Legendary author Alan Moore – creator of Watchmen, V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and many more iconic comic stories – has a new novel out, in which he deliberately seeks to rectify what he considers to be one of the major problems with “current fantasy,” specifically calling out Chronicles of Narnia in the process.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Moore discussed The Great When: A Long London Novel, and in the process, cited “one of the things [he’s] really tired of” in fantasy literature. According to the author, “ordinary” characters who suddenly find themselves thrust into a fantasy setting should experience more of the psychological toll of having their understanding of the world upended.
In The Great When, Moore intentionally made his characters suffer, in order to depict traversing realities as a difficult process, in contrast to The Chronicles of Narnia and other stories that make it look easy.
Alan Moore Explains The Visceral Quality That “Chronicles Of Narnia” And Other Fantasy Stories Lack
The Great When: A Long London Novel, Moore’s Latest Novel, Available Now From Bloomsbury Publishing
The Great When: A Long London Novel sends its protagonist into the eponymous “Great When,” which the synopsis for the book describes as “a magical version of London beyond time and space.” Rather than having his characters deal with the oddities of traveling between realms with the greatest of ease, however, Moore made the decision to have them display averse reactions, in order to emphasize the jarring nature of facing the fantastical. According to Moore, this added a layer of psychological realism to the work, grounding the story even as the author took it to astounding and unexpected places.
As the author explained to The Irish Times:
I wanted the sections set in The Great When to feel as disorienting as it would do if you were suddenly in another world. One of the things I’m really tired of in current fantasy is how the kids go through the back of the wardrobe in Narnia and it’s not really a big deal. People go into these worlds as if it was visiting Milton Keynes. No! You’d be booking yourself into psychiatric care! You’d have a complete mental breakdown!
Moore raises an interesting point, which is that many fantasy stories pass up an opportunity for more drama, for greater stakes, by having their characters adapt to radically altered understandings of reality too effortlessly. In other words, Moore saw an opportunity – as he always has – to tap a great vein of potential for narrative tension in the fantasy genre that has not been explored enough. If nothing else, this has always been the quality that sets Alan Moore apart as an artist, and he continues to display it with The Great When.
Alan Moore May Be Done Writing Comics – But His Career As An Author Is Far From Over
Moore’s Second Act As A Novelist
After decades in the comic book industry, producing stories that can readily be described as the definition of “groundbreaking,” “gamechanging,” and “genre-defining,” Alan Moore acrimoniously retired from working in the medium – or it could be said, was pushed out of it – and has since focused his attention on writing prose fiction. His 2016 novel Jerusalem and his 2022 story collection Illuminations display the same fiercely unique voice and style as his comics work, and with The Great When, the first in a planned five-book series, Moore continues to hone his craft and emphasize what makes him a singular artistic mind.
Moore’s criticism of contemporary fantasy writing, using C.S Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia as a prominent example, and his response in his own work, are one effective illustration of this. The author offered a glimpse of how his characters react to their fantastical journeys in his book, noting:
Any time any of my characters enter The Great When, they’re vomiting, weeping, fainting – because that’s what I figure ordinary people would do, if something even slightly fantastic happened. And if something happened that challenged your whole ideas of reality, you would fall to bits. Any of us would. We certainly wouldn’t be acting like action heroes.
One thing this makes clear is that – just as with his comics work – Moore’s strength as a prose author is not necessarily inventiveness, but rather his ability to reinvent and reimagine on an audacious scope.
By Leaving Superheroes Behind, Alan Moore Has Been Able To Explore Fantasy & Other Genres
Adding To His Legacy As An Author
Alan Moore has infamously become the superhero genre’s sharpest critic – which is made all the more cutting by the fact that he is so intimately acquainted with superhero storytelling. For fans of his work, and the genre, Moore’s anti-superhero stance forces a re-evaluation of why these stories are appealing; for Moore, it has been a form of liberation, allowing him to move beyond the early medium and mode of his career and take on startling new projects, including his Long London novel series, of which The Great When is only the first installment.
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Watchmen Creator Alan Moore Bemoans Today’s “Belligerent” Comic Fans
Throughout his career, Alan Moore has seen the rise and fall of all sorts of trends – but nothing, to him, is as destructive as modern fandoms.
Though he is now working in different genres, and has no plans to return to superheroes, or comics, Alan Moore’s writing continues to be intellectually fascinating and emotionally stimulating. He continues to build on the legacy of earlier works such as From Hell, V for Vendetta, and of course, Watchmen, adding to his overall ouvre in ways that continue to be fresh and exciting, and unequivocally the work of Alan Moore, while continuing to forge new paths forward for his successors in whatever creative endeavor he undertakes.
Source: The Irish Times, Alan Moore Interview
Watchmen
In the mid-eighties, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created Watchmen, changing the course of comics’ history and essentially remaking how popular culture perceived the genre. Popularly cited as the point where comics came of age, Watchmen’s sophisticated take on superheroes has been universally acclaimed for its psychological depth and realism.
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