Fun Stuff > ENJOY

QC Forum Book Group - Maus Discussion Thread

<< < (6/8) > >>

smack that isaiah:
It's been quite a while since I read it, but I recall my favorite part of the graphic novels being one scene where the father was in a concentration camp and talking with other inmates, and he was shocked to find a priest amongst them.  It was just a striking point that I felt was important because it stressed that there were many different types of people who were targeted by the Nazis.

I also really enjoyed the segments of the stories that jumped out of the narrative to the life of Art Spiegelman and his journey trying to get the story and write it down.  Especially the opening of Maus II, that was the most intimate part to me, revealing his feelings and the troubles in his life (but this had been discussed a tad already)

JD:
Well shit maybe we aren't good at these book discussions.

Inlander:
Man I tried telling you guys that last time and you were all like "No man we just need a good book".

a pack of wolves:
Those are really bad questions. "Why did Spiegelman portray his father’s story as a comic strip?" Because he makes comix (to use what I believe is his preferred terminology), Maus was far from being his first work. Then there's the question that claims Vladek's miserly ways are attributable to the holocaust. Mala refutes this, she and most of their friends are fellow survivors and it's only Vladek that acts that way. Much more interesting is the value Vladek places in practical knowledge. There's the touching scene where he's showing Art exactly how the hiding places in the ghetto were constructed and mentions that it can be useful to know exactly how such things were done in case such knowledge is ever needed. He wants his son to be capable of surviving in case it ever happens again.

One of those questions at least gets towards something interesting. There's been a current in recent criticism that's argued that the comic book is particularly useful form for autobiography. Maus, Fun Home, Crumb etc. Is there something about the form's combination of words and pictures, or perhaps the panel structure of a comic book page that has a particular utility for autobiography? Or is it perhaps that autobiographical comics are the ones that have been deemed worthwhile by an academic establishment still ill-equipped to apply itself to the form?

knives:
I'd probably go with the later, all practices seem to attract autobiography, but it is the big ol' superhero noir that managed to nab the Hugo.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page