kilroy | Considering serious things

So, I saw David Hayter's "go see Watchmen again" letter a day or two ago. And I was disgusted, but I forgot about it. Then

tzikeh posted about it, and about his apology, which I hadn't seen.

Love story, huh?

Hayter's version, the one from the movie, at least puts the element of forgiveness in there from Sally's end. And it took me going through every single page Sally had in the book by hand, including the interview from the back of the Mars issue, and then sitting on it for an hour for me to get that version out of my head.

I would like to repeat the obvious here, and say that both Alan Moore and Sally herself are really kind of... I'm lacking language here that doesn't involve an inappropriate sexual metaphor.

Sally thinks she's partially responsible for the rape. Even if she flirted herself into a frenzy, she's not responsible. That's not how it works. She's convinced herself that a man like the Comedian showing some tenderness once (conceiving Laurie) is a sign that there's a special connection, and that's not how it works either.

In short, she tries really hard to make excuses for him. She wants it to have meant something because she's desperate to be desired, loved, not to be alone. She seems to forgive him, but she's not in a position do so because she doesn't own the fact that he needs to be forgiven.

It's possible some part of her thinks she loves him. It's possible some part of him thinks he loves her. But thinking you love someone isn't the same as loving them, just like thinking about hurting someone isn't the same as hurting them. You could call it a "love story" if you kept to a very narrow definition of that term, but "love story" implies a positivity that is not present in the actual book.

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons deal with the whole thing in a serious, adult manner; but the way that they do so encourages interpretations like Hayter's, and that's not something I can really support. Sally could have been written differently, and I think more responsibly, by both Moore and Hayter. Making rape into a fucked-up love story is not where we need to go.