watchmen

[mimesere]

so I finally finished reading Watchmen. I will have more thoughts later, but:

...REALLY, ALAN MOORE? REALLY? DO YOU EVEN LIKE SUPERHEROES? WAIT, NO, NVM. I HAVE READ YOUR COMICS AND THE ANSWER TO THAT IS NO. ALSO, YOU WRITE TERRIBLE PORNFICTION. TERRIBLE PORNFICTION.

in other news, I like Dan and Laurie and Jon a lot and Rorschach a little. Also, Rorschach would have hit it with Dan in a hot second if he weren't crazy.

Anyway. I think the appeal of Alan Moore is largely lost on me as I generally come out of reading his stuff left with the urge to punch him repeatedly in the face. That said, Watchmen is a brilliant story filled with fucked up people who do fucked up things and are largely miserable and who suck. Zach Snyder, bring me the pretty, baby, and also explosions.

(but no, seriously, Nite Owl = love)

Comments

[basingstoke.livejournal.com]

Rorschach is so dirty that Nite Owl had to create special nose filters when they worked together.

Also, I strongly suspect he removed his penis with garden shears. But apart from that, they are totally Meant2Be. :D

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, Nite Owl seems to be the only person that's really willing to put up with Rorschach for any length of time. And nose filters are totally how he shows his love! He made a gadget!

And they had a relationship conversation! In most fandoms, that would mean sex.

Just re-read it myself

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

and yeah, I kind of adore Nite Owl. I'm sad to note that the movie casts him as young and buff. ::sigh::

The degree of sympathy we're meant to have with Rorschach disturbs me greatly, but OTOH the brilliant thing about the comic is the way it summarizes the generational anxiety that's at the heart of America's current political divide: this country never recovered from the 60s. For the conservatives, the time before then was a golden age where people knew right from wrong and there was no such thing as ambiguity or complexity; for everyone else, the 60s finally meant freedom.

The idea that the last holdouts of the conservative mindset will ultimately be destroyed by the combination of their own intransigent morality and nuclear weapons (here personified by Jon), while the rest of the world will join hands and sing Kumbaya in the face of an even greater threat, must have seemed particularly prescient in the 80s, when Moore wrote it. Nowadays, it's a little naive, perhaps, but it still has dramatic power.

I dunno how I'll bring myself to see the movie, though. All that torture!

Re: Just re-read it myself

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Hee hee. What's funny to me about the casting for Nite Owl in the movie is that they talked to the actor about it and he was all, "No, I was the only person who had to get out of shape for the role." So I have hopes. And he seemed to really get the character, so that gives me more hope. All of the actors seemed like they were totally on board with the characters and it looks like a *good* cast. So yeah. Fingers crossed.

I liked the plot of Watchmen a lot. I usually like Alan Moore's plots. I just...didn't like most of the people (except for Nite Owl and Silk Specter. I liked him pretty unreservedly) and that is true of my feelings on Alan Moore's work too. Ahh, conflicted feelings.

Re: Just re-read it myself

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I feel better about it, knowing that the actor said that. Of course, there's still the "woman falls in love with her rapist" plotline to get cranky about.

ITA that Nite Owl and Silk Specter are the best.

[softplaces.livejournal.com]

LOL rather conincidentally I was just re-reading it, but I do love it so, but that's pretty much how I feel about all Alan Moore type things - I would want to marry him if he wasn't as scary looking. Oh, but I like that indignance that you're left with! For some reason I loved the Comedian, and I can't fathom why because he's horrible and yet, and yet. And Rorschach, more than anything!

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

I was really conflicted about the Comedian. Like, he's not completely awful but he's pretty bad. OTOH, he really seemed to like Sally and was interested in Laurie. Complexity = good.

They were all interesting people? But they weren't terribly likable (except for Nite Owl) and it felt a lot like Alan Moore was going out of his way to make them unlikable. So I dunno. I am not a huge fan of GRIM! and DEPRESSING! and ZOMG EDGY!

[donella.livejournal.com]

Dan is so awesome. You just want to take him home and cuddle him and help him fight crime and...yeah.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

I love Dan SO MUCH. Dan and Laurie make me go all :D :D :D at the book.

[wemblee.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I hated Rorschach. I read Watchmen like eight years ago and don't remember much except that it impressed me and blew my mind yet was so depressing and bleak that I had no desire to pick it up ever again (or at least, anytime soon), and that I hated Rorschach. I kept sitting there going, "You are wrong! Wrong! Learn that you're wrong! Change and grow! Come on, book! Give this to me!" And this didn't happen. (Also, it didn't help that he was loving on the rag with the anti-semitic cartoon, which, weirdly enough, is the one thing that sticks out brightly in my mind. Although a friend pointed out to me that apparently it's implied that the cartoonist is Jewish. WTF ALAN MOORE LEAVE ME ALONE.)

I think I remember feeling sympathy for Nite Owl? And Doc Manhattan? And, again, feeling mind-blown and impressed by it but just... so few of the characters were likable. In a weird way, it almost kind of reminds me of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which also had a cast that, for me, was largely unlikable (and the characters that did seem to be nice and decent kind of got shat on a lot). Though I like JS&MN better (even though I'm not sure when/if I'll be able to reread that one as well).

Also, Watchmen's art -- brilliant yet ugly. It confuses me.

[wemblee.livejournal.com]

...actually, re: JS&MN, 'cause I remember us chatting about it and squeeing about it a bit -- it's like... they were unlikable yet I liked them? I don't know! Anyway. Um.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

I really loved Arabella, but yeah, pretty much everyone else was kind of meh.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

We were having this whole conversation at work about the end of Watchmen and the question got asked, are you ultimately a Rorschachian or a Manhattanite and I...have to come down on the side of Rorschach. I mean, I understand the whole thing where killing some people to preserve the rest is totally understandable and (in my head) somewhat justifiable (please see my feelings re: the Heroes episode .07%), but it happened in a way that was just...bleh. So I come down on Rorschach's side. IDEK.