In alt.comics.alan-moore richardfangnail@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> Why was the Black Freighter raft story included in the novel - was it
> symbolically linked with the main story?
I never thought that the comic-within-the-comic worked
particularly well. IMHO, it is meant to serve a few purposes in
the story.
It emphasizes the fact that in the Watchmen world,
superheroes are discredited and all the comics are about pirates
rather than superheroes.
It fills up the narrative space of the segments involving
big and little Bernie, and allows them to be slowed down to the
pace of real life without it seeming like "nothing's going on".
Moore wants us to bond with these characters, and a good way to
do it is to show us their workaday life at a normal pace.
It allows Moore to show off his wardrobe of narrative
tricks, such as words in a panel that can be interpreted in two
or more different ways; in most of the panels that quote from
_The Black Freighter_, there is something going on outside the
comic that mirrors the words in some way.
It serves as an example of something that Alan Moore is
trying to construct with _Watchmen_ itself: a kind of macabre,
ironic story with a familiar story structure.
It gives a small glimpse into the mind of the comic-book
writer (Max Shea), who later is the one who writes the
disturbing stories that are fed into the brain of the monster.
And finally, it does have some parallels with the stories
of Rorschach and Veidt; they and the central figure of _The
Black Freighter_ all do morally questionable things to avoid
something they believe is morally even worse.
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