For the blog revision, I had decided to speak a little more about one of my favorite readings in the first half of the semester
MAUS.
I had never read any non-fiction comics prior to MAUS, and since reading it I've found it being one of my favorite genres of comics. The unique way Spiegelman depicts the heavy hearted topic of the holocaust is approachable and made me appreciate the comic even more. If he had chosen to depict the characters as human instead of animals I would have been less intrigued and probably be more inclined to pause the reading after the more violent scenes. Even if this reading wasn't mandatory, I would've read its entirety because of how compelling and well illustrated the story was. I wanted to know what happened and I cared so much for the Vladek the mouse. The characters were beyond believable, and the transitions between the present time of the story and the historic flashbacks made the heaviness of the story balanced and bring a second interesting narrative between the cartoonist's relationship with his father. Though the style was charming, it did not take away from seriousness of the situation, and instead made the event more palatable for younger or light hearted viewers.
The story played out as real life would and I was surprised and upset when Valdek passed away in Maus book 2, but I ended feeling satisfied as the book closed with Valdek reuniting with Anna. I enjoyed having an open window to these peoples lives and I loved being able to be sympathetic towards what are essentially drawings of mice, cats, pigs and dogs. I had never read a biography told through a lense of visual fiction, but I would love to read to more books that take this approach.
MAUS feels like an anomaly of comics to me. I'm glad it helped legitimizes comics for the skeptical scholars and I feel it did this because there were so many aspects that it had going well for it. For starters, it had a true compelling story that was told through live recordings so that the reader knows that the statements said are from a reliable primary source. The story told was of one of the most recent historic tragedies known to man which would entice most people to read whether fans of comics or not. The writer also told his perspective of being told the story by his father in the comic in such a fluid way that the readers also feel they are there in the room with Vladek and Spiegelman. The decision of portraying the characters as animals was another added layer to it being well received, and probably the reason why it is a recommended source of reading in high school history classes. MAUS had all these different elements working well together making it for myself at least an instant classic that many others should read.
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