Ripper Politics

A good review of From Hell, the new Johnny Depp movie based on Alan Moore’s stunning graphic novel.

The central thesis of this marvellous conspiracy fiction about the motives of Jack the Ripper are perhaps even more poignant these days. The Ripper is represented as a harbinger of modernity, of killing for media satisfaction rather than personal motives. Bin Laden may honestly think or say to himself that he’s killing to preserve Islam and Buish and the Gang may honestly believe their bombing of Afghani civilians is a defence against attacks within the US… but what did one of the characters, Gull, note about the Ripper?

“The butchery is random,” he says, describing the killer�s handiwork, “yet meticulous, methodical�an altogether different breed of killer.” He kills not for self-preservation or dominance, but out of an egomaniacal desire to write his own demons on a public wall in blood, inflicting so much fear on the populace that they can think of nothing but him … the opening act in a new age of ritualized, narcissistic, expressive brands of slaughter

This gets at something crucial in modern public life. Any politician who murders large numbers of people for personal rather than policy reasons (Hitler as opposed to Nixon) does so because his actions are permitted, even encouraged, by millions of strangers�faceless spectators who see the murderer as their representative, their fantasy figure, their champion … From Hell dips beneath the surface of the impoverished popular imagination, taking us deeper into human impulses, deeper into history, deeper into fear. In an age of televised mass slaughter, that might be deeper than some viewers are willing to go.