I've just read Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls, a rather different addition to the never ending variations on Alice In Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan. Before we get to the subject matter, which is what makes it so different, let's look at the quality of the work. Alan Moore's writing has all the trademarks that his fans will recognise: different characters have distinct voices, the styles and conceits of the writing vary from chapter to chapter without interrupting the flow of the story, the language use is first rate. As for Melinda Gebbie's art the panel layout varies to suit Moore's chapter forms, the art sometimes lacks detail but the colours and layouts are excellent. Overall the art is excellent.
So much for the technical details. What about the content? That's where a lot of people might have a problem. The story is this. A grown up and quite old Alice meets the younger Wendy Darling and the even younger Dorothy Gale at a hotel in Austria shortly before the outbreak of World War One. They become friends and lovers recounting their earlier sexual adventures in very graphic detail and engaging in a fair few new joint sexual encounters. They are written and illustrated in great detail. Meanwhile Dorothy's boyfriend and Wendy's husband are engaging in a few gay romps of their own. It's all very, very graphic and the variations on the theme of miscellaneous sexuality would give the writers of the awful Torchwood a run for their money.
The stories they recount to each other are clearly linked with the three traditional children's stories that we all know which are presented as idealised and innocent versions of sexual activities that were anything but. The three women have all to some extent been traumatised by their pasts and their relationship with each other becomes a kind of cartharsis for them.
It's a largely successful story but the sex is utterly and absolutely relentless. There is scarcely a page in the entire work that deosn't feature naked cavortings between two, three or a dozen of the cast. Every possible form of sex is included and illustrated.
Of course I can quite honestly claim that I bought it because of the Alice connection but I'd be lying if I claimed I didn't know what it was all about before I bought it. Even so it's proved to be rather more extreme than I had expected. Personally I don't find it offensive, indeed the sheer non-stop nature of it at times renders it rather boring. On the other hand if there is the faintest possibility that something of a sexual nature might offend you I'd advise against reading this book because whatever it is you think might offend you, it's probably in there somewhere.
So much for the technical details. What about the content? That's where a lot of people might have a problem. The story is this. A grown up and quite old Alice meets the younger Wendy Darling and the even younger Dorothy Gale at a hotel in Austria shortly before the outbreak of World War One. They become friends and lovers recounting their earlier sexual adventures in very graphic detail and engaging in a fair few new joint sexual encounters. They are written and illustrated in great detail. Meanwhile Dorothy's boyfriend and Wendy's husband are engaging in a few gay romps of their own. It's all very, very graphic and the variations on the theme of miscellaneous sexuality would give the writers of the awful Torchwood a run for their money.
The stories they recount to each other are clearly linked with the three traditional children's stories that we all know which are presented as idealised and innocent versions of sexual activities that were anything but. The three women have all to some extent been traumatised by their pasts and their relationship with each other becomes a kind of cartharsis for them.
It's a largely successful story but the sex is utterly and absolutely relentless. There is scarcely a page in the entire work that deosn't feature naked cavortings between two, three or a dozen of the cast. Every possible form of sex is included and illustrated.
Of course I can quite honestly claim that I bought it because of the Alice connection but I'd be lying if I claimed I didn't know what it was all about before I bought it. Even so it's proved to be rather more extreme than I had expected. Personally I don't find it offensive, indeed the sheer non-stop nature of it at times renders it rather boring. On the other hand if there is the faintest possibility that something of a sexual nature might offend you I'd advise against reading this book because whatever it is you think might offend you, it's probably in there somewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment