Category: Uncategorized

Grant Morrison on The Matrix ‘borrowing’ from The Invisibles

Since it’s the tenth anniversary of the cinema release of The Matrix (and as I found this synchronistically while looking for something else), here’s Grant Morrison interviewed at Suicide Girls on the subject of just how much the film took from his epic magical (literally) comic The Invisibles:

It’s really simple. The truth of that one is that design staff on The Matrix were given Invisibles collections and told to make the movie look like my books. This is a reported fact. The Wachowskis are comic book creators and fans and were fans of my work, so it’s hardly surprising. I was even contacted before the first Matrix movie was released and asked if I would contribute a story to the website.

It’s not some baffling ‘coincidence’ that so much of The Matrix is plot by plot, detail by detail, image by image, lifted from Invisibles so there shouldn’t be much controversy. The Wachowskis nicked The Invisibles and everyone in the know is well aware of this fact but of course they’re unlikely to come out and say it.

It was just too bad they deviated so far from the Invisibles philosophical template in the second and third movies because they blundered helplessly into boring Catholic theology, proving that they hadn’t HAD the ‘contact’ experience that drove The Invisibles, and they wrecked both
‘Reloaded’ and ‘Revolutions’ on the rocks of absolute incomprehension. They should have kept on stealing from me and maybe they would have wound up with something to really be proud of – a movie that could change minds and hearts and worlds.

I love the first Matrix movie which I think is a real work of cinematic genius and very timely but I’ve now heard from several people who worked on The Matrix and they’ve all confirmed that they were given Invisibles books as reference. That’s how it is. I’m not angry about it anymore, although at one time I was because they made millions from what was basically a Xerox of my work and to be honest, I would be happy with just one million so I didn’t have to work thirteen hours of every fucking day, including weekends.

In the end, I was glad they got the ideas out but very disappointed that they blew it so badly and distorted all the Gnostic transcendental aspects that made the first film so strong and potent. If they had any sense, they would have befriended me instead of pissing me off. They seem like nice boys.

And while I’m at it, here’s XKCD’s take on the anniversary. And seriously… if you’re a magician and haven’t read The Invisibles yet, why not?

Pagan myths of Easter

Every year since time immemorial, Pagans and Wiccans and witchy folk have told others the tale of how Easter is really a Pagan festival to the Goddess Eostre which was co-opted by the Xtians.

And every year, writer Adrian Bott attempts to point out that there’s bugger all evidence for this being true and most of what is ‘known’ about the details is entirely made up. This year, he’s kindly given the full details on his LJ blog.

The total sum of available information about Eostre amounts to two lines of text.
The Venerable Bede, in his De Temporum Ratione (“On the Reckoning of Time”), explains the naming of the Easter festival as follows:

Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated “Paschal month”, and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance.

And that is all there is. There is no hare connection, no suggestion of a bunny story, no link to eggs. Bede’s passage is the only evidence we have that there ever was a goddess called Eostre; worse still, he may even have been making it up.

And to cap it off, an awful lot of the popularising of the Pagan Easter myth is being done by… fundamentalist Xtians:

This is because their version of Christianity does not accept Easter, or indeed anything else that is not found in the Bible. Associating Easter with paganism has allowed them to villify secular traditions, and presumably become more truly Christian in their own minds. Christians are thus responsible for some of the more ludicrous suggestions concerning Easter and paganism, such as an attempt to identify Eostre with Ishtar, and the assertion that ‘Eostre’s hare was the shape that Celts imagined on the surface of the full moon’, which manages to garble together Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Chinese myth in one sentence. (Pagan Origins of Holidays). It seems that not a year goes by without more spurious Eostre nonsense being thrown on to the heap, a far cry indeed from Bede’s two sparse lines.

Enjoy your chocolate eggys and bunnies, folks – but don’t fall for the mythologising. Or, if you have to commemorate some spiritual aspect to the festival that has nothing to do with the Jesus-man, why not follow the Way of Saint Bill of Hicks?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnjFhdO90Rg]

(And for the non-Americans, click to find out what a Lincoln Log is!)

Quote of the day

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”
John Rogers

(There will be a return to actual long-form posts soon, now that the News Felch – and attendant playing with shiny new kit aspect – is set up. Some posts need to ferment more… but they are on the way.)

What the hell is a News Felch?

Well, its a way for me to throw small but interesting news items up on a daily basis. It works using Twitter and LoudTwitter.com – with a little help from Tinyurl.

It was inspired by the (now possibly moribund) Newskrusher threads at Whitechapel, and my old pal Dave Devereux‘s embracing of the whole Web 2.0 thingy. The term News Felch comes from Chris Morris’s classic news parody The Day Today.

And… DO NOT click this link unless you really want to know what felching means.

Each News Felch will appear around 11pm UK time. I hope you enjoy them.

Inevitable Watchman post

Need I emphasise, here be spoilers?

I enjoyed it. And I didn’t miss the squid.

It could have be so much worse. Whatever you say about Zack Snyder not being a great director  – and frankly, he really isn’t – his sheer love for every frame of the book overcame his shortcomings.

Malin Ackerman didn’t suck anywhere as much as rumoured (after all, Juspeczyk isn’t exactly the deepest of characters in the first place). Though Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Comedian was good, he wasn’t quite the powerhouse I’d hoped for. Jackie Earl Haley’s Rorschach was, however… truly splendid work, and if there was any justice he’d be a shoo-in for next Best Supporting Actor Oscar. (Well, maybe if he dies, he’d get it. Too soon? Tough.) Also big points for Patrick Wilson in the thankless role of Dan – subtly handled, and the transform from pudgy dude to combat machine worked for me. (One criticism that I sort of agreed with is that all the heroes seem to be super-powered – able to kick through walls, snap arms with a light punch etc – which kind of reduces the impact of Veidt’s bullet-catching act. But the fights sure were pretty.) It was also great to see old-time SF veterans like Matt Frewer, Stephen McHattie, Rob LaBelle and (briefly) Alessandro Juliani turn up. (And Apollonia Vanova, who played Sillhouette, was the loveliest woman in the movie. Which is saying a lot.)

Some of the make-up and FX were a little slack, but overall the impression was good. Doctor Manhattan’s Big Blue Cock wasn’t that distracting (though there’s probably a paper to be written on the semiotics of him being circumcised…).

Yes, using Happy Uncle Len for the sex scene was a dumb idea. The use of ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’ in the background was crass – and though enjoyable, using Philip Glass as the music for building a ship made of, er, glass, lacked subtlety. And I missed hearing Elvis Costello’s ‘Comedians’ and really didn’t need All Along the Watchtower (unless of course Veidt is the Last Cylon…) The actual score (as opposed to the plundering of the music archive) was well-done.

After checking with IMDB I found my suspicion that one of Veidt’s TV screens was showing (among other favourites as Mad Max 2, Rambo 2 and Generic Lesbian Sex Scene no.5) Altered States was correct… nice touch!

Also I found after reading a couple of interviews with the screenwriters, it seems Alan Moore (described memorably as ‘the Dumbledore of comics’ by Daily Grail recently!) actually saw and (whisper it) approved of an early draft. (Just wondering – if Alan’s the Dumbledore of comics, what does that make Grant Morrison? Snape?)

Another criticism I agree with is that the overall sense of menace and sheer insanity of the Cold War mentality wasn’t really brought across. It was portrayed, but felt flat – and I’m a cold war kid, so I can’t imagine what you young whippper-snappers who were born afterwards thought. (For the record, using ’99 Luftballoon’ in the soundtrack as ironic counterpoint doesn’t fucking count, m’kay?)

That ending… worked. Let’s be honest, Moore’s not great at endings, especially in his earlier books. The solution they came up with for the resolution made sense, took much less set-up than the squid and had about the same punch. (Interesting to note the strategic use of images of the World Trade Centre throughout – especially at the end, overlooking the New York rebuild.)

Needless to say, I am looking forward to watching the Director’s Cut, with Black Freighter put in etc – partly ‘cos my son (who just read Watchman and is a bit of a purist, like many recent converts) is waiting for the long version.