V's explosive fetish

Hrrrrm so according to Phil I would argue that this is a novel about anarchy when it’s actually about something else. Well yes and no.. Yes I do think this is a novel about one specific method for bringing about anarchy. However it is not a book largely about anarchism and the voluntary social order that could come about later it is about insurrection.

V certainly is trying to bring about anarchy. However his strategy is not an entirely efficacious one. I don’t fall into his school of thought. That said, V is still trying to bring about anarchy. He is aiming to destroy all forms of hierarchical power so that people can self organize a cooperative, equal and free society. V’s ideological monologues are a rather clear anarchist critique of authoritarianism and the state. To reduce that down to mere vengeance, belittles V. V isn’t that one dimensional of a character. This is not a parable about crossing the wrong man. It’s a parable of what happens when the state uses naked force to achieve its ends. V is the essential byproduct of state violence; he is its dialectical opposite. He is insurrection.

V is not the creative energy of anarchism, he is a destructive force. He is solely an insurrectionary, using spectacular acts of violence to precipitate a break in the ruling atmosphere of ideas. As I argued all throughout class and in my previous post, V is not there to build anything up. He seeks no office or post, nor has he much of a vision to offer. He’s just trying to open space. V remains an anarchist in his beliefs, but his actions only take us halfway there. There was an old anarchist federation called “Love and Rage.” V covers all the rage, but his love is a bit lacking. Hence the whole Evey situation, she’s supposed to provide the ‘love,’ the creative energy necessary for a new free society. Or at least that’s what V think’s she’ll do.