LT192: Watchmen

THE BOOK

If you follow any of the message boards you know that when it became clear that LOST was pulling its material from literary works, that any book seen, mentioned, or talked about would get scrutinized for content an clues. I was even silly enough to think I could read some during the off-season, but had to settle on Cliff Notes and Wiki summaries.

Well, one book that got a lot of chatter was “Watchmen”. So, I ordered it. I was sort of in the dark about this book and only when it arrived that I realized it is a graphic novel comic book. Who knew? Obviously, not me. I simply ordered it because it always hung around in my brain and would come up time to time in discussions.


THE MOVIE

FedEx drops it off one night and I start in on the book. A few days later I see this commercial for the movie version of the book. Talk about timing…or FATE!?!?

My mind starts to ponder how JJ Abrams loves to throw Dharma symbols into his movies like Cloverfield and Mission Impossible 3. Hmmm…could LOST be so clever as to time this out? Don’t know, but it sure seems like I have to double my efforts to read this book.


THE PLAN

After getting just a couple of chapters into the book, it becomes clear: this is something I have to blog about! Now, I’m not pretending the end will give us the entire secret to LOST, but it seems obvious that someone at LOST central is familiar with the book.

So the plan is to read it and share with you anything that comes across as LOST-ish (is that a word? Well, it is now!). I’m not going to re-read the book for you, but just highlight those things that click as relevant.


THE COVER

On the front cover it says, “One of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Novels” and “Winner of the Hugo Award”. The author is Alan Moore.

The illustrator is Dave Gibbons. On the back cover it says he got his first job drawing The Green Lantern. To jog your memory, this is the comic book that Hurley brought on the plane and Walt later found to look at.

There are few quotes like “The greatest piece of popular fiction ever produced” and stuff like that. This particular quote was provided by a guy named Damon Lindelof, co-creator of LOST.

Now do you see why we should take a closer look at this?


CHARACTERS

The first character – indeed, the first word of the novel - that we are introduced to is a guy name Rorschach. This is the same name of those famous inkblots. There is a thing called apophenia which is the perception of patterns where in fact none exist. Some fans have claimed to have seen shapes in the patter of letters in the water after Dave jumps. Others claim to see “Execute” formed in the clouds. And still others believe they saw a Swan symbol shaved into Ben’s neck.

The next main character is Edward Blake. BLAKE is the last name of The Lost Experience summer game hero, Rachel Blake, who we learn is the daughter of Alvar Hanso. Her alias was Persephone of Greek mythology fame. The most famous real Edward Blake is a lawyer who became prime minister of Canada and is most known for his DUAL mandate. The book’s character lived a DOUBLE identity.

The third character is named DANIEL.


CLOCKS AND WATCHES

Each chapter of the book has an outline drawing of a clock.

A newspaper lies on a desk with the headlines including the term “DOOMSDAY CLOCK”.

A man on the street continuously checks his WATCH.

The original name of the group of crime fighters was MINUTEMEN.


THE STARS

One of the nicknames of a character is Jupiter.


FLASHBACKS

In chapter 2, we are introduced to a very LOST-like technique of flashbacks.


A SHIP AND AN ISLAND

In chapter 3, we have a story of a man whose black ship with black sails crashed on an island. The person says, “All’s LOST!”. The person then gathers the dead bodies, and buries them in a pit.

In another part of the story a character uses the phrase, “Razzle-Dazzle” – just like Corvette does in Expose on the show within LOST.


CHAPTER QUOTES

At the end of each chapter is a quote that applies to the storyline. The book leans heavily on music and literary types.

“At midnight, all the agent and superhuman crew, go out and round up everyone who knows more than they do.”

- Bob Dylan

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“And I’m up while the dawn is breaking, even though my heart is aching. I should be drinking a toast to absent friends instead of these comedians.”

- Elvis Costello

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“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

- Genesis 18:25

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WHAT WATCHMEN MIGHT GIVE US

After just three chapters the feeling of LOST was so impressed on me, that it had to be shared. I’m not sure if the story will give any clues as to how LOST is shaped or will end, but it will be good reading at a minimum. Again, my objective is not to share the story of Watchmen. But where we get some possible insight to LOST, I’ll pass it along in the next posting of Watchmen.

The immediate impact on me will be that the Enlightened Ones – the term I used last post – will now be known as the Watchers. This includes Ms. Hawking, Ben and Jill, the butcher.


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And thanks for reading!

Enjoy,
KC