“Never from one book have I learned so much.”
~ Oscar Wilde on V for Vendetta
"People should be afraid of their government. Period "
~ George W. Bush on V for Vendetta
Despite the popularity of the Sesame Street puppet megaflower hour at the time, this criminally overlooked spelling book, including such words as violet, violent and violate, was quickly pulled from the shelves in 1984 due to poor sales. It was a smash success amongst the children aged four to eight, who became Generation X, portraying a world of fascism gone to the extreme, while teaching the correct spellings of various V words, but lacked the versatility to join the wider collection of Sesame Street spelling books, including "Y Is For Yuppie", for and "C is for Crack".
It would later be ripped off by Alan Moore, who would spin the delightful tale of trickery and playmanship into a dark and gloomy tale of the fall of a great nation at the hands of a madman.
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The Plot
In "The Land of Do As You Please", everyone is happy. This is because no one is trapped by the Government's iron rule (Can you say "Totalitarianism", kids?). However, the land that our hero, V, lives in, is not that land. In fact, that land is not anywhere on earth (Who can say "Locus Amoenus"?). V decides one day that he is not going to take it any longer, and that he is going to do something about it. After making some high-grade explosives (Does anyone know what C-4 is?), he takes off into the night. Everything is coming together when he meets a little girl who is being chased by the policemen (She was trying to stop them from touching her in the naughty places), and V stops to kill the policemen and take care of her.
V teaches her everything she needs to know about starting a revolution (say it with me, everyone! "Viva La Revolucion!"), and about revenge. There is also a classic section where she call upon her training with V to survive a grueling time in a dingy prison, as well as never giving in to torture. These are important things for children to learn, and there is an important message sent to Evey about this in a letter from a woman named Valerie. The scene is another of many that give children nightmares, but the pansies need to grow up. This is also where V has his brief lesson on shapes and street-art, teaching kids how to write his symbol.
The action really takes off after V has eliminated several of the people who had worked to turn him into what he is today, people like Lewis Prothero (played by Ernie). Eventually, the battle works its way onto the street of Sesame, and all hell breaks loose. Bert, who has by now set himself up as Arch-Chancellor of The Block, begins to fall in love with the computer that he relies on for games of Solitaire and advice on how to run the city. Big Bird is killed in pursuit of "codename V", and his widow begins to wander the streets, mourning the loss of the abusive husband (Kids, if daddy or mommy ever hurt you, you know the number to call: 911), mostly because it also represents a loss of companionship. Bert throws a parade in his honor, and the Widow Bird is welcomed into his car, where she presently shoots him.
Public Response
The public has had a mixed response about it. It has been similar to George Orwell's famous children's book Animal Farm, in that they both have developed a cult kiddie following. Most of the children who read this and didn't cry when V killed people grew up to be philosophers.
Praise
The book itself is a heartwarming tale of surviving and defeating a dystopian government. A sensitive look at what it is like to live under a totalitarian rule, and how it applies to children today. It is an inspiring look at Terrorism through the eyes of a terrorist; and it is sure to keep the attention of children worldwide.
"I wholeheartedly support the teaching of this to children. The world needs more Vs, and it's high time that human children stopped being wusses and started getting involved in local destruction."
~ Cthulhu on V for Vendetta
Criticism
Easily the darkest of the spelling books, many parents were concerned about the kinds of messages that a man in a Guy Fawkes mask might have about the Codename letter V. "It's mostly that hat and wig" said one parent, "there's something eerie about it."
Educational Value
From the Text:
"Good evening, London. It's nine o'clock and this is the Voice of Fate broadcasting on 275 and 285 in the medium wave... It is the Fifth of the Eleventh Nineteen-Ninety-Seven..."
~ Voice of Fate on page 1
In this paragraph alone, children have been exposed to times, dates, numbers, technology, and proper punctuation. And that's just page one.
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As it is easy to see, there are also cultural things, such as references to Latin and German words. This is a book for some advanced readers, but it still maintains a high level of interest for children everywhere. Especially those who like blowing things up.
The Film
In 2006, The Wachowski Brothers released a film adaptation of the story. They needed to cut a few things for sake of time, but the film was a fairly accurate adaptation of large portions of the book. The most obvious things missing were "V's Science Corner", and the technology section of the book, embodied by the FATE computer. A few other more minor changes had been made, and children everywhere flocked to see this story. It starred Big Bird as The Evil Dictator, Bert, Ernie, Oscar the Grouch and Grover as the members of his cabinet. V himself was played by Agent Smith, and Queen Amidala did a stunning job with Evey, the girl that V teaches throughout the book.
The film also added a brief introduction to Guy Fawkes, who is an important figure in British history, and also changed the political events leading up to Big Bird's rule so that they mirrored the War on Humor, making the film into a stern warning of things to come.
The release of the film on St. Patrick's Day was strategic, in that the film features several recognizable landmarks in London being blown up by a terrorist. The film also lead to the V Crisis of 2006.
Japanese Adaptation
V for Vendetta was adpapted by Naoko Takeuchi into a comic. However, she decided to change V into a girl, get rid of mask, and replace the cloak and hat with a school girl uniform. Except for changing the plot, dialouge, moral, and setting totally, the story was quite faithful to the orginal soruce. Sailor V for Vendetta was quite popular in Japan, spawning a spin off called Sailor Moon.