V for Vendetta (Book Review)

Ok. I'm floored. Totally. It was so good, that I lay for a long time, holding my head, thinking of what had just passed through my retina and imprinted permanently in my brain. I'd suggest that you read it, even before I tell you about it. Ok. So much for drooling. :-P

V for Vendetta is a graphic novel/comic, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. The graphics are truly one of the best I've seen and the story line plays out brilliantly. It plays on your mind for a long time after you've gone through it once (and are bound to go through it once more at least). Placed in a fascist England, devastated by the effects of nuclear war, the book shows how bad the situation can get and how resilient humans are. It portrays how one man rises against the totalitarian state and gives the people a wiff of how true freedom tastes like. The novel shows how ingrained the need for order has become that we're ready to give up our freedom for the same.

Though the thought of anarchism and the process to get to it (through chaos) does scare me, these things are exactly what V (the protagonist/antagonist) tries to convince us of - our blessed ignorant state which we're scared to give up. V proposes take-what-you-want-land and -do-what -you-please-land (both courtesy Enid Blyton) which are exactly what they are as they mean. Now, the story puts forward a time when there's order without leadership - anarchy. How that is supposed to happen I don't know and I have(had?) serious doubts about whether people left to themselves will become orderly on their own (as the book says). What about the psychopaths and the power freaks? What about all the people who'll be jobless and the problems resulting from that?

Well, one thing I can say for sure - though the ideas are a little doubtful to me, the book has more or less convinced me that its possible. One word - WOW! Please do read it. Namaste.