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kleinbl00  ·  3937 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski Book Club: Watchmen Discussion Part 1 [final discussion March 1st]

I've read it like, six times. I ain't gonna kick things off.

I will say that it isn't set in the future, it's set in an alternative present. Alan Moore wanted to take a swipe at Reagan but didn't want that to drown out his message. So he reached back through history, supposed that the US Government would use Doctor Manhattan to execute foreign policy in Vietnam, and that Nixon would be power-hungry enough to push through an amendment that would have him never leaving office.

Watchmen is set in an alternative 1986 present in which geopolitic has been asymmetrical since Kennedy. Considering Moore's fundamental distrust of the United States, it allowed him to play up the paranoia and pessimism to alarmist levels.

Watchmen came out in September 1986. This came out in November. Keep it in mind.