Rhetoric Unit
(04/10/2014)
Lesson 08: “If She Was the Universe: Then Earth all the Darkness in it Belong to Man”
Objectives: Today in Class, we will read “If-” by Rudyard Kipling and Darkness by Lord Byron. We
will analyze “Conditional Statements” in regard to how to formulate an argument. Closed Notes for the
majority of the class and any left over time will be used for beginning the rough draft. Review the
relationship of “Darkness” to Watchmen as pertaining to gender, satire and doomsday. In what ways does
the literary adjective “Byronic” apply to the characters of this text and to what end does this quality create
psychological depth and emotional value? We will also look at the connection between “Satire VI” by
Juvenal and how the portraits of femininity (from the masculine view point) are related. We will also think
about the last line of “Darkness” as a platform to discuss the pervasive negative connotation ‘between
women through Watchmen.
Homework: Begin the rough draft for the “Rhetoric in Watchmen” paper
Due Write Now: What qualifies a man to rule the world and all that’s in it? If you selected a ruler
what would they be like?
[“If You were the Woman and I was the Man” by Cowboy Junkies “What If? By Aaliyah]
Discussion: Who is more likely to rule the world, the world’s smartest or most handsome?
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Gender Roles & Critical Gender Theory
Issues with the question?
Check for Understanding: Conditional Argumentation (If X than Y)
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LOGIC vs. RHETORIC
o Logic  What makes sense
o Rhetoric  What sounds good
“If X, then Y.”  f(x)=y
o Example: “If I had lights out at 12, then would I get more done?”
“If your RHETORIC is effective, then you don’t need sound LOGIC.”
“If your LOGIC is sound, then you don’t need effective RHETORIC.”
Sequence:
Activity 1: “I leave it entirely in your hands”
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If you would please…Open the book to the final page of the book…
o If the world found about Veidt’s plan – what would happens to the new Utopia?
If you would please…Open to the first page of the book…
o If you read this book – what do you find out?
Activity 2: “If-” by Rudyard Kipling [PLAY: “If” by Destiny’s Child]
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Relationship to Veidt’s Plot?
o Quote: “Meet with Triumph and Disaster”
 Veidt: Veidt’s triumph IS disaster
o Quote: “Trust yourself when all else doubt you”
 Veidt: Veidt’s confidence that he has done rightly
Activity 3: Females at the End of the World
[DISCUSSION]
“If you put it that way then…”
1. Rorschach  His Mother
2. Dr. Manhattan  Laurie Leaves him
3. Veidt’s Alien Monster  Vagina
4. Watchmen  The scheming of women
Rhetoric Unit
(04/10/2014)
Activity 4: Introduce “Lord Byron” (1788 – 1824)
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[Closed Notes]
“Emboyment” of British Romanticism
Personality/Lifestyle  Bi-Plar // Alchoholic
Byronic Hero:
 Idealized, yet flawed
 “Crazy” element, “dark” qualities
 Proud and Cynical
Activity 4: Read “Darkness” by Lord Byron [PLAY: “If” by the Flaming Lips]
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Underline relationships to Watchmen
Specifically, Veidt’s Plan
“Darkness”
- “I had a dream, which was not all a dream.”  Veidt recognizes harbingers of doom
- “burnt for beacons”  the destruction of politics
- “fearful hope” // “despairing light”  conflicting ideas portray the binary of life
- “War, which for a moment was no more”  Will “New World” last?
- “All earth was but one thought and that was death”  20th Century, Edward Blake
- “Faithful to a corpse”  Rorschach and Bubastis
- “Mutual hideousness”  Political rivalries (USA/USSR)
- “The populous and the powerful was a lump”  First 6 pages of Ch.12
- “Ships sailorless lay rotting by the sea”  Black Freighter
- “Winds withered”  there is no change or future for creation
- “ Darkness had no need”  with the absence of light, darkness is not separate.
- “She was the universe”  Irony: bringer of life as bringer of death
While it is obvious that the speaker is making no reference to either WWII, or to the
invasion of an “alien”, how does Alan Moore play with the juxtaposition to actual historical events and to
the climax of Watchmen? In what ways does the final line, the introduction of the destructive female
element, change the theme of the story? Does Watchmen use the same association of female-death to further
illustrate a kind of perversion or reversal? What function does this serve in the way that the reader attends to
the conceptual portraits given in “Darkness” and in Watchmen?
Activity 5: Juvenal (55 – 140)
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Satire: Vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of
shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement.
o Satire VI:
Basically, old man telling a young man not to get married
Reasons: Sexual inadequacy, Wife will cheat, kill your kids
Portraits of Sally Jupiter and Laurie Juspeczyk
 “Who Watches the Watchmen?” -- Explicitly sexual tone
 The absurdity of this portrait of females contrast to the men who believe them