Laugh and the world laughs with you.
October 26, 2011 8:17 AM   Subscribe

David Lloyd's (co-creator of V for Vendetta and illustrator of the 'Anonymous mask') response to the question: What is the meaning behind the expression on the mask?
The smile was an accident caused by my memory of the moustache on the regular masks that I couldn’t find. But it was a happy accident. Meaning? Resonance, more. Smile on the face of the tiger. Smile in the face of adversity. Smile though your heart is aching. Laugh and the world laughs with you. Immovable, inviolable optimism…
posted by nam3d (12 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: You appear to have been serially self-linking to your own company for longer than we'd like to admit was possible and this really super duper sucks. You are very seriously banned. -- jessamyn



 
So what did pre-David Lloyd Guy Fawkes masks look like?
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:21 AM on October 26, 2011 [1 favorite]


Do you see it as ‘ironic’ that the mask is worn in anti-capitalist, anti-establishment or pro-piracy demonstrations, yet a share of the profit on sales of the official licenced mask goes to Time Warner? Is this an issue?
It has a degree of irony but it’s hardly an issue. And I’m no fan of corporation-bashing – it’s thick-ear simplification, when what we need is reasonable political discussion.
posted by nam3d at 8:24 AM on October 26, 2011


I was going to ask the same question as Faint of Butt. As an uncultured American slob, I had never even heard the name Guy Fawkes before V For Vendetta, let alone knew there were masks of the guy.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:24 AM on October 26, 2011


Oh, so apparently I am the only person that sends our Guy Fawkes ecards every year.

And this was before V for Vendetta.

looks depressed at his abject dorkiness

Penny for the guy?
posted by Samizdata at 8:27 AM on October 26, 2011


The meaning of the V mask is that a depressing amount of people saw a really trite and awful movie.
posted by Artw at 8:32 AM on October 26, 2011 [3 favorites]


It's got to be really weird to be David Llyod right now.
posted by The Whelk at 8:37 AM on October 26, 2011


old style guy fawkes masks

As a kid, you'd make up a stuffed mannequin (newspaper & tights, IIRC) with a cheap mask from the newsagents, dress him up in some old clothes, then burn him on a bonfire on Nov 5th - Guy Fawkes Night! Fireworks if you were feeling flash, sparklers to wave about if not, and hot potatoes cooked in the bonfire embers. Mmm.

Of course, that it was representing burning catholics - it used to be a mannequin of the Pope on the fire - and that Guy Fawkes was basically attempting to blow up King James I in order to return england to a Catholic monarch rather passed us by at that age.
posted by ArkhanJG at 8:38 AM on October 26, 2011 [4 favorites]


The meaning of the V mask is that a depressing amount of people saw a really trite and awful movie.

Really? I thought it was OK, pretty good even. The focus on enabling collective resistance (the film) worked better for me than the focus on the heroic actions of a couple of people (the comic). After all, fighting fascism with supermen is, well, not productive....
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:39 AM on October 26, 2011 [3 favorites]


The association of "Anonymous" with Guy Fawkes is an unfortunate one. The primary anonymous player in the Gunpowder Plot was the person who sent a letter to authorities detailing the plans that ultimately leading to the arrest and execution of Guy Fawkes. At best, Guy Fawkes was a freedom fighter, but given that it's his execution the British remember, remember, every 5th of November, I'm fairly certain he was just a plan old terrorist.
posted by rh at 8:40 AM on October 26, 2011


ArkhanJG beat me to it, though I found this one which fits my childhood memories more closely. The main thing is that Guy Fawkes masks in the old days were cheap. They were pocket-money items, designed to be worn by a dummy (not by people) which would later be burnt on top of a bonfire.
posted by Hogshead at 8:42 AM on October 26, 2011


A while ago I went to see Alan Moore talking at the British Library as part of their Science Fiction season. He said that while his opinion of the V for Vendetta film was predictably low, he was quite happy that the Guy Fawkes mask's association with Anonymous and Wikileaks and anti-capitalist protesters the world over had made it very difficult for DC to further exploit the book the way they're planning/doing with Watchmen.
posted by permafrost at 8:42 AM on October 26, 2011 [1 favorite]


Really? I thought it was OK, pretty good even. The focus on enabling collective resistance (the film) worked better for me than the focus on the heroic actions of a couple of people (the comic)

And the focus on cringe-inducing screeds full of forced alliteration while doing silly dances?
posted by Hoopo at 8:46 AM on October 26, 2011


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