Maus: A Survivor's Tale

29.
Title: [Maus]
Author: Art Spiegelman
Genre: Nonfiction Graphic Novel
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Borrowed from Colleague
Date Completed: April 28, 2014
Rating: ****

30.
Title: [Maus II]
Author: Art Spiegelman
Genre: Nonfiction Graphic Novel
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Borrowed from Colleague
Date Completed: April 28, 2014
Rating: ****

I read my first graphic novel in graduate school - Fun Home, which was assigned as part of a Queer Theory course.  Wholly unfamiliar with the genre, impart because of my own English snobbery, Fun Home presented a series of intellectual challenges, and ultimately I found myself drawing on my undergraduate film and art studies to help with my more practiced literary analysis.  Ultimately, the experience was rewarding, and from time to time I again find myself pursuing a reading list of graphic novels (last inspired by the fortuitous introduction to Persepolis).

Recently, a colleague mentioned a new graphic rhetoric text, which I quickly obtained, and just as quickly handed off to another department colleague with far more experience in using graphic novels.  From this same colleague I was given a promising reading list, beginning with Maus by Art Spiegelman (which he kindly let me borrow).  I've heard of the pair before, and knew the general subject, but had never got around to picking them up.  Now, armed with the story of Spiegelman's run-in with the New York Times Bestseller list, I spent an evening curled up with the most wonderful kind of difficult story - that of a survivor.

There are many elements I enjoyed, and some of which I was not fond. I appreciate Spiegelman's choice of anthropomorphic characterization, and cherished his ability to share complex and moving emotion through alien faces.  I appreciated, too, his attempts at honest portrayal - his father, for all of admirable qualities and inspirational concentration Auschwitz story, is not at the time of the story a "good" man: he is miserly, bitter, critical, and racist.   But it is this honest portrayal that I found most unsympathetic; though Spiegelman presents Vladek as he sees him, the angst he feels at his portrayal predominates much of the text, shifting the story from Vladek's survival to Art's attempt at survival - surviving the example and crushing influence of his formidable father. 

I was engrossed from the beginning, and moved only to fetch the second volume once I had finished the first.  That I have not moved so quickly to finish A Death in the Family may say something about my interests and tastes in reading, but I am glad to have finally had the opportunity to scratch Spiegelman off my list.  Now onwards to the other promising reads suggested by my colleague, including Daytripper and The Graphic Canon. 

26.
Title: [One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]
Author: Ken Kesey
Genre: Fiction
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Work Text
Date Completed: April 4, 2014
Rating

Yes, again. 

27. 
Title: [Oedipus Rex]
Author: Sophocles
Genre: Drama
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Work Text
Date Completed: April 16, 2014
Rating:


28.
Title: [The Island of Doctor Moreau]
Author: H. G. Wells
Genre: Scientific Romance
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Work Text
Date Completed: April 17, 2014
Rating: *****

I love this text, both for its ability to hold student interest, and how ripe the text is for various points of analysis.  Atwood provides an introduction to our edition that suggests "Ten Ways of Looking At" the novel, including allusions to The Time Machine, "New Woman as Cat Woman," an "Unholy Trinity," and so forth.  The suggestions are sound, and provide great questions when conversation lulls.  This semester conversation has been strong, and I've focused discussion on questions of humanity versus monstrosity, the lack of sympathy for the protagonist, a contemporary reading versus nineteenth-century popular science, and the question of narrative holes (my favorite).  It's proving again to be a strong end to the semester. 

24. 
Title: [The Hobbit]
Author: J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre:  Fantasy
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition: Work Text
Date Completed: April 1, 2014
Rating: ****1/2

One of the (many) wonderful things about my job is the incentive to return to good stories time and again; the repetition lends itself to deeper introspection and analysis, and allows a novel to well and truly become a text of ideas and not just a story.  This is my second semester teaching The Hobbit as part of a unit on myths, legends, and heroes, and it went over very well.  One of my favorite lectures turned towards film analysis and comparison: we watched "Riddles in the Dark" from both the 1977 animated film and the contemporary rendition, and talked about strengths and weakness, the phenomenon of dating, intended audiences, etc.  It was all thoroughly enjoyable.

In addition to discussing the alternatively-heroic qualities of the protagonist, we focus quite a bit on narration and storytelling - it is, after all, a book about stories.  One of the most interesting elements, I find, are the narrative holes, and considering why an author, narrator, or storyteller would choose to leave certain tales and events out. 

25. 
Title: [Raising Steam]
Author: Terry Pratchett
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition: Pre-ordered
Date Completed: April 2, 2014
Rating: ****

Moist is back, and this time Vetinari has placed him in the middle of a budding railway system, which develops nearly out of thin air, and literally takes on a life of its own.  At its core, it is a story of industry, but even more so a study of people, racial and class tension, and the dangers of religious extremism.  Unlike most of the Discworld series, I would say that Pratchett's latest is not actually a comedy; though there are a few charming moments, the tone of the book is far more critical.  As usual, the narrative elements all come together, and the conclusion is satisfactory.