OT: watchmen on trial

James Wynn · 22 Mar 2005, 11:01 · from 2005-March.txt.gz

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From: thewynns at earthlink.net (James Wynn)
Date: Tue Mar 22 11:01:08 2005
Subject: (urth) OT: watchmen on trial
References: <56805.209.167.159.20.1111507579.squirrel at webmail.vex.net>
	<003401c52efd$d168ff50$60a3f63f@wynnhouse>
	<1f7617370503220943d5b620a at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <008301c52f11$81432d20$60a3f63f@wynnhouse>

>>I said:
>> [T]he ending of "The Watchmen" is the triumph of the ubermensch. What
>> shall I make of that?

>To which Blattid answered:
>Actually, even the ending is ambiguous.
>It appears, in the final panel, that Rorschach's diary - which will expose
>Veidt's manipulations - is about to be published.

Since my copies are inaccessible to me right now, I'll have to defer to your 
rendition of that (and I would like it if it were true).

But my memory of the ending is more of an 
Indiana-Jones-The-Ark-Gets-Lost-In-A-Warehouse type ending. I remember the 
diary was sitting on a reporter's desk and was in the process of being lost 
or thrown away.

>Iorwerth said:
>Regarding TDK, I think the British sf magazine SFX had a feature on it in
>which Miller was of the opinion that most of Gotham's villains were as they
>were due to the presence of Batman; the theory put forwards by the TV
>psychologist that Batman is the locus of the chaos (since criminals define
>themselves against him) is in fact what is going on.

I find this to be the most discouraging, most morally vapid interpretation 
of TDKR that I can imagine. If I ever read it again, in order to find any 
pleasure in it, I'll have rub out the memory Miller declaring that the ONE 
truth teller in the graphic novel was one of his trivial TV commentators.

~ Crush

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