1. H. P. Lovecraft, Too Much Sex, and Not Enough: Alan Moore's Playfully Repressive Hypothesis
- Author
-
Kozaczka, Adam
- Subjects
Neonomicon (Graphic novel) -- Criticism and interpretation ,Sexual politics -- Analysis ,Writers -- Criticism and interpretation ,Adaptations -- Analysis ,Literature/writing - Abstract
Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows's highly controversial Neonomicon (2011) both critiques and builds upon a longstanding tradition of sexualizing the afterlives of H.P. Lovecraft's creations. A recent instantiation of Moore's politics of unveiling, Neonomicon is very much about revealing the sexuality that Moore argues was truly at stake behind Lovecraft's repressed body of work. Neonomicon is a focal point in Moore's creative output that refines his past literary interactions with interspecies romance, sexual violence, Lovecraft's sexuality, and what this article diagnoses as his repeated, unsympathetic treatment of the male sexual misfit, presented either as a pathetic nerd or a sexually deviant villain. This article examines Moore's sexual politics from his earliest works up to Neonomicon, identifying a set of surprisingly conservative tropes by which Moore's own repressive hypothesis keeps calling attention to the violent, criminal, and otherwise evil behaviors of men who are somehow presented as out of touch with what for Moore must be a healthy, generative sexuality. Moore's engagement in a project of unveiling is thus politically suspect, and this article examines some of its consequences, such as Moore's tendency to employ types recognizable in the horror genre. While preaching Moore's sexual gospel, Neonomicon is thus likewise a self-reflexive commentary on the exploitive qualities of already existing plotlines. The sexuality that Moore insists lies behind Lovecraft's stories is made graphic in Neonomicon, which takes cultures of repression to task while nevertheless conservatively arrogating certain forms of sexuality over others., Shocking readers and sparking online outrage with its graphic portrayal of sexual assault and human-monster intercourse, Alan Moore's Neonomicon (2011) stands out for its controversy-provoking position in the oeuvre of [...]
- Published
- 2015