I finally read Watchmen by singate

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I finally read Watchmen

POSTED BY: SINGATE
UPDATED: Saturday, November 29, 2008 17:27
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VIEWED: 2219
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Sunday, October 19, 2008 8:41 PM

I won't use spoiler tags so if you don't want to be spoiled turn back now.

Right off the bat I may upset a few people. I wasn't completely blown away upon reading this book. From all accounts this story is supposed to be some sort of life altering experience. Having mulled things over for about a week I've come to the conclusion that the problem is mainly due to my having read this 20+ years after it's initial publication. That being said I can appreciate how much Moore changed the landscape of storytelling in the comic genre.

The main thing I really appreciate in this book is the deconstruction of the superhero mythology. First off, only 1 of the characters is superhuman, although a strong case can be made for Ozzymandias. The second great point is that the masks are more or less average people with flaws and problems just like everyone else. Finally, all of the "heroes" aren't squeaky clean.

Rorschach should probably be institutionalized. He goes a bit overboard even when dealing with mild criminal transgressions. The Comedian doesn't seem to care about anything. The only reason he has for doing his "job" is the (sometimes)legitimate outlet for violent behavior. Last but definitely not least Ozzymandias orchestrates the deaths of millions in order to unite humanity.

My only real criticism is that the book my be a bit too long. There were times when it felt the story was meandering about with no real direction. In the end this becomes somewhat easy to overlook because the payoff is so huge. The heroes idly standing by while New York is decimated is a master stroke. Even more brilliant is their willingness to keep quiet because it actully is for the greater good.

There are 2 great ironies near the end of the story. 1)Rorschach is the only hero willing to stick to his principles. He can't accept that keeping quiet is for the greater good even though it is the only real option. 2)Dr. Manhattan murdering Rorschach because it is necessary my be the most heroic act in the book even though it reeks of treachery.

Overall a good read. I really shouldn't have waited so long.

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We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.

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Monday, October 20, 2008 11:35 AM

LWAVES

Glad you finally did get caught up. I agree it probably would have sat better if you'd read it earlier, but you didn't. It is one of those books that has stayed with me (and I really should read again soon, it's been waaaayyyy too long).

At least you did like it. I would have been more disappointed if you hadn't.

I do hope the movie can do it some kind of justice.

"I don't believe in suicide, but if you'd like to try it it might cheer me up to watch."

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Saturday, November 29, 2008 1:55 PM

REGINAROADIE

While I think that WATCHMEN is an amazing book, I can understand where you're coming from with the disappointment of reading a book that everyone says is the height of the medium and coming away unimpressed. I remember reading CATCHER IN THE RYE, thinking that this was a book that was going to change my life. But when I was done reading it, the only thought that was in my head was "What Holden Caufield needs more than anything else is a swift kick in the ass." It just did not do a thing for me.

And I think that's one problem that people come up against. That they either have so many people hype it up to them about how awesome it is that you're almost afraid of seeing it because it might not live up to the hype, or you've seen the variations and parodies of it that when you see the original, it just seems stale and cliche.

As an example of the former, I have never seen A CHRISTMAS STORY, and I don't want to. Because so many people have said that it's up there with IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE as the perfect Xmas movie, and just the concept of it and the images I've seen of it, I'm like "This is it?" To me, nothing can top Jimmy Stewart on the bridge begging to God "I wanna live again!! I wanna LIVE again!!!" Especially not some snot-nosed kid in a pink bunny costume asking for a BB gun.

And for the latter, since almost every comic book writer and drawer has been working in the shadow of Alan Moore and David Gibbons work, that comics for the last 25 years have been very dark and violent with sociopathic superheroes and people looking up at them in fear rather than awe that it's only now that comics are more hopeful (compare WATCHMEN and THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS to KINGDOM COME and THE NEW FRONTIER and you'll see what I mean). Entertainment Weekly actually did a really great article about the legacy of WATCHMEN and how it's permeated pop culture and how shows like BUFFY and LOST and movies like THE INCREDIBLES take their cues from WATCHMEN. THE INCREDIBLES is basically a sanitized, G rated version of WATCHMEN.

So if you've seen all the variations and things influenced by it, and none of the original, than the original is going to be diluted in comparison. Like I read WATCHMEN when I was starting to get back into comics when I was 15, and it really did blow me away like so many others. And with each day, I'm getting more and more excited for the movie. The song from the second trailer ("Take a Bow" by Muse) has been stuck in my head for the last week.

But I'm glad that you can appreciate what it did and why it's such a highly regarded book. I can understand why you thought the book meandered because it spends so much time going into the history of it's characters. But I wouldn't even consider getting rid of that because it feeds into the overall themes of the story and influences the plot.

With the movie, I'm very excited, but I'm also concerned. Mainly with the ending, because the ending is the entire point of the story. If they were to stop it, or to tell the world the truth, it would undermine what Ozy was trying to do with it and possibly doom the world instead of bringing it together. But I heard that while they change the nature of the catastrophe, that the moral quandary remains, which is I think the most important aspect of the book to protect. So if they do pull it off, they can change everything else for all I care. That and Dr. Manhattan's "thermodynamic miracles" monologue. If they can get those two things in the movie, than I'll consider it a success.

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"And it starts with a sentence that might last a lifetime, or it all might just go down in flames. If I let you know me, then why would you want me? Each day I don't is a shame. Each day I don't is a great shame."

Loudon Wainwright III - "Strange Weirdos" off the "Knocked Up" soundtrack

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Saturday, November 29, 2008 5:22 PM

HKCAVALIER

I can understand your ambivalence. I read the book when it came out and kinda mildly, but decisively, hated the thing. But I really dislike Alan Moore's work in general--great ideas overly intellectualized and poisoned by misanthropy. He comes across as an alien being trying to get a handle on human life and never quite getting it. Or not so much not getting it, as not really liking what he gets.

He has a very unkind assessment of human nature. Only evil or insane people have anything resembling a sense of humor in his books. The psychological problems of the heroes in Watchmen are soooo old-school Freudian. Dr. Manhattan is so clueless about his fellow humans that he has no idea that his girl friend might be freaked out if he duplicates himself during sex. Maybe if he were twelve that would fly, but at that point in the story he's well into middle age. These characters are not so much complex, as they are pathetic.

The semiotic shenanigans with the pirate story were tired even back in the 80's when they were oh so hip. Now they mean nothing (o' course, they meant nothing then, but back then meaning nothing was cool).

And Ozzymandias's big idea is a second year psych student's malignant fantasy. There is nothing seductive about his "logic." Moore, of course, stands apart and above all his creatures and I find it forced and artistically evasive--pay no attention to the man behind the genre fiction. He's got great ideas, but he kinda sucks too much as a person to give them life. That's why he hates all the movies made of his work, 'cause the medium gives his characters life, quite literally, and he wants them to stay dead and under his complete control (okay, maybe that's going a bit too far--mmmmmmmaybe).

Ach. Terrible. And the art!!!! Damn, but that is some of the most lifeless illo I have ever seen in print. Bland, bland, bland, pedestrian, stiff, composition like mannequins in a shop window, overly detailed, overly literal--I can practically read Moore's pedantic panel descriptions in every stroke. Argh!

So, anywayanywayanyway, yeah, I can understand that you might be a little underwhelmed.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Saturday, November 29, 2008 5:27 PM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by HKCavalier:
But I really dislike Alan Moore's work in general--great ideas overly intellectualized and poisoned by misanthropy. He comes across as an alien being trying to get a handle on human life and never quite getting it. Or not so much not getting it, as not really liking what he gets.

I see what you're saying- I guess I just liked it because it was so VERY NOT what I was used to in the genre.

The 'splainin' Chrisisall

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