Qual é o significado de Tales of the Black Freighter?

Alan Moore disse que Tales of the Black Freighter como um todo é uma analogia da história de Adrian Veidt dentro de Watchmen , mas aspectos específicos dela são referências aos outros personagens e suas ações.

De uma entrevista com Moore:

Q: There are some interesting microcosms in Watchmen, like "the Black Freighter". The protagonist asks "How had I reached this appalling position with love, only love as my guide?" whereas in the main story someone's committed genocide in order to save the world.

A: Yeah, there's even a bit where I think Adrian Veidt says at the end that he's been "Troubled by dreams lately, of swimming towards - " and then he says, "No, it doesn't matter, it's not important" and I mean it's pretty obvious that he's dreaming of swimming towards a great Black Freighter. Yeah, there's a parallel there. The pirate narrative was again something that emerged by accident - it emerged by accident in issue #3 - and yet originally it just grew out of a kind of incidental comment made by me and Dave. We were trying to work out the texture of the world and so we sort of said "Well, what sort of comics would they have? If they've got superheroes in real life, they probably wouldn't be at all interested in superhero comics" and I think Dave said "What about pirate comics?" and I said "Yeah, sounds good to me," so we dropped a few pirate comic titles into the background, including "Tales of the Black Freighter" because I'm a big Brecht fan.

Q: Yeah, they're all commenting on each other.

A: Yeah and I suddenly realized what a benefit it was having this pirate narrative embedded in the overall narrative I could refer to and use as a counterpoint. I mean yes, it eventually does end up being the story of Adrian Veidt but there's points during the pirate narrative [where] it relates to Rorschach and his capture; it relates to the self-marooning of Dr Manhattan on Mars; it can be used as a counterpoint to all these different parts of the story and after I'd done that it's kind of manifested in a lot of work since then.

De Wikipedia :

According to Richard Reynold, the mariner is "forced by the urgency of his mission to shed one inhibition after another." Just like Adrian Veidt, he "hopes to stave off disaster by using the dead bodies of his former comrades as a means of reaching his goal".

Da Watchmen wikia :

The first part was read coinciding with the placement of a Fallout Shelter sign and the presence of a man who held a sign reading "The End is Nigh". It indulged in the heartbreak of the young mariner and his realization that this place where dead bodies were piled beside him was not Hell, and he was alive.

The second part is read to coincide with the Fallout Shelter sign that was similarly being placed on Doctor Manhattan's door during his decision to leave to Mars and its inclusion in the newspaper. The mariner recalls the disaster of the attack and thinks about his unsuspecting family, imagining their onslaught. He then buried his shipmates, and along with them hope of his family's survival.

Issue 24 continued on in Chapter V: Fearful Symmetry, coinciding with Bernard raving about the war's affect on everything. As the sun rose, the mariner decided to find a way back home and unburied his shipmates so he could use their gas-bloated bodies to support his raft. He left at night and ate gulls that flew near to him. He began to drink salt water in small amounts, then could see fins approaching. The sharks took away his shipmates' bodies and then he was attacked by a large shark that he stabbed in the eye. It eventually died, and provided him with food and support for his raft since it was entangled with its cords.

The next part of the issue was seen in Chapter VIII: Old Ghosts, surrounding Rorschach's escape from prison and the knot-tops decision to kill Hollis Mason. With thoughts of his dead family, the mariner in blunt terms, 'chose madness.' He decided to leap from his raft into the sea only to find he had arrived. He considered himself a spectre of revenge on the flow tide home.

Os "Fantasmas Velhos" podem ser vistos como Mason (o primeiro Nite Owl), ou Rorschach e seu passado sombrio.

The next part is seen in Chapter X: Two Riders Were Approaching... surrounding Rorschach and Nite Owl's search to find out about Doctor Manhattan's disappearance. Two horse-back riders came by the shore and saw his body infest raft. The mariner killed them both and left for Davidstown upon their horses.

Os "Two Riders" são obviamente Rorschach e Nite Owl.

The last part of Issue 24 is found in Chapter XI: Look On My Works, Ye Mighty..., surrounding Adrian Veidt's ploy and the 'two riders' arrival in Antarctica to stop him. The mariner finds Davidstown and enters his once own home, that he now knew to be the home of the pirates. He attacked the first figure he could find and upon realizing it was his wife, he fled from the town and saw the Black Freighter out in the water. He swam towards the massive ship and reached for the rope, to climb to his destiny, now that he was marooned from his home, the world, his life.

Aqui, Rorschach e Veidt decidiram evitar a vida. Rorschach escolhe morrer porque está preso entre uma rocha e um lugar difícil: não consegue manter a mentira sobre o que causou o desastre que Veidt criou, mas também sabe que a mentira e a paz são uma opção melhor que a verdade. e uma guerra nuclear global. Veidt escolheu o exílio, se não a morte completa, e permanece abandonado na Antártica.

Algumas das analogias são mais fáceis de ver, como neste painel. A descrição feita pelo narrador do The Black Freighter é sobreposta com o sinal do abrigo de precipitação, e o vendedor de jornal está reclamando da guerra iminente:

De uma tese intitulada < em> Watchmen: Como uma obra de literatura , escrita por uma Universidade Estadual do Oregon estudante de graduação chamada Elizabeth Strobel, que é incrivelmente perspicaz:

One of the most interesting narrative devices in Watchmen is the frame narrative within the story, where a minor character is reading a pirate horror comic book that provides a parallel symbolism for the actions of several of the characters, such as Rorschach and Ozymandias. The story of “The Black Freighter” is juxtaposed against the current action, including the images from the comic book, creating a dialogue between the two texts.

The text of the comic is usually combined with the monologues of the newsvendor, and they both comment on and reply to each other. For example, the comic text “The waves about me were scarlet, foaming, horribly warm, yet still the freighter’s hideous crew called out, ‘More blood! More blood!”’ is placed with the newsvendor’s rant, “I’m a newsvendor, goddamnit! I’m informed on the situation! We oughtta nuke ‘em till they glow!” (Ch. 3 p. 1.3), which creates a connection between the newsvendor and the Black Freighter’s bloodthirsty crew through their desire for violence.

Both texts exist separately, that of the pirate comic and the newsvendor’s rant, but together they form a new dialogue that provides commentary on the events of the Watchmen world. This frame story adds to the tone of despair and horror that accompany the dread of nuclear war the minor characters in New York discuss. The opening of “Tales of the Black Freighter” plays appropriately against the image of the nuclear sign on a fallout shelter, as the narrator speaks of war, and describes the Black Freighter’s “black sails against the yellow Indies sky” (Ch. 3 p. 1.1), connecting the Black Freighter to the atomic bomb.

The story is read by a young black man named Bernard, who sits next to the man selling newspapers, and the text that he reads is shown in boxes that look like parchment, curling at the ends. The comments of the newspaper man are projected in speech bubbles, floating around the story the young man reads, so we read both the comments and the story, just as the young man reads the story and hears the comments.

One example of the interaction between the story of “Tales of the Black Freighter” and the commentary of the newsvendor is in Chapter 5, page 12.7. The narrator of “Tales of the Black Freighter” says, “This sudden confrontation with mortality induced an odd clarity within me,” and directly next to his statement is the newsvendor saying, “I mean, all this, it could all be gone: people, cars, T.V. shows, magazines...even the word ‘gone’ would be gone.” The “clarity” that the narrator of the comic discusses when facing death is also echoed by the newsman, and seems to be an extension of the narrator’s thought, even though both men are in very different situations, as one is alone floating on a raft made of dead men trying to prevent the destruction of his home, and the other is worrying about World War III.

In the last few frames of “Tales of the Black Freighter,” the audience is put in the position of the narrator, now actually seeing through his eyes, implying that they are now completely in his head, whereas before they were more objective observers. The narrator says, **“The world I'd tried to save was lost beyond recall. I was a horror: amongst horrors must I dwell.” This explanation of why he joins the crew of the Black Freighter reflects the Nietzsche quote from Chapter 6¹, “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster.” The narrator of “Tales of the Black Freighter” has become a murderer just like the crew of the Black Freighter in his own deluded efforts to save his town from being destroyed by them.

The ending of this story is a commentary and an indictment of Adrian Veidt, and his actions in what he saw as saving the world. It also follows Rorschach's story, as he hurts people to help people, saying how when making an omelette, one must break a few eggs. However, this comes full circle for him, as he refuses to condone and live with Veidt's mass-murdering lie, proving that he cares more about individual humanity than Veidt, and he escapes from his role as a monster...

The warning of Nietzsche’s quote¹ also comes back later, echoed in the ending of “Tales of the Black Freighter” in Chapter 11. At that point, the reader understands that the comic book story is a sort of allegory for the actions of Adrian Veidt, or Ozymandias, who has gone farther than Rorschach in his attempt to solve the world’s problems. Since Ozymandias has killed the Comedian and half of New York as a by-product of his plan to scare the U.S. and Russia into making peace, he has become like the evil of nuclear war that he fights, becoming a monster while fighting monstrosity.

Even Rorschach balks at Ozymandias’ methods, saying “Evil must be punished” (Ch. 12 p. 23.5), which shows that he still values life, and has not become the monster that he sees Veidt has become. The application of Nietzsche’s quote no longer fits Rorschach so well, and in the end fits Veidt entirely. When the reader reads “Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster” back in Chapter 6, the quote also foreshadows the end of the heroes, and the climax of the entire work. Moore does not do it on his own, but pulls in the tradition of nihilism by evoking Nietzsche, and adds another layer to his story.

¹ O título do capítulo 6, O abismo também , é uma referência a Nietzsche:

Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
- Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future, Aphorism 146

Ou no original alemão:

Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. Und wenn du lange in einen Abgrund blickst, blickt der Abgrund auch in dich.
- Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft, Aphorismus 146

Minha filosofia de "Tales of the Black Freighter" é que é demonstrativa dos poderes de percepção e falibilidade do homem. A essência da história é que um homem é corrompido pelas circunstâncias e lida cegamente contra inocentes que ele percebe cegamente serem seus inimigos mortais. Ao alcançar a vitória contra seus supostos inimigos, ele se junta às fileiras de seus inimigos reais.

Eu acho que a essência da história é que você tem que temperar a batalha contra o mal para não se tornar o vilão. Esta é uma mensagem chave de Watchmen. Eu acho que resume a frase "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" (Quem assiste os vigias). Pessoas que gastam todo o seu tempo correndo ao redor atacando pessoas que eles percebem para ser o vilão, fazendo determinações de culpa no local e aplicando a sanção final (execução de vigilantes) sem qualquer supervisão são condenado a cometer erros. E ao defender os inocentes, tornando-se justiça, quantos erros podem ser tolerados? Quantos inocentes você pode ferir ou matar sem se tornar o monstro contra quem você luta?

Eu acho que os autores estavam realmente usando o Watchmen não como um exemplo da necessidade de as pessoas tomarem o manto da justiça sobre si mesmas, mas como uma mensagem de que os vigilantes estão condenados a se tornarem monstros lutar contra. A história principal é o exemplo da mensagem contida nos "Contos do Cargueiro Negro".

Minha interpretação secreta é que o Tales of the Black Freighter foi a história que Moore realmente queria contar. O que eu sei com certeza é esse paralelo:

• Em Watchmen "regular", um ato abominável é realizado para o bem maior (fazer um monstro falso, matar muitas pessoas pela paz mundial)
• Em Tales of the Black Freighter, um ato abominável é realizado para o bem maior (fazer um bote de cadáveres, chegar à costa, começar a matar pessoas para salvar os habitantes de uma aldeia)

Tanto Ozymandias quanto o capitão matam / usam a morte como um instrumento para salvar outros. Toneladas de perguntas podem ser fiadas: ambas são loucas? justificado em seus atos? etc.

A entrada Wikipedia também é muito rica em informações sobre isso.

Moore stated that the story of The Black Freighter ends up specifically describing "the story of Adrian Veidt" and that it can also be used as a counterpoint to other parts of the story, such as Rorschach's capture and Dr. Manhattan's self-exile on Mars.

Eu dei uma interpretação pessoal e dupla ao conto do Black Frighter. Eu acho que o marinheiro abandonado poderia ser uma metáfora para todo ser humano. Ele tem que lutar através das dificuldades da vida, a fim de não apenas salvar a si mesmo, mas também seus entes queridos. As dificuldades de algumas pessoas, no entanto, são mais difíceis do que as dos outros, e algumas pessoas são mais delicadas do que a de outras. Algumas pessoas são involuntariamente moldadas e transformadas em monstros pelas contingências de suas vidas. Aqueles que vemos como criminosos e vilões são pessoas menos afortunadas do que nós que foram transformados, por uma vida dura, criminosos e vilões, repudiados pela sociedade, e como tal, o marinheiro finalmente não vê outro destino para ele senão aceitar sua monstruosidade. e junte-se ao lutador negro.

Uma análise adicional que fiz está relacionada com a primeira. É também uma metáfora de nossas vidas e as dificuldades que temos de superar. Alguns colocam em risco alguns que colocam em risco nossos entes queridos. Todos nós somos levados a tentar exagerar, tentar controlar tudo e tentar salvar nossos entes queridos ao mesmo tempo que nós mesmos. Às vezes, até nos concentramos mais nos outros do que em nós mesmos. Isso pode ser visto como uma maneira de ignorar nossos próprios problemas que parecem mais difíceis de superar do que os dos outros. Mas o marinheiro acaba ferindo seus entes queridos. Ele deveria ter começado a poupar a si mesmo e só depois de salvar os outros. Isso pode ser verdade para todos. Na tentativa de salvar os outros, de ver seus problemas e misérias, sem antes pensar sobre os nossos, arriscamo-nos a ferir a todos e nossas ações podem se tornar redundantes. Como redundantes são as ações dos Watchmen, que são todos psicologicamente problemáticos. Eles decidem ajudar os outros para preencher suas lacunas psicológicas. Mas o resultado é que eles realmente não curam os males da sociedade, mas apenas contrastam seus sintomas. Além disso, eles acabam causando mais problemas e injustiças, como o marinheiro, e acabam sendo banidos pela sociedade.