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NotM: Lost Girls-Alan Moore
By Corvus | December 20, 2007
Read that title again. NotM: Lost Girls-Alan Moore. Honestly, do I even need to write any more about the textual components of the Lost Girls narrative? If the thought of beautiful, dreamy erotic retelling of three classic children’s stories didn’t er… get a rise out of you, then the mere mention of Alan Moore’s name ought to have you clicking over to your favorite online bookseller to buy your copy now.
Lost Girls focuses on the three heroines, Dorothy, Wendy and Alice as they vacation at the Himmelgarten, tucked away from the world’s impending violence. The year is 1912 and the first world war is about to begin. There are three secondary characters worth mentioning as well–Wendy is married to Harold Potter, a stodgy British businessman who initially seems terribly out of place. The other two are Captain Rolf Bauer (a military man with a bit of a shoe fetish) and the inn’s proprietor, Monsieur Rougeur.
As I mentioned, the story takes place in a safe haven, away from the conflict in the world. It’s a peaceful interlude for all the characters, but merely an interlude and they all, on some level, must know that. Mr. Potter and Captain Bauer, representing the business and military concerns of the world, manage to take the time for indiscretions of their own while the three women, guided by the older and more daring Alice, explore each other on multiple levels. But the events of the outside world do not stop while the characters do and inevitably, they intrude. Finally and climatically.
Alan Moore excels at creating believable characters with depth ad humanity. Even when the situations around them are fantastic, the people he tells stories about that are people you can imagine having a conversation with and Lost Girls is no exception. Wendy and Harold’s strained, seemingly loveless, marital relations might seem out of place coming from the pen of another writer. In fact, another writer may allowed them a secret passion, turning all the characters into libertines, but Alan convincingly frames the pair’s longing and painstakingly portrays the formalized civility that keeps them apart. It creates a tension which allows you to feel relief when Wendy is finally able to open up and confess the origins of her fear and shame.
The inclusion of the characters’ fears and shames is what elevates Lost Girls from mere pornography to literature. There are no cut and dried answers presented here, no assumption that all human sexuality is healthy and natural. There are only questions throughout. Questions about human nature, violence and sexuality and how separate those two urges really are. Questions that the story leaves you to answer for yourself after you’ve turned the final page.
Tagged:alan-moore, graphic-novels, lost-girls, NotM. | No Comments »
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