Saturday, January 14, 2012

Watchmen: Chapter I - page 14

PAGE 14

Panel 1: Rorschach is writing in his journal with his left hand, if we needed any more evidence that he is a southpaw.

Panel 4: Rorschach is looking down from the top of one of New York’s apartment buildings, again giving a sense of these heroes being above it all, while they look down into a deep abyss threatening to swallow them all.

Also note the poster in the window: “Stick With Dick in 84.” Another indication of how our world differs from this one. Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon, instead of being forced out of office in 1974, has instead successfully campaigned for three more terms past the time his second one would have ended.

Panel 5: More indications that things have progressed differently in this America: News Headline – “Congress Approves Lunar Silos” signifying that the international treaties prohibiting nuclear weapons in space in our reality are irrelevant in a world with Dr. Manhattan – and the graffiti – “Viet Bronx” – which indicates America’s 51st state.

Also, it is useful to note that within his journal, Rorschach writes with a style and cadence that is almost poetic, while – as we will see – in his interpersonal interactions, he is unable to maintain his “end of the conversation,” and often speaks in half-sentences and grunts.

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