Let's Read All what is left, it's the old photos (Let's Read: Maus)

[Darth Roxor]

A bro of mine once had it in paper version at uni. I only glanced at it briefly, but it looked pretty interesting. And it is pretty interesting, MOAR

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

ITS CLEVER BECAUSE JEWS ARE MICE AND GERMANS ARE CATS LOL

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

MICE IN MEIN RESTAURANT?! VIR MUSEN AUSROTTEN!

 

[Quetzacoatl]

And Poles are pigs.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

At least they're being historically accurate in that regard.

(Except for Roxor. He's no pig.)

 

[SoupNazi]

SO get on with it, man!!!

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

I'll post moar soon, I'll first finish this here mission in STO.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

 

[SoupNazi]

Yeah, there's many stories about relatives and friends rather smuggling themselves or volunteering for Auschwitz or another "bad" outcome just to stay with their families or protect them... good to see this comic mentioned it. I'm not sure what it is about the characterizations (rats, pigs, cats, etc), but it's working really well here.

NOW MOAR!!

 

[Mrowak]

Yea, the thing that makes Maus special is that it's so intimate, like a personal confession on Art's part. That being the way how half the story is about him and his father decades after the Holocaust.

One thing why I always say to read Maus instead of other Holocaust survivor literature is that Maus is much more... How to best put it... Nihilistic. There isn't any life lesson or any deeper understanding to be had in all that suffering. Just sadness and pain. At least not for Vladek.

Most Polish work-camp literature from that period is like that. The experience of war shaped us as a nation. These days we are known either as nihilistic, cynical people who would always complain about pointless shit (sounds familiar, huh?), or "kurwa" swines - as portrayed in the comic. The two prime examples of great Polish works from that period are:

• This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (Proszę państwa do gazu),
• We Were in Auschwitz (Byliśmy w Oświęcimiu)

both by Tadeusz Borowski. They are VERY grim and cynical. The title heroe - Tadeusz - is one son of a bitch, largely on account of moral disintegration caused by the war time and life in Auschwitz death-labour camp. Due to the use of the first name, first person narration and author's own experience in Auschwitz camp it was understood that the stories were autobiographical... which is not entirely the case - they are more accounts of what happens in human mind under extreme conditions and how it destroys person's perception of good and evil. The author comitted suicide some time after the war.

Shielding the Flame: An Intimate Conversation With Dr. Marek Edelman, the Last Surviving Leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

This is basically one huge interview with a Polish Jew and world-class expert in cardiacsurgery - Marek Edelman. Edelman didn't experience the camp life but participated in Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. He was one of the few to make out of there alive. The tone of the book is a little bit less grim than Borowski's works. Because the interview took place almost 27 years after the war Edelman sees things from broader perspective and is not as fatalistic about the war time. He is a little bit sarcastic and cynical, but you don't get the impression that he was destroyed by it. While Borowski is naturalistic, Edelman is realistic. Still, it can be a quite depressin gread. A short Wikipedia excerpt is in order:

"We knew perfectly well that we had no chance of winning. We fought simply not to allow the Germans alone to pick the time and place of our deaths. We knew we were going to die. Just like all the others who were sent to Treblinka.... Their death was far more heroic. We didn't know when we would take a bullet. They had to deal with certain death, stripped naked in a gas chamber or standing at the edge of a mass grave waiting for a bullet in the back of the head.... It was easier to die fighting than in a gas chamber."[6]

The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman: A Novel by Andrzej Szczypiorski

Another great read which gives you the entire panorama of Polish-Jewish-German society during the war time.

[/SIZE][SIZE=3][I]In Darkness[/I] (2011 film)

An excellent motion picture - really true to life without the usual nationalist nonsense our filmakers usually serve. In fact it is very critical of Polish society. Nominated to Oscar... and sadly overlooked. If you have a chance - grab it.

You'll also enjoy later on how Vladek describes the various ways in which he and his family survived and avoided being sent to the camps for years. It's very fascinating.

I like how Vladek's talks with his son reveal that he is not entirely free of bias. In the "storyteller time-frame" he is much less likeable than he fashions himself to be in his memories, and even then he makes some questionable moral decisions. I like my characters flawed.

Still, a lot of stuff he says about Polish society - the persecution of Jews, the unfairness and stance towards communism rings true. However, I am kinda butthurt about the comic depicting all Poles as swines. :/ Among all the people awarded Righteous among the Nations title we comprise the largest fraction. I know it's licentia poetica, but still. :/

Do carry on. It's a mighty interesting read.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, Americans are dogs.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

 

[SoupNazi]

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Didn't say this was a happy comic.

 

[Ulminati]

Read this instead, SoupNazi. It'll cheer you up

OMG KITTIES!

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

Seems to be good stuff. It feels kinda random to me the poles are pigs. Doesn't fit neatly into the cats/mice paradigm, would kind of expect like dogs or badgers or ferrets or something. And it seems classic somehow that the dad remarried and now him and Mala just make each other miserable.

 

[Gragt]

I wonder when you'll tackle Charles Burns.

 

[Guido Fawkes]

Comic is good. Never checked it out before besides all the recomendations.

To be honest, lack of interest isn't related to anti-semitism or to objections to the exploitation of the holocaust by certain well known interest groups, it is just that... at this point it is usually boring. Most overused historical subject ever.

We need more depictions of other genocidal events in the 20th century and before. People of all religions and ethnicities suffered in history.

 

[Darth Roxor]

"help us!"

"there's nothing I can do!"

"I CAN PAY!"

"OK HASKEL WILL COME HELP YOU"

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Jews gonna jew.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

 

[SoupNazi]

Well, that's a bit silly. I've had my share of differences with my dad, but this doesn't seem reasonable... though I guess in a family like that, you can't expect much reason.

 

[grotsnik]

Well, that's a bit silly. I've had my share of differences with my dad, but this doesn't seem reasonable... though I guess in a family like that, you can't expect much reason.

I'm not sure it's meant to be reasonable. Artie's actually being a dick; he's clearly now deeply involved with the creation of this comic book, but he's come to a creative dead end - as he says to Mala, his father is an old miserly crank, which means that the protagonist isn't sympathetic enough; he needs 'more balance', a more sensitive take on things - and it's only when he realises this that he starts talking about getting his mother's notebooks out, instead of just asking his dad about her, which he does before without concern. Deep down, he's not pissed off because his father's destroyed deeply personal memories of his mother, he's pissed off because he won't be able to manipulate those memories into useful material for his book, which he knows it needs. So he just vents that frustration on his dad.

 

[Tigranes]

Yes. He's talked about how strange a process it was for him to record, dig, and write - so it's one of the layers, and it's a moment that shows you how Artie is beginning to be entangled into these narratives in his own ways.

 

[SoupNazi]

No, I know it's not meant to really be reasonable, and I'm not arguing the quality of the work. I just got so enthralled in the story, and identified with the protagonist, that I couldn't believe he'd be this bitter.