Watchmen and Philosophy: A Rorschach Test (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series)
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Book Summary Information
Editor: Mark D. WhiteSeries Editor: William Irwin
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-01-20
ISBN: 0470396857
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Wiley
Book Reviews of Watchmen and Philosophy: A Rorschach Test (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series)
Book Review: A grab bag--good and bad
Summary: 4 Stars
Any anthology is a grab bad of good and bad. And yet, I really love anthologies, because nothing but an anthology allows for such a wide view of different perspectives and writing styles. While this is especially true for fictional anthologies, it seems to be no less true for nonfiction. At the very least, Watchmen and Philosophy followed the general rule of anthology: grab bag of good and bad.
The "and Philosophy" series is a mostly lighthearted group of essays on any chosen aspect of pop culture. For example there is a pop culture philosophy book for the following things: Metallica, House, Heroes, South Park, Family Guy, Batman, X-Men, Matrix, Johnny Cash, Lord of the Rings, Battlestar Galactica, Final Fantasy, Twilight, and so much more...). The first one to really pique my interest was Watchmen and Philosophy--mostly because Watchmen begs a lot of morality-driven philosophical questions. I picked up a copy of Watchmen and Philosophy not really knowing what to expect, but optimistic all the same.
Truly, I wasn't disappointed. As I read, I separated the different essays into columns: Good, Average, and Bad. The "good" column ended up with 6 essays, the "average" column with 5, and the "bad" column with 4. Despite this disturbingly even distribution, I think that the quality of the well-done essays far outweighs the mediocrity of the others. Though I believe that the volume would have been far stronger had they just not included some of these essays--particularly "Hooded Justice and Captrain Metropolis: The Ambiguously Gay Duo" by Robert Arp (which took a good topic and then shied away from actually discussing anything indepth) and "The Virtues of Nite Owl's Potbelly" by Mark D. White (which read like an inside joke gone badly wrong with a side of stating the obvious). Despite these disappointing essays, reading the essays by J. Robert Loftis, Jacob M. Held, Arthur Ward, and Taneli Kukkonen made the purchase well worth it, because these essays truly attempt to tackle the questions brought up by Watchmen while drawing on relevant philosophical texts for evidence. The assorted essays try to explain Dr. Manhattan's perception of time, if Rorschach was doing the wrong thing by refusing to lie, the very question of "who watches the Watchmen?". After all, these are the questions I've been tossing around my head since reading the graphic novel--and it only makes sense that their should be informed opinions of others to read. Now, I'm not saying that I ended up agreeing with everyone, but I certainly enjoyed reading the particular essays that obviously had put some thought into their topic.
Therefore, if you're interested in Watchmen and looking for some new perspective, give this a try. My advice is to skip Arp and White's essays and instead particularly pay attention to these:
1. "Can We Steer This Rudderless Ship" by Jacob M. Held
2. "Super Vigilantes and the Keene Act" by Tony Spanakos
3. "Means, Ends, and the Critique of Pure Superheroes" by J. Robert Loftis
4. "A Timely Encounter: Dr. Manhattan and Henri Bergson" by Christopher M. Drohan
5. "Free Will and Foreknowledge: Does Jon Really Know What Laurie Will Do Next, and Can She Do Otherwise?" by Arthur Ward
6. "What's So Goddamn Funny? The Comedian and Rorschach on Life's Way" by Taneli Kukkonen
A great book for any fan of Watchmen or pop culture mixed with philosophy. A must try for fans, but definitely relies heavily upon a working knowledge of its parent text.
More Watchmen and Philosophy: A Rorschach Test (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) reviews:
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