Reading the graphic novel, Watchmen, has been a surprisingly pleasurable and creative experience. When I first picked it up at my local Barnes and Noble, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. After all, these weren’t the superheroes I had grown up with. The Watchmen didn’t leap tall buildings in a single bound, they didn’t pilot invisible airplanes; and though there were caped and masked, not one of them were nearly as likable. Yet in spite of my trepidation, I ventured into this bright, color-paneled world with the same enthusiasm and high-hopes I have for any new read.
The Watchmen are, as a group, people with whom I would choose not to associate in the real world. Their weaknesses are so profound that it is no stretch to imagine that they would be reviled as much in our world as in their own. On the other hand, when talking books and movies, anti-heroes are much more fun and interesting to follow. Indeed, the Watchmen make for perfect counterpoints to the more banal superhero fare.
I closed this book almost a week ago and placed it back on the shelf.
But it didn’t stay there long because there was something nagging at me, something tugging at the periphery of my thoughts that I couldn’t quite turn from. So I reopened the book and sat quietly with it for a while, almost mindlessly flipping through the pates. It was late. I looked up at the clock hanging on the wall opposite my desk, and latched on to it.
It. The “something” that wanted discovering, the thing beneath the glossy surface of the story attempting to claw it’s way down from the shelf and out of the pages. A symbol. A number.
Twelve.
A few examples among several:
- Watchmen: Six people each with a superhero alter-ego
- The book is divided into twelve chapters
- Time marches onward until the clock stops at 12:00 midnight
Traditionally, the number twelve has been symbolic of completeness and unity. In occultist texts however, there is another meaning for the number twelve, which is derived through a series of numerological calculations. The meaning is chaos.
Often invoked as part of ritualistic application of the dark arts, the spirit of chaos is known as Choronzon. He goes by other names as well (often the case when talking about matters of the occult) such as the Lord of Dissolution, the Lord of Hallucinations, or the Demon of Dispersion.
Interestingly, Choronzon’s role in the cosmology of the occult is to serve as obstacle between competency and enlightenment. In other words, his purpose is to destroy the ego that restricts us from attaining transcendence. To be freed from the ego is to throw open wide the doors behind which our wildest dreams become attainable through the power of the superego. Through the chaos of dissolution, dispersion and hallucination, the liberation of our ultimate narcissistic self is at hand, unfettered to wreak its will.
The Watchmen as novel, has opened my eyes.
So as I say goodbye to the Watchmen, I say thanks for the ride. Long after closing the book, I suspect its messages, characters, and numerous themes will continue to resonate. Any book that sheds light on the fragility of the human condition, while doing so through the eyes and actions of a band of intensely unlikeable misfits, is one that deserves much consideration and certainly another pull-down from the reading shelf. I look forward to revisiting this world – and another like it — sometime in the not too distant future.
That is, if the clock hasn’t stopped ticking….
