There have been a few books over the years that have cast a dark shadow over my days of experiencing them, from the moment the book is started until that when the final page is completed and catharsis can be sought near the bottom of a Cafe Americano. Experiences like Shakespeare’s King Lear
These are times when I’ve felt an intense desire to finish the book because every minute that a bookmark remains between the covers, my thoughts and emotions become a little blacker. Relief and redemption can only be won after the back cover is gained.
This of course is not a fault of the books, but rather it reveals the wonderful talent of the authors who can so completely affect my mood.
Alan Moore shares this talent and surprises the reader by writing this mood into the comic book format, publishing it in the increasingly popular graphic novel format. For Moore, the term “graphic novel” is double-edged. Watchmen
Though fifteen years have passed since Watchmen first hit the stands, its sharp edge has not blunted a bit. This story of semi-retired masked vigilantes, caught up in the arms race and practically winding the Doomsday Clock to the top of the hour is sarcastic and all-too frightening.
While it possesses literary merit that is absent from may of Dickens’ pages, the blood and sex make Watchmen an unlikely classroom resource.
However, just tell the students that you’ve banned it from the classroom, and you’re guaranteed to have thirty of them getting their hands on a copy and engaging with literature on the sly.
Very clever.
