One Perfect Moment: FROM HELL--Sir William Gull

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

The Essence of FROM HELL's William Withey Gull.

Which is to be distinguished from the actual Gull, as Moore and Campbell make no claim he is Jack the Ripper, just that he worked well for the story.
That in mind, here's six pages(well under the 1/3 limit--it's a 38-page chapter from a looong book)from Chapter 4, which some readers might skip over as it's basically, on the face of it, a tour of churches and obelisks in London, without any action or, apparently, intrigue. But in fact this chapter may be the most important one, and carries the essence of Gull in it.
This first page below in particular is interesting because it features the line that led Moore to become a magician. See if you can guess it.



And here's a moment that chills my spine to this day. Particularly Gull's smile.



(c)1999 Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell.

Comments

[khaosworks.insanejournal.com]

I've actually done the William Gull tour of London. It's rather sobering.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Of course, as Campbell later wrote, they found later that a bridge they pass over was only half-finished at the time.

And also: all this Julian Jaynes-oriented right-left brain stuff--was this concept of the right and left brain even known yet at the time?

[besamim.insanejournal.com]

From Moore's endnotes to this chapter:

Gull's musings upon the nature of the right brain and its relationship to consciousness are in keeping with what is known of Gull's interests during the last few years of his life.

According to [William Withey Gull:] A Biographical Sketch, Gull's final researches were directed towards an exploration of the right brain, and thus the ruminations here would seem to be in character.

And yes, by that time researchers such as Broca and Wernicke had begun to identify the phenomenon of brain function lateralization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateralization_of_brain_function), specifically with regard to speech production (in what's now called "Broca's area") and language comprehension (in what's now called "Wernike's area"). Mid-twentieth century research on epilepsy and on split-brain surgery patients fleshed out our understanding of this phenomenon, but the groundwork was in place by Gull's time.

The most difficult chapter in the book.

[nefrekeptah.insanejournal.com]

It has a lovely payoff, but dear GOD, the endless text...

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

Cool !Please post the part where the killer flashes forwards to the present tme and doesn't like what he sees :)

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

I always think it must be so strange to be Gull. I mean, if he could have known that one day he'd randomly become one of the main suspects for Jack the Ripper.

[janegray.insanejournal.com]

I dodn't get it. What the heck happened?

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

What happened is Gull explained his beliefs and purpose(and that Netley already belongs to him and has to do as he says). Unfortunately, due to the rules, I only included some highlights--one really has to read the whole chapter to understand what's so horrifying at the end.

But this is where he gives every reason you could want to know why he, as a Mason, later kills the women. The scariest part is that Gull's not yet really crazy here.