Watchmen, Memory, Forgetting, and the Power of the Past

Watchmen, Memory, Forgetting, and the Power of the Past

HBO’s Watchmen is the culmination of an exhaustive and well-researched story that interconnects the greater Watchmen universe in a meticulously interlaced narrative true to one of the fundamental themes posed throughout the series, how to view the past and, therefore, time. Dr. Manhattan famously states, “There is no future. There is no past. Do you see? Time is simultaneous, an intricately structured jewel that humans insist on viewing one edge at a time” (Watchmen, comic, X.7.60). In this sense, the work’s “ conveyance of universal truths” lie in the essence of accepting the narrow construction of time as a track or path which we inhabit but have little control over, while our memories serve as a vehicle in which we can return to the past (Gleeson). Therefore, Watchmen elucidates the relationship between memory and time and how this relationship creates, molds, and influences our path in life.

“Wading through powdered history, I heard dead kings walking underground; heard fanfares sound through human skulls” (XI.10.7).

If time is a path or a track on which we travel, then our bodies (minds) are the vehicles and, for the sake of following through with the metaphor, we’ll call it a train. Why a train? well, how we perceive time is not as confined as a motorcycle or personal vehicle which is cramped and allows very little range of movement. This division between track and vehicle is necessary due to the immutability of external events from without the body. The sun will rise and the set, the Earth spins on its axis creating the differences in the climate we associate with seasons, and the Moon will shift in its multifaceted dance as the Earth races around the Sun. Meanwhile, in the train that is our body, we can sift through our memories and dip into the past or meticulously plan out a future full of babies and wealth, but we cannot control the physical externalities that dictate much of our environment.

To summarize, time, the element we perceive as we age, the one we demarcate on our calenders, that would be the track on which our brains or bodies travel on like a train. However, within our train we can walk to the dining car, the observation lounge, the baggage car, the sleeping car, or even the conductor’s cab where we can see forward into the future to where we will be as the path unwinds. Our minds are capable of perceiving the many of the demarcated time elements on our calendars. In one example, in the article “The Fluidity of Time,” people who were tracked in “nature… reported longer objective and subjective perceptions of elapsed time,” than their counterparts in urban landscapes (Dawson and Sleek). In other words, the physical elements of our brains like neurons, synapses, dopamine, etc. can affect how we perceive time in any particular situation. Sometimes, time flies when one is having fun or, conversely, drags when one is reading a boring essay.

Watchmen swims in the lake of time; to use another metaphor lightly. In the original comics, time serves as the fulcrum to reach the climax of the narrative. Ozymandias’ blocks Dr. Manhattan’s view of the future. Unlike us, mere mortals, Dr. Manhattan isn’t stuck on a vehicle or even a path. However, this is another facet that draws out the truths of how we perceive time. We can plan for the future, but we cannot account for every factor that can derail our most methodical plans. In episode 5, Ozymandias states, “I am recording this message on November 1st, 1985, seven years in your past. How could I predict that you would be elected president with such incredible accuracy? Because I didn’t predict it. I planned.” However, as he well knows, even beings who can see the future can be deceived. His plans succeed but he ends up an outcast; he sure didn’t plan for that.

The use of memories as a recurring theme highlights the complicated nature of our perception of time and how we classify these events. In episode 3, Laurie jibes Petey, “You clearly have a hard-on for the past, so, what do you want me to sign?” The juxtaposition between Laurie and Petey serves not only as comic relief, but, more importantly, to illustrate lived experience versus a second hand-experience such as a researcher or historian. Laurie is living-proof of a history Petey can only experience from afar, however, in reality, even Laurie only experiences her history from afar now as a set of memories.

The past is removed from the present every moment it slips through chemical-biological processes in our brains. There might be print, video, or recordings to attest that something happens, but by its very nature the past is fleeting and the brain has a way of forgetting that allows us to live. Who can remember their first word, step, or smile? The further we walk away from an event, even a special one, the further those memories blur into the past; they lose their luster.

It’s healthy to forget—that seems to be the underlying message connected to the Nostalgia plot. Looking Glass says, “they outlawed those cause it turns out putting memories into pill form lead to psychosis” (Ep. 5). To forget is human. Trauma is indeed hard to forget, but treatment lies in finding ways to deaden those memories. It’s true that wonderful moments are vivid, but we hold on to a precious few of those. The mundane day to day minutiae of life gets relegated by complex biological mechanisms into the confines of the subconscious where memories are left to wither and become fodder some other brain function.

Undeniably, though, history occurs, events happen, and individual lives are done and undone by moments of action and inaction. If someone remembers these actions — or not does not — it will not deny the fact that somewhere deep under the ocean a vent is spewing chemicals, which feed microbes, which feed plankton, which feed fish, which feed humans, which, in turn, destroy the oceans. It is here that Watchmen succinctly connects the dots. Even the things we forget or never know (Angela’s family history, for example) affect a thin web of events that interlace our lives and the lives of those around us in unfathomable consequences.

In this space, Watchmen always succeeds. Creating a world that builds upon the complex network of relationships and casualties that invade everyday life. Truly, not knowing, is another undeniable human experience. No matter how much we can remember or try to reconstruct from history, the staggering number of variables that surround every individual life become incoherent static noise against the background of time. Time will flow for all of us and we can try to manipulate it, plan it, or simply be dragged along, but as much as we may use our memories to travel back through it one day those memories will be remote annotation’s, if that, along the vast universal timeline. And, even entropy might claim time.

So, how much power does the past have? well, as much or as little as we can reconstruct of it.

Reference

Dawson, Joe, and Scott Sleek. “The Fluidity of Time: Scientists Uncover How Emotions Alter Time Perception.” Association for Psychological Science — APS, Oct. 2018, www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/the-fluidity-of-time.

Gleeson, Patrick. “Mimetic Theory of Literary Criticism.” Pen and the Pad, 10 Jan. 2019, penandthepad.com/mimetic-theory-literary-criticism-5761846.html.

“Watchmen.” Season 1, episode 3,5, 6, 2019.