Twain-ish watchmen?

As we were talking about the “take-home” message of watchmen on Wednesday, I couldn’t help but get frustrated. It seems there are so many conflicting ideas. When I finally get a grasp on what I think Moore is saying, there’s always an instance that negates it. It seems like an endless cycle of hope and despair. And then I got frustrated with myself for thinking so hard. Can’t I just read a graphic novel for fun? Pretty pictures are always nice to accompany text…I didn’t expect to be thinking so hard about a comic book (which does grant my respect to them).

I suppose my overall opinion of watchmen is that it takes itself too seriously. Shouting images of violence, hate, and prejudice at me through the pages does not make me want to think harder about the blood that is out of those pages around me. Humanity is rough enough as it is without adding more roughness in the pages of an illustrated novel. I think I would have liked watchmen a little more if there was a disclaimer written before the text…almost like Mark Twain’s prologue in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

NOTICE

PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.

BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR, Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance

This notice makes me want to dig deeper into the text just because I’m told not to. This must mean that I can take away very rish messages from the text. Just the title WATCHMEN and the bright yellow cover art grabs my eye like a biohazard sign that I should take caution around. I know Huck Finn is very different from watchmen but the take home message from me to Moore is just to be subtle.