Alan Moore spills the beans on the Book Shambles podcast

Alan Moore by Fabio Abreccia

This guy.

Arguably the most respected comic book writer—who might or might not be a practicing magician, certified student of the occult, and recent author of  “Jerusalem,” a Top 10 in the longest novels written in the English language category. To begin the festivities we quote the information box from this podcast episode:

Recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall, Robin is joined by guest co-host Sarah Kendall and Alan Moore. They chat about where real science has influenced Alan’s works, why Trump’s election might be a result of too many superhero films, and the best motorway services in and around Milton Keynes.

To be more precise, Moore is preoccupied by the infantilization of the culture. He makes light fun of adults indulging in superhero movies and insinuates they’re overcompensating and not properly equipped to deal with reality. His words, not ours. But yeah.

Then we step into the lab and talk about the best things to come out of science: brilliant ideas that we’re never going to know are right or wrong, real or not. Like black holes or the multiverse, of which he doesn’t approve. Another example of something we will never be able to confirm: Why the expansion of the Universe is not slowing down as we anticipated, but in fact, speeding up? Our reality might be a 3D facet of a 4D crystal which is expanding rapidly in a 5D liquid. Yeah. Gigantic, beautiful, useless ideas. Like simulation theory.

Then he goes full Alan Moore and makes fun of the occult and conspiracy theories. Confirms London’s got a huge pentacle made of significant archeological sites but theorizes the installation might’ve been assembled as a joke. You’ll have to listen to learn the exact details.

Near the end of the show we finally talk about something related to his work: the nature of time. Georg Cantor is discussed. Moore explains the Block Universe theory that permeates “Jerusalem” and declares: The whole Universe is unchanging and eternal, so everything comprising it should be unchanging and eternal. Apparently, this school of philosophy is called “Eternalism.”

To close off the podcast the host tells the story of a nine-year-old who asked him the most important question: How do I know I’m not being dreamt by someone else? Boom!