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

[Stereotypical Villain]

The first part is an example of how you lot can think in order not to be quite as pissed off as you seem about my opinion in this matter. Not that it'll convince you otherwise... people don't work like that.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

And just because I have an obsession with tying my shoelaces 55 times posting shitty MS Paint stuff:

 

[Brother None]

I think Sister Nun forget the fact that I am not people. (...) It could mean anything, really, but what matters is that this wasn't my cup of tea and somehow people get butthurt about that and begins to wonder if I'm "trolling" or not.

Hmmm? I wasn't really talking about you as much as the thread a whole. You have issues understanding the comic that have everything to do with you and nothing to do with the comic itself, and your inability to make your points lucid means I can't really understand them. So I'm not butthurt about your viewpoint, I just don't see how it is relevant to any of the rest of us, since you don't have any structured criticism beyond "it's not for me because of who I am", which sucks for you, but is irrelevant to the rest of us.

PS: stop trying to retcon this into us responding to you just not liking it, when you explicitly said you contest the "greatness" of this comic, period.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

My bad. Sorry for ever doubting you, Sister Nun.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

The gist of my reply: "Who gives a shit. My great grandfather fought in the winter war, and you don't see me doing a shitty comic about how all of his teeth shattered due to frost."

Well, maybe you should. And if it's interesting and all, maybe you'll get praise for yours, too.

I also found the comic to be great and engrossing. Actually stayed up late last night to finish it. It's not that I love the holocaust stoy (I never even bothered to read Ann Frank's updated journal or any other such written accounts) but that the characters felt very real and, to a point, relatable. The father / son relationship struck close to home at various points and I could sometimes look back and wonder if this is how my conversations with my father might sound when seen from an outside perspective, and just how infuriating and nonsensical some discussions turn out to be.

It made me feel the horrible guilt/discomfort thing at times, and not because of the holocaust part, but rather from the idea that I could've done better for him had I been able to control myself. Of course, I also felt a sympathetic rage at those times when parents behave worse than their kids.

One thing I forgot was that amidst the nihilism of Vladek's story, it still disproves what he said before "What you think? Someone will risk their life for you for nothing?" but then in his story there indeed were a few people who were willing to risk their lives for others for nothing at all (ie, Mancie), so it becomes more telling about how the Holocaust influenced Vladek (just as how his body is now failing after what he went through).

But still, the theme of the pointlessness of it all is heartwrenching. Particularly when Pavel outlines the whole thing to Art: "look at how many books have been written about the Holocaust. What's the point? People haven't changed..."

Another thing we mentioned earlier was how furious Art became when he learned his father had burnt all of Anja's diaries and notes. It also again ties into the anxiety and animosity he feels toward the whole past, as it signs that he can now never do anything but resign his mother to the past and never truly know her. Like his father, he lost his mother to Richieu as well. It's the feeling that he could never replace what they had in Poland that tears at him.

 

[SoupNazi]

Mancie was paid by Artie.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Maus 3: This Time It's Personal

Art Spiegelman travels back in time to save his parents amidst the Holocaust, and to kill his own brother.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

Maus 3: This Time It's Personal

Art Spiegelman travels back in time to save his parents amidst the Holocaust, and to kill his own brother.

Written and Drawn By: Frank Miller

 

[deama]

I finished reading this last friday, stumbled upon it by chance.
Would have really liked to actually study this back in school instead of the usual stuff, oh well.

The one thing that's really bothered me is vladek's persona. Like, was he always like that?
I get the feeling, reading it, that the portrayal of vladek in the past, as he was surviving, was a bit "romanticised".
Maybe it's due to, the fact that he was telling the story, so he made himself look more upstanding, but when we witness him in a more real setting (modern times, when the author was jotting everything down), we see him as being not so great.

Back during the page where we found out about how he burnt anja's diaries. The way I read that part, it sort of felt like he did it on purpose, to make himself in his story seem more heroic/strong. Possibly once he found out about the diaries, read them, he didn't like how in some parts he was potrayed. This I think might be reinforced in the beginning chapter where vladek asks artie not to include his life before the war started (but artie did anyway), because he says it's not "proper" and "respectful". I sort of get the vibe that he wanted his story to be more heroic, that's why the diaries were burnt. Maybe he did some shameful things in the past (possibly to anja?) that he didn't want anyone to know?

The other theory I had was that vladek wasn't so bad before the war, the war simply pushed that part of him, and at the same time, being one of the survivors of such a crazy thing, going all the way to auschwits and surviving it for how long was it? A year? That'd give you a good ego boost I bet, possibly would even lead you to believe that the lessons you learned in the war, the stealing, the manipulation, the hoarding, the various handy skills, they were the "true" skills to survive in life and in other lives. Also that leads into why he was being somewhat "competitive" with artie back when he was younger, he wanted to impose those qualities of him to his son, because he believed those to be right, because he survived.

 

[lightbane]

What a necromancer! A blast from the past! I hope Vaarna is doing well...
As for this comic, I read it long ago. I agree with the old man making himself look better than what he was in reality. I mean, IIRC, there's that time he perks himself on the top of the train and stays here watching how everyone else dies while he survives.

 

[deama]

I wonder if this is gonna get a tv show or movie at some point? Would that be a good idea?
It'd be hard though, especially without the old voice recordings, how would vladek sound like? You'd have to take artistic liberties on that...