Second World War will be fingered (apologies, Winston).

In the months ahead the Worm will be expanding the blog to incorporate more than reviews of the good, the bad and the downright ugly. Reviews, rants and rumours of book shops will be reported, in the hope of celebrating many of the unsung book heroes on our high streets, and tucked away in the forgotten corners of our cities. Furthermore, insight, commentary and biased opinion – mostly biased opinion – will be noted on the world of books. There is too much gold out there regarding books to go untouched by the Worm. Of course, this is all part of the Worm’s plan to conquer the world by 2043… just one step at a time.

Three years of book reading have been completed, the fourth is now upon him. The Worm, then, marches forth.



The Third Noddie Awards:


Read of the Season: Primo Levi’s The Drowned and the Saved (1986)

Recommended Novel: Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Love in the Time of Cholera (1985)

Short Fiction: Edgar Allan Poe – Tales of Mystery and Imagination (1993)

Play: William Shakespeare – Henry VI: Part Three (1591)

Poetry: T.S. Eliot – Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)

History: John Hanson Mitchell – Ceremonial Time (1984)

Thinker Award: Christopher Hitchens – God Is Not Great (2007)

Political: David W. Orr – Earth In Mind (2004)

Graphic Novel: Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons – Watchmen (1987)



Largest Read: Stan Lee – Fantastic Four Volume 1 (550 pages)

Briefest Read: Alan Moore – Writing For Comics (50 pages)

Oldest Read: William Shakespeare – Henry VI: Part One, Two & Three (1591)

Shredder Award: Julia Skinner – Plymouth: A Miscellany (2006)