Lance Parkin
@lanceparkin.bsky.social
lanceparkin.org, lancejparkin@gmail.com
he/him
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Parkin
born 327.78ppm
he/him
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance_Parkin
born 327.78ppm
V isn't, unambiguously, anything, let alone trans in the 2020s sense. There are very, very strong hints that V is queer. There is almost no doubt that V was part of a community with a lot of LGBT people in it. Privately, V seems obsessed/to have had a personal connection with a lesbian.
November 11, 2025 at 6:50 PM
V isn't, unambiguously, anything, let alone trans in the 2020s sense. There are very, very strong hints that V is queer. There is almost no doubt that V was part of a community with a lot of LGBT people in it. Privately, V seems obsessed/to have had a personal connection with a lesbian.
If you read the book just looking at the scenes with V in, assuming V's a woman, you find that it does work. The authorities assume V's a man. Surridge's diary (possibly faked) calls the occupant of Room 5 'the man'. Room 5 guy had hormone treatments. V, of course, might stand for Valerie.
November 11, 2025 at 6:46 PM
If you read the book just looking at the scenes with V in, assuming V's a woman, you find that it does work. The authorities assume V's a man. Surridge's diary (possibly faked) calls the occupant of Room 5 'the man'. Room 5 guy had hormone treatments. V, of course, might stand for Valerie.
We don't know who V is, at all. They seem to have been at Larkhill, they seem to have been the 'man in Room 5'. But Evey can imagine there might be a woman under the mask, and Evey can pass as V at the end. If you play the pronoun game, you don't get the clear answer you'd think.
November 11, 2025 at 6:38 PM
We don't know who V is, at all. They seem to have been at Larkhill, they seem to have been the 'man in Room 5'. But Evey can imagine there might be a woman under the mask, and Evey can pass as V at the end. If you play the pronoun game, you don't get the clear answer you'd think.
There's something in play a bit like how a load of posh white British teenagers find themselves identifying with Blues music. It's *so* specific, so grounded in one place, it becomes almost universal.
November 11, 2025 at 6:14 PM
There's something in play a bit like how a load of posh white British teenagers find themselves identifying with Blues music. It's *so* specific, so grounded in one place, it becomes almost universal.
One of the many things I find fascinating about Moore is that roughly 85% of what he's doing just gets lost in translation flying over the Atlantic, but the 15% that's left still works and makes sense.
e.g.: FFS, he's *joking*.
e.g.: FFS, he's *joking*.
November 11, 2025 at 6:11 PM
One of the many things I find fascinating about Moore is that roughly 85% of what he's doing just gets lost in translation flying over the Atlantic, but the 15% that's left still works and makes sense.
e.g.: FFS, he's *joking*.
e.g.: FFS, he's *joking*.
'Alan Moore is a libertarian' is one of those statements that's both true & staggeringly untrue.
There are definitely aspects of Moore's work (and beliefs) that can give a modern American libertarian/contrarian stuff to work with. It's not absurdly wrong, like 'Star Trek never used to be woke'.
There are definitely aspects of Moore's work (and beliefs) that can give a modern American libertarian/contrarian stuff to work with. It's not absurdly wrong, like 'Star Trek never used to be woke'.
November 11, 2025 at 6:08 PM
'Alan Moore is a libertarian' is one of those statements that's both true & staggeringly untrue.
There are definitely aspects of Moore's work (and beliefs) that can give a modern American libertarian/contrarian stuff to work with. It's not absurdly wrong, like 'Star Trek never used to be woke'.
There are definitely aspects of Moore's work (and beliefs) that can give a modern American libertarian/contrarian stuff to work with. It's not absurdly wrong, like 'Star Trek never used to be woke'.
Obviously I haven't collected the hard data on this, but I think far more people reading or watching V fully absorbed Valerie along the lines Moore intended and it changed them, than saw V for Vendetta as some validation of their existing libertarian position.
November 11, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Obviously I haven't collected the hard data on this, but I think far more people reading or watching V fully absorbed Valerie along the lines Moore intended and it changed them, than saw V for Vendetta as some validation of their existing libertarian position.
As a counterpoint: when I wrote my biography of Moore, by far the most common response, perhaps a dozen different people spoke up to say it, was that the Valerie chapter of V (which is in the movie almost verbatim) radicalised them - made them aware of either their queerness or their prejudice.
November 11, 2025 at 5:57 PM
As a counterpoint: when I wrote my biography of Moore, by far the most common response, perhaps a dozen different people spoke up to say it, was that the Valerie chapter of V (which is in the movie almost verbatim) radicalised them - made them aware of either their queerness or their prejudice.
All of these things are mass entertainment, you're going to have millions of people in the audience, reading it a million different ways. Contrary readings aren't always bad.
November 11, 2025 at 5:54 PM
All of these things are mass entertainment, you're going to have millions of people in the audience, reading it a million different ways. Contrary readings aren't always bad.
HBO would need a boldness that ... well, perhaps they have it in them. Perhaps that's going to be the ultimate irony, that HBO will give airtime to an anarchist terrorist to lay out their manifesto.
November 11, 2025 at 5:42 PM
HBO would need a boldness that ... well, perhaps they have it in them. Perhaps that's going to be the ultimate irony, that HBO will give airtime to an anarchist terrorist to lay out their manifesto.
Send me that paper!
November 11, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Send me that paper!
It's people who think if you take the red pill, the real world is shown to be full of white, straight people with men in charge.
That is ... not what happens in The Matrix.
That is ... not what happens in The Matrix.
November 11, 2025 at 5:38 PM
It's people who think if you take the red pill, the real world is shown to be full of white, straight people with men in charge.
That is ... not what happens in The Matrix.
That is ... not what happens in The Matrix.
You can make V for Vendetta now. You can even make it, I think, without picking a side.
But I cannot imagine HBO understands that any V for Vendetta good enough to get even a marginal passing grade will be the lightning rod to end all lightning rods.
But I cannot imagine HBO understands that any V for Vendetta good enough to get even a marginal passing grade will be the lightning rod to end all lightning rods.
November 11, 2025 at 5:31 PM
You can make V for Vendetta now. You can even make it, I think, without picking a side.
But I cannot imagine HBO understands that any V for Vendetta good enough to get even a marginal passing grade will be the lightning rod to end all lightning rods.
But I cannot imagine HBO understands that any V for Vendetta good enough to get even a marginal passing grade will be the lightning rod to end all lightning rods.
Are HBO really about to do something like that?
This is a show that will have to take a position. On ICE, on small boats, on GB News, on antifas, on trans rights. On a hundred people and things in the news this week.
This is a show that will have to take a position. On ICE, on small boats, on GB News, on antifas, on trans rights. On a hundred people and things in the news this week.
November 11, 2025 at 5:26 PM
Are HBO really about to do something like that?
This is a show that will have to take a position. On ICE, on small boats, on GB News, on antifas, on trans rights. On a hundred people and things in the news this week.
This is a show that will have to take a position. On ICE, on small boats, on GB News, on antifas, on trans rights. On a hundred people and things in the news this week.
The movie is gibberingly incoherent, but it did take a political stand, at a post 9/11 fervour time, that George W Bush was a git.
November 11, 2025 at 5:23 PM
The movie is gibberingly incoherent, but it did take a political stand, at a post 9/11 fervour time, that George W Bush was a git.
The movie (imagine me with my head in my hands, here) managed to tell a story about order and chaos, fascism and anarchy, without actually mentioning or really even referring to either of those.
V had cool knives, the bad guys had big tellies. Democracy wins when ... er Parliament is blown up.
V had cool knives, the bad guys had big tellies. Democracy wins when ... er Parliament is blown up.
November 11, 2025 at 5:21 PM
The movie (imagine me with my head in my hands, here) managed to tell a story about order and chaos, fascism and anarchy, without actually mentioning or really even referring to either of those.
V had cool knives, the bad guys had big tellies. Democracy wins when ... er Parliament is blown up.
V had cool knives, the bad guys had big tellies. Democracy wins when ... er Parliament is blown up.
The joke here is that Moore wrote a 'both sides' story. He very, very carefully balances it.
He also very, very carefully resolves that story.
You can change very little from the comic without distorting it into something completely incoherent.
He also very, very carefully resolves that story.
You can change very little from the comic without distorting it into something completely incoherent.
November 11, 2025 at 5:20 PM
The joke here is that Moore wrote a 'both sides' story. He very, very carefully balances it.
He also very, very carefully resolves that story.
You can change very little from the comic without distorting it into something completely incoherent.
He also very, very carefully resolves that story.
You can change very little from the comic without distorting it into something completely incoherent.
And if HBO - who seem to have used male pronouns for V when they described the new show, which is ... a choice - lean into that and make it a show about how V's a bastard just getting in the way of some ordinary guys who do their own research and just have traditional values ...
... well, hmmmm.
... well, hmmmm.
November 11, 2025 at 5:16 PM
And if HBO - who seem to have used male pronouns for V when they described the new show, which is ... a choice - lean into that and make it a show about how V's a bastard just getting in the way of some ordinary guys who do their own research and just have traditional values ...
... well, hmmmm.
... well, hmmmm.
The people who think Rorschach is right. The people who think Superman's a pansy, and that Batman should kill the Joker, and that Captain America never fought Nazis and can only be Steve Rogers.
The people who *already* missed the whole point of V for Vendetta, when the movie came out.
The people who *already* missed the whole point of V for Vendetta, when the movie came out.
November 11, 2025 at 5:12 PM
The people who think Rorschach is right. The people who think Superman's a pansy, and that Batman should kill the Joker, and that Captain America never fought Nazis and can only be Steve Rogers.
The people who *already* missed the whole point of V for Vendetta, when the movie came out.
The people who *already* missed the whole point of V for Vendetta, when the movie came out.
But even if it gets it right, it won't win.
Because the most vocal people in the world will pick the other side.
So the TV show is going to end up saying 'hey, perhaps this queer anarchist is actual the problem'.
And the people on X will go 'yeah, preach it'.
Because the most vocal people in the world will pick the other side.
So the TV show is going to end up saying 'hey, perhaps this queer anarchist is actual the problem'.
And the people on X will go 'yeah, preach it'.
November 11, 2025 at 5:10 PM
But even if it gets it right, it won't win.
Because the most vocal people in the world will pick the other side.
So the TV show is going to end up saying 'hey, perhaps this queer anarchist is actual the problem'.
And the people on X will go 'yeah, preach it'.
Because the most vocal people in the world will pick the other side.
So the TV show is going to end up saying 'hey, perhaps this queer anarchist is actual the problem'.
And the people on X will go 'yeah, preach it'.
The comic takes the side you pick as read, then relentlessly nags at you that perhaps you picked wrong.
Going to go out on a limb, here, the TV show will do what the movie did and completely, comically miss that and think it's about a cool superhero.
Going to go out on a limb, here, the TV show will do what the movie did and completely, comically miss that and think it's about a cool superhero.
November 11, 2025 at 5:08 PM
The comic takes the side you pick as read, then relentlessly nags at you that perhaps you picked wrong.
Going to go out on a limb, here, the TV show will do what the movie did and completely, comically miss that and think it's about a cool superhero.
Going to go out on a limb, here, the TV show will do what the movie did and completely, comically miss that and think it's about a cool superhero.
Can you see the massive fuck off nuclear minefield that this show is about to bodyslam into?
It's a show about a queer avenger killing conservatives.
It's a show about a queer avenger killing conservatives.
November 11, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Can you see the massive fuck off nuclear minefield that this show is about to bodyslam into?
It's a show about a queer avenger killing conservatives.
It's a show about a queer avenger killing conservatives.
Literally, explicitly, moreso as the comics series continued into the early years of AIDS, V is avenging the deaths of queer people.
And - to a slightly lesser extent, it has to be said - people of colour.
And - to a slightly lesser extent, it has to be said - people of colour.
November 11, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Literally, explicitly, moreso as the comics series continued into the early years of AIDS, V is avenging the deaths of queer people.
And - to a slightly lesser extent, it has to be said - people of colour.
And - to a slightly lesser extent, it has to be said - people of colour.
The trick of V for Vendetta is that the fascists are just ordinary people, going about their dreary lives.
Meanwhile, V is *at the very least* pretending to be a psychopath by being a complete fucking psycho.
V is trans. But for sake of argument, let's say 'V is a trans ally'.
Meanwhile, V is *at the very least* pretending to be a psychopath by being a complete fucking psycho.
V is trans. But for sake of argument, let's say 'V is a trans ally'.
November 11, 2025 at 5:03 PM
The trick of V for Vendetta is that the fascists are just ordinary people, going about their dreary lives.
Meanwhile, V is *at the very least* pretending to be a psychopath by being a complete fucking psycho.
V is trans. But for sake of argument, let's say 'V is a trans ally'.
Meanwhile, V is *at the very least* pretending to be a psychopath by being a complete fucking psycho.
V is trans. But for sake of argument, let's say 'V is a trans ally'.
Now ... OK, let's steelman this, let's assume there are minds at work on this show, not just people who think they've left money on the table from an IP they own.
November 11, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Now ... OK, let's steelman this, let's assume there are minds at work on this show, not just people who think they've left money on the table from an IP they own.