David’s Evil-er Than Most Blog

The book has taken a turn for the more abstract. After the interlude (in which V plays a piece on the piano, and sings about how the masses are wearing figurative masks), the story becomes one more centered around Evey. She questions V about his reasoning for not showing any desire for her since they had met. This interagation ends in Evey suggesting that V is her father, who she hasn’t seen for years. V is silent, but takes her outside…then disappears. His body turns into a manquin, and Evey is left out in the cold. At this point I was thinking that V maybe wasn’t as paternal as he seemed, that he was a crazy phychopath…

After this little ( and seemingly insignifigant) hiatus from the story, V is again doing what he does best: blowing stuff up. Well, this time he’s using it as threat to broadcast his meaage to England using a very powerful TV station. During the entire break in of the station, the only words are coming from two Tv programs. One speaks of how horrible war has gotten across the world, while another is about the comedic domestic life of an unlikely British couple. The british couple atory, I notice, always comes after something is said about the war. Maybe this is a metaphor for the way that the media is trying to cover up the problems in the society? I’ve no idea. When the massage is donw broadcasting…well, I won’t spoil what happens, but there’s some pretty dramatic stuff going on.

 After that part of the story concludes, we go back to Evey. She’s staying at the house of a friend, visiting nightclubs, ect. Normal stuff. Until that is, she buys a gun for “protection”. The plot at this point is fairly convoluted(there’s a lot of singing for some reason), so I can’t give you a clear reason why she gets the gun. Regardless, she’s arrested for being in collusion with V, and when the authorities find the gun, she’s carted off to prison.

Overall, I think the story has really started to slip. It was going so strongly too…And now there’s dancing, and little to no clear explanation of the characters motives. To me it looks the the author tried too hard to include lots of similies and metaphors, and as such the plot is left at the wayside. Ah well, I expect that everything will be explained in a puff of logic, and all the plot holes will be cleared up in a great culmination of art and writing ability. 

The book, thus far, is very interesting (albeit slightly disturbing). V as a character, is the eptime of enigmatic. One minute he is saving the damsel in distress from certain unpleasantires. The next minute however, he is dressing up in a sharp chinned mask and pinstriped suit to melt someone’s mind using a Nazi-style burning device to destroy a man’s prized possesion. He comforts the child he saved, Evey, when she tells him of her poor childhood, yet thinks nothing about whacking of priets and the people voice of hope. All while wearing that mask. Never changing (unless a new one is put on) and always smiling, you can’t help but whonder if it’s a silent metaphor for more than just Guy Fawkes face. Maybe it’s a tribute to his insanity? Or perhaps he’s happy that he’s finally managing to exact his revenge. So far he’s managed to off everyone who could reveal anything about his past, and seems unfazed by whatever difficulties stand in his way (again with that unchanging mask!) Evey is safe at his house, and the authorities searching for him are stumbling around in the dark.

Yet I don’t think it can stay like that forever. Or do I? Even I’m not sure. In all other books, the main character faces some sort of problem or tribulation. But so far, nothing has proved hard for V. Kidnapping and killing at least 3 very guarded individuals seems to be daily business for the man in the mask. In stories like this, the rebels home is eventaully broken into by the authorities. But I can’t foresee that happening to V. Everything comes with such ease to him so that I would view such an event like a house break-in as very uncharacteristic of the meticulous V. But it might be insanity tha propells him. He stages conversation with statues (before blowing them up) in which he berates liberty, calling her a “slut who abandoned him”. He quotes The Scottish Play when killing policemen (with an exploding hand). I thought insane people were supposed to have lesser mental capacitites than normal people? This is really showing me another side to insanity…

It might even be that V isn’t the main character. It might be Evey. V seems too perfect to have conflict in this book. Evey, on the other hand, has to continuously fend off the coruption of people who she would noramally expect to trust, like bishops and cops. Maybe V is just a mentor like character for her? To teach her about how the real world operates? I’ve no idea…

Our group is slowly (but surely) making progress on the Socttish play redntions planned for next Friday. Personally I’m feeling a bit of heat, trying to memorize ALL my lines. Had I known that Macbeth had so many lines, I wouldn’t have wanted to be him as much as I did…Oh well. It gives me more excuse to exercise what some people would undoubtedly call my “great capacity for evil”. Regardless, it’s still a lot…

The rest of the group appears to be getting along fine. They (having about 1/10 the line-age I have) are much less stressed, but are doing more on the promptbook. I have to design my costume and write up the reasoning behind on of our choices of soundtrack. The rest of the group is responsible for the rest.

So here I stand, with the book more or less before me. I saw about half of the movie, and was quite enthralled with it. The hero somewhat reminds me of myself…But that’s not important. Having seen half the movie and loved it (and knowing that it was based off a book, and that usually what came first is better), I have even higher hopes for the book. It seems to be (from the back cover at least) a very gritty, “evil” book, the kind of which I am particularly fond. That mask on the cover creeps me out though…But no matter. It a movie that good was based on it, the actual source must be even better.

 I really want to finish the movie before the book, since it was so actiony and whatnot, but I’m afraid that I’ll spoil the ending of the book for myself. Likewise, I want to read and subsequently finish the book, but I don’t want to spoil the ending of the movie for myself. An interesting conundrum. Oh well that’s part of why I chose it. It was the source material for a thus-far fantastic movie, and in a structure (graphic novel FTW!) of which I’m a particularly big fan. That mask on the cover, while unnerving, is a big draw for me when I first looked at the book. I’ve only read one story about revolutionaries who try to blow up buildings (ala Guy Fawkes), but that story quickly evolved into a cross-continental schizophrenic memory-swapping war romp to find a genetically altered supersoldier out to destroy the earth by summoning a meteor, thus making him a god. Since I have the feeling that “V” is a bit more down to earth than that, I can’t really relate it.