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Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

11 Comments

  1. Eric Gimlin
    February 7, 2014 @ 12:56 am

    An interesting choice of illustration for Space Chantey. While Moore may have encountered the story in that edition (which seems to be the only UK edition), he might have had the US edition:

    http://people.uncw.edu/smithms/H-series/H-056.jpg

    which is relevant to the war as that edition was illustrated by Vaughan Bode, a major name on the Underground Comics scene.

    Reply

  2. Kit
    February 7, 2014 @ 2:04 am

    which he also mis-remembers as How Lare it Was, How Lare

    I can't believe this isn't simply a typo, as the keys are next to each other. Or at the very least a transcription error, presumably by McKenzie or Tice.

    Sinclair’s beloved bugbear is of course the 2012 London Olympics

    Of course? Have I missed a reference in an earlier Albion chapter that establishes this certainty? I've not encountered it in Sinclair's work before (I've not read much in the last dozen years, to be fair, but also most of his output predates the announcement of the 2012 location).

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  3. Scott
    February 7, 2014 @ 5:02 am

    I'm not sure about his fiction so much, but IIRC he was very prominent in the media voicing his objections to the Olympics — I don't have any links on hand, but I do seem to recall a few articles in the Guardian and/or the Independent of this nature.

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  4. Adam Riggio
    February 7, 2014 @ 6:58 am

    This seems like the most essential instalment of the Albion project yet, all revolving around the nature of originality in art. It's quite telling that this Abelard Snazz story was a case of accidental plagiarism of an incident from a novel based on The Odyssey, which is probably the most ripped-off/riffed-on story in Western history. Of course, no one ever accused James Joyce of plagiarizing Homer.

    It reminds me of the approach to took to crafting my own new novella, Under the Trees, Eaten (available this Spring from an internet near you). It's a pastiche of H. P. Lovecraft tropes, with basically the same setting as "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," but set in rural Quebec. Except I threw a female protagonist in the story who doesn't take any otherworldly bullshit, and a foregrounded personal backstory and family history with the mysterious town of aliens. With a liberal-enough definition of plagiarism, one could accuse me of ripping off Lovecraft. But I purposely set out to turn his themes and approaches upside down.

    So you could also say that I've ripped off Alan Moore, just in terms of the techniques he developed to engage with his influences an predecessors in the wake of his embarrassment over "Return of the Two-Storied Brain."

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  5. Nyq Only
    February 7, 2014 @ 10:01 am

    I thing the issue here is the one of deceit (or in this case of being perceived as being deceitful). Lots of ideas and genre-fiction twists and concepts got either recycled by 2000AD (and vice-versa) but to varying degrees these are either ideas that are essentially public domain or were used as satire or as a homage (or could be defended that way). Importantly an informed reader would likely know what was being referred too [even if an 11 year old reader might not.]
    Space Chantey was sufficiently obscure that a sophisticated reader may well believe that the ideas Moore was using were Moore's own (as indeed he thought they were).

    Reply

  6. Nyq Only
    February 7, 2014 @ 10:06 am

    Reply

  7. Eric Gimlin
    February 7, 2014 @ 12:08 pm

    Just a mention for people interested in other Alan Moore material from around this time: The collected Bojefferies Saga is out on Comixology now, with a new story as well as all the earlier ones. Bizarre and funny stuff, very glad to see it collected and a new story.

    Reply

  8. Kit
    February 7, 2014 @ 11:07 pm

    Ta Nyq! I still doubt it's a prominent enough aspect of his work overall to warrant "of course," especially in a context of 1981, but always interesting to hear his thinking.

    (Especially after being underwhelmed by the site generally, and repulsed by the shopping mall, on arriving in London at that station by car last November.)

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  9. Unknown
    February 8, 2014 @ 3:36 am

    Incidentally, Moore's Time Twister story "Dr. Dibworthy's Disappointing Day" resembles R. A. Lafferty's "Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne" just closely enough that I thought till now that it was the story in question. The key idea (repeated successful attempts to change the past that aren't noticed by the people who make them) is less specific, though.

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  10. Anton B
    February 8, 2014 @ 5:06 am

    I assume this detailing of Moore's specific attitudes and personal definition of what does and doesn't constitute plagiarism forms the background of what I would say is the opening salvo in this magickal war – the article in Speakeasy where Morrison implies that Alan Moore stole the plots for Marvelman,' Watchmen,and Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? from the 1977 novel Superfolks by Robert Mayer.

    Reply

  11. Daru
    February 17, 2015 @ 2:01 am

    Brilliant to hear about Abelard Snazz again, and especially his development.

    Reply

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