Hi everyone,
This is quite an enticing and engaged series of responses. I have pasted in, below, sections from each of your posts because they stood out as key points that I hope prompt further discussion in class. Sam and Andreas get special commendation for bringing Rosen into their discussions so astutely. Their comments demonstrate an effective way to draw on a critical analysis in an effort to widen its scope. That said, I would like to hear from Sam in class a more fully developed rationale for his reading of three aspects of god rather than the 3 deities that Rosen argues for.
Andreas provided a wonderful analysis of learning to read graphic narrative—not something that one knows how to do without practice—and applies it smartly to the argument that Rosen makes in her opening about the Book of Revelation (and remember, Andreas—there really is no s on the end!).
Mac’s comments toward the end of his post made me wonder—in the recent economic crisis, didn’t we have a handful of Adrian Veidt types willing to risk financial ruin and destruction for their self-interest? I liked what he said about the worldview of The Road in contrast to Watchmen, but wonder here whether the generalization is too large. Who is the audience in this regard?
Jon’s reading of Christ and Anti-Christ for Jon and Adrian is perceptive in many respects, but, as with Sam, I’d like to hear an argument made on this score. In particular, take up (in class) why we benefit from this reading more than the one that Rosen gives us.
Here are the passages I found most provocative:
Sam: “Which brings me to the crux of Rosen’s analysis: that of the different apocalyptic deities she sees in Watchmen’s primary characters. As I re-read the text, I saw more and more not three separate godheads embodied in Ozymandias, Dr. Manhattan, and Rorschach, but rather three aspects of an omniscient world savior, and the weight such a figure must inevitably bear. Each copes with their terrible power in pursuit of a different virtue: Ozymandias, reformation; Dr. Manhattan, transcendence; and Rorschach, justice.”
Andreas: “Widening the gutter, if you will, has allowed for a plethora of self-proclaimed prophets to fashion what ISN’T SAID in the New Testament’s final volume, into events and teachings that work with their own whims and goals. What isn’t said, is as powerful as what is said—and in the case of the Book of Revelations this statement could not be more universally applicable. Relying on heavy imagery through a graphic narrative, having a distorted and non-sequential sense of time and space, and acting like a comic in its use of the “gutter” concept—the Book of Revelations can be said to essentially derive its mass appeal from its nature as a proto-Christian, archaic pseudo-comic book.”
Mac: “Ultimately, perhaps the only truly unbelievable thing about Watchmen is that its Doomsday is orchestrated by one individual driven by selfish motives. Ozymandias, “king of kings,” is an homage to the black-and-whiteness of evils past. Now, as we discard postmodern notions for even more, apocalyptic fiction has become even more vague, as evidenced by our next reading, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. The Road, and its contemporary ilk in apocalyptic fiction, like Don DeLilo’s White Noise, affix no certain definition to the downfall of the status quo. Moore’s vision of the apocalypse is horrifying in it calculation, but these days, there isn’t a countdown clock or a “red button” in engaging apocalyptic myth – post millennial audiences are disengaged from the tangibility of defined affectations. Now, the world ends in a dizzying haze of nothingness or undefined horror. As a concept, it is no longer manifested empirically in our culture.”
Jon: “one wonders if we are meant to think of the two figures in this way – Christ-figure and antichrist – or if there’s supposed to be some confusion, the message of which is to say that life is not always clear.
The world may never know the answer to these things, but ultimately I’d like to choose the message of confusion – that we must remember that both saints and sinners bleed, so to speak, and that we must ultimately be careful, and avoid blind faith in those who would be heroes; skepticism and faith can go hand in hand, just they must be mixed carefully.”
