One last remark before I go, because this was really very exciting.
In class today, discussing Watchmen, A. brings up a point of the blood on Rorschach’s shirt reminding him of the lance’s mark on Jesus on the cross. Instantly I remembered my own discarded mental notes of the marks on Veidt’s hands and the bullet that he caught–the graphic image so like the pierced by nails hands of Christ as well. And then Dr. Manhattan walking on the water of the pool where Dan and Laurie lay asleep nearby, and another student’s notice of a figure on a fence that reminded her of the crucifixion.
These little subtleties that lie within a graphic novel, that are so much more difficult to hide within pure text. And yet even they can be so easily overlooked. In going over parts of the book today, something suddenly became so obvious in Chapter 9, from panel 6 on page 3 through panel 2 on page 4 that I almost gasped aloud with surprise to suddenly see it–right there and yet I missed it totally in my prior readings. I didn’t feel quite comfortable bringing it up in class, but lack of face-to-face communication makes it easy; this sequence between Dr. Manhattan and Laurie while on Mars suggests an oral sex act (which according to Bill Clinton isn’t really sex at all anyway). It was a moment of pure joy of sharing of enlightenment in that room today. At least for me.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
Or perhaps not so obvious. Research on Watchmen gives no other evidence of this symbolism. Individual perception once more rears its ugly head.