‘An altered view regarding the relationship between dreams and reality’: Magic, politics and the comics medium in Alan Moore and Jacen Burrow’s Providence

Matthew J A Green

doi:10.1386/stic.8.2.135_1

Abstract

Abstract Alan Moore reports that, through researching Providence, he ‘became more fully acquainted with academic literary criticism’ (Moore and Green 2016) and the extensive evidence of research throughout the series supports this claim. In this article, I argue that Providence uses the comics form to assert the value of humanities research and of the arts more broadly, and to educate its audience in reading and research practices (some of which are more providential than others). My focus is on the relationships between imagination and the historical realities of readers; while the latter are not detailed at length, the discussion does map onto the real world of Brexit, the aftermath of the 2016 US Presidential election and austerity politics because Moore’s underlying premise is that it is possible to trace the origins of our contemporary moment through the societal anxieties encoded in Lovecraft’s fiction. The analysis combines key concepts from adaptation studies with the theoretical model of the comics system proposed by Thierry Groensteen; moreover, it both draws upon and extends Brian McHale’s work on metafiction to suggest ways of extending Groensteen’s model in order to better understand the way in which Providence uses the comics medium to put into practice his hopes concerning the world-altering potential of art and scholarship.

Highlights

Alan Moore reports that through researching Providence he ‘became more fully acquainted with academic literary criticism’ and the extensive evidence of research throughout the series supports this claim
In the times that we are moving through at present, with our leaders shameless and entirely unapologetic in their greed and callousness, with our environment teetering on the brink of finding out whether there’s Life on Venus, with unanticipated new monstrosities arising from our complex global situation, surely it’s time we realised that the culture imposed upon us from above is toxic to us
Coded in an alphabet of monsters, Lovecraft’s writings offer a potential key to understanding our current dilemma, crucial to this is that they are understood in the full context of the place and times from which they blossomed. (Moore 2014: xiii)

Summary

Introduction

Alan Moore reports that through researching Providence he ‘became more fully acquainted with academic literary criticism’ and the extensive evidence of research throughout the series supports this claim.

Results

Conclusion