Promethea yet). My eyes wander to the 6th and 7th panels of page 22 (I'm afraid you'll have to follow along in your own copies at home, folks - our scanner is presently covered under a small mountain of paper), in which the one cop is looking into the Comedian's file. I notice the number on the file: 801108, which, as Doug Atkinson points out in his excellent annotations, is a "palindromic number, and all the numbers in it have vertical and horizontal mirror symmetry," in keeping with the chapter's theme of symmetry and mirroring.
Then, following a weird hunch that I had, I picked up my copy of DC Universe: The Stories Of Alan Moore (still my favorite collection of Moore comics, aside from the Watchmen TPB) and turned to the page in The Killing Joke where Batman is walking in Arkham Asylum in the cell block where Two-Face and the Joker are held. I look at the number on Two-Face's cell - 0751. Hm - no help there. I look at the number on the Joker's cell - 0801. A-ha! Aside from the amusing link with the Comedian (a comedian is a joker - geddit?), I figure there's some significance to the number 801 besides that and the mirror symmetry thing. (Are you with me so far?). So I Google 801 and I'm reminded that 801 is a band that the musician Brian Eno was in back in the 70s. Why is this significant? Well, Alan Moore is a huge fan of Eno's, to the extent of naming a Swamp Thing story that he wrote, "Another Green World" after an Eno song of the same name. Wait! It gets better! The name 801 comes from a lyric in a song called "The True Wheel" from the album Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy). The name of the chapter in which we see the Comedian's file, "Fearful Symmetry", is taken from a poem called "The Tyger" by William Blake. And what's the Comedian's real name?
Why, Edward Blake, of course.
Who but Alan Moore could take us from an comics anti-hero to a super-villain to a groundbreaking ambient musician to a visionary poet and then back to the anti-hero?
The Comedian in Watchmen. Art by Dave Gibbons
Ad for Batman: The Killing Joke. Art by Brian Bolland
William Blake by Thomas Phillips (Wow! He's huge!)
Another good catch... further down the rabbit hole. Did you know of Eno's early stuff (Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain) before you started investigating this? (I got turned on to Eno when Bauhaus did a cover of his 'Third Uncle'.)
ReplyDeleteIf I had to choose, (and I'm so glad that I don't have to choose, that I have all of these riches to draw from), either 'Watchmaker' or 'Fearful Symmetry' would be my favorite issues of Watchmen.
Have you read the pseudo-palindrome Alan Moore wrote about Asmodeus, "The ninth duke, manifest in his insufferable beauty; or, seven tombs for seven grooms"? I'll try to post it in another comment, it may be too long.
When I first read this, it reminded me of poor mad William Blake, contending with heaven and hell in his words and pictures.
ReplyDelete"Symmetry becomes it. Come to ruin our impending feast, a presence that nourishes suffering. All things below voice his burning name. His turmoil offers only truth in which longer moments live. Let consciousness recapture the flicker it saw then. Torch our continuity of thought now, until that mind evaporates. Lust after shadows in us. Rend that lace of promises broken and white lies. Regard our love of wreckage; the way our heads thunder, approaching that warning pulse and temple of throbbing light that is ASMODEUS. ASMODEUS is that light throbbing of temple and pulse, warning that approaching thunder heads our way. The wreckage of love. Our regard lies white and broken. Promises of lace that rend us, in shadows, after lust evaporates. Mind that until now thought of continuity, our torch, then saw it flicker, the recapture: consciousness let live moments longer, which in truth only offers turmoil. His name burning, his voice below things. All suffering nourishes that presence, a feast impending, our ruin to come. It becomes symmetry."
-Alan Moore
Hey, BP. Nice to hear from you again.
ReplyDelete"...further down the rabbit hole."
It's always down the rabbit hole with Big Al, ain't it? :)
"Did you know of Eno's early stuff (Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain) before you started investigating this? (I got turned on to Eno when Bauhaus did a cover of his 'Third Uncle'.)"
I 1st found out about Eno when I was about 13 and the drummer in my older brother's garage band gave me his copy of Q: ARE WE NOT MEN? A: WE ARE DEVO! I remeber seeing that the production credit read "Brian Eno" & thinking "Hmmm - that's kind of a weird name."
Like a lot of people, I suppose, I'm most familar w/ Eno from his production work, although I do have a copy of ANOTHER GREEN WORLD
on CD, as well as a compilation CD called COMPOUNDS + ELEMENTS (ASIN: B000CQJZ4Y) that has music by Eno, Harold Budd, John Cale, etc. on it. It's pretty cool.
"If I had to choose, (and I'm so glad that I don't have to choose, that I have all of these riches to draw from), either 'Watchmaker' or 'Fearful Symmetry' would be my favorite issues of Watchmen."
"Fearful Symmetry" and "The Abyss Gazes Also" always make me feel like I'm going insane when I'm reading them. I know that sounds like a dubious compliment, but how many writers besides Moore can really pull that off? Tom Wolfe? Ginsburg? Lovecraft (maybe)? Scorsese & Polanski achieve similar effects in their work, but that's film & therefore a whole different ball of wax.
"Have you read the pseudo-palindrome Alan Moore wrote about Asmodeus, "The ninth duke, manifest in his insufferable beauty; or, seven tombs for seven grooms"? I'll try to post it in another comment, it may be too long."
Yeah, I saw that on glycon's (Pádraig Ó Méalóid's) site (glycon.livejournal.com). Fucking brilliant. I sometimes wonder if Moore ever feels like Alexander the Great, weeping because he has no more worlds to conquer. And yet he continually creates new challenges for himself and is constantly exploring new worlds. He really is a magician!