{"id":5744,"date":"2017-04-25T16:43:27","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T00:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=5744"},"modified":"2017-04-25T16:43:27","modified_gmt":"2017-04-26T00:43:27","slug":"harper-lees-posthumous-masterpiece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/harper-lees-posthumous-masterpiece\/","title":{"rendered":"Harper Lee\u2019s posthumous masterpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"
\r\nBy: Darien Campo\r\nLiterary Critic<\/pre>\n
It\u2019s barely been a year, and readers around the world are still mourning the tragic loss of literary-giant Harper Lee. In only two books, Lee opened the hearts and minds of generations to a world of honesty and raw humanity. Harper Lee\u2019s writing truly changed the face of the modern novel \u2013 and even in death, she\u2019s about to do it again.<\/p>\n
Last week, Lee\u2019s estate announced they were releasing her third, unpublished, never-before-seen novel, \u201cGo See The Watchmen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe considered it her magnum opus,\u201d Lee\u2019s counsel told Time magazine. \u201cAll she ever wanted was for people to read this book.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGo See the Watchmen,\u201d a 251 page rave review of Zack Snyder\u2019s 2009 film \u201cWatchmen\u201d has been met with adoration from critics around the globe.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeautiful,\u201d said James Wood, professor of the practice of literary criticism at Harvard University. \u201cAbsolutely gorgeous. The prose in \u2018Go See The Watchmen\u2019 is leading today\u2019s literary slop by miles. No other author even stands a chance in the shad\"\"ow of the late and great Harper Lee.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee, after seeing \u201cWatchmen\u201d in theatres in 2009, was reportedly transfixed by the film. She praised Larry Fong\u2019s cinematography as a \u201cwonderful feast for the eyes \u2013 truly every frame a vast feat for the world of film!\u201d She applauded David Hayter and Alex Tse\u2019s bravery in taking the \u201csubstandard plot\u201d of the source comic, by Alan Moore and David Gibbons, and \u201cweaving it into something fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEven in her last days, all she would ever talk about is that movie,\u201d her caretaker said in an interview with the New Yorker. \u201c\u2018Annie,\u2019 she would call out to me, \u2018Annie, people have to see \u2018The Watchmen,\u2019 it could change the world.\u2019 She even woke me once, in the middle of the night, screaming. She said that she had a nightmare that she was remembered in death for her previous book, the bird one, instead of what she considered to be her greatest work, \u2018Go See The Watchmen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI told her there was no \u2018The,\u2019 it\u2019s just \u2018Watchmen,\u2019 but, you know how they get at that age,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n
Though most of the 251-page book is nothing but consistent praise of the 2009 action film, Harper Lee did have one criticism to offer.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf the many regrets of my life, my greatest will be that I did not get to see more of Rorschach. It is a dangerous opportunity wasted to have underused such a beautiful character, and Mr. Snyder should be ashamed of himself. Or perhaps he could make a Rorschach solo film sometime in the near future. Before I pass away would be nice,\u201d wrote Harper Lee in \u201cGo See The Watchmen.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked for comment, director Zack Snyder replied, \u201cHarper who?\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact the author at dcampo13@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Darien Campo Literary Critic It\u2019s barely been a year, and readers around the world are still mourning the tragic loss of literary-giant Harper Lee. In only two books, Lee opened the hearts and minds of generations to a world of honesty and raw humanity. Harper Lee\u2019s writing truly changed the face of the modern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":937,"featured_media":5901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humor"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/937"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}