Alan Moore is contradicting himself

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For the sake of the board, I'm deleting this post. Perhaps I'll repost it on a later occasion.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

Moore’s firmly in the old curmudgeon category

[kjn]

If someone cannot contradict themselves, or change their mind, what use is there? You don't mention when the interviews were made, or in which context, since you don't make any references from where they were taken. There is also the risk that the he was misquoted.

[Banner]

Same with this post.

[Kirby101]

"Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

R W Emerson

[Kirby101]

What counts is what your intentions and ideas were when you made or wrote your piece of work.

Not true, creators often look back on their work and get a different perspective on what they were doing and why.

[kjn]

Thanks for the references. (And no, I don't think it should be on the reader to have to locate things for themselves.)

Reading this, it seems you want to somehow "expose" Alan Moore as something—intellectually dishonest, deranged, I don't know. I don't buy it. If you want to critique something he said, feel free to, but this isn't critique.

Then, your first quote is a quote of a quote. While both your links are from circa-2016, the first quote is older, how old I don't know. So he might have changed his thinking in the meantime.

There is also a difference in context. The first quote goes from "The Killing Joke" to Watchmen, and how he wanted to change comics. Not the superhero genre, but the entirety of comics. While the second quote is wholly about superhero comics as a genre.

And if he contradicted himself? So what? It's not like he is the prime minister of the UK. (In fact, he'd probably be preferably to the one they got.)

[David Walton]

"Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

R W Emerson

"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes." -- Walt Whitman

[Jim Kelly]

I don't see the contradiction.

Both of the things he said turned out to be true. It's not that Alan Moore was saying do exactly as I do, with Watchmen or Marvelman, he was just doing his own novel take on re-inventing characters. But he hoped others would do their own novel takes on re-inventing characters. Instead, most of them tried to copy the Alan Moore formula without bringing anything new to it. They weren't doing what he was doing--they weren't finding ideas within themselves for how to create new things out of old things.

[Michael Watkins]

What did he do that was do novel?

[Mister Mets]

I don't see the contradiction.

Both of the things he said turned out to be true. It's not that Alan Moore was saying do exactly as I do, with Watchmen or Marvelman, he was just doing his own novel take on re-inventing characters. But he hoped others would do their own novel takes on re-inventing characters. Instead, most of them tried to copy the Alan Moore formula without bringing anything new to it. They weren't doing what he was doing--they weren't finding ideas within themselves for how to create new things out of old things.

Agreed. There's nothing wrong with someone changing their mind, but these ideas aren't contradictory.

[Mister Mets]

What did he do that was do novel?

With Watchmen, the level of depth in the alternate history, and the way the characters react to it (IE- A kid sitting by an electric hydrant because it is warm).
The focus on a large cast of characters.
"I did it thirty-five minutes ago."
The in-depth explorations of the backstories of the characters (the flashback issues were a major inspiration for Lost.)
The supplements from the world of Watchmen like magazine articles, memoir excerpts or a pirate comics (because in a world without superheroes, something else has to be popular).

[numberthirty]

It takes two seconds to find the links:

https://www.inverse.com/article/1496...ot-interesting

https://www.vulture.com/2016/09/alan...cs-writer.html

Don't make this into a discussion about whether someone are allowed to change their mind or not. What counts is what your intentions and ideas were when you made or wrote your piece of work. I don't think there is any need for context, because the quotes speaks for themselves. And I don't think he was misquoted. If you disagree, you can check out the links and make up your mind from there.

So...

What, exactly, is supposed to be the big whoop here?

[Banner]

Another one.

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And one more once again.