Watchmen

Who watches the watchmen?

For the record:

• Writer : Alan Moore


• Illustrator : Dave Gibbons

A colleague has lent me that "graphical novel", supposedly one of the best, at least a cornerstone, graphical novel of the american comics history. So I've put my current book aside (Emma), and read this one.
The very first thing that comes through my mind is this : "Who watches the watchmen?": I've seen this sentence several times in my life (The first time, that was in the game "Gryzor", on my CPC 6128: does anyone remember that or am I the only old geek around?), and never connected it with anything. Now, that sentence will be connected with this comic.

My impressions about this book are ambiguous:

• On one end, I can see that this book tries to achieve some grand scheme, introducing many characters, placing them in a history too big for them, with a global situation on the brink of bursting; it tries to tackle the subject of human super-heroes from more than one viewpoint; graphically, it is littered with recurrent schemes, gimmicks, there is a comic inside the comic, and additionnal material (book extract, police files...) is added between the chapters
• and, on the other end, it is somewhat difficult to read (alternating on several pages a panel of the main story and a panel of the pirate story, with text intertwined... come on...), over-abundance of symbols kills the effect, you do not really get to relate to the characters (the big one, Adrian Veidt, is never really focused on before the end), and the end comes so unexpectedly it's puzzling... I'm coming out of this reading with the sensation that the plot has not been controlled from the beginning; and the first thing I read is a story!

On the minus side, I didn't like the style but then, I am more a manga person than a comic one, so I won't count this one.

Overall, I expected more from such a prized book, and I think too much expectations kinda killed it for me. Reading it is sometimes painful, and it shouldn't. I feel like if I read it another time, I would enjoy it much, understanding the cross-references hidden everywhere but, as I wrote, too much is too much, and I do not have the courage. Pity. Back to Jane Austen's "Emma" now.

Ma liste de livres

!!! LISTE EN COURS DE CONSTRUCTION!!!

Edmond de Rostand : Cyrano de Bergerac

Amélie Nothomb

• Robert des Noms Propres
• Le Fait du Prince

Emile Zola

• La Fortune des Rougon
• La Curée
• Le Ventre de Paris
• La Conquête de Plassans
• La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret
• Son Excellence Eugène Rougon
• L'assomoir
• Nana
• Pot-Bouille
• Au Bonheur des Dames
• La Joie de Vivre
• Germinal
• L'oeuvre

My list of books

!!! List under construction !!!

Douglas Adams : The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Jane Austen

• Pride and Prejudice
• Emma

Isaac Asimov

• Foundation series
• Prelude to Foundation
• Foundation
• Foundation and Empire
• Second Foundation
• Foundation's Edge
• Foundation and Earth
• I, Robot
• Robots series
• The Caves of Steel
• The Naked Sun
• The Robots of Dawn
• Robots and Empire

Emily Brontë : Wuthering Heights

Sir Richard F. Burton : Arabian Nights

Stephen Clarke

• A Year in the Merde
• Merde, Actually

Charles Dickens

• A Tale of Two Cities
• Hard Times
• Oliver Twist

Kennet Grahame : The Wind in the Willows

Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

• Dune: House Atreides
• Dune: House Harkonnen
• Dune: House Corrino

Franck Herbert

• Dune
• Dune Messiah
• Children of Dune
• God Emperor of Dune
• Heretics of Dune
• Chapterhouse Dune

Aldous Huxley : Brave New World

James Joyce

• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
• Dubliners

Rudyard Kipling : The Jungle Book

George R. R. Martin

• A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones
• A Song of Ice and Fire: A Clash of Kings
• A Song of Ice and Fire: A Storm of Swords
• A Song of Ice and Fire: A Feast for Crows
• A Song of Ice and Fire: A Dance with Dragons

George Orwell : Nineteen eighty-four

Edgar Allan Poe : Selected Tales

Neil Postman : Amusing Ourselves to Death

J. K. Rowling

• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Sir Walter Scott : Ivanhoe

William Shakespeare

• Romeo and Juliet
• Othello

Lemony Snicket

• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 1 - The Bad Beginning
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 2 - The Reptile Room
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 3 - The Wide Window
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 4 - The Miserable Mill
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 5 - The Austere Academy
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 6 - The Ersatz Elevator
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 7 - The Vile Village
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 8 - The Hostile Hospital
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 9 - The Carnivorous Carnival
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 10 - The Slippery Slope
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 11 - The Grim Grotto
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 12 - The Penultimate Peril
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - vol 13 - The End
• The Beatrice Letters

William Makepeace Thackeray : Vanity Fair

Mark Twain

• Huckleberry Finn
• Tom Sawyer

Gore Vidal : Live from Golgotha

H. G. Wells

• The Invisible Man
• The Time Machine
• The War of the Worlds
• The Island of Doctor Moreau

Foundation

Frustrated with the lack of English books, even in large book shops, I've been to the English book shop "WH Smith", located rue de Rivoli in Paris. There, I've bought "Foundation" and "Second Foundation" as well as several classics (Ivanhoe, Emma...); then, back to my desk, I've looked up Asimov's page on Wikipedia and stumbled on the first difficulty : in what order do I have to read the books of the "Foundation series" : in the chronological order of their writing or the one in which the author has ordered them afterwards? The last option seeming the most logical, I now miss the "Foundation and Empire" volume that sits between the two volumes I bought. Now, since I may not have the leisure to go to WH Smith again in the near future, I have to turn to www.amazon.co.uk to find the missing ones. Frustration again...

To the point, now. The front cover of the book says that Foundation is 'one of the most staggering achievements in modern SF'... But nowadays, every marketed book bears such petty, self-awarded, and usually undeserved presentation. But since reading "I, Robot", I have experienced that Issac Asimov is an extraordinary author. So, I had to read his so-called masterpiece and here I am.

**** BEWARE **** Spoiler ahead... I'm going to try to sum up the book, it's going to help me whenever I'll try to remember this or that character in the next books.

Foundation is divided in 5 parts:

• Part I : The psychohistorians : This part introduces Hari Seldon and the science of psychohistory which he created. Psychohistory allows him to predict quite accurately the future by applying some large numbers'mathematics and statistics to mankind history and mob behaviours (it's a big shortcut here but that will do). He predicts that the current Galactic Empire, that controls a conglomerate of 25 millions inhabited planets, will soon fall into decadence and decay, and that centuries of utter chaos and wars will follow. Advertising this forecast makes him a dangerous man for the Empire. But, entirely taken up in his duty to mankind, he works to create Foundation. Foundation is the placing of thousand of scientist on the Terminus planet, located at the very far end of the universe, to the purpose of building the Encyclopedia Foundation of all of the knowledge of mankind. But no psychohistorian is to make the trip to Terminus, and they shall not know the real purpose of the Foundation. Moreover, there is to be a second foundation somewhere else; but the book only hints on that, and Asimov is teasing us for the next volumes of the series.


• Part II : The encyclopedists : Foundation is run by encyclopedists. Terminus City is governed by Salvor Hardin, the Mayor. Fifty years have passed since the landing on Terminus, and work on the encyclopedia is progressing quickly. However, Terminus has rebellious neighbours: 4 planets among which Smyrno and Anacreon. These are now kingdom, emancipated from the Empire and Anacreon menaces to invade undefended, metal-less, Terminus. The encyclopedists refuse to move, always relying on a dying and indifferent Empire, prioritizing science above all and only Hardin see things practically and seems to want to make things move. He manages to discover that the neighbouring planets of the periphery no longer have an atomic-power economy. Anacreon's ultimatum comes to an end, just as the internal political crisis reaches its climax; and that is precisely the moment when "the Vault" opens and Hari Seldon reveals its 50 years old message, making them understand that the Encyclopedia Foundation is a fraud and that, to survive, they will have to follow the path that has been forged for them. Each time they will face a crisis, they will have but one option : today, they are "an island of atomic power in a growing ocean of more primitive energy"...


• Part III : The mayors : Salvor Hardin has been the omnipotent Mayor of Terminus for thirty years. He has successfully guided the Foundation through the first Seldon crisis, by playing Anacreon against its enemies, the other kingdoms, and by selling Foundation's knowledge of atomics to all the kingdoms of the Periphery; but this, he did with a twist : he did not sell it as a science but as "magic", surrounded by a lot of religious mumbo-jumbo, empirically operated only by priests "educated in the Holy Spirit" on Terminus. Now, the atomic-powered Anacreon wants Foundation for itself and sends its atomic ships towards Terminus. At the same time, Hardin faces political activists, who promote the use of force against the kingdoms, and are ready to demote him. But, again, he'll guide the Foundation through this crisis, using his "religious" power and sticking to his motto: "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent".


• Part IV : The traders : That is a story that doesn't feature an historical character : a Foundation trader has to save another, who is prisoner on a planet of the Periphery. Aside from the story itself, it details how distant planets grow suspicious about Foundation and prefer to refuse their atomics than to be transformed into submissive zealots, and how trade seems to be the next expansion relay for Foundation.


• Part V : The merchant princes : after Hari Seldon and Salvor Hardin, the next Man, in the history of Foundation is Hober Mallow. Foundation is facin atomic weapons, from an unknown source; a Smyrnian master Trader, Hober Mallow is sent to Korell to try to trade and spy for the account of the Mayor. However, since Mallow is fighting to get traders'representation in the council, it looks like a trap. And a trap it is indeed. But, by selling atomic-powered material goods to the Korellian warmongers, without the surrounding religion, Mallow understands he can make the planet as dependant of Foundation as with religion. Then the Seldon crisis appears, and takes the form of a Korellian threat and a Hober Mallow's public trial for treason. Mallow's strength of character gets him through and has Korell totally surrender, without a fight, after cutting their supply of atomic-powered good for several years. Relaying the religious control, he develops the economic control.

That's way too big for my usual production, but, for my defense, the book is really a phenomenon. My only gripes : it is too short and you don't get enough time to settle with the characters! You are almost forced to read the following volumes. That is precisely what I intend to do.

Dubliners

From James Joyce, I had already read "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", of which I have not kept an imperishable memory. I've decided nonetheless upon reading Dubliners, a collection of short stories set in Ireland at the beginning of the 20th century.
Each story traces the steps of a child, a mother, a student or a man in some part of is life. It's often about a turning point in their lives, or about their awareness of their condition. The tone is always neutral, only stating facts, never taking sides, never caring to bring an explanation. Joyce also doesn't bother to answer all the questions he raises during the stories.
For all these reasons, I've not been able to be interested in more than three pages in a row, no more than in the Irish identity he keeps droning about. Well, I guess I'm not litterary enough to understand his works, and I'm now done with Joyce...

Léolo

Quelques citations marquantes issues de ce film:

Devant l'affolement de ma mère, le docteur n'a pas eu le courage de lui dire qu'elle était enceinte d'une tomate contaminée.

Ma grand-mère avait convaincu mon père que la santé venait en chiant. Alors, tous les vendredis, nous devions subir un traitement choc au laxatif, pour nous purifier de toutes les maladies du monde.

Elle était chaude et amoureuse. J'aimais quand elle m'enlaçait dans sa graisse. L'odeur de sa sueur me calmait.

J'ai adoré ce film. Certaines scènes sont crues et difficiles, noires (la pendaison, le viol de la chatte, la scène du steack de foie), d'autres sont lyriques (la pêche au trésor, l'italie), d'autres sont touchantes (le frère battu, la caresse à la soeur débile), mais ce film est attachant, tant il est troublant et différent. J'ai découvert a posteriori que le magazine Time avait classé ce film canadien de Jean-Claude Lauzon, dont je n'avais jamais entendu parler, dans son top 100 (cf All-TIME 100 best films): je trouve cela mérité, ce film m'a touché.

Les paragraphes ci-dessous reprennent l'histoire donc attention, ***SPOILER***

Léo est un jeune garçon qui vit au Québec. il écrit, il écrit sans cesse, et jette ses pages ainsi noircies. Un vieil homme qui fait les poubelles, à la recherche d'histoires, récupère ces pages et nous les lit.

Léo Lauzon veut qu'on l'appelle Léolo Lauzone. Léolo rêve; il rêve qu'il est italien (sa mère aurait été engrossée par une tomate dans laquelle se serait "soulagé" un sicilien...), il rêve de Bianca, la jeune et inaccessible voisine sicilienne ("Bianca, mon amour, mon seul amour") et il échappe par ce biais à son quotidien. Hormis la solide et saine figure maternelle, la famille de Léo est terriblement tarée : son grand-père fou essaie de le noyer dans la piscine et est directement responsable de l'hérédité, son père donne des laxatifs comme des hosties, son frère perd en cervelle ce qu'il gagne en biceps, et ses deux soeurs sont débiles ; tous passent une bonne partie de leur temps dans un asile.

On passe dans ce film par toutes les étapes de la vie de ce jeune garçon : de sa petite enfance, à sa découverte de la sexualité (la découverte d'un magazine bien caché dans la maison, les escalopes dans le slip en guise de fille...), de l'amour (pour Bianca bien sur), à sa peur (la montagne de muscle qu'est devenu son frère ne peut rien face à la faiblesse de son coeur). Mais ce qui est raconté est parfois à la frontière entre ce qui est vécu par Léo et ce qui est rêvé par Léolo; les rêves de Léolo nourrissent les passions de Léo et les actions de Léo influencent les rêves de Léolo.

Quand Léo s'engage plus avant dans la sexualité (scène bizarre et assez crue avec une prostituée), Bianca n'apparaît plus dans les rêves de Léolo, ce qui fait que Léo s'enfonce doucement dans le même détachement envers la réalité que le reste de sa famille. Léo tente alors de pendre son grand-père (qui monnaie les "services" de Bianca), source de tous ses maux. Léo est en crise, il est interné, il ne rêve plus, il n'y a plus vraiment de Léolo... Il rejoint le reste de sa fratrie à l'asile...

Les acteurs sont tous magnifiques, filmés sans artifice, et la bande son moderne sert véritablement bien les scènes les plus marquantes du film. Je vous le recommande, c'est vraiment un OVNI!

Kandahar

Difficile de rester de marbre devant Kandahar.

Je vais d'abord passer rapidement sur ce qui peut décevoir : les acteurs ne sont pas toujours parfaits, le film manque de rythme, le magnétophone qui enregistre la voix de Nafas est artificiel et la fin est ... déconcertante, tant l'histoire (Nafas cherche à rejoindre sa soeur) est coupée sans véritable explication.

Une fois ceci dit, il reste de Kandahar une impression déroutante : situé dans l'Afghanistan des talibans, l'histoire est à mi-chemin entre film et documentaire. Un certain nombre de scènes m'a frappé, et elles sont, je pense, faites également pour frapper:
Dans une école coranique, de jeunes afghans sont assis au sol, le long des murs, et se balancent rapidement d'avant en arrière tout en annonnant le Coran à haute voix, ce qui fait un vacarme épouvantable. Le maître interromp les élèves de temps en temps pour interroger l'un d'entre eux : "Qu'est-ce qu'une Kalashnikov?" ou "Qu'est-ce qu'un sabre?" et l'élève de produire l'arme et de réciter sa leçon "L'arme avec laquelle on obéit aux ordres de Dieu; elle coupe la main du voleur et le cou de l'assassin". Peut-on vraiment construire une civilisation durable sur de tels enseignements?
Dans un camp de la Croix Rouge, deux femmes tentent de venir en aide à quelques dizaines d'hommes, tous amputés d'une jambe : ils ont tous sauté sur une mine, véritable fléau du pays. Un hélicoptère passe au dessus du camp pour larguer des prothèses de jambes. Et là, au ralenti, au son d'une musique hypnothique, les unijambistes se mettent à courrir sur leurs béquilles en direction des jambes tombant du ciel en parachute... Comment comprendre une telle détresse?
Vers la fin du film, pour se rendre à Kandahar, Nafas se mèle à un convoi de femmes en route pour un mariage : cela donne un groupe de personnes totalement voilées (dont une partie sont des hommes déguisés) et donc totalement dépersonnalisés. On peine à reconnaître Nafas dans le groupe, on cherche une burga verte, son seul signe distinctif.

Les valeurs, les situations affichées sont tellement, tellement lointaines de ce que l'on vit ici... Cela fait oublier le quotidien et les petits tracas, mais jusqu'à quand? Demain, le mois prochain, j'aurai oublié ce film, oublié ces situations. En ai-je honte? Oui. Puis-je changer quoi que ce soit? Probablement pas, mais est-ce une raison pour ne rien faire... Ces questions que l'on finit par se poser sont, selon moi, l'objectif du réalisateur (Mohsen Makhmalbaf) : il ne prend pas parti entre documentaire et histoire et nous place ainsi, nous spectateurs, dans la difficile position de devoir prendre un parti moral... Déroutant...