Watchmen

I saw the film version of Watchmen when I was in my final year of university and spent most of the three hour behemoth dodging the unwanted advances of a guy I was friends with at the time.  I tell you so that you understand that while I know the basic plot of the thing and the world in which it is set- superheroes, Vietnam, Nixon- some of the nuances were possibly lost on me.  Of course, I am here paying the film the compliment of assuming there was any nuance to miss.  I seem to remember enjoying it, as much as it’s possible to enjoy a film in which someone asks during a rape scene, “isn’t this so hot…?”

I assume others have seen the film too (probably in more auspicious circumstances) and so a recap of the plot is barely necessary.  I think that the only bit that really changes is the ending and, you know, spoilers.  Fans of the book don’t seem that keen on the film because apparently loads of bits have been cut out, but the only thing that really caught my attention was a subplot about a missing comic book artist/ writer and, to be honest, those are the worst parts.  I don’t care about pirates who are fictional even in a fictional world and are only linked to the real plot thematically and that’s all that that bit provides.  There is some philosophising about the nature of man, though, which is quite nice but really could have been explored more in prose.

I was a bit sceptical about reading Watchmen.  I was never really into comics as a kid and now I’m an adult I really don’t expect my books to have pictures.  I can read.  This is the only graphic novel on The List and I’m quite happy about that.  I know that Alan Moore is revered as one of the greats (and I’m sure in that world David Gibbons is pretty well known and respected too) but I just don’t get it.  Some of the art is nice enough, but it makes so much more sense to me just to have scenarios in books described to me.  There’s not enough detail to really express emotion in a comic book panel- there’s a scene in which Laurel confronts the Comedian over trying to rape her mother and his response is, “only once.”  And it should be awful but it’s so much harder to understand what the characters feelings and motives are and I’m sure there’s a knack to reading them but it’s not one that I care to pick up.  Give me words any day.

One of the bits that I ended up enjoying the most was something entirely coincidental about Adrian Veidt.  There are these extracts from various sources at the end of each chapter and one of them is private business and marketing correspondence for Veidt’s company and, more importantly, The Veidt Method (a course which promises happiness and health for a fee).  The material is a cross between wellness, positive thinking bullshit and those leaked scripts from Trump U.  It’s terrifying and hilarious that something like that can still be so on point when it comes to satirising big business.  I also enjoy the implications that Donald Trump is a comic book villain.

So, Watchmen.  To conclude; I do not like comics.  I do like philosophy.  More words are good.  (Imagine your own pictures to go along with that). 

I’m now on to Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin.