Finally got around to reading Alan Moore's Voice of the Fire earlier this year, and it's still an experience that resonates with me six months later. Above and beyond the amount of research that went into it, and perhaps one of those great examples of an alternative take on the whole phenomenon of psychogeography, is the overwelming sense of warmth and humanity throughout the book. By the time I had read the first few lines of the chapter with the witches (dealing with the last of the witch hunts) I had gained a whole new level of respect for the warlock from Northampton. The final chapter was perhaps the riskiest, since every preceeding one had an element of... danger heaped upon a character instantly accessible by some drive or some inherent flaw or another, capped off in some narrative form; when the spotlight finally turns upon the city of Northampton itself, the risks that Moore comes to place upon himself as an author in the public eye becomes apparent, because unlike the rest of the book it is an entirely raw take where he's already raised up the curtains, and still expects the reader to follow him while he lays bare the tricks of his trade. It's probably one of those ballsy things that people have come to like him for.
There I go, talking as though I actually understood it all.
