I realized this morning that I have even more in common with Dr. Manhattan. I am in a state of conflicting (or concurrent) time. My watch says today is the 10th. It could be the past, or it could be the future. Is it ahead or behind? Am I?
There is, of course a logical reason for this contradiction with the calendar. Months (if in fact they were months) ago the watch battery died. I didn’t replace it for a couple weeks. When I did I found I had to hand wind it to move the date (were the days flying by as I wound?). This was too much trouble and time-consuming (did I eat up some of time?) so I left it where I stopped.
Where in time am I? If I were in Seattle a few hours ago I would be less distant from the present for three hours than I am here on the East Coast. I remember talking to Jess out in Seattle once and telling her not to worry because nothing happens in the next three hours.
The element of time in the Watchmen, how it is present(ed), past and future, and the characters’ as well as the readers’ concept of it turn it into not quite as dependable in structure anymore.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology