Sunday, September 14, 2008

Homework


It keeps coming up in conversation. This little chunk of apocalypse that made it into my head before I could drive. Within a very short span time an old movie theater friend (former manager of the Capri Twin at Harding Mall...Can I get a witness?) wrote me to say that he'd finally acquired his own copy of The Watchmen and persuaded his wife to read it (i'd foisted it upon him...I dunno...Twenty-two years ago) AND a younger friend I'll refer to as Porkpie said, "Dave, you've GOT to read this." I enjoyed telling Porkpie that I'd read The Watchmen, issue by issue, as it was coming out. As Porkpie articulated his enthusiasm, I became reacquainted with the depth of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons vision and remembered, as I do every few years, how its witness colored my views on all sorts of things even as I wandered away from "comic books." The Watchmen raised the bar so high that I couldn't quite put my money down on anything that followed it. I think there was talk of Terry Gilliam (Walter Hill too) doing a film version even before Tim Burton tackled Batman. I hope the film-to-come is good enough to get people giving the comic some time. I suppose the purpose of this post is to urge everyone who means to see the film to go acquire or borrow a copy (any decent library....that friend you strongly suspect has one) and read it beforehand. It's gritty and graphic and all that, but also devastatingly truthful. Come to think of it, I imagine it might've been my first experience with something I knew to be "objectionable" content-wise, as the saying goes, but illuminatingly grim like Shakespeare or Melville or Ralph Ellison. Maybe it prepared my heart for Dostoevsky or something. Anyway, I thank God for it.

5 comments:

Variations On A Theme said...

I think David still has his original copies in a box in the closet.

jdaviddark said...

I hope you sense (and will remember to convey unto him) the affection implied when I observe that this doesn't surprise me at all.

Derek said...

David,
I found my way here to thank you for 'Everyday Apocalypse', which I read about a month ago and came as a big WAKE UP! for me encouraging connections and associations with everything from Wright's 'Jesus and the Victory of God' through the British sitcom 'Spaced'...and the first book I picked up after finishing yours was 'Watchmen', which could not have been a better introduction to apocalyptic thought and your most pressing and challenging points...so thank you...I'm looking forward to the other books, talks, whatever else I can find out there...and I get all hopeful about the world and the kingdom every time I see Victoria Williams' name in print...
God bless,
Derek (NYC)

... said...

apocalypse: the disclosure of what what we already know to be true yet cannot for whatever reason accept?

jdaviddark said...

Thanks much for the kind words, Derek (NYC). Might I ask how you found your way to EA? And I'm certainly with you when it comes to Victoria Williams. "Lights of the City" came up o the Ipod today and turned everything around. Peace to you.
And Porkpie....Ummm....Yes, sort of...I think of the apocalyptic as pressing (or projecting toward) a justice-to-come (not necessarily one the bearer of apocalyptic expression is SURE will come). Apocalyptic will often be marked by a difficult truthfulness that somehow banks (even doubtfully) on that hoped-for future of everything in its right place. I would guess that Alan Moore, for instance, is agnostic, but his story presses in this direction, longs for it, conjures it. Hope this makes sense.

hope everyone has a rich weekend,
jdd