After seeing this, I understand now why Alan Moore hates adaptations of his work.

Dr. Manhattan’s father was a watchmaker. Jon learned how to take things apart and put them back together again. When he does this to his atomically disassembled body and becomes Dr. Manhattan, he has turned a human being into a sum of parts. He now views human life as a mere assemblage of components. Like he learned to perceive a watch. That’s where we get the title of the book. It’s not just a play on “Who watches the watchmen?” It’s also because, to Dr. Manhattan, all people are like watches. They’re watchmen. And, in a sense, so too is that the perspective of Ozymandias with his plan. New York’s population is a small part of a larger calculation. Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias are Watchmen (watchmakers), and they view all humans as simple watchmen (component parts strung together). The tragedy being, the moment Dr. Manhattan learns the holistic value of human life from Laurie on Mars, Ozymandias has committed an irreversible act based upon the opposite notion. It’s perhaps one of the starkest contrasts of the book-in the end, the god takes the perspective of a human, and a human takes the perspective of the god. The god is ultimately powerless and the human ultimately cataclysmic. Yet, in the end, it will have made little impact regardless. But what little impact it will make, Dr. Manhattan now values enough to kill Rorschach to preserve. Quite grim.

Alan Moore lives in my home town, and while I loved his work, I never found out till I notice him on the street.

"when everyones way of viewing the world one way ends, the world ends" that's mind blowing

He already nailed the fantasy villain look.

You want me to watch this video. I did it thirty-five minutes ago.

Hah, jokes on you, I was picturing Dr.Manhattans junk *before* you mentioned it.

I believe that "end the world" means to end a way of thinking and change of an idea.

Stephen King once explained that writing is both magic and time travel. Writing is able to take out thoughts from one time and place to another. We can see Anne Frank and Shakespeare’s thoughts and stories, despite their deaths, and the distance of time and place.

Philosophy of Niel Gaimann should be the next one after Alan Moore.

the problem with human imagination is reality has an annoying habit of getting in the way

"For the magician expectation creates perspective" Same applies to those who research quantum mechanics. So in this light the Clarke's quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" matches perfectly here.

This just sold me Promethea

Wait a second... are we Wisecrack? I only noticed now that Jared addresses *us* as Wisecrack.

I love "V for Vendetta" - the comic is even better than the movie!

Definitely one of the most profound videos I've seen in a long time. This is why I love Wisecrack

This is MOORE of what I love from this channel. I don't only want MOORE' I need MOORE.

More of this please.

This is my favorite work you've done so far. Excellent analysis, delving into the deeper ideas of the meta-narrative. Consistently balanced work. I came here to subscribe after watching many videos, and to comment on particular on the challenging material you've dealt with her with expertise befitting high academia. Looking forward to your work on The Sopranos.

As a student of Hermeticism this made me so happy. People are so blind to the "immaterial" aspects of life and because of this blindness they walk like those who are asleep, as though they are the body and nothing more. To be awake is to be aware of not just your body and your surroundings but of your MIND and your SPIRIT. To ignore both is a fallacy, you are not your thoughts, but instead are a receiver of thoughts from points throughout your body. You are judge over these thoughts and it is your job to tend to them. However, most people are unaware that they should be judge over their thoughts, and instead they perceive that their thoughts are their own. This then essentially makes all of man kind like sleep walkers that are being driven by these unseen forces thinking that they are in control all along. So be Woke and judge your thoughts as if they are suggestions from your neighbor instead of a creation of your own.

This video is one of the best explanations of the Bard class in D&D -- that words and art and song and memes have real magical power that influence the world in a perceivable way, and one need merely learn to tap into the power of consciousness to wield it.

Alan Moore signed my copy of watchmen babies

I love these videos that you rewatch hundreds of times from time to time unconsciously

Excellent video! You explained the subject (Alan Moore's viewpoint of hermeticism) extraordinarily well in a brief period of time, plus you kept me entertained. Thank you. 🤔

#MoreMoore That was amazing and slightly trippy. You have started me on my own path of research into hermeticism and reading more of Alans work.

I clicked so hard on this video I am so frickin' pumped please do more videos on comics/comic creators thanks bye

This Video is PURE GOLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well Done!

Kudos to the editing effects. Raw creativity

First time I read the Watchmen I was transformed.

I'm glad I've been watching your channel since 2015 because if this was my first video from you guys I would be having a existential crisis right now.

We need more of this, thankyou for this awesome video

15:20 I'm pretty sure it's "Professor Einstein," not "Her father in his time."

I’m 100% down for further analysis of Alan Moore! Would you guys ever be interested in running a book club as I’d love to read a chapter(s) along with weekly analysis by yourself in video / audio format. Hearing you talk of Promethea and jarousailm seems like there’s potential!

This is and forever will be one of my favorite videos of yours

This has been a transforming I saw myself evolve over the course of the video It was surreal Thank you for putting such immense thought and effort You have changed one soul for sure

I forgot what it felt like to read watchmen years ago - like reading one of the greatest works of literature, which it is. thanks for reminding and telling more - the man is fascinating and his ideas are grandiose (i find). you've got one of the gratest channels on youtube, keep up the good work.

I have been trying to explain this to people and it scares me. But this guy has done what I don’t have the tools and know how. Thank u

This is a fantastic video. I'm always impressed by your videos Wisecrack team, but this one really shines.

Really enjoyed this!

Jared I love your content! Kicking ass at Wisecrack man

At 2:23 the ad ends.

This demands a Terence McKenna episode.

Excellent work!

This is the best choice of video you guys have ever made. Also, notice how this and the Full Metal Alchemist video are basically teaching one lesson. Different ways of seeing the world enrich it, and our understanding of it. And, ultimately, they all say the same thing, from different perspectives. Please Wisecrack, do more videos on these concepts. It's refreshing to see how Science, Religion, Philosophy, Mathematics, Hermetism, Art, etc. can all be used to study reality from different angles, and provide different levels of interpretation.

This is one of the best Wisecrack videos.

Holy shit this is my favorite video to date. I love Alan Moore!

Saw this coming.... You crushed this. 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

This is my favourite wiscrack vid and I wish there were Moore

Tom Strong, Promethea, Top Ten, and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen are one of his highly underrated works that everyone should check out.

Alan Moore never ceases to blow my mind

woah.... thank you for making this video

Incredible work. Well done.

i miss thug notes

Good stuff. I own Jerusalem but couldn't make it passed 20 pages or so. Didn't know what I was getting into at all. Gonna have to give it another go. Moore breakdowns like this and less Rick and Morty, please.

Great topic, more content!! Wonderful video :D

Such a good dive. Thanks!

I’ve watched this three times. Really interesting

Hey Wisecrack. You're my favorite KZfaq channel. I always learn while eating dinner and watching you. Can you please do a video on House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewesky?

I loved this video, it got me to read Promethea and got my mind blown apart in several ways. I'm not even done reading the whole comic yet!

your content its one of the best balanced between being deep and entertaining, i can't stop watching, and I'm a picky bastard, I dont even comment videos ever

wow KZfaq recommendation been on point

Grant Morrison next? (Then Lynch?)

Please make more of this stuff!!!

Such a good video man!

Hi Wisecrack folks, Are there still new episodes of Thug Notes being made? I miss it!

Thank you wisecrack,Very cool! But for real tho Amazing analysis into what Moore is trying to preach,I don't necessarily agree(nihilistic as I am) but I will love to look into his works for the sake of art (and morbid curiosity).

Congrats! A difficult topic well explained!

Way to make this manageable! It's a challenging topic.

Robert Plant's evil twin.

As I watched this video a third time an epiphany came to me, I think Moore's prediction of "the world's end" was right, and he had at only missed the mark a year or two, not earlier, but LATER. the age of popular internet and the explosion of social media did indeed overwhelmed us as a species with excessive knowledge, exceeding what we can reasonably consume when we were first biologically conjured as cavemen, and the "realization" of the immaterial and the material being just as real did indeed dawned upon us, whether we like it or not, just as Moore predicted. Yet unfortunately, it did not occur in the way Moore, or any idealist thinker hoped, instead of waking everyone up to the possibilities of creating better things on the world through imagination, the same realization of the immaterial instead drove people into the realms of natural tribalism and fear. The extreme left started to see the entire world as a battlefield, everything can be perceived as oppression, and everyone an oppressor, closing off all possibilities communication to the other side, "helping" the oppressed without even listening to their true wishes or the effects of their own actions; mean while the extreme right started to see themselves as a tribe under siege, with everything new and unfamiliar opposing them and has to be crushed to preserve their identity, and started to see all educated elites swindlers peddling corporate interests, and fall back on their own visceral emotion as the judgement criteria for all things; meanwhile in the background, common reality started to decay and liquefy in alarming pace, as everyone retrieve to their own information bubble of social media and echo chamber new sources for "the truth" This is not merely happening in America, this is what is happening behind the global revolt against globalization and the new wave of anti-intellectualism. This is the nightmare version of everything Moore envisioned, the dark side of the coin of the immaterial, of imagination as perceived reality, I think Moore didn't predict this happening, he imagined people would be able to balance the material, and the immaterial, and thus becoming creative juggernauts while maintaining a firm grasp of objective reality, but it turns out, the minds of our human brethren are still too young, still too prone to the mechanisms of human nature: tribalism, conflict seeking, and fear. I only hope this is temporary, and the grasp of object reality will return to us all to balance the override of the immaterial.

Need more of this

Very interesting! More Moore please!

I think is idea of language as magic is pretty similar to some of the ideas of Wittgenstein, that we are all playing 'language games' where by we do not simply communicate our perception of reality by imbue it with meaning and form by our means of communication. The whole world ending thing though is crazy.

more please!

Fraking amazing episode!!!!!

You totally killed it at 1:17 [...] If you want Moore (Suspense theme) hahahaha Great video by the way!

I didn't realize that Wisecrack's audience was mostly men until I saw the sponsor! Cool product. Edit: I'd also love to see the relationship between Laurie and Sally Jupiter explored. It was the highlight of Before Watchmen for me.

This is the 1st video I've ever seen of yours and I have to say you're a freakin genius dude. You've made me look at what I'm reading now Providence a whole different way because he's doing the same thing with language youre talking about Thank you so much for outting this video out

Damn. This is definitely one of those videos I am going to have to watch a few more times. Hey Jared, have you been on the h3 podcast? If not, when will this happen?

Love this video, more plz!!1!

Please do Philosophy of Grant Morrison

This is definitely what I am interested in seeing more of. I have read some of Moores writings on magic and I think it's basically true. It's very similar to memetics, ideas like racism or captalism are completely made up by humans, but they can be spread virally. Paradigm shifts occur when the amount of people who believe an idea to be true reaches a critical mass that allows for those ideas to be actualized in society, usually via laws and regulations, which are another sort of spell. Laws give justification for enforcement of those ideas upon other people and therefore reality, though more often than not many people are only superficially forced to follow a law while not believing in the ideas behind those laws. Laws are fought through civil disobedience, symbolic action that defies the so called truth behind laws, or the other side of the coin, being a criminal, which is just another way of saying the same thing. The only line between criminality and civil disobedience is generally whether the act is harmful to others or not, either intentionally, or through neglect or recklessness. But ultimately the line is defined by what people will allow, and what people believe to be true, or can be convinced to believe, specifically what people believe counts as harm to others. Fascist rule exists by creating a stranglehold on reality through laws and control of what people are told is true via media and education, in conjunction with laws and policies that are essentially criminal in of themselves, due to the amount that they bring harm to others. The battle over reality takes place in courtrooms, on TV, in movies, and in classrooms on a macro level, and on a micro level through everyday conversations about these ideas, whether face to face or online. Though a widely distributed idea in any form, whether blockbuster film, tweet, or comic book, can have a macro level effect.

This is one of the videos I love

Please do a part two. Pleeeeeease guys. Please.

Could you guys do the Philosophy of Urusawa's "Monster"?

So I bought Promethea halfway through this video. Excited to read it.

Lived this video! Even got a laugh when you called Amy Adams "Lois Lane" with a straight face lol.

Love this one ❤️ a bit more each time I see it.

Dude, there has to be a Miracle man episode, unless it's already happened

12:40 ME ME BIG BOI

please moore of this !!

Seriously My Favorite Video Yet

Thank you for talking about Miracle Man.. It isn't mentioned enough IMO

Love moore, next do neil gainman, or grant morrison

3:14 I kid u not, these exact words came out of my mouth literally during this exact moment.

So glad I finally watched this.

Moore's ideas about the connection between language and magic seem somewhat related to the concept of the "hypersigil" as popularized by Grant Morrison. Furthermore, Evangelion also touches the topic of human evolution as the joining together of all individual consciousnesses...

If you are interested in this guy then you should read his book 'Jerusalem'. It's an enormous semi-mythical saga of the town of Northampton, (England). It's my home town, and the book offers a really interesting look into Moore's nature, philosophy and sense of humour.

I only watch Wisecrack when Jared presents. Thx again.

Had to watch this one twice and i'm just now starting to get what Moore was trying to say about the fundamentals of reality. We are only as real as we imagine ourselves to be