Watchmen is a Total Vonnegut Rip-Off

[Random Precision]

Okay. Calm down all you Watchmen fanboys out there. I'm not actually claiming that Watchmen is entirely plagiarized. But while reading it at the encouragement of my brother over the past few days, I noticed a number of things it had in common with my favorite science fiction novel, The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut. I've not been able to figure out whether Alan Moore has noted any inspiration from that novel, but it's my view that there are too many similarities for it to be a coincidence. Consider the following (spoilers!)

- There is a large resemblance between the character of Winston Niles Rumfoord in Sirens and Adrian Veidt in Watchmen. Both are considered to be the most intelligent and the wealthiest men on the planet, both may be said to have founded religions (The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent versus the Veidt Method), and most importantly they both develop plots to ensure world peace through demonstrations at the cost of thousands of lives.
- There are also some ways in which Rumfoord resembles Dr. Manhattan. Both are subject to accidents that leave them with the ability to see all of the past and the future, and both conclude from this that the universe is pre-determined. Furthermore both go into exile on Mars, and both leave the solar system at the end of their respective books. Both also lose their female companions to another man, and both foresee this but are unable to stop it from happening.
- From this, both include a lack of free will in a determined universe and the search for the meaning of one's life as major themes. I think that Watchmen had an original take on this with the character of Rorschach.

I'm sure there's a lot more I meant to post, and I'll edit it in as I remember. Anyway I wanted to post this not as a challenge, as I said I very much enjoyed Watchmen and I think it was a great work in its own right. I do think that The Sirens of Titan dealt better with the themes and plotlines that Watchmen appropriated from it, but that's how it goes. I also think those who enjoyed Watchmen should check out Sirens.

Thoughts? Criticisms? Discuss.

[RHIZOMES]

Kurt Vonnegut is one of Alan Moore's literary influences.

[hugsandmarxism]

I loved Vonnegut's Sirens of Titan... I hadn't seen all that till now though in the Watchmen plot (having only seen the movie.) Keen eye!

[RHIZOMES]

Also I would say that no plot is original. The plot to a comic I'm working on at the moment is a total mish-mash of different influences.

[Random Precision]

Kurt Vonnegut is one of Alan Moore's literary influences.

Does he say this anywhere?

Still, considering the massive debt he owes to Vonnegut, I think it would have been appropriate for him to note this at the beginning of Watchmen or some other place.

[Jethro Tull]

מה־שהיה הוא שיהיה ומה־שנעשה הוא שיעשה ואין כל־חדש תחת השמש׃
"That which has been is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done, there is nothing new under the Sun"
-Solomon, Ecclesiastes

[RHIZOMES]

Does he say this anywhere?

Quick google search got me this:

http://www.salon.com/books/review/20...ing/print.html

[FONT=times new roman, times, serif]Moore was right on time and right on message for a specific micro-generation of young people who were disillusioned and disgusted by Reaganism, and had lost any sense of connection to the American dream. Our consciousness had been shaped -- as Moore's clearly was -- by Joe Strummer and Johnny Rotten (Moore had actually written a screenplay for Sex Pistols impresario Malcolm McLaren), by Kurt Vonnegut and Thomas Pynchon, by campus organizing against apartheid and the U.S. proxy war in El Salvador. With his near-total divorce from human ethics balanced by his planetary consciousness, Swamp Thing became perhaps the first postmodern comic-book hero.[/FONT]

Also one of the characters in his comic "Top 10" has a character named after a Vonnegut character (Diana Moon Glampers to David Moon Gilbert)

[Random Precision]

מה־שהיה הוא שיהיה ומה־שנעשה הוא שיעשה ואין כל־חדש תחת השמש׃
"That which has been is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done, there is nothing new under the Sun"
-Solomon, Ecclesiastes

I'm not sure why the Hebrew was necessary? As I said, I am aware of this, I think he should have acknowledged his debt is all.