Alan Moore Is Ready For Post-Civilization

Dodgem Logic is that theory put into practice.

Moore: Yes. On a simple level, I distinctly missed the underground magazines of the ’60s and ’70s. I thought that it was a pity that there wasn’t anything like that around today. And then I found myself in a position where it occurred to me that I should just do one. So we put it together according to basic hippie, anarchist principles, where we just asked a load of friends, whether that was people we happened to know locally or more famous people we knew professionally, to contribute. And the response has been fantastic. We’ve got Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz doing something in issue three, I think.

Right. You were writing an opera or something with them, weren’t you?

Moore: Well, that is a bit premature. We were having talks, but it was much too early to be talking about it. It got onto a website and then it went all over the place and got incredibly inflated. There’s a possibility of us working together on a project, but it wouldn’t be for a long, long time. But they are hopefully going to be doing something for Dodgem Logic’s third issue. And we’ve got some other fine people lined up for the future.

It sounds like you are going with the flow.

Moore: It is being done on this very haphazard basis, which I suppose is the meaning of the title Dodgem Logic. You know, I was never sure exactly what that title meant, when I first came up with it in 1975, when I was first attempting to get a fanzine off the ground at the age of 22 or 23. It never happened back then, but I’ve still got the title, although I’m still not entirely sure what it means. But it does sound good, and it could mean a number of things. Perhaps a random approach to thinking, recognizing that although rationality is a marvelous tool, it has its limits. Sometimes intuition can yield equally powerful and impressive results. But the title suggests having fun. I believe in America they call them “bumper cars?”

Yeah, exactly.

Moore: Well, over here, they’re called “dodgem cars,” but it’s the same principle. It suggests lots of colored vehicles bumping around chaotically, everybody having fun and nobody getting hurt, with the faint smell of carbonized ions in the air. So while I’m still not entirely sure what the title means, it feels more appropriate with each passing day.

Now that the Gorillaz rumor has been put to bed, would you like to let us know what else you’re up to next?

Moore: In the real world? Well, I’ve just finished writing the third part of book three of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which takes place in 2009. And I’m just looking at Kevin O’Neill’s artowrk for the second part, which takes place in 1969, and I’m very pleased with that. It’s just marvelous; I’m very pleased with that. You’re going to have to wait awhile before you see it, but it will be very worth the wait.

When I get a break from doing the next issue of Dodgem Logic, including the eight-page strip, then I will be catching back up to my Bumper Book of Magic, which will be coming out from Top Shelf when we get it finished. But it’s looking very good so far. I’m working on that with Steve Moore, and we’re trying to make it a comprehensive guide to magic’s history, theory and practice in language that is clear and not ridiculously Gothic.

Then, once I’ve caught up on that, I should be getting back to finishing the last nine chapters of my second novel, Jerusalem. I’m still finishing it; at the moment, I’m paused on Chapter 26. I’m hoping to get back to that sometime in spring. After that, I’ll get into the rewriting and revising, and drawing the front cover, which I am determined to do. That will take a while and in fact, it’s taken me quite a few years to write it. Then again, it will probably take everyone a few years to read it. So it’s fair [laughs].

That’s fair indeed. At 35 chapters, it sounds like a tome along the lines of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow, which took me a few years to fully read.

Moore: I got through that in a month. Normally, I get through books in a day or two, but that was the densest thing I have ever read. And also I decoded the scrap of newspaper that is blowing down the street in the last couple of pages, which is actually, as far as I can see, the whole point of the novel. And if you missed that, you perhaps missed the whole point of the novel [laughs]. It’s just this bit of burnt paper that, if you put it together, talks about America dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Which is of course, the end of the V bomb, which has been made obsolete. Gravity’s got a new rainbow.

This interview appeared at Wired