Peter Tupper's Reviews > The Filth
The Filth
by
by
If "The Invisibles" is Morrison as a young man, full of 1990s optimism and possibility, "The Filth" is Morrison as a depressed, despairing middle aged man, in the post-Millennial, post-9/11 haze of war and malaise.
Instead of super-cool, Jerry Cornelius-like King Mob as Morrison's alter ego (or "fiction suit"), here the story centers around "dodgy bachelor" Greg Feely, who's torn between looking after his ailing cat and his super-spy alternate personality.
Instead of "The Invisibles" battle between freedom and tyranny, "The Filth" is more about the possibly futile struggle against entropy. There are people who want to change the world, but they're not hip counter-culture radical freedom fighters. They're nasty, selfish, vicious thugs, and even if they're defeated, they still leave a mess to clean up.
This is a difficult read: not only is Morrison depicting an ugly world of squalor and decay, but the narrative is much less linear and it branches into a variety of subplots and loose ends. You have to be prepared for it.
Instead of super-cool, Jerry Cornelius-like King Mob as Morrison's alter ego (or "fiction suit"), here the story centers around "dodgy bachelor" Greg Feely, who's torn between looking after his ailing cat and his super-spy alternate personality.
Instead of "The Invisibles" battle between freedom and tyranny, "The Filth" is more about the possibly futile struggle against entropy. There are people who want to change the world, but they're not hip counter-culture radical freedom fighters. They're nasty, selfish, vicious thugs, and even if they're defeated, they still leave a mess to clean up.
This is a difficult read: not only is Morrison depicting an ugly world of squalor and decay, but the narrative is much less linear and it branches into a variety of subplots and loose ends. You have to be prepared for it.
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
June 7, 2011
– Shelved