Maus

[illusionofjoy]

I've been catching up on some reading. Last night I finished both volumes of Maus, Art Spiegelman's comic book (or graphic novel, if you prefer) about his father's survival as a Polish Jew during World War II intertwined with a thread about the relationship between father and son. It's quite the compelling work, heavy on the symbolism, most obvious of course being that different races are represented by different species of animals (Jews are mice, Germans are cats, Americans are dogs, etc.). I'm not going to review it here, but I'll just say that if you haven't read it, you should.

The last time I read the book was during my first semester in college over a decade ago. It was the only semester I lived in the dorms with a roommate. He was an Indian fellow who I remember had quite an adverse reaction to the book as it was sitting on my desk.

"There's a swastika on the cover," he screamed at me, "I'm a minority, that shit freaks us out, get it out of here!"

I hid the book away and finished reading it when he wasn't around.

Comments

[derekcfpegritz.livejournal.com]

Did you tell the dumb fucker that the swastika is actually a common symbol borrowed from his own cultural background? Admittedly, Hitler inverted (and perverted) it...but I would've handed him a copy of Frazier's Golden Bough and told him to read the section on Vedic mythology before opening his whiny bitch mouth again.

[illusion-of-joy.livejournal.com]

That was one of many incidents which led me to the conclusion that I couldn't live in such close quarters with others and caused me to take steps to prevent ever having to live with total strangers ever again.

Still, at least he never poured Draino through my Brita filter.