“Watchmen’s whodunit plot was not allowed to kick into gear until late in the day and climaxes with Ozymandias spouting Postmodern art theory in his snowbound eyrie (“phosphor-dot swirls juxtapose; meanings coalesce from semiotic chaos before reverting to incoherence”). Even that old windbag the Silver Surfer might have hung his head in shame.” As its twentieth anniversary approaches, Critic Tom Shone revisits The Watchmen for Slate. Frankly, the piece begins and ends as almost a parody of the too-frequent needlessly contrarian Slate article: “The Watchmen is not as good as you remember!” Next up: “Torture good, Ice Cream bad!” Still, it’s worth reading regardless.
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Excellent post, Jai. And yes, that “Watchmaker” sueeqnce struck me as remarkable when I was reading the book — it’s at that chapter that I realised I was reading something special. You know, I’ve always read comic books pretty fast, caught up in the adrenalin of their plot, just swept along. With books like Watchmen, though, I learnt to go slow, to savour every frame. You read “Ghost World” by Daniel Clowes? Just finished it recently, more moving than any novel I’ve read in ages. (I’m not going to see the film!)