Monday 6 February 2017

Inversions?

In the Afterlude of Alan Moore's Jerusalem (London, 2016), we read detailed descriptions of the partly sequential works of art in Alma Warren's exhibition. The art works correspond to several chapters that we have already read, even including one that I had forgotten reading! (This book is like several books.)

Suppose that the art works are real and that the previous chapters are stories written to correspond to the visuals of the art. Thus, the entire volume would be turned inside out. I do not believe that that is the author's intention. I offer it as one surreal imagining by someone still reading the Afterlude.

Here is another inversion. In one of the art works, a line-drawing, Oliver Cromwell lies asleep in bed in the midst of a battle. Alma's brother is unsure whether this means that Cromwell is unaware of the suffering that he causes or that he dreams of the battle. But it can obviously be both. He is unaware in waking life but his unconscious knows. This one piece of art seems to transcend the rest of the exhibition. But I have yet to read to the end of the Afterlude and am about to join the Lord Protector (not literally) in the realm of Morpheus.

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