Something I hadn't considered...

[avevale_intelligencer]

Alan Moore, in an interview to which cherylmmorgan links, says, among other things:

"To me, all creativity is magic,” he says. “Ideas start out in the empty void of your head – and they end up as a material thing, like a book you can hold in your hand. That is the magical process. It’s an alchemical thing. Yes, we do get the gold out of it but that’s not the most important thing. It’s the work itself. That’s the reward. That’s better than money.”

So far so good, and I tend to believe that myself. What he does not add, but as a practising occultist will certainly know (let's face it, people who watched Charmed know it), is that there is a rule about magic: you aren't allowed to make money from it*. I genuinely hadn't made that connection...but I'd be very surprised if he hasn't.

Hmmmm.

*As with everything in this area, there are many different interpretations of this. Some occultists figure it's okay to charge for materials, but not for the actual spellcasting. Some discriminate between things like divination, which is mostly looking at what's there and interpreting it, and actual magic. Some think it's all right to ask for donations but not to set a fee. And some simply don't give a toss, possibly because they know they are not actually doing magic. EDIT: and, as I should have pointed out, there are innumerable different types of magic and their attitudes to doing it for cash are all different. I was speaking from my own, largely indirect, knowledge, which because it comes from books is automatically suspect (see Pratchett passim).

Comments

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

But Moore get paid for the work he does, so he presumably does not agree about not getting paid for magic.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

It might play into the reasons why he doesn't accept money for the film adaptations...but I don't know. He certainly has other reasons.

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

He does accept money for the film adaptations. He sold the rights to adapt both V for Vendetta and Watchmen. I cannot confirm whether he sold the rights to From Hell but I doubt he would just give them away.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

I'm talking about this:

"Nobody quite believes Moore when he says he doesn't care about the movies made of his work. For most writers of any shade, a big-budget Hollywood adaptation of their work is a form of validation, not to mention a pension fund, but Moore puts his money where his mouth is – or rather isn't. He has had his name removed from anything to do with the Watchmen movie. He's also demanded that his share of any profits from it go to Dave Gibbons, the original artist of the comic book (who has co-operated with the movie production)."

(from the preamble to the interview in question, so presumably as accurate as a newspaper ever is)