Saturday, October 1, 2011
Promethea vs. Prometheanism
I looked up Promethea today, and in addition to the comic I found the Promethean Movement. "The Promethean movement is dedicated to advancing human life through self-expression, augmented by authentic freedom, experimentality and individualism" http://promethea.org/ This movement seems to agree with the ideas found in the Promethea comic. The Promethia comic values creativity and the imagination through the Immateria. The website continues "Promethea is about making a new future; is about life, and freedom, and diverse individuality; is about metamorphosis — recreating ourselves and society; is about becoming the heroes and heroines who can change everything." Promethea is a heroine who is continuously recreated by creativity related to the Promethea myth. She is a regular person who becomes a heroine and helps people. The movement is said to have started in 1998 with the production of the Promethean Manifesto which can be found here: http://www.promethea.org/Trilogy/TextVersions/text_manifesto.html There seems to be an entire society committed to prometheanism. There is a third website that answers questions, and even has a section to answer if they are terrorists. http://www.prometheanmovement.org/index.html My question is whether this movement really began in 1998 before the Promethia comic, or if it is a response to the comic. Did Allan Moore's comic spawn a cult following? or does he subscribe to the movement?
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I had never heard of Prometheanism before, but this is actually quite an interesting idea. It's refreshing to see this movement that is only about liberty, freedom, and individuality, and not about opposing someone else. It seems pretty similar to third-wave feminism.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem like the Promethea comics and Prometheanism go hand in hand, but I would not be surprised if Prometheanism was in fact invented first and Alan Moore just believed in it. Based on the books, these are definitely ideals he supports, so Prometheanism may well have inspired him when he was writing the comics.
I agree that Prometheanism is a very interesting idea. I think that it does sound like a feminist movement, and Alan Moore would have definitely supported Prometheanism. Prometheanism might have influenced him to write Promethea, but he might have already had his ideals and values to begin with. Although, I am surprised that it doesn't mention anything about religion, which is supposed to be heavily emphasized in the later issues.
ReplyDeleteBased on what you said, it seems quite likely that Alan Moore was at least partially influenced by Prometheanism. Promethea might end the world according to some of the characters, but this can lead to a new future where Promethean ideas dominate. I find it funny how there's a section dedicated to answering whether they're terrorists or not, but it's actually quite believable, since Promethea basically lives for changing things, whether ideas or the "real world."
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see how a book inspired a movement that then served as a source of inspiration for a comic. However, I question how large a part Prometheanism had in Allan Moore's creation. The website states that Prometheanism is expansion of a philosophy formulated in the Promethean Manifesto, created by Colin Barth, or Pheonix, his Promethean name. While I think that this philosophy definitely contributed to Allan Moore's creation of Promethea, I think it is the myth that can be traced "as far back as Socrates (not Plato), 2500 years ago or to Medieval Islamic intellectuals" was the greatest inspiration for both Allan Moore and Colin Barth.
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