As promised, it's V Time. V for Vendetta, that is.

"V for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic-book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s to about the 1990s. A mysterious anarchist who calls himself "V" works to destroy the totalitarian government, profoundly affecting the people he encounters.

The series depicts a near-future Britain after a limited nuclear war, which has left much of the world destroyed. In this future, a fascist party called "Norsefire" has arisen as the ruling power. "V", an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, begins an elaborate, violent, and theatrical campaign to bring down the government. Warner Bros. released a film adaptation in 2005."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendett...

The plot of the graphic novel and subsequent film (which is a closely faithful rendering) is complex, meaty, and too good to spoil for those of you that have yet to enjoy it. The film is intense, but neither stupid nor gratuitous, and I recommend it. I have not seen the novel.

"V for Vendetta" ties into Guy Fawkes Day because the hero, or anti-hero, or main figure, conceals his identity with a Guy Fawkes mask (I am assuming, but not certain, that the Brits celebrate Halloween in costume as we Yanks do), and proceeds to carry out Fawkes' Gun Powder Plot, so a summary of Guy Fawkes, whose failure is celebrated every November 5th, is in order.


"Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries,<1><2> belonged to a group of Roman Catholic restorationists from England who planned the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.<3> Their aim was to displace Protestant rule by blowing up the Houses of Parliament while King James I and the entire Protestant, and even most of the Catholic, aristocracy and nobility were inside. The conspirators saw this as a necessary reaction to the systematic discrimination against English Catholics.<4>

The Gunpowder Plot was led by Robert Catesby, but Fawkes was put in charge of its execution. He was arrested a few hours before the planned explosion, during a search of the cellars underneath Parliament in the early hours of 5 November prompted by the receipt of an anonymous warning letter.

Guy Fawkes Night (or "bonfire night"), held on 5 November in the United Kingdom and some parts of the Commonwealth, is a commemoration of the plot, during which an effigy of Fawkes is burned, often accompanied by a fireworks display. The word "guy", meaning "man" or "person", is derived from his name.<5>

Now remember, this is two years after the death of Good Queen Bess. Elizabeth had ruled with mercy and forbearance over both her Catholic and Protestant subjects, but executed James' mother Mary, Queen of Scots, for plotting against her reign. So England was still rent with religious strife, as well as enmeshed in the struggle with the Irish that Elizabeth started, and which continues to this day, although in greatly reduced form, when the Gunpowder Plot is set in motion.

So James, not so wise or forgiving as Elizabeth, took on both the Catholics and the Puritans and alienated both, which led to at least a century of religious strife at home and abroad.

Why the English feel compelled to have a monarch is another issue entirely. Habit, I suppose. Whereas we in the States, having long ago thrown off the notion of classes at least as established mores, are extremely violently opposed to new monarchs like Goldman Sachs, the English seem much less discomfited.

Which brings us back to our principle pursuit: the deciphering of power, privilege and money flows in our modern world economy, with the eventual aim of overthrowing the despots and restoring the US economy, Constitution and citizenry. Have at it, and post what you find, while WE

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Ni...