ideonexus.com

But who watches the watchmen?
- Juvenal

To my shame, I must admit I have never read Alan Moore’s literary classic Watchmen, the graphic novel above all graphic novels, the book that is required reading in many college English classes, and the comic that made Time magazine’s 100 All-Time Novels. I totally lose nerd-points for never having taken the time to add such an important and influential work to my reading list.

1986 Watchmen T-Shirt

Last week I corrected this personal shortcoming. My plan was to read the book in a week, but, unable to put it down, I read it in a six-hour marathon session. All I can say is, WOW. I had previously read Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta and Promethea, the latter held my previous #1 spot for all-time-greatest graphic novel before Watchmen dethroned it.

Watchmen is a classic noir tale, opening with a murder, leading to a mystery, and a journey through a menagerie of classic noir archetypes. The psychotic killer, fem fatale, confidant, mobster, floozy, bad-cop, hard-boiled detective, and wealthy untouchable are all present and accounted for, only here they are all superheroes.

With one exception, Alan Moore’s superheroes do not possess super-human powers. They are merely athletes, inventors, or vigilantes needing costumes to protect them from the law. Watchmen takes place in an alternate history where the existence of superheroes has intensified the arms race between America and the U.S.S.R., where their intervention in Vietnam allows America to win that conflict, and allowed Richard Nixon’s re-election. The book is brimming with historical inside jokes, as when Robert Redford is mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, a character responds, “Who wants a cowboy actor to be President?”

I would consider Watchmen a fairly anti-superhero book, wrestling with the philosophical concept of valetism, hero-worship (”No man is a hero to his valet.”). Moore’s heroes are so humanly-flawed, like any authority, how can we imagine consolidating so much power in their hands?

Which of Moore’s superheros’ worldviews would we trust to care for us? Rorchack’s extreme social conservativism, Ozymandias’ extreme socialism, the Comedian’s nihilism, or Dr. Manhattan’s impartial omniscience? At the book’s conclusion, the characters are faced with a disturbing moral decision to make, but one that is brought about from all their meddling in the world.

Watchmen is a book that requires several readings to fully appreciate the complex characters, myriad plotlines, layers of symbolism tying everything together, and the depth of its philosophical issues, to which there are no clear answers. It’s a book about superheroes in the real world, and the good and the bad that comes of it.

A film version of the novel is scheduled for March 9th 2009, produced by Larry Gordon who has been working for 17 years to bring this novel to the big screen. It will be directed by Zack Snyder, whose previously directed the offensively bad film 300, and who I think lacks the emotional maturity to pull off Watchmen. A trailer for the film further squelches my enthusiasm, as it features all the stereotypical shots of people in costumes striking cool poses, which really goes against the spirit of the novel.

Awhile back I wrote a letter to the Babyboomer Generation, asking them to have the prescience and dignity to take responsibility for the National Debt in their lifetimes and not leave it to burden future generations.

Now it appears Roger Ebert has written a letter to the younger generations as part of his review of the documentary I.O.U.S.A.:

A letter to our grandchildren, Raven, Emil and Taylor: I see you growing up into such beautiful people, and I wish all good things to you as you make the leap into adulthood. But I have just seen a documentary titled “I.O.U.S.A.” that snapped into sharp focus why your lives may not be as pleasant as ours have been. Chaz and I had the blessing of growing up in an optimistic, bountiful America. We never fully realized that we were paying for many of our comforts with your money.

A quick, 600-words or less read you can take in here.

Harry K. Daghlian, Jr

On 21 August, 1945 at 9:55 PM, young graduate student Harry K. Daghlian, Jr was working on an experiment at Los Alamos determining the critical masses of plutonium. With a 6.2 kg sphere of plutonium cradled on a table, he was placing tungsten carbide bricks around it, reflecting neutrons released from the plutonium back into it, releasing more neutrons. As he was about to place the fifth brick around the plutonium sphere, a burst of clicks from the monitors warned him the plutonium was about to achieve critical mass and he should not put this fifth brick in place.

Then he accidentally dropped it.

Partially-Reflected Plutonium Sphere Credit: United States Department of Energy

A guard in an adjoining room reported seeing a flash of light. Daghlian reported seeing his hand enveloped in a blue light as he quickly reached into the assembly to retrieve the brick. He then took the time to disassemble the assembly to a more stable configuration, and another graduate student drove him to the hospital.

Over the next 26 days, Daghilian suffered nausea, blistering along his hands and arms, dramatic weight loss, organ failure, loss of the epidermis along his arms and chest, and finally dementia before he finally passed away on September 15th 1945 at 4:30 PM.

On May 20th, 2000, a memorial was dedicated to Harry K. Daghlian, Jr in London Connecticut that reads:

A BRILLIANT SCIENTIST ON THE MANHATTAN
PROJECT. HIS WORK INVOLVED THE DETERMINATION
OF CRITICAL MASS. DURING AN EXPERIMENT GONE
AWRY, HE BECAME THE FIRST AMERICAN CASUALTY
OF THE ATOMIC AGE. THOUGH NOT IN UNIFORM,
HE DIED IN SERVICE TO HIS COUNTRY.

Further Reading:

Harry K. Daghlian, Jr.:
America’s First Peacetime Atom Bomb Fatality.

(HT BMF)

For geeks, this is news is more tremendous than if archeologists were to discover Alexander the Great’s Tomb.

The Machine from Metropolis

I’ve previously written about Metropolis, a 1927 silent film that lost a full quarter of its footage to entropic forces; and, yet, still manages to be one of the greatest, most epic of science fiction films ever made. In 2003, a digitally remastered version of the film was released, with a newly recorded score and text describing what was happening in the missing footage, revealing a much more complex and profound plot.

Now the missing 20 minutes of footage have been found, and the next step will be to restore and release a new edition of the film.

So, having bought the film on VHS, DVD, and digitally-restored DVD, I’ll looking forward to getting my eager hands on a copy of the digitally-restored director’s cut DVD. : )