Visions of the Future, Courtesy of Moore and Lloyd

Well, I liked this one. And, frankly, I didn't find it as different from the movie version as Professor Jackson made it seem. Yes, of course the movie didn't do it justice, but at least they kept some things. People died the same, for instance. And the domino thing. :) Anyway, what can I talk about? I did the wiki this week, so I feel like it's coming out my ears. But I'll touch on some of the themes I found.
First, it's interesting to see how religion is used in the novel. The state motto is "Strength Through Purity. Purity Through Faith." so they obviously have faith as a core element. How much of this is the party and how much was influenced by Adam Susan is hard to tell, but his...interesting discussions with his "god" certainly played a role, I am sure. The clergymen support the state in homilies but behind closed doors, the one clergyman we see isn't very pure. He has a taste for the younger sort, but I suppose you can give him credit for keeping it heterosexual, at least doctrinally speaking. He uses a religious text as a seduction tool, hardly a man you'd want to be in the upper levels of church hierarchy. Religion has been corrupted the same way the state has, which is an interesting spin on it.
Second, protection for the citizenry by the state. Surveillance is the way of life in this alternate London. Cameras are on every street and in every home. Whole branches of government are dedicated to spying on the citizens, the Eye and the Ears. Invading the privacy of citizens has become a small price to pay for security and the retention of control. As I said on the wiki, and something Mike might have included in his own post, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." ~ Benjamin Franklin. Civil liberties have become essential these days and something we take for granted all too often.
Lastly, I'd like to touch on the dichotomy between insanity and sanity. The novel played around with the concept a lot. Was V insane? I'm not sure he was. I think he was coldly, extremely rationally sane. He planned everything out precisely and seemed to plan for everything. Can we call him insane just because we can't fathom the rationale behind his plan? Yes, V killed people. But that makes him a murderer and following the old "eye for an eye" moral code. He certainly was pushed to it. We don't know why he was at Larkhill, just that he was and ended up in room five. I think that anyone could be driven mad going through what he did. Maybe his plan for breaking out and revenge later was enough to hold him together and shake off whatever signs of mental breakdown the doctors saw. They also could have misdiagnosed. I thought it was interesting how the novel played around with sanity and freedom. Whatever freedom V seems to have achieved came after his bout of insanity. Evey reached it after being pushed to the breaking point. Finch seems to have gotten there with LSD. V finds all the normal people to be in prison, perhaps sanity is a prison then? It seems plausible considering reports of the effects of insanity and highs: losing inhibitions, feeling different, etc. And all of this is turning into one of those cyclical philosophical questions.
So I'll end for now and leave you with my own set of freedom quotes:
...everything can be taken from a man[or woman], but one thing: the last of the human freedom's--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to chooes one's own way. ~ from Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl (much like Valerie's one inch)

I know but one freedom and that is the mind. ~ Antoine DeSaint Exupery

There is not liberation without labor, and there is no freedom which is free. ~ The Siri Singh Sahib

Freedom is not the right to do as you please, but the liberty to do as you ought.

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. ~ Soren Kierkegaard

When governments fear the people there is liberty. When the people fear the government there is tyranny. ~ Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826) (A bit like V's governments should be afraid of the people, yes?)