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Watchmen and Philosophy: A Rorschach Test (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series) |  | Creators: Mark D. White, William Irwin
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
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Seller: purpleturtleproducts
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 143810
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0470396857
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5942
EAN: 9780470396858
ASIN: 0470396857
Publication Date: January 20, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Alan Moore's Watchmen is set in 1985 and chronicles the alternative history of the United States where the US edges dangerously closer to nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Within this world exists a group of crime busters, who don elaborate costumes to conceal their identity and fight crime, and an intricate plot to kill and discredit these "superheroes."
Alan Moore's Watchmen popularized the graphic novel format, has been named one of Time magazine's top 100 novels, and is now being made into a highly anticipated movie adaptation. This latest book in the popular Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series peers into Moore's deeply philosophical work to parse and deconstruct the ethical issues raised by Watchmen's costumed adventurers, their actions, and their world. From nuclear destruction to utopia, from governmental authority to human morality and social responsibility, it answers questions fans have had for years about Watchmen's ethical quandaries, themes, and characters.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
 Who watches the Watchmen? Why, we ALL do, silly! Weren't you... watching? July 5, 2010
John V. Karavitis (Chicago, IL USA)
John V. Karavitis I see a few of the reviewers of this book have had some nitpicky complaints. Well, if you're so nitpicky, why not write your own book on the philosophical issues presented by the Watchmen? This book's essays cover ethics, metaphysics, time, free will and foreknowledge, the meaning of literature, and feminism. We see the Stoics, Locke, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Sartre and de Beauvoir. Is this collection of essays perfect? Far from it. But the editor did a decent job of presenting essays that cover a number of the philosophical issues that Watchmen invites us to think about. There are even quotes from interviews with Alan Moore, the creator of the Watchmen. Is this work perfect? Far from it. But a decent read, especially for those who enjoyed Alan Moore's opus. Again, if you find fault with this particular entry in the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series, please, by all means, write your own book. These entries in the series aren't meant to be definitive works, they invite those who enjoy the TV series in question to think about it in terms of the philosophical issues that it raises. And from that, to enrich both our understanding of the series of of Life, too. John V. Karavitis
 Watchman and Philosophy: AS Rorschach Test October 24, 2009
Wallace F. Crawford (Des Moines, Iowa United States)
A most thoght provoking analysis of the philosophicla implications of the The Watchman. For those not versed in philosophical perspectives and arguments, this is a great primer to a world of intriguing thoughts. Well worth the read.
It makes you think July 9, 2009
mrliteral
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Is a book like Watchmen and Philosophy an attempt to find philosophical meaning in one of the most popular and well-respected graphic novels ever? Or is it trying to introduce the lay reader to philosophy by applying it to Watchmen? Or is it merely a way for philosophers to make a few easy bucks (in a field not known for its high-paying job opportunities) by exploiting popular TV shows and comics (besides the Watchmen, other books in the series look at Family Guy, Batman, The X-Men, The Office, House, Lost and 24). The answer seems to be yes to all three.
Watchmen and Philosophy is a collection of essays by various instructors in the field, and is based strictly on the original graphic novel, with no references to the movie. It is divided into four parts, each with three or four essays. In Part One, "The Politics of Power: Who Watches the Watchmen?", deals with the responsibilities of being exceptional people who act as vigilantes and super-soldiers and how these so-called superheroes (actually, only the god-like Dr. Manhattan is really super-powered) can influence world events.
Part Two, :The Veidt Plan: The Watchmen and Ethics" deal with various ethical issues, especially related to Ozymandias's rather extreme method to bring about world peace. Does the end justify the means? And is Rorschach right or wrong to want to expose the plan, even if it undoes the good and render a vast amount of deaths futile. Part Three, "The Metaphysics of Dr. Manhattan", deal with the issues faced by Dr. Manhattan, particularly his near omniscience (able to see both the past and future reasonably clearly) and his vast power. Part Four, "This is Not Your Father's Comic Book" deals with whether The Watchmen is literature and gender roles within the book.
Of course, if you haven't read The Watchmen, you will get little out of Watchmen and Philosophy. Occasionally, I found this book a little overanalytical, but it is at least well-written and thought-provoking. This is a decent enough book, one that would give any fan of The Watchmen some deeper insight into the novel.
Another excellent entry in the series June 10, 2009
Ariel Brennan (New York)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Batman and Philosophy was the first entry in this series I read, and it was excellent. As such, I was excited to get my hands on this entry - all the more so because Watchmen has so much potential to explore philosophical and moral/ethical issues already built into the story and characters. My hopes were high, and I have not been disappointed.
Watchmen and Philosophy features clear, strong writing and the articles never feel too simplistic too difficult to follow, which makes it the ideal book to learn a bit about philosophy and ethics if you're rusty, or to easily reacquaint yourself with old philosopher friends if you're a philosophy geek like me. If you're interested in either topic, I highly recommend this book as an excellent, intellectually simulating summer read. Or winter read! Or anytime read, really.
A grab bag--good and bad June 2, 2009
TJ (California)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
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.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
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