Watchmen: Chapter XI - the complete annotations

CHAPTER XI:

LOOK ON MY WORKS, YE MIGHTY…

Thematic Overview: 

This penultimate chapter focuses on Adrian Veidt – Ozymandias.  Detached from humanity, his only kinship with a king, Alexander of Macedon, who died over 2300 years earlier, Veidt is a singular being.  His admiration for the lateral thinking of Alexander, with the ancient king’s solution of simply cutting the Gordian Knot, is second to none and has fueled aspirations to solve his own Gordian Knot – the policy of Mutually Assured Destruction was a “knot to try even Alexander’s ingenuity” (p. 21). 

Fittingly, this chapter revolves around knots, both literal and metaphorical.  The knot-tops, whom we have seen throughout the story, are the most obvious example of this motif, as Chapter XI opens, even though we don’t see any besides Aline until the very end of the chapter.  But they are mentioned a few times – specifically by the newsvendor, Bernie – as many knot-tops are at the Pale Horse/Krystalnacht concert in Madison Square Garden.

Aline carries another example of the “knots” motif in the form of the relationship advice book she shares with Joey, entitled Knots.  This is an obvious metaphor for the romantic entanglements we often find ourselves in, and the messy knots from which we must divest ourselves when those relationships do not work out.  And this reality plays out in front of us, as Joey and Aline suffer the fraying of their relationship.

These invisible connections are the ties that bind us as a civilization, and this most important and most significant knot is exemplified across the breadth of this chapter, as we watch the various secondary characters introduced over the course of this story all come together at a single intersection.  And it is at this intersection where the fragility of these binding connections is revealed, as Veidt puts his plan into action and devastates the city of New York – with this intersection as ground zero.  

Watchmen: Chapter X - thematic overview

CHAPTER X:

TWO RIDERS WERE APPROACHING…

Thematic Overview: 

The title – “Two Riders Were Approaching…” – taken from the Bob Dylan song, “All Along the Watchtower,” lays out the visual motif for Chapter X.  This chapter is replete with two riders approaching, starting with Air Force 1 and Air Force 2 flying President Nixon and Vice President Ford in to NORAD.  It is here, where they believe themselves safely fortified against the approaching nuclear conflagration, that these two leaders of the free world will wait and see exactly how far the conflict in Europe escalates. 

From this point, we see a number of variations on two riders approaching, from the horror of the Black Freighter scenes to the pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses that stop at Bernie’s newsstand with a copy of the Watchtower.  The most significant instance of the two riders motif in this chapter comes from a comment by Rorschach on page 20 when he tells Nite Owl that the world is “on verge of apocalypse.  Death and War already here.  Other horsemen can’t be far behind.”  This acknowledgement of the metaphorical arrival of two of the four horsemen of the apocalypse heightens the sense of urgency within this story.  The end is nigh, and nothing seems able to halt that.

This metaphor also accentuates the reality that the finale of Watchmen is fast approaching.  As Moore & Gibbons finally start weaving their myriad plot threads together, the pattern begins to reveal itself.  The riders are the readers, marching toward the climax and the denouement that will give offer answers, while also providing more questions about this world.

Watchmen: Chapter IX - the complete annotations

CHAPTER IX:

THE DARKNESS OF MERE BEING

Thematic Overview: 

Chapter IX centers on the haze through which we view our memories.  Whether the metaphorical rose-colored glasses (visually symbolized by the bottle of Nostalgia perfume) or the holes that crop into our minds with the distance of time, our memories are more subjective than objective, despite how ardently we might argue the point.  And with “The Darkness of Mere Being,” Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons put that truth on full display.

This chapter is most prominently about Laurie Juspeczyk – Silk Spectre II – learning the truth about who her father was, shattering the fallacies built up over the course of her life.  Not only does her mother deceive her, but Laurie also deceived herself, placing many of her memories into a distorted context that helped keep the truth suppressed.  This blurring of her history, of these memories, is most obviously represented in this chapter by the multiple times we see Laurie in a blurred or formless reflection – both in the polished surfaces of Dr. Manhattan’s Martian fortress as well as the recurring image of Laurie’s young face reflected in the snowglobe. 

Despite this focus, the vagaries of memory are not relegated solely to Laurie.  Dr. Manhattan, who is able to see all things at all times, admits, in this chapter, to having trouble seeing the future.  Images of destruction flicker in his mind’s eye, but the details are vague, stripping this information of proper context.  This is a first for the omnipotent Dr. Manhattan, but he quickly offers a plausible, if hypothetical, explanation, giving readers permission to let that little bit of data to fade away – in the same manner that memories fade over time.  But it is this inability of Dr. Manhattan to precisely see the future that leads to the climax of this chapter.  And, in the end, these indistinct memories are sometimes the realities that allow us to deal with the hardships life throws at us.

Cover Image:  Once again, the cover image for this chapter is also the first panel of the story.  The image this time is a bottle of Nostalgia perfume, for which we have seen numerous ads throughout the story thus far, and which is also Sally Jupiter’s fragrance of choice.  This bottle of Nostalgia is significant to this chapter, as this particular bottle was given to Laurie by her mother, according to Laurie’s dialogue in Chapter VIII, page 22, panels 4-6.  And in this way, the bottle of Nostalgia connects mother and daughter.

Watchmen: Chapter IX - thematic overview

CHAPTER IX:

THE DARKNESS OF MERE BEING

Thematic Overview: 

Chapter IX centers on the haze through which we view our memories.  Whether the metaphorical rose-colored glasses (visually symbolized by the bottle of Nostalgia perfume) or the holes that crop into our minds with the distance of time, our memories are more subjective than objective, despite how ardently we might argue the point.  And with “The Darkness of Mere Being,” Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons put that truth on full display.

This chapter is most prominently about Laurie Juspeczyk – Silk Spectre II – learning the truth about who her father was, shattering the fallacies built up over the course of her life.  Not only does her mother deceive her, but Laurie also deceived herself, placing many of her memories into a distorted context that helped keep the truth suppressed.  This blurring of her history, of these memories, is most obviously represented in this chapter by the multiple times we see Laurie in a blurred or formless reflection – both in the polished surfaces of Dr. Manhattan’s Martian fortress as well as the recurring image of Laurie’s young face reflected in the snowglobe. 

Despite this focus, the vagaries of memory are not relegated solely to Laurie.  Dr. Manhattan, who is able to see all things at all times, admits, in this chapter, to having trouble seeing the future.  Images of destruction flicker in his mind’s eye, but the details are vague, stripping this information of proper context.  This is a first for the omnipotent Dr. Manhattan, but he quickly offers a plausible, if hypothetical, explanation, giving readers permission to let that little bit of data to fade away – in the same manner that memories fade over time.  But it is this inability of Dr. Manhattan to precisely see the future that leads to the climax of this chapter.  And, in the end, these indistinct memories are sometimes the realities that allow us to deal with the hardships life throws at us.

Watchmen: Chapter VIII - complete annotations

CHAPTER VIII:

OLD GHOSTS

A quick note:  In Chapter VI, I identified the character of Rorschach according to how he looked physically within any given scene – whether in his civilian guise of Walter Kovacs or his costumed identity of Rorschach.  I had considered identifying him in that chapter according to his psychology within a given scene, as Kovacs related to Dr. Long:  for many of the early years of his career he was only Kovacs pretending to be Rorschach.  But I felt that would be too confusing. 

As I continue with this project, I realize that to call Rorschach anything other than his true name, regardless of the different speech pattern we see from the unmasked Rorschach, is not only confusing, but wrong.  So, with this chapter, I will identify him as Rorschach, despite the fact that he is without his mask.  This may seem a little thing, but I do not wish there to be any confusion for those who have been reading along as I have been writing these notes on Watchmen.  Eventually, I expect to go back and revise the notes for Chapter VI to better reflect a continuity of thought that must be present within such an endeavor.  But for now, I will keep them as is.

Thanks,

chris

Thematic Overview: 

The main theme for Chapter VIII is liberation.  After the calm before the storm that was the previous chapter, we now see that storm bearing down on our heroes, and our heroes must unshackle themselves in order to confront it.  Derf’s misremembered comment, “like the spirit of ’76,” on the recent return of these outlawed adventurers sums things up nicely.  It is a reaction to these heroes while it also evokes a sense of patriotism that is also appropriate to these vigilantes coming out of the shadows.

On its surface, this chapter concerns the liberation of Rorschach from prison – a plan put forth by Dan Dreiberg at the end of Chapter VII.  Over the course of this chapter, the main narrative moves back and forth between Dan and Laurie’s preparations and Rorschach’s own actions to effect his personal independence and survival.  These threads come together in the latter half of the chapter, resulting in Rorschach’s liberation, which is the first step in this final act of Watchmen.

Less obvious, but equally important, is the liberation of Dan and Laurie from their self-imposed shackles.  For too long, these two have denied their “true” identities – their heroic identities – a result of the Keene Act of 1977.  Despite arguments to the contrary – that Laurie’s mother, the first Silk Spectre, forced her into costumed adventuring or that all of Dan’s gadgets seem childish, in retrospect – both are more comfortable, and more alive, when in their costumes, helping others.  With the previous chapter’s tenement fire rescue, Dan and Laurie finally tested those waters.  But it seemed Laurie only saw that as a one-time thing, not a return to adventuring.  Dan’s point of view was decidedly different, born from the confidence and relative ease he felt after finally putting the costume back on.  And, with this chapter, Dan and Laurie release those shackles and embark upon a new age of costumed adventuring.

And finally, the saddest part of this chapter acts as an exclamation point for its theme of liberation.  Hollis Mason – known for being Nite Owl and mistakenly believed to have saved the residents in the tenement fire last chapter – is beaten to death by a small group of Knot-Tops.  Thrown into a fury by the sense of impending doom, emphasized by Russia’s march into Pakistan, these young punks race to Mason’s home with an unreasonable rage in their hearts.  The leader, Derf, is beyond reason and uses the statue given to Mason in 1962, as a commemoration of his service as Nite Owl, to kill this kind, old man.  In a sense, Derf “liberates” Mason from this mortal coil, leaving a pall hanging over the story that parallels that which hangs over the citizenry of this alternate Earth.   

Watchmen: Chapter VIII - thematic overview

CHAPTER VIII:

OLD GHOSTS

A quick note:  In Chapter VI, I identified the character of Rorschach according to how he looked physically within any given scene – whether in his civilian guise of Walter Kovacs or his costumed identity of Rorschach.  I had considered identifying him in that chapter according to his psychology within a given scene, as Kovacs related to Dr. Long:  for many of the early years of his career he was only Kovacs pretending to be Rorschach.  But I felt that would be too confusing. 

As I continue with this project, I realize that to call Rorschach anything other than his true name, regardless of the different speech pattern we see from the unmasked Rorschach, is not only confusing, but wrong.  So, with this chapter, I will identify him as Rorschach, despite the fact that he is without his mask.  This may seem a little thing, but I do not wish there to be any confusion for those who have been reading along as I have been writing these notes on Watchmen.  Eventually, I expect to go back and revise the notes for Chapter VI to better reflect a continuity of thought that must be present within such an endeavor.  But for now, I will keep them as is.

Thanks,

chris

Thematic Overview: 

The main theme for Chapter VIII is liberation.  After the calm before the storm that was the previous chapter, we now see that storm bearing down on our heroes, and our heroes must unshackle themselves in order to confront it.  Derf’s misremembered comment, “like the spirit of ’76,” on the recent return of these outlawed adventurers sums things up nicely.  It is a reaction to these heroes while it also evokes a sense of patriotism that is also appropriate to these vigilantes coming out of the shadows.

On its surface, this chapter concerns the liberation of Rorschach from prison – a plan put forth by Dan Dreiberg at the end of Chapter VII.  Over the course of this chapter, the main narrative moves back and forth between Dan and Laurie’s preparations and Rorschach’s own actions to effect his personal independence and survival.  These threads come together in the latter half of the chapter, resulting in Rorschach’s liberation, which is the first step in this final act of Watchmen.

Less obvious, but equally important, is the liberation of Dan and Laurie from their self-imposed shackles.  For too long, these two have denied their “true” identities – their heroic identities – a result of the Keene Act of 1977.  Despite arguments to the contrary – that Laurie’s mother, the first Silk Spectre, forced her into costumed adventuring or that all of Dan’s gadgets seem childish, in retrospect – both are more comfortable, and more alive, when in their costumes, helping others.  With the previous chapter’s tenement fire rescue, Dan and Laurie finally tested those waters.  But it seemed Laurie only saw that as a one-time thing, not a return to adventuring.  Dan’s point of view was decidedly different, born from the confidence and relative ease he felt after finally putting the costume back on.  And, with this chapter, Dan and Laurie release those shackles and embark upon a new age of costumed adventuring.

And finally, the saddest part of this chapter acts as an exclamation point for its theme of liberation.  Hollis Mason – known for being Nite Owl and mistakenly believed to have saved the residents in the tenement fire last chapter – is beaten to death by a small group of Knot-Tops.  Thrown into a fury by the sense of impending doom, emphasized by Russia’s march into Pakistan, these young punks race to Mason’s home with an unreasonable rage in their hearts.  The leader, Derf, is beyond reason and uses the statue given to Mason in 1962, as a commemoration of his service as Nite Owl, to kill this kind, old man.  In a sense, Derf “liberates” Mason from this mortal coil, leaving a pall hanging over the story that parallels that which hangs over the citizenry of this alternate Earth.