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comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  3934 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.





briandmyers  ·  3934 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Also remember, in 1986, there were still two superpowers; and Russia was still presented to the American public as a nearly-equal adversary. That notion was completely gone within a decade. Fears of mutually-assured-destruction were still very real and present in 1986, as in the book.

mk  ·  3934 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That video was masterful, and you couldn't pick a better example of contemporary art. Reading Watchmen actually brought back some things from the time to me.

The thing I like most about the book is the chaos. We synthesize it differently now. IMO the treatment of the chaos in Watchmen makes it a period piece.

My brother and I still quote: I, gotta, tell ya.

kleinbl00  ·  3934 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    That video was masterful, and you couldn't pick a better example of contemporary art.

Oh, I dunno...

mk  ·  3934 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Getting an error.

Oddly, my wife was just watching Paul Simon's "The Boy in the Bubble". August 1986.

kleinbl00  ·  3934 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Your website added some iFrame funk to it.

mk  ·  3934 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, the new markdown messed it up. It'll be fixed soon.

kleinbl00  ·  3934 days ago  ·  link  ·  

DAMN YOU PROGRESS