Alan Moore - Finding Your Moral Standpoint - Storytelling - BBC Maestro 

Tales of the Black Freighter felt like talking down to the audience to me.

Except if they're adults and enjoy comic books. He talked down to those readers a lot.

@@alephmale3171 😂😂😂😂

@Michael Aronson there are still people who still buy those shit ass sjw comic, so yes, they should be talked down

THat's how a writer writes something that is so true that it is smarter than their own moral view. Moore doesn't like Rorschack and disagrees with him but he wrote it so well that Rorschack actually looks like the best moral point of view to many. Moore wrote a book that sort of promotes globalism, but since he's a type of anarchist he was able to resist the globalist Ozmadious, thereby making Rorschack, the character that repulses Moore the HERO! He allowed his story to find its own truth even when it conflicts with his own politics. Too many writers try to fight their story to inject their own politics nowadays.. so much the Netflix and Disney just seem like propaganda mills.

@Michael Aronson people that attack spelling are the lowest form of debaters. Imagine how smart all the people with spell check appear to these critical minds! Do you actually have a non spelling criticism of what I wrote? Perhaps you believe there is only one take and one perspective to hold?

@Michael Aronson Wow, I think it's time to examine your environment and upbringing to determine how you became so useless in discourse. You would make a good reference for any author trying to portray the neighbourhood dolt.

@Michael Aronson when you have to tell someone you're mocking them and you don't present an intelligent reason for your opinion poi just sound like a fan that deifies your hero. Moore is dour. I like him but he's too much of a bummer to be ave;le to craft jokes for joy. I like him a lot but he's not the master of all forms you think he is. He's a specialized talent. that's maybe the best type.. someone that is unique can't do everything. YOu're worshipping and losing all your intelligence through the process. YOu're mocking strangers now for not worshipping Alan Moore as well.

@Michael Aronson You're posing instead of giving a logical reason for your opinion.. Try logic instead of a passive aggressive tact that doesn't work on a stranger you will never meet. People that use, "I'm mocking you. I'm laughing LOL" are always low witted people that act out a pose instead of defending themselves.

@Michael Aronson while this is true, and I agree with you on this I think there's still a way to be "honest" in writing perspective, especially If it's a moral or political opinion like Rorshach and Ozzymandias. You can easily fall into the pit of caricature and lose the reader on the drama, i.e., be too black and white. There are writers that do this and do it well (Frank Miller used a lot of satirical caricatures for the public opinion on Batman in TDKR) but Watchmen isn't about that so I digress.

Oh, you have to read some. As great as these videos are, it's a whole other beast to see the man in action. His work is breathtaking. Comics-wise: the Saga of the Swamp Thing, Watchmen, and Promothea are my top faves. Jerusalem is a massive tome (and I haven't finished it yet) but it's so good.

@@rawalshadab3812 his work is more than worthwhile. the watchmen comic changed my life forever in hs lol

Start with the killing joke

@@paprica672 Alan Moore doesn't even like The Killing Joke

@@Th3DarkKnight95 He doesn't like something he wrote?

When you play an instrument solo on stage you don't think about the audience, you think about your expression of yourself in the piece of music you are playing. If you are a song writer or film score composer then thinking about interpersonal dynamics and the road people took to get there would be helpful in constructing themes and beats. If you are a still life artist who paints bowls of fruit for a living, this is not applicable. What it is, is life advice for creating empathy and improving your interactions in the world, or writing about realistic people and not flat characters. The more real and fleshed out your characters in your mind, the easier it is to write them around your story in a free flowing believable style.

that advice is absolutely genius, although people probably learn how to avoid trouble instead of seeking it XD it teaches them how their protagonist could possibly do the same...or do the opposite depending on the story lol

-$80,000 for uni America moment

plenty of amazing writers have lived sedentary, unremarkable lives and plenty of starry-eyed travellers write like dogshit. take that 80k and live somewhere nice for a while, so you HAVE a home in which you can pick up a pen

get in fights and arguments, get girlfriends and get your heart broken.

@@davidguyette2586 I think that's an unfair generalization. Think Hemingway.

@Michael Aronson You pointed out a minor mistake. Thank you for your service for the internet community.

The thing is that violent weirdo Rorschach is the only one in Watchmen who is consistently trying to do the right thing. He's just bad at it.

@@Sousabird everyone is doing the "right thing" in their own point of view

As a huge fan of Ditko's work, the man's political stances were unusual even among his closest political peers. He was so committed to his ideals that he was willing to smash through hypocrisies that other libertarians and objectivists would rather leave unexamined, like the inherent unfairness of market dynamics. There's almost a beautiful purity to his worldview, even though I think every inch of it is wrong.

@@Lurdiak yeah I'm aware of his politics being of that objectivist crap

What? No he doesn't. Alan Moore: i.pinimg.com/originals/f1/bc/3a/f1bc3a2986bbe802f235b137c5d9017b.jpg * double take *

theresa may or corbyn, british ppl? british ppl: i could do wif a spot of cruella fank you, now where's me saucer of tea? Shropfordstershire shall be playing North Cromberland at Savile Stadium in 4 minutes !! Am I to be wiffout moi tea for such an occasion!?!

@Michael Aronsongood point

Absolutely. Isn't writing thinking?

@Michael Aronson Haha good point.

I mean people that hate wokeness usually goes from people hating other characters being gay and black not necessarily from the writing

As someone who is very very left leaning and in those circles I couldn't agree more. There's also the issue of marketable "wokeness" like how disney includes diversity but only in such a way that they think it'll make them money, not in such a way that shows the writers or producers or even the actors are trying to understand the viewpoints of the token characters.

@@maluse227 exactly

I mean, you should always read books. They hold this world's information, legacies, fables and epics by which every modern institution is based on, including our current entertainment.

@@paranoidplane9799 it was always hard for me to read and understand but I agree many people have written their lives in books which is literally like a cheat code for your life and experience

@@juansamudio1171 Well put!

@Michael Aronson you’re overthinking it bro lol. The amount of experience a person who suffered a lot can write in a book is a amazing and will teach you so much before you might have to suffer the same problem

@Michael Aronson Ok… try finding a family member who fought in WW2 and killed somebody and lived whole life through depression. You may have one but I don’t so reading a book written by someone who has suffered through that I learn what they learn without going through it myself, maybe I have a family member who’s a successful billionaire and you don’t so you read a book about success from a billionaires perspective and let’s say who have a family member of both I can promise you the perspective they have and the lessons they learned is not identical to someone else’s. You should never gain perspective or learn something from just one source you just limit yourself

Sort of. When I think back to a time when I might have called myself an anarchist, I was most concerned with not having anyone else's views pushed upon me, because, particularly when you're growing up, people tend to see you as repositories for their beliefs. (I now this to be true in even more respects now thanks to Jung.) So the main focus of the anarchism I may or may not have imbibed was less about tearing down structures and more about preserving my agency and providing as much of it as possible to there people. This will never not be important. Too much anarchism is clearly bad, but just enough can help reminds us all of the importance of freedom of speech and importance of personal integrity.

Also, what was the moral standpoint in Watchmen? Don't reveal genocidal conspiracies to the public?

@@gelidsoul not sure anymore He wants you to hate rorshach despite making him 80 percent of the story and the only one trying to stand for truth He gives him the best lines and has him give an honest and heartfelt apology and grow, and actually trying to stop ozy, so Moores approach is rather confusing So does he view ozy as the hero? Does he advocate towards bending or breaking moral codes for comfort or for standing your ground? Are the others supposed to be the rational ones despite being inept and even kinda unheroic? It's a weird story It's great and all, especially the motion comic version, because the guy performs well, but it doesn't have a clear meaning, and yet years later he says one thing and than another. I'm not sure he even knows the themes or messages of his own stories anymore. Probably has moved on past his works and doesn't care all that much. Some of them he even hates, like the killing joke. Not sure why he hates it. It's just a fun short story It's not any worse than what else he puts out

​@@spenserfarthing3898 Good points. He seemed to do something similar with V for Vendetta - making the good guy a bit crazy, violent and unethical. Years later in an interview he said something like the graphic novel asks, "is it ok for V to act so violently? No, it's not."

@@spenserfarthing3898 “The whole point of the book is to say that none of these characters are right or wrong. They are all humans or former humans who are doing the best according to their lives and according to the circumstances. I didn’t want to make any character the one whose viewpoint is the right viewpoint, the one who’s the hero, the one who readers are supposed to identify with, because that’s not how life is. Ultimately it’s the reader who has to make the choice. As I say in the last panel, I leave it entirely in your hands. That it’s up to the reader to formulate their own response to the world and not be told what to do by a superhero or a political leader, or a comic-book writer, for that matter.” ‘Alan Moore: Storyteller’

It's just a little bit patronizing though. Basically: "They only think that way because of their upbringings, poor things."

If that's true then you clearly never understood your own position in the first place.

@Michael Aronson Unnecessarily mean.

@Michael Aronson Why?

@Michael Aronson It's not dumb to know oneself, rather wise. Equally amorality is the ultimate morality without pretence. What will impede good writing is moral grandstanding and self-deception. You clearly need some Russian lit in your library.

@Michael Aronson As weak and ineffectual a response as I expected. You've nothing potent to you, have you?

@Michael Aronson You are being needlessly pedantic and obtuse. For a writer, this is exceptionally bad.

Moore has spoken about Rorschach multiple times and said that he basically embodies extreme ideology's as a whole. Moore has a quote about people who are absolutely set in their political or morale beliefs with no room for compromise have the "Mental capacity of a 14 year old child, that's the kind of black and white thinking that appeals to literal children. Never compromising your beliefs? That's the kind of stupid rhetoric a young boy thinks is deep and inspiring."

@Michael Aronson Simpleton villains make simpleton heroes. Devaluates the story. Alan Moore villains are far from being simpletons.

@Michael Aronson you have good and bad stories. Good have a higher value, bad stories a lower value. Bad characters devalues a story. The things that you believe have an intrinsic worth or value are simply conventions, nothing has an intrinsic value per se.

@Michael Aronson you talked about value. Right now you yourself are saying that good stories are always valued and therefore in constant demand.. Bad stories are stock that doesn't sell. You contradict so much, buddy.

@Michael Aronson by the way, I checked your other comments here. It gets displayed when you tap the avatar of anybody in the app for android. Somewhere else you say you want to be a writer, all this alrwady should be known by you. If you get to write something don't forget to not sell it because you ourself said stories have no intrinsic value 😂

@Michael Aronson you have never been a professional writer. Your other comment said that you wanted to learn to be one.

​@@Dimitris_Half I try to adjust but i would not call that acceptance. Its more like compromising in a opportunistic way. Very cryptic i know but i dont wanna write an essay here ^^. However, i am not trying to make the point that i never had or have to accept something. There are just some things we cannot compromise, right?

@@Dimitris_Half Yes i agree with all that. But what if i cant respect the persons view? Actually, its not even the view that upsets me that much, its the behaviour. I think people can believe what they want, as long as they keep their distance.

@@Dimitris_Half If their behaviour does not conflict with what i care about then i have no problem i suppose. Its somewhat pragmatic. I am not sure about respecting their view though. Its more like tolerating it. Now what i care about might be unreasonable and i do not claim to know all the answers. But some things seem so clear to me now that i cant imagine ever changing my views on it or having much room for compromise.

​@Michael Aronson I guess i was not talking in the context of storytelling. I honestly missed the fact that it says "Storytelling" in the title :P Yes i saw the Godfather films, although i dont remember too much, i am not a big movie watcher. But as compelling as Michael Corleones or any other villains story may be, i often have a hard time accepting the conclusions they make along their way. They often seem to become what they hate instead of fighting it. Edit: Well i guess thats why they are villains :P