V For Vendetta

Page 310 of 366. Good Morning Lovies. I have a curious question for y'all... Did any of you read the comics/novel were written by Alan Moore with illustrations by David Lloyd about Guy Fawkes??? 

If you haven't, have you watched the 2005 movie of these comics called "V For Vendetta"???

There is a method to my madness....

Before I get into the importance of this mask and why it is used today, I probably should explain the history of it; as it is quite prominent with what is happening all around us these days...

The Guy Fawkes mask (also known as the V for Vendetta mask or Anonymous mask) is a stylised depiction of Guy Fawkes, who is probably the most popular and well-known member of the GUNPOWDER PLOT (a plot to blow up the House of Lords in London on November 5th, 1605). David Lloyd designed the mask as a smiling face with red cheeks, a wide moustache upturned at both ends, and a thin vertical pointed beard, worn in the graphic novel's narrative by anarchist protagonist V.

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was commemorated from early on by burning effigies of unpopular figures. Towards the end of the 18th century, reports appeared of children begging for money with grotesquely masked effigies of Guy Fawkes, and the date November 5th had gradually became known as Guy Fawkes Night, although now mainly called "Bonfire Night". 

In the 20th century, in the UK, large numbers of cheap cardboard or paper Guy Fawkes masks were sold to children each autumn or given out free with comics; by the 1980s their popularity became increasingly associated with Halloween. 

In 1958, wearing Guy Fawkes masks was mentioned during a debate in the Parliament of Western Australia as an example of harmless and excusable (though technically unlawful) possession of a face mask at night. Quoted "at one time it was traditional to wear masks on Guy Fawkes night. So, if tonight anyone is found wearing a Guy Fawkes mask I, as Minister for Police, will see that he is duly excused."

When developing the story, illustrator David Lloyd made a handwritten note on the intended anarchist protagonist, V: "Why don't we portray him as a resurrected Guy Fawkes, complete with one of those papier-mâché masks, in a cape and a conical hat? He'd look really bizarre and it would give Guy Fawkes the image he's deserved all these years. We shouldn't burn the chap every Nov. 5th but celebrate his attempt to blow up Parliament!" 

Writer Alan Moore commented that, due to Lloyd's idea, "All of the various fragments in my head suddenly fell into place, united behind the single image of a Guy Fawkes mask." He also noted, "how interesting it was that we should have taken up the image right at the point where it was apparently being purged from the annals of English iconography."

Here is where I find it to be just the beginning of where the comics/novels and even movies; becoming very much a reality for our currrent society... possibly even more so in days to come...

As such, 'V' wears a Guy Fawkes mask (as designed by Lloyd) throughout the story, and in the climax of its 2006 film adaptation and 2022 third season of its prequel television series, thousands of protesters adopt the same costume as they march on Parliament.

Since the 2006 release of the film V for Vendetta and the mass production of David Lloyd's mask design by Warner Bros., the use of Guy Fawkes masks has become widespread internationally among groups protesting against politicians, banks, and financial institutions. 

We now have the group named Anonymous who wear the Guy Fawkes Masks. They've used it at a protest against the Church of Scientology in London, UK. February 10, 2008. 

They joined the hacktivism group Anonymous's Project Chanology protests against the Church of Scientology in 2008 who were protesting the Church who was forcing YouTube to pull a video of Tom Cruise discussing Scientology that was meant for only internal use within the Church. In response, Anonymous protested the litigious methods of the Church of Scientology over a period of several months. Protesters were encouraged to hide their faces, since it was common practice for Church members to photograph anti-Scientology protesters. 

After the protest, the Internet-based group adopted the character for its wider protests against authority. A version of the mask was later used in the 2015 television series Mr. Robot to represent the hacktivist group F-Society, in reference to Anonymous.

On 23 May 2009, protesters wearing the mask detonated a fake barrel of gunpowder outside Parliament while protesting over the issue of British MPs' expenses.

During the 2011 Wisconsin protests, and during the subsequent Occupy Wall Street and the ongoing Occupy movement, the mask appeared internationally as a symbol of popular rebellion. In October 2011, campaigner Julian Assange attended the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest wearing such a mask, which he removed after a request by the police.

A protester in a Guy Fawkes mask during the Million Mask March. Washington, D.C., 2015. In January 2012, Guy Fawkes masks were used by protesters against Poland's signing of ACTA. On 10 June 2012, in Mumbai, India, a group of 100 Anonymous members along with college students gathered at Azad Maidan, dressed in black with Guy Fawkes masks, protested against their censorship of the Internet. 

Beginning on 2013, the Guy Fawkes/anonymous mask was banned in many Middle Eastern, Persian and United Arab countries; describing it as a revolutionary mask and were concerned for "public safety". The masks were used by anti-government protesters in Thailand in 2012, and by protesters in Turkey in 2013. They were also used in protests in Brazil and Egypt in 2013. Again, they were banned in more countries, now citing..."a symbol of rebels and revenge", and warned parents that "they could be used to incite the youth to destabilize security and spread chaos ..."

Participants in the 2014 Venezuelan protests carried a wide variety of masks; one of them was the Guy Fawkes mask, sometimes painted with the colours of the Venezuelan flag.In O ctober 2019 protesters in Hong Kong started using the mask in opposition to the government's banning the use of masks during protests.

Now here is where it gets really into our very own backyards... word for word...

"The wearing of masks during a riot or unlawful assembly has been banned in Canada, following the enactment of Bill C-309, and now carries a maximum ten-year prison sentence". This coming from the land of the free... UMMMM WHAT???

Guy Fawkes masks were among the symbols displayed during the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol. The main reason I am writing this blog entry today, although long as hell... there is a quote from the movie that has been playing in my head for over a year, especially knowing how disturbingly important today is for the United States of America; meaning it is just as important to us... their neighbours to the North!!

"Remember, remember the fifth of November of gunpowder treason and plot. I know of no reason why the gun powder treason should ever be forgot!!!"

Ponder that one...

~Phoenix