Sebastien Tahucatte
asked
Alan Moore:
Hi, First of all, let me just say that I am a huge fan of The Watchmen, The Killing Joke and From Hell. My question is about the Watchmen and the alternative historical narrative you exploited for the story. Do you think that if you or anyone was to make a story as such; meaning an alternative historical narrative would it be easier or more difficult according to you to write such story nowadays, than in 1985?
Alan Moore
I really don’t think that it’s any more difficult – or any more easy – to craft an alternate world narrative than it was in 1985. Ignoring the perhaps contentious viewpoint that any fiction is in a sense an alternate world story, I’d say that my creation, with Jacen Burrows, of the alternate world of Neonomicon/Providence, with its Robert W. Chambers suicide gardens and its city-spanning anti-pollution domes is just as complex and involved as anything I’ve ever done, even if it’s not wearing its alternate world colours quite so brazenly, while something like Kieron Gillen’s excellent Über is a meticulous and carefully worked-out piece of extended parallel history that makes most other examples of the sub-genre seem frankly lazy. I think almost by definition, whatever the era or conditions of our own world, a story of a world that went a different way is always going to be equally as demanding and equally as possible.
More Answered Questions
Sam
asked
Alan Moore:
Recently, I discovered your documentary on Northampton, 'Don't Let Me Die in Black and White' on the dark recesses of the internet, and as with much of your work, was struck by just how much you allow a sense and understanding of place to inform a story. How do you think that understanding of a place's history can be mined, exploited, or drawn upon to create a sense of horror and fear?
Alan Moore
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Oct 30, 2015 05:56AM · flag