Alan Moore Interview

Alan Moore is on the cover of the latest issue of bi-annual music newspaper-styled magazine The Stool Pigeon. It’s free to pick up in shops and bars throughout the UK and packed full of interesting features including an in-depth interview with Mr Moore, mainly focusing on his latest project Unearthing, hallucinogens and hipsters. {via}

That is all.

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Alan Moore Interview

Stripping Down the Comic With Alan Moore

Most writers are boring, and the less they're allowed to talk about what they do behind closed doors, the better. But some writers are verbal rock stars, able to tear off entrancing philosophical riffs or to lay down a hypnotic anecdotal solo upon request. One of the few modern writers who can entertain a general audience is Alan Moore, Britain's bard of the industrial wastelands of Northampton, and the man whom people call the world's greatest living comic-book writer. (Mr. Moore has made it clear in the past that he writes comic books, describing the term "graphic novel" as "something some idiot in a marketing department came up with.")

link | photo via: comicvine

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Nepenthe

NEPENTHE

Nepenthe is a drug of forgetfulness mentioned in Greek mythology, depicted as originating in Egypt. The word "Nepenthe" first appears in the fourth book of the Odyssey of Homer. Literally, it means "the one that chases away sorrow". In the Odyssey, "Nepenthes pharmakon" is a magical potion given to Helen by an Egyptian queen. It quells all sorrows with forgetfulness.

Many scholars think that nepenthe might have been an opium preparation, perhaps similar to laudanum. Alternatively, some believe it could have been an Egyptian wormwood elixir.

However, the descriptions in literature of the effects of nepenthe are similar to how the effects of opiates are described. The carnivorous plant genus Nepenthes is named after the drug nepenthe.

* In The Raven, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe there is a reference to "quaffing nepenthe" in order to forget a lost love: "Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!".

* H. P. Lovecraft referenced nepenthe in one of the famous final lines from his story "The Outsider": "For although nepenthe has calmed me, I know always that I am an outsider..."

* In Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen, Sally Jupiter (the Silk Spectre) lives in a retirement home named Nepenthe Gardens, an allusion to the painful romantic relationships of her past.

* In Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode 901 'The Projected Man,' nepenthe is used (somewhat satirically) to describe a plea from ghosts: Observer: "I'm sensing the presence of several disembodied souls... wandering the dark halls in search of surcease, an end to their endless night... a howl of quiet desperation... towards an indifferent universe. Nepenthe! Nepenthe!"

Have I been away from my husband too long or does this plant really look all veiny and phallic? Very interesting history and it references some decent literature. And this time the drug preceeds the plant.

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Magic Comic Ride
In his fantastical "Promethea" series, Alan Moore indulges his fascinations with tantric sex and the tarot -- and reveals his take on kabbalistic philosophy.

When "Promethea" began its 32-issue comic-book run in 1999, it looked like it was going to be British writer Alan Moore's riff on Wonder Woman: a story about a superheroine with mythological connections, one of the flagship titles of Moore's whimsical America's Best Comics project. By the time it ended a few months ago (the final sequence is collected in "Promethea Book 5," to be published in a couple of weeks by ABC), it had turned into something very different: a rather wonderful excuse for the 51-year-old Moore to explain his version of hermetic Kabbalistic philosophy.

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The Patti Smith Meltdown 2005 held at Royal Festival Hall in London, begins this weekend and runs June 11 - 26. Here's a rundown of the itinerary in this email. Carbon / Silicon, the new band fronted by The Clash’s Mick Jones have been added to the Rachid Taha gig.



Pages From Chaos - A Homage to William Burroughs is an evening paying repect to one of the greatest figures in American Literature. Alan Moore, Iain Sinclair and Patti Smith will read from various works including the first draft of Naked Lunch.

This event is covering all the bases with spoken word performances, film nights, and the superb musicians hand chosen by Patti Smith.

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