Watchmen: Mainstream or Unpopular/Indie?

Watchmen would probably be considered more mainstream as far as I am concerned. I am in no way referring to the fact that it is a comic book, but rather, the content itself. To be honest, I had never even heard of Watchmen until this class, but upon reading it, there are many different mainstream themes running through it. Every novel I have ever read has some sort of criticism of society. One just kind of starts to expect that from novels. Also, the characters seem somewhat typical. The characters that kind of make you wonder what exactly drives them to make some of the choices they make usually had a difficult childhood. Take Rorschach for example, he is a loner and has and obvious temper and that seems to stem from his childhood trauma. Most of the characters just seem unoriginal as far as the way they are within the group. Sure, they all have their own personalities, but they seem to go along with a lot of other super hero movies. There usually seems to be one abnormal person that through some scientific misstep is super human. Usually there is a guy who just seems a little off. There is always a leader of the group who usually tends to have cool gadgets. There is also seemingly always one woman that is able to fight with the best of them. If you were analyzing this from the feminist lens, it would be pretty obvious that a male wrote Watchmen. There is only one woman that is still a part of the group and for some reason a decent amount of the scenes that involve the women are regarding their love interests or past exploits with men. Most of the women in the entire novel are also portrayed as emotional. The cab driver and her partner, Gloria (Mal's wife), Laurie, and several others end up flipping out on their significant others because they do not feel like they were given as much attention or that all of their needs were. Basically, women are presented as emotional. Sure, there are several unstable characters but those are presented with a crazy back story that gives them an excuse to do so. The women are also given some sort of back story to why they are mad, but it does not really make it seem like that big of a deal. It is also interesting that they have the concept of the teenagers who are following somewhat rebellious ways, just like in the Hebdige piece. The teenagers seem to be straying away from what is traditionally considered correct. There are some different plot twists that are unexpected, but that just makes it interesting. Watchmen does make an effort to try and be unique, but upon further analysis, it really is not that different at all.

Watchmen Style Blog Post

If one were to only go off of the fact that Watchmen is a comic book, you would probably think that was written simply for pleasure and contains no real meaning. This is far from the truth. In fact, Watchmen makes a great deal of social criticisms in everything from the storyline, to the art, to the way the entire story is put together. There are many Cold War related references in the storyline, but also predominately in the comic pictures themselves. There are countless newspaper headings about the atomic bombs, and just the war in general, that contribute to the overall point that Moore is trying to make. The style plays a huge role in the overall impact and meaning of Watchmen, but the actual comic pictures themselves plays perhaps the largest role. So many social criticisms and points can be made simply by the comic pictures themselves that it is super interesting to see what they have to say. It is a way to make a point subliminally but effectively and that is one of the best parts of Watchmen. The fact that Moore, in his interview, believes that his comics cannot be recreated in other forms of media well because of the comic pictures themselves simply proves how effective they are. The comic pictures are an extremely important part of what Watchmen is trying to achieve and without them it would not be nearly as good. The comic pictures themselves are rather enjoyable to look at. They have a generally appealing color scheme and are extremely well drawn. The emotions that the characters portray conveys most of the story to the audience without even having to say anything. They give a really realistic representation of how people would act and that makes the audience feel like they are truly there and therefore they are able to connect and become truly invested in the comic novel. Seeing pictures of the different heroes in their costumes gives the audience a much better understanding of what exactly they look like. If it were a regular novel and it were to simply describe what the different characters looked like it would not be nearly as effective. The characters would seem like some distant beings instead of something that seems so real because of the way it is presented. The way in which the comic pictures themselves are presented in Watchmen allows Moore's story to come to life in a way that would otherwise not be possible.

As far as Professor K's example, it is limited in the fact that it is mostly about is money. Comic books were about a lot more than money when they were being written. They were for entertainment, and often times even political criticism, but they do not seem like they would be as simple as they were made to seem.

Response to Yesenia's Post

" I do not use highlighters or different colored pens while I write I find it very time consuming to switch back and forth from pen to pen.  I guess after class I could go back and highlight the important stuff but I don’t. I guess I just really like plain and boring bland notes (I’m lame I know) but I really just don’t see the need for highlighters just so long as you keep you notes neat and organized than I think you’ll be fine."

I am the same way when it comes to note taking. I like for my notes to look clean and be as simple as possible. It is a lot easier for me to underline or star important things than it is for me to keep switching back and forth between a different pens and highlighters.

Annotation Blog Post

Oh lovely annotations! In these rather complex PDFs we have been reading, they are extremely helpful in being able to understand what exactly the author is saying. The authors are can get verbose at times, bordering on pretentious, and it makes a huge difference having the annotations. They can get a little distracting at times I must admit, but they really drive home the key concepts. If you see an annotation somewhere you know that that piece that is annotated must contain some sort of significance so it allows you to really know what parts to focus in on. The annotations also clear up so much. Sometimes the author is really not making too much sense and the various annotations allow you to clear up most of the questions you may have. Honestly, I do not know how I would have made it through some of those PDFs without the annotations. They also really tie everything together. Sometimes what we do in class and read for homework does not connect right away so it is good that the annotations do that. They also assure me that I am not the only one who thought Wuthering Heights was awful.
As far as annotating what I read, I am not a huge fan. I know that it is super helpful and it does help you sum up and really think about what you read but I still do not like it that much. Sure, it is great for small passages but as far as entire books go, I find it extremely monotonous. My background is in AP English and with all of those complex passages that we had to read and write essays on, annotating was a must. If you did not annotate, you would usually miss some of the points the author was trying to make, as well as the all so important techniques that you had to point out. Basically, annotating was essential on the AP test, but I still find it excessive for books. For starters, if you have to write some sort of paper on a novel, it is usually general and looking for theme as opposed to super specific and detailed. Also, if you are reading a book, as I am not an avid reader, you usually just want to go through it and get the information as opposed to really sit there and spend tons of time annotating. Therefore, because of my many years of reading rather boring and long AP books, I am not a super fan of annotating. I do think that it is helpful, but again, because of my experiences in the past, I tend to find it more of a hinderance than a help in long novels. Although annotating is beneficial in shorter and more complex passages, such as the PDFs, I generally tend to not like it for longer novels.

Government Shut Down Blog Post

Let me just start off by saying that I think it is ridiculous that the military of all things does not get paid. Also, some of my best friends are at the Air Force and Naval Academies and everything was just made that much more complicated because they do not have a lot of services and some of their classes were even postponed for the shut down.

So where does the public go from here? Clearly the evidence shows that the general consensus is that people are opposed to the shut down. For starters, people should get a real grasp on what exactly is going on. Often times, people try to speak their minds on issues that they really do not know much about. Point and case, the Jimmy Kimmel video. Everyone seemed so opinionated when the fact of the matter is that they really did not know the facts. I do not know who exactly was polled in the different polls that have been floating around, but assuming that they were taken the correct way, the general population seems to know what they want, correct information or not. However, to be perfectly honest, it seems like the government does not really care what the general population has to say. They seem to be so wrapped up in their own agenda or the agenda of their party that they have forgotten that they were elected by the people and for the people. If the people that oppose this all made their opinions known through mediums other than simply polls, there would be a lot better chance of making a change than just staying quiet and grumbling to themselves. There is power in numbers people! Imagine if everyone that is opposed to the shutdown mailed, emailed, or just found some way to get to their representative, how much of a difference that might make. Anything is better than inaction when it comes to such a large scale issue such as a government shut down. People need to band together if they really want change. We can start by getting the idea of letting our representatives know in large numbers out there. If society organizes and makes a solid plan, the task becomes easier and more attainable. At this point, anything that people can do to get their well educated opinions out there can only be positive. We are in this situation already so it probably cannot get much worse. Social media can also be another way of getting the public's opinion across. It is so widely used that eventually someone in Congress is bound to see it. The people that are opposed to this shutdown, which seems to be a decent amount of the country, just need to make an effort to get their point across, regardless of what that effort is. If people think it will help things then they should go for it. At the end of the day, it is the public's decision on whether or not they want to speak up and try to get what they want.