#The Complete Maus - Art Spiegelman

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topaz gulchBOT
topaz gulchBOT
pastel moth
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swag!

snow thunder
obsidian wedge
flint dew
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oh shit here we gocapooSweat

topaz gulchBOT
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@flint dew,@night shadow,@bronze eagle,@pastel moth,@peak edge,@austere kernel,@vocal sapphire,@cold summit,@idle gull,@hybrid radish,@vernal summit,@tribal musk,@coral hazel,@floral bane,@sly wyvern,@pearl nexus,@fading hull,@neat summit,@obsidian wedge,@peak edge,@placid fable,@last ledge,@snow thunder,@thorny mica,@void tulip,@opaque terrace,@strong rampart

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The BR for maus started today

Before getting to the questions i do have a couple of reminders for you all

  1. This is a BR for The complete maus so if you have a copies of the 2 parts separately then make sure to read both
  2. I know this book deals with some political issues and that it might be difficult but please make sure too still follow rule 5 #rules message which means no discussions about politics. we have a couple of mods in this BR and they will be sure to keep a close eye on it to make sure it dosnt go too far
  3. This book deals with alot of heavy subjects so please check out the trigger warnings
    here is a list taken from SG
    Graphic
    ||Antisemitism, Genocide, Death||
    Moderate
    ||Suicide, Child death, Mental illness||
    Minor
    ||Racism, Animal death, Death of parent||
  4. Remember to use spoiler bars you can see a detailed guide on how to do that here #rules message
  5. To get the points you will have to actually discuss the book to show me that you have read it if you are unsure about what that entails then you can take a look here #faq message

Okay now that all of that is out of the way here are some questions

  1. What made you join this BR
  2. Is this a reread or is this your first time reading it
  3. Do you usually read Comics/Manga/Graphic novels
    4.When do you think you will start this

I have heard alot of good things about this book so i hope that we will all enjoy it but if the triggers ever become too much then its completely okay to take a break or drop out of this BR
Remember your mental health is always more important than a book

topaz gulchBOT
pearl nexus
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OH YEAH

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Perfect timing pepeEvil I just finished my last book and was looking for something new to read

night shadow
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  1. i‘ve heard a lot of praise for this book before (and it’s won a Pulitzer) and recently had to read one of the chapters for uni which intrigued me as well so this BR is perfect timing to read the whole thing
  2. first time
  3. not that often but in general i do enjoy reading them!
  4. probably around December 10th
pastel moth
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  1. maus
  2. first time
  3. yes
  4. this month
coral hazel
# topaz gulch The BR for maus started today Before getting to the questions i do have a coup...
  1. What made you join this BR
  2. Is this a reread or is this your first time reading it
  3. Do you usually read Comics/Manga/Graphic novels
  4. When do you think you will start this
  • I'm not sure, I just saw it in the buddy-reads channel and guessed I'll join.
  • This would actually be my 4th time rereading this.
  • I'm a DC Comics fan and have a lot of Batman comics in particular, but otherwise I don't delve outside that niche often. I have read Persepolis and They Called Us Enemy though.
  • Next week or the week after that at max.
void tulip
snow thunder
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NEW BRRRRRR

snow thunder
snow thunder
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ch 1: I love the art style so far, it reminds me of the Sunday comics that I used to see on the newspapers

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ch 2, pg.26: || damn 6 pills for the heart? that seems like a lot despairge ||

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ch 2, pg.32: || "Hanging high in the center of town, it was a Nazi flag." oh shit ||

placid fable
obsidian wedge
last ledge
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I joined this BR because Maus is a classic graphic story, but I haven't read it yet. I do like graphic story telling, and a few of my favorite stories are in graphic form

snow thunder
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ch 3, pg 46: || vladek being starved to get out of army conscription despairge and all that coffee UGH ||

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|| I like coffee but a gallon a day? insane ||

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|| the cats being nazis is an interesting choice ||

austere kernel
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  1. I know Maus is a classic in the graphic novels sphere and this buddy read was the much needed push for me to finally start itfrogdance
  2. first time
  3. Yes I do!
  4. hopefully next week
sly wyvern
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  1. I currently have this book checked out from my local library. I was supposed to read it for another book club, but didn't get it in time. So glad I can join this BR!
  2. First time reading.
  3. I actually never read graphic novels, etc. This will be my first time!
  4. Probably sometime next week.
strong rampart
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as for when i'm not sure probably soon, i've been suffering in my reading this year and haven't read anything that's a 5 for me hence my reason for joining

flint dew
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its just a medium in which a story is told

strong rampart
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art spiegelmann himself dislikes the categorisation of maus as a graphic novel

flint dew
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also a quick look at the wiki shows why he want comftorble with the term and that he is in fact comftorble with it now that its meaning has solidified

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pearl nexus
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where did you find that out

night shadow
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isn’t Maus even the graphic novel what would inspire the rest of the genre?

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I thought they said something like that in my lecture

snow thunder
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ch 5, pg 108: || I can't imagine living in those times, under constant surveillance, no peace of mind, you could be taken at any moment. Totally get why Anja's mother wants everyone to stick together so bad||

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I keep forgetting that this novel is basically an autobiography, like what's being described here is actually real

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I have a surface level understanding of WW2 and the holocaust, but I've never read an anecdote or personal recount of the events that transpired at the time, so this is pretty helpful in that sense

snow thunder
flint dew
flint dew
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my copy should arrive this weekcatBongoHearts ~~if postnord dosent fuck it up that isdespairge ~~

coral hazel
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Yeah, for example neither Persepolis nor They Called Us Enemy are fiction, yet they are still graphic novels just like Maus

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Btw, since it is less known, the latter is about George Takei's experience in an American internment camp for Japanese people during WW2

pastel moth
peak edge
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Prelude || Abandonment issues, friends who needs them?

Rego Park, that's in NYC. What I mean to say is, I'm within walkable distance from that town.

Where I live is very interesting. It is like the center between the Jews, Indians, East Asians, Muslims, Afro-Americans, Hispanics, and generally white people community towns. Each of these surrounding towns have their own libraries with materials devoted specifically for their communities.

It's very diverse, amazing food, temples, mosques, churches, and I enjoy it that way. ||

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Ch. 1 || When you ask to hear about your parents'greatest love story of all time, and your dad goes on about his first serious girlfriend who was hotter than your mom... ||

peak edge
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Ch. 2 || The writer's dad doesn't hold back his punches, he is rather blunt about his family.

Postpartum depression. There is more awareness of it now, but for them to know about it during the 1930s may suggest they are very informed. That understanding seems to come with a premium based on wealth.

Where the common masses don't understand until generations later. ||

peak edge
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Ch. 3 || The camp situation was unusual, in that as POWs they could sign up for contractors works.

International law meant POWs are released, but then they kill them on the streets as Jews, the semantics of it all.

The author's dad is a bit neurotic. To get what he wants, such as throwing away his son's jacket in order to give him a new one. Hilarious. ||

peak edge
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Ch. 4 || Sorry state from hate to outright massacre. I'd be afraid to live there, some of it scares me as an Asian living in the US as things go from bad to worse with China. I'm of Taiwanese Nationality but of Chinese Ancestry. We get along fine with Chinatown. Politics just screws everything up. I could foresee the situation getting bad everywhere when it becomes a power struggle for Dominate global influence.

I can't get enough on focusing on his dad. He's just a funny guy, because he isn't perfect. Good job humanizing him. ||

peak edge
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Ch. 5 || What I love about this comic is that their lives are filled with little stories everywhere.

They plotted, schemed, made friends, helped in whatever they could. Some aspects of humanity there is beautiful. Other aspects are dark, manipulative.

Mala, the money grubber. Maybe she wasn't that bad, but well. A man with multiple wives and it gets rough. I can understand from her position, hard to live without family or a job, especially as an elderly woman. ||

peak edge
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Ch. 6 || A very good story. It seems I don't have the complete version of this book, rather part 1, the father's story.

Also very disappointed that the mother's diaries are lost. I hope by some twist it was rescued.

It is a bit like murder when you lose a piece of their writing, will, spirit, story. ||

vernal summit
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chapter 2
|| i knew it was postpartum depression right away ..
had to be scary what they were seeing on the train and then come home to their factory robbed ||

vernal summit
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chapter 3
|| the dad really dislikes Mala 😳
he seems to get angry very quickly .. and he threw out his sons coat!! i’d be so mad! ||

vernal summit
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chapter 4
|| Mala getting mad the dad is “attached to things more than people” probably because he’s lost so many people it’s easier to attach to objects .. their relationship doesn’t seem okay at all .. ||

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damn this is dark

vernal summit
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i’ve finished part 1 // My Father Bleeds History

|| it’s crazy to be reading everything that had happened .. i just truly can’t imagine the fear, there has to be a word stronger than fear ..

the father & son relationship is very upsetting. clearly the father is internally blamed for so much .. he’s unhappy with his new marriage and seems to be a shit husband .. there just seems to be so much pain on his end, and the son just taking the weight of it all

the betrayal of people is horrible. you wouldn’t have been able to trust a single person, and those who you could trust you still felt as if you couldn’t .. ||

this has been something i’ve always wanted to read but never made an effort. i remember seeing the books in middle school? i think? and the artwork just grabbed my attention instantly .. this all touches on subject i had great interest in learning during my school years-probably the only part of history class i ever truly paid attention to .. happy to be here, even though this isn’t a happy read ..

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this is something i would wana own .. i don’t choose to buy many books but this is something i do want

vernal summit
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i should finish today

peak edge
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Maus part 2, ch. 1 || Vladek is so neurotic and cheap. He's a tad annoying, but he's extremely interesting as a comic character.

Here he is very good at being deceptive and manipulative. Whatever skills he has, he knows how to flaunt sell it. I would say I can tell how he was an incredible business man. He keeps his expenses low and he is great at getting people on his side. Perhaps survival is a matter of being clever.

Dude is so cheap, he trespasses for free bingo games and coffee. I can tell, he's very good with women.

Sure there's the depressing side of the Jewish Camps, but the author is great at balancing it out. ||

peak edge
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Part 2 Ch. 2 || Vladek is so resourceful and clever. You know, from this book it's very easy for a child to learn common sense, social intelligence, that is to make the people in charge like you so that you'd get promoted instead of that person who is more skilled than you.

The Burning Factories (Crematorium) were especially dark, detailed in layout.

There is a love story to want to meet your wife at camp. It was very well done in some ways.

That Hungarian women who helped with the S.S. lover, she's nice. I hope she made it out. ||

peak edge
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Part 2 ch. 3 || The darkest chapter yet. I've read quite a few Holocaust novels by now including many films. This section of the book in particular deals with a lot of corpses nearing the end of the war.

I don't know, the comic book form feels more detached and at the same time, more personal due to the graphic nature of the subject. It's the perfect medium. It's drawn in a style that isn't too grotesque and disturbing where you'd be triggered.

To think they want to ban this novel when it's so well done, even considerate of its readers. ||

peak edge
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Part 2 ch. 4 || Survivor's Guilt. Out of all the huge family they initially had, Vladek and Anja only had one relative that survived from each genetic line.

It's a bit dreadful to say, Vladek's repeated release and recapture was something comical like a lighthearted comedy. But to be released from the clutches of death and forced to be put back into that situation repeatedly, is a type of anticipatory hell. ||

peak edge
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Part 2 ch. 5 || A happy ending, I'm glad he left us with that.

I was fearful he would die this entire time, before his story ended.

Good transition and great use, it's probably one of the first "meta" comics I've read. ||

Summary || A wonderful comic. I was shown this as a preteen, but I had no interest in it. I had already read Ann Frank's Diary and Night by Elie Weisel.

Those days I had watched many films already, I felt that a comic wouldn't add to it, like how the Psychiatrist felt. Some things are better left unsaid. But after reading, I think every story is sort of special.

In this case it was a unique imperfect love story. A modern tale of a modern world.

In recent years, I've added to those novels with Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and possibly more in the future. ||

last ledge
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Part 1 finished ||I really like how the book moves between the past and the present day, because it shows how the trauma continues to have impacts. Both his father and Mala have concerns about resources and ensuring security of resources, just in different ways.
Seeing such a horrid period of history through a personal story is effective too. The constant repetition of 'they didn't survive the war' demonstrates the scope of the Nazi murders more than mere statistics does.
At one moment, when the father talks about a friend who survived the war but later died of a heart attack and says "so life goes", it reminded me of the Slaughterhouse Five "so it goes" that is repeated in the book and the numbness that comes from so much exposure to death||

last ledge
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Part 2 Ch 1 ||Even the collaborators die. It shows how the Nazis wanted to be systematic and thorough. A very intentional evil. ||

last ledge
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Part 2 Ch? ||It really was constant suffering, a system designed to kill both intentionally and systematically and also incidentally, in the transportation and maintenance work. Vladek showed constant resourcefulness, it is not surprising even as an elderly man he was unable to relax||

last ledge
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Finished ||I would have liked a bit more of a denouement. The ending felt a bit abrupt.
Overall, a very powerful book. I can see why he chose animals as a metaphors. We can get desensitized to things, seeing something depicted in a new way can help bring through that||

last ledge
night shadow
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Starting this now!

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I actually feel very uncomfortable with having a book with a big swastika on the front at home because the symbol is banned here omg

pastel moth
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if it helps, i like to just think of the swastika as the hindu symbol and not the n/zi one

night shadow
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in this case it doesn’t

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and i think for me it wouldn’t work in any case given the history of my country

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Part 1 Chapter 1
|| writes in the book how his father didn’t want him to write about this in the book Oop

i love the little details, like how in one frame you can see his father’s tattoo from the concentration camp||

night shadow
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Part 1 Chapter 2
|| Anja only having 39kg omg and then the postpartum depression. it was mentioned in the beginning that she died of suicide and with these details and the war, i can’t say i‘m surprised ||

night shadow
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Part 1 Chapter 3
|| i didn’t expect Vladek to come home again after being sent to the front and being a war prisoner.
but he really had to be very resourceful to survive all this ||

night shadow
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Part 1 Chapter 4
|| i‘m still surprised Vladek didn’t get caught with all the illegal activities he did but then again i never thought about how probably almost everyone did it just to survive because what else could they do? ||

night shadow
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Finished Part 1
|| i know the history about these times of course but reading about it what‘s first hand experience from a jew really makes it even more horrifying, thinking about that it was not only them going through this but so many more people and how a lot of them were murdered.
they managed to stay out of the concentration camps for so long and that has to be the reason why they even survived, otherwise that wouldn’t have been possible. Vladek was really smart about his decisions so far and very resourceful but i can’t image what it does to the human psyche to be in survival mode for this long. ||

night shadow
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Part 2 Chapter 1
|| i know he has been through a lot but having a father like Vladek would drive me crazy omg

i still can’t believe how lucky he was. but ofc being a survivor he has to be, the others didn’t survive and aren’t able to tell their story ||

peak edge
night shadow
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Part 2 Chapter 3
|| this is the one i already read for uni and having read what came before gave it so much more context but at the same time it’s also really easy to understand if you don’t know the rest of the story.

horrifying, absolutely horrifying ||

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Part 2 Chapter 4
|| to hear how many of their family members died really makes me think about how many families & lineages were just wiped out entirely ||

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I‘m done

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|| a very powerful book, i think it’s important to keep telling the stories of what happened back then to make sure it‘ll never happen again. ||

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i don’t think i can share deeper thoughts because it might become too political

cold summit
peak edge
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  1. It's a banned book that I never read,
  2. Though I vaguely recall just flipping through the pages in disinterest as a teenager
  3. I love them as casual reads
  4. Finished, I didn't know these questions existed, I'm glad I did the BR
vernal summit
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i finished it yesterday!

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final thought
|| this is a little difficult to discuss to avoid politics and whatnot so i’ll try to be as general as i can be

it’s going to sound weird, but i loved this, WW2 was my favorite to learn about in school, and i really appreciated the authenticity of this telling.

i am assuming the author interviewed his own father for this and it was the retelling from his own family? if i’m wrong please tell me

it was a horrible story with a sad ending. the father always forever living his life as if it’ll be all take a way from him again .. never throwing stuff out, not wasting food, being resourceful with things .. all things you don’t think much of until it’s something you no longer have.

it was kind of amazing how his father continued to stay on top as much as he could and handled all of the situations in the way he did. not everyone was that “lucky” ..
the survivors guilt and depression was soooooo thick within the written words .. i can’t imagine that aftermath or even during. ||

peak edge
topaz gulchBOT
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@flint dew,@night shadow,@bronze eagle,@pastel moth,@peak edge,@austere kernel,@vocal sapphire,@cold summit,@idle gull,@hybrid radish,@vernal summit,@tribal musk,@coral hazel,@sly wyvern,@pearl nexus,@fading hull,@neat summit,@obsidian wedge,@peak edge,@placid fable,@last ledge,@snow thunder,@thorny mica,@void tulip,@opaque terrace,@strong rampart,@carmine crane

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Hello Everyone!

I’m stepping in to continue leading this BR. I’ve read it before (twice I think?), and I should have a copy in hand next week. This is a complex groundbreaking book, and I’m looking forward to reading through your thoughts and sharing some discussion questions soon.

I know we want to stay away from contemporary politics, but I think discussion of history should be fine. Please keep your thoughts mindful and remember that this could be a very personal and triggering conversation for some people. I have met Holocaust survivors and I have a good friend who lost family during that time; the history is still pretty raw for several different groups. I think understanding history is always important when considering current events, but I’ll let you know if I think someone has pushed the line too far.

We have about a month and a half remaining for this, and if you want to hold off until January, I completely understand. It’s a pretty compelling and quick read imo.

Here’s what I see so far for progress, please lmk if I’ve missed anything:
*Finished: NyxxusKrampus, Your Imaginary Friend, Jac, katto
Started: evet

Thanks!

topaz gulchBOT
carmine crane
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oops. messed up on the formatting there. I wish we could edit those blobPeek

pastel moth
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same! but you did an amazing job

pearl nexus
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I WILL START TODAY elmoFire

pearl nexus
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Part 1 Chp 1
What a romantic man duckIsForLove

pearl nexus
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p1c2
It's very mild but I do enjoy the father's bad grammar pepebabyChristmas it feels very homey

||also idk but Vladek and Anja going away for a few months WITHOUT THEIR CHILD to work on Anja's depression is so absurd to me. That was a thing?

But it was so kind of everyone to help out with taking care of Richiev and the textile factory in the meantime. So convenient||

austere kernel
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Part 1 ch.3 - ||why did he throw away the coatblobOohCry ||

austere kernel
austere kernel
cold summit
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I'm starting worrySit

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That quote before the first chapter txtyikes

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Part 1 Chapter 1: ||Artie and his family have been through a lot sadBear I wonder if we're going to find out what happened to his mum (if they know)||

austere kernel
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Finished part 1 -|| I hate how the part leaves in a 'cliffhanger' but I simultaneously hate calling it that since it feels almost insensititveomg idk how to put it. Since I assume we will learn more about the time at auschwitz, I dont wanna say that I cannot wait to get into part 2 but I do. I am really enjoying the art style, the realism and my heart just breaks reading about what these people went through, but at the same time I rly need to find out how Vladyk got out??? now that hes in auschwitz??? ||

austere kernel
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Part 2 page 188 - ||constantly resding how Vladek never saw these kind (and not) people in his life and never again is so hauntingqiqi Especially the priest who brought him back to life with his faith and words about his number sadniffler maaan||

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Finished chapter 1 of part 2 - ||I am reading this in my favourite bookstore with a cup of matcha, but the book is so heavy I’m getting dizzyghostSleepDeprivedAsf ||

austere kernel
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Finished Maus yesterday. ||Obviously heartbreaking, but damn was the execution of Vladek's story immaculate. Art stated how he was doubting if sharing his dad’s story was worth it and especially in a visual novel format, but I agree that it just made his story that much more special. I also get why he used animals instead of humans for the comic, which I didn't rly before every time I would pass this book at the bookstores. blobnod

I enjoyed the behind the scenes of Art recording his dad’s history and experience, which directly represented the aftermath of holocaust and ww2 as a whole on a survivor (another great addition to the visual novel). That fear that everything might get taken away again? God damnomg

Lastly, it was somehow a happy ending type of love story which was unexpected and lucky for Vladek and Anja. They BOTH managed to survive Auschwitz through their wits, skills and luck. And having that forever shared and remembered with the world is sobAUGH 5/5 stars||

IMG_7847.jpg
pearl nexus
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P1c3
||Richieu's innocence and crying at his dad's cold buttons omg sobAUGH such a cute and little wholesome moment despite what has happened so far||

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WHAT IS THE MEANING BEHIND THE COAT

pearl nexus
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@carmine crane so for asking, I wanted to know if you'll be posting discusiom questions for this BR?

I feel like I have nothing to say for each chapter omg

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I just keep reading and reading and gawking and being like omg but I have no words kekcry

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P1c4
This lowkey reminded me of the game Papers, Please and made me feel bad about how strict I was while playing omg

carmine crane
pearl nexus
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P1c5
Man I am so curious to know more about Vladek and ||Mala's relationship. They seem like they can't stand eachother, but I can't tell if it's in the endearing spouse way or if they actually cannot stand eachother|| cattoCry

pearl nexus
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Ok I guess it's clear now that ||Mala really is in it for the inheritance. I thought it was a joke sobAUGH that's so sad||

pearl nexus
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Finished Part 1 despairge

pearl nexus
pearl nexus
pearl nexus
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Been staring at the map in the beginning of Part 2 for ages lmao

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It just now clicked in my head that my grandparents survived Nazi Germany

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I don't really know much about their history because most of my family from that side is gone, but I know my grandparents were moving around Germany, Poland, and/or Austria around Hitler's dictatorship????

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Wtf despairge

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We r not jewish tho so I guess "survived" is not the correct term

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P2c1
I KNEW IT
I knew the ||letter was fake|| despairge

pearl nexus
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I finished defeat

neat summit
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Also, does anyone know if Maus qualifies as a banned book? 🤔

dense bane
neat summit
# dense bane it does!

oh that's very convenient for the banned book event! I'll definitely use it there somewhere

neat summit
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I just finished the first part (ch1-6). || I thought it was very powerful. I was especially moved how even in these horrors and that terrible fear, Vadlek found room for kindness. Moments like him burying the man that betrayed them or taking the smallest watch from the family he helped because he knew they'd need the rest later, portay such humanity among atrocities. I also enjoy reading the snippets of 'current day' interactions between Art and his father and his new wife. ||

neat summit
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Gotta say I struggle a bit with || how cruel Art can be to Vladek. He has too little compassion for him imo. ||

cold summit
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Part 1 Chapter 2: ||Could you imagine if all babies born were 1/13th the weight of their birth parent? A terrifying thought.||

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||So she has post-partum? But considering when this is set it's just thought of as hysteria and they're going to have her committed. The world is so unfair.||

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||I feel like I'm going to be upset and annoyed about how Jews were treated during this time. Being forced out of the country and your money/property stolen sadBearbeing taken from their homes with no further traces of them. It's just awful.||

cold summit
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Chapter 3: ||Wait, did you really get out of being in the army if you were missing a certain number of teeth?||

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||Starved him and deprived him of sleep for three months as well so he couldn't join up. It's grim the lengths that people went to in order to dodge the draft but I get it.||

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||The lack of instructions and how huge the consequences are because of that. Thanks I hate it.||

cold summit
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||It just makes me so sad how people were being shot at/killed for the smallest reasons or sometimes no reason at all.||

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Chapter 4: ||Hanged for 'dealing goods without coupons'? Just completely made up reasons to give people excuses to do what they want.||

cold summit
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||Shipping people off being they're old or their family members if they try to dodge it is just so far out of the realm of what's acceptable tbh||

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||I feel like younger readers would get a lot of historical info reading this one. I do kinda wish I had read it 15 years ago.||

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Chapter 5: ||The comic within a comic and the different art style for it is really cool.||

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||I'm sorry, they picked kids up and hit them against walls? wtf. Lowkey is this where some of the inspiration for Mrs Trunchbull in Matilda came from? I know he was involved in WWII so it wouldn't surprise me.||

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||People killing themselves first on their terms so they're not murdered in a more brutal way down the line sadBear ||

cold summit
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||I can't imagine staring death in the face like that and actually managing to walk away||

cold summit
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Chapter 6: ||That's so much responsibility to put on a child but it's true that if he didn't keep secrets from others that he could definitely jeopardise the lives of the Spiegelmans||

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||It's sweet that Anja helped him with his schoolwork as well. If it wasn't such a treachorous time it might actually be a nice arrangement with them.||

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||Oh, that didn't last long and now she's asking them to leave. I can't even imagine living through that.||

cold summit
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||The conditions people had to live in are deplorable||

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Finished Part 1 and I fear Part 2 is going to be even harder to read

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Part 2 Chapter 1: ||Of course they were sending fake letters out to get more people in Auschwitz sadBear ||

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||I'm genuinely so upset by what's happening to Mandelbaum||

cold summit
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Chapter 2: ||It's just cruel that Anja is being forced to do a job that she's not capable of and then being beaten every time she messes up. The officers are doing it on purpose. I just want her and everyone else to be safe.||

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||Anja basically starving to death and Vladek being beaten for the assumption that he was talking to someone. It's just too much.||

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||Using your hand instead of toilet paper because all paper is such a commodity that you need to save it as much as possible txtyikes ||

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||Saving up for months in bribes just so he can have Anja closer to him and keep her as safe as possible 🥺 that's true love.||

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||Nope, sorry, if I think about kids' skulls being smashed in after they were gassed to death I genuinely might cry||

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Chapter 3: ||Them not getting food because they have lice. Literally any excuse to be mistreated.||

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||The french man being a frog feels a lil stereotypical||

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||It's a wonder he managed to stay alive through everything that was thrown at him.||

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Chapter 4: ||The fact that they had such a poor diet for so long that their bodies struggle with food now sadBear ||

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||I like how the modern day family dynamics have been woven in throughout as well.||

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Chapter 5: ||Is Vladek going to die now? ||

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I finished and I am broken. ||This was so sad but so beautifully put on page. The love story between Vladek and Anja and how it survived such terrible conditions (as did the both of them) was just amazing. I felt all the feelings whilst reading this and whilst it was a heavy read, I feel like it was incredibly necessary. I can't believe this has never been on my radar before.|| 4.5 ⭐

topaz gulchBOT
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@flint dew,@night shadow,@bronze eagle,@peak edge,@austere kernel,@vocal sapphire,@cold summit,@idle gull,@hybrid radish,@vernal summit,@tribal musk,@coral hazel,@sly wyvern,@pearl nexus,@fading hull,@neat summit,@obsidian wedge,@astral spruce,@placid fable,@last ledge,@snow thunder,@thorny mica,@void tulip,@opaque terrace,@strong rampart,@carmine crane,@fluid atlas

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Hello readers! This BR ends in 3 weeks!

I'm checking in with you all to remind you of this!! I'd highly recommend reading it if you haven't already. It's a great story that offers a lot of new and different perspectives.

Finished: Nyx, Your Imaginary Friend, Jac, katto, ahri, spicy, abi
Currently reading: celine, evet

If you've started and haven't messaged about it, here are some discussion questions to spark some ideas!

Optional discussion questions:

🔹️Do you see any similarities or differences in Artie and Vladek?

🔸️Why do you think Artie chose to use animals as characters in the story, as opposed to humans?

🔹️What do you think is up with Vladek and Mala's relationship? Why do you think Vladek remarried?

🔸️Do you agree with Vladek ||burning all/most of Anja's diaries||? Have you had similar experiences or feelings, when you wanted to destroy things related to bad times, even if they were associated with things/people you loved?

topaz gulchBOT
neat summit
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I finished part two and therefore the book! || This second part was so emotional, the casual terror and murder is really haunting. Especially the way Vladek tells of all these horrors like they're nothing, he sounds so desensitized. I still didn't like how Art treated his father, too callous and a tad heartless in my opinion.. I thought the reunion with Anja and Vladek was beautiful, when you think about it it's miraculous they both made it out of the war and found each other again. It's a shame we'll never know how Anja survived, I feel like that's a missing piece of the story forever now.. || All in all, it was a very powerful story and I'm happy I read it with you all.

austere kernel
neat summit
peak edge
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I started it yesterday before bed and couldnt sleep before i was finished sooo

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||It struck me very distinctly why Art Spiegelman decided to anthropomorphize the people. Even though I knew it was about how Jews were regarded as vermin long before the large-scale systemic genocide, the pogroms had been happening long before, and the excuses were the same. I thought maybe something about American race relations might have inspired Spiegelman since he also wanted to make a comic on American race relations with anthropomorphized animals but didn’t in the end. Then I found this on "Well Intended Liberal Slop: Allegories of Race in Spiegelman’s Maus" from JSTOR:||

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||"The book is an elaborate allegory which represents Jews as mice, Germans as cats, Poles as pigs, Americans as dogs, and so on. What interests me in this reconstruction of the books’ genealogy is how powerful the phrase ‘‘well-intended liberal slop’’ is, and how neatly it justifies the translation of the cat-and-mouse metaphor from the American context to the European. We are accustomed to the negative connotations attributed to the term ‘‘liberal’’ from right and left alike, and, still more, are acutely aware of the political and ethical implications of representing alterity. Debates on these implications have been common currency in literary studies since Edward Said’s publication of *Orientalism* in 1978 at the latest. But Spiegelman’s decision not directly to represent the African–American experience of racism in light of his insight carries its own ethical risks. In effect, Spiegelman acknowledges what Jacobs has perceived: twentieth-century American mass culture in the form of Disney cartoons and their like has encoded aspects of racist entertainments that originated in the nineteenth century. He has the further insight that the cat-and-mouse cartoon (more broadly, the animal cartoon) may allegorize particularly American race relations." ||

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||"But Spiegelman then elides the distinctively American tenor of the metaphor and substitutes the Holocaust. The sophistication and power of the result is beyond refuting. The ethical terrain that Maus enters in effecting this translation is full of its own pitfalls, however, because although Spiegelman derives inspiration from a particular symbology that demands critique, he then fails to undertake that critique, and even to some degree disguises the metaphor’s specifically American origins. Especially since his sense of the cat-and-mouse metaphor derives from a specifically American context, uprooting the metaphor – understanding that dyad as a vehicle that will travel – means that the cultural oppression of African Americans that Spiegelman demystifies as a first step towards *Maus* is at risk of becoming mystified anew. Although to my mind *Maus* both registers and at least partially resolves the ethical problems of transplanting the metaphor, the metaphor’s American genealogy nevertheless demands much more attention than it has received to date. The position I take in the article that follows – that the two volumes of *Maus* engage with the issue of race in America in spite of their focus on Nazi Germany – deserves to be challenged by other critics. (One might note, for instance, that Spiegelman’s engagement with this topic is so subtle that to date it has been overlooked by the books’ many critics, and thus may well be rhetorically ineffective.) The specifically American origins of the racial caricatures need to become a permanent feature of critical engagement with the two books."||

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Also wtf this book was banned for showing nudity?? This is like a joke of the century

peak edge
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||I also wish Artie had been curious enough to ask Mala about her experience as a survivor, but I get that Spiegelman probably wanted to focus on his father's personal history. After all his mom Anja's experiences weren’t really shared either maybe because his dad burned all her diaries so Artie never had the chance to learn about themhmmLurk ||

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||also Mr Gelber(the man who was killed when he came back to his family factory in poland) remind me of a movie called Ida (2013)||

peak edge
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||Also why do yall think Vladek mentions his relationship with his old girlfriend Lucia? From a storyline perspective, it would have been enough for him to just mention her in passing as his old girlfriend, but after talking about their relationship, he tells Artie not to include that part idk sounds sus ||

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||I was thinking regarding Spielgalman's inclusion of the casual racism scene when his father muttered the yiddish n word several time when a black hitchhiked rode with them
In James Young’s essay on Maus, he explains that “indeed, it may be Artie’s unreliability as a son that makes his own narrative so reliable” (676). Young essentially says that the moments where Art exposes character flaws in himself, betraying details that his father would have preferred to be private enable the narrative to be more honest. Although I found this a problematic concept at first, that is a son betraying the trust of his father for the sake of being a reliable narrator, Spiegelman has explained the inclusion of that particularly troublesome scene with his father. In the same interview linked above, Art Spiegelman frames the inclusion of that scene regarding his father’s “casual racism”: “There’s a tendency to think of holocaust survivors as martyrs…and one expects one to be made better by suffering. Suffering makes you hurt. That’s all you can say for it. “This quote poignantly shows Art’s frustration with the mainstream media’s depiction of Holocaust survivors as being saintly and that perhaps it would be better if everyone understood that mental trauma does not lead to a strengthening of character, it can be just as debilitating to one’s personality as a physical disease. referenced from ubc uni blog and the interview https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3xTM-ewN9yM ||

YouTube
ABC Arts
Life after Maus with Art Spiegelman [HD] Late Night Live, ABC RN

Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer prize winning comic artist and creator of the masterful Holocaust narrative Maus, makes his Australian debut in 'WORDLESS!' a performance of slides, talk and music commissioned for the Graphic festival in Sydney. His musical collaborator in the performance is jazz composer Phillip Johnston.

▶ Play video
void tulip
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I finally started this!!

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I love the ||Storytelling. The way the story isn't always linear because the grandpa remembers something differently and jumps to that short bit is very nice. I also like that the present feels as real as the past because of little instances like the grandpa having to recount his pills many times||

peak edge
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i will start this soonomg

void tulip
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Chapter 3
|| I wish I could be happier about Vladek returning to his family.||

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Something about this sticks with me (Chapter 4)

SPOILER_20250124_100229.jpg
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Chapter 4
|| Vladek really loved his wife and daughters to sneak to the bad side. It makes me sick what happend to them||

void tulip
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Chapter 5
|| having your father find the comic in which you depicted your pain of losing your mother must be so hard for both of them||

void tulip
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Ending the first book || with Vladek being called a murderer for burning so much af Anya's stuff is rough.||

tribal musk
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I'll be done by the end date! TH_salute

opaque terrace
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I started a few days ago and I should be done by the end date blobWiggle

Up to Part 1 Ch 3: ||I absolutely love this art style! It's so detailed, and I love the linework. I also love the seemingly handwritten text. And the storytelling is great! Love how each chapter is structured as a day of Art talking to his dad. Also his dad is such a typical old man hehe ||

placid fable
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Started! Book 1 Ch 1 ||nice background about his parents. Poor Lucia, I think he really did lead her on for a bit though||

placid fable
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Read up to Ch 3 last night ||I'm not sure that I like Vladek. It's really subtle, maybe because it's his son writing about his father meeting his mom, but it really feels like he chose Anja for her money because it's mentioned that Lucia didn't even have a dowry and Anja might not be the prettiest girl but her parents were wealthy. I'm not saying that Lucia was the right girl for him, but I also think that he definitely used her and led her on. I also really didn't like that he spoke badly about Mala, why marry her then? He feels like the kind of man that marries a woman for convenience and what she can do for him. I may be reading more into it than what it is, but that's what it feels like to me. I also didn't like that Vladek kept blaming his son for losing count of his pills and spilling them, and then throwing his coat away without asking, thinking he knows better. I was trying to give Vladek the benefit of the doubt in the beginning - after Ch 1 when we see how Art's parents meet - but the more I see of Vladek, the more I question his character||

placid fable
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Ch 4 ||is just sad and horrible. So much horror. And knowing that Richieu doesn't make it but not knowing yet how it happens... I'm not looking forward to finding out😢 ||

tribal musk
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Finished! Thoughts tomorrow!

opaque terrace
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Part 1 Ch 4: ||Good god, this chapter is bleak, and I know it's just gonna get bleaker. They've started by taking away all the Jews that are mildly inconvenient. I totally understand Anja not wanting to give Richieu away to be hidden, and I don't think I'd want to do that either, but it's so upsetting knowing that decision cost Richieu his life. Vladek's dad going over to the bad side to be with his daughter was heartbreaking.||

placid fable
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Finished book 1, not yet started on book 2. I thought this would be a quick and easy read because graphic novel, but it's heavy and it's difficult and I keep needing to take breaks. ||I'm glad Art recognizes that his father is quite the anti-hero. I don't like him, but nobody deserves what the Nazis did to the Jews. His father's faults bring such an authentic element to the story and I love that Art is trying to portray him as accurately as he can. I would be so angry too finding out Vladek burned his mother's diaries. No wonder Art decided to tell the story within a story and show his own relationship and experiences with his father, I don't think I'd like the story if we were purely focused on Vladek 😝 ||

placid fable
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Finished book 2! Thoughts to come tomorrow!

austere kernel
peak edge
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okg i shall read this

void tulip
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Chapter 1 of the second book
|| Françoise only converting to make Vladek happy is upsetting. Her also talking about Art dating Sandra was odd to me. How long have they've been dating and why does she still feel as if she isn't Jewish enough to happily be with Art?

Art is stronger than me because if my father would lie about a heart attack I would not be this calm.
MALA IS FREE.

Art is ridden with guilt, which makes a lot of sense. However, I don't 100% understand how this rivalry with Richieu started. How is he comparing himself to idealised version of his long dead brother? Apparently his father didn't talk about the Richieu. I understand this might be his young self's way of him feeling the guilt of having a easier life compared to them, but i wonder how long this has been going on in Arts life and I just hope he got some help dealing with this.

You can't take for granted even a little bit of hope in Auschwitz.
"Here God didn't come. We were all on our own" wow.
Mandelbaum's whole situation is bringing me to tears. Having a friendship in such dark times is worth is much. I can't even imagine it ||

void tulip
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Chapter 2 of the second book
|| that cover is horrifying.
Starting with the illustrators point of view is quite interesting.

Mancie is an actual angel.

The last page is CRAZY. At the beginning of the chapter there were flies coming from the corpses of the Jews that died and it ends with Art killing the mosquitos in the present. Once again showcasing his deep guilt towards that time.
Also Françoise saying how everything is so peaceful everything appears that you could forget about all the killing is quite literally something that the people that were alive when Auschwitz happend were (some still do) saying!! So many times my teachers remind me that the buildings in which I study is part of that time because it is so easy to forget.||

tribal musk
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This is one of the best charity finds I ever grabbed - I grabbed it while I was killing time before my driving theory test for £2 kek But before that I read this in my school library (this was also during the time that I was taking higher history and of course, the holocaust was one of the key components of study). I'd long since forgotten most of the book (well, outside of the harrowing recollections during part 2) even though I cited it a lot during a number of my essays and returning to it hasn't been easy. I started reading this about a month ago but it's such a difficult read for a number of reasons; last night I bit the bullet and decided to sit down to finish it more or less in one hit.

https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*pSUOSVjG2XlM6w3jyo84Jg.jpeg

||The Complete Maus are two graphic novels combined to form the story of Vladek Spiegelman's life during World War 2. It is drawn masterfully in beautiful black and white. Jewish people are drawn as mice, German people are drawn as cats, Polish people are drawn as pigs and people from the U.S are drawn as dogs. Art himself took the recollections from his elderly father as he tells the whole story of his life - meeting his wife (Art's mother), the simmering tensions and the slow stripping of humanity taken away from the Jews as Hitler rose to power and eventually the culmination of his and Anja's running that leads to them being taken to Auschwitz and their struggle to survive during one of the most monstrous, dehumanizing and deplorable moments in human history.||

||"In making people of a single nationality look "all alike", Spiegelman hoped to show the absurdity of dividing people by these lines. In a 1991 interview, Spiegelman noted that "these metaphors... are meant to self-destruct in my book - and I think they do self-destruct."||

||The graphic novels are framed around Art and Vladek, meeting to discuss the story (first through dictation then using a recorder to capture Vladek's words), we also get to examine the very vulnerable exploration into their relationship as father and son. Art takes the time to try to earnestly depict the difficult times he had with his father, his father's trauma but also his ingenuity, bravery and intelligence. Art is also very vulnerable in exposing the times when he is short or frustrated with his father. This also covers his expression of his guilt as the shadow of his parents being holocaust survivors has been in the background of his life since childhood. At no point did I ever question the love that Art and his father have for one another in spite of how difficult their relationship could be at points - it's almost close to levity as the crux of the story is revealed bit by bit. I just generally have a lot of respect for the author for allowing us to see a glimpse into his life in such an intimate way - particularly when discussing his mother and her suicide alongside how it affected him and his father.||

||To say that this is an incredible feat almost feels understated as Art takes such care in giving this harrowing account the care and dedication needed to be given to the public. We're shown the bare-face of the cruelty that Jewish people were forced upon during the second World War. I feel like this is genuinely one of the more important books that anyone interested in history (hell, even not) should take the time to read at least once, just to understand the depths of what the Nazi regime put regular human beings through. I don't want to head down that path in my little review here but given how odd and unsettling current events are, it's more important now than ever to take note of what happened during this time period. The adage is after all 'those who forget the past, are doomed to repeat it'.||

If I have to give a TL;DR it would simply be that this book is important and everyone should read it at least once. I give 4.75 starry simply because the weight is immense.

placid fable
#

My thoughts

||I didn't expect it to be so because graphic novel of mice, but I feel like this is one of the most important books about WW2 that I've read. One, because it's a true story from Art's father who actually lived through it and not the many WW2 fiction that's available, and two, because the MC isn't the most likeable person. It's easy to be like Jews = innocent and good, Nazis = evil and bad, when reading WW2 stories, and more often than not the MCs are relatable and likeable (and Nazis are still the bad guys). There's a reminder here that it really didn't matter if you were a good or bad person, rich or poor, strong or weak, male or female, young or old... if you were a Jew, you could die at the whims of a Nazi, or you could be one of the "lucky" ones who survived. It chills me to think about it.||

||As I've said, I really don't like Vladek very much. There's been attempts to excuse his behavior; maybe he's stingy because of the war, but their other Jewish friends went through it too and they're not like him. And all that money talk from Mala and Vladek thinking she's a gold digger, like he wasn't with Anja? And seriously, Mala wasn't asking for jewels and designer clothes, she just needed basic necessities! And his blatant racism, after all he'd been through with Nazis targeting Jews, how can he be so dense and unaware? And yet, I respect his survival instincts and his resourcefulness. I still don't like him, but no matter what, no one deserves what the Nazis did to the Jews.||

||I love that Art told his father's story while also showing the process of being told the story; I think it brought a whole new element to the story that someone can go through something as vile as the Holocaust and yet still hold racist beliefs, and also that Art doesn't agree with his father's beliefs||

More to come

placid fable
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||In fact, one of the things I find most interesting is the relationship dynamics between Art and his father. He shows that Vladek is a difficult person to be around, to reason with, to change, and even from the beginning we see that he doesn't spend a lot of time with his father and doesn't want to spend a lot of time with him. It's so relatable to both want to honor your father's history and tell his story but not want to subject yourself to his idiosyncrasies. I really respect the vulnerability and authenticity that Art puts into this story, and also the comic that he wrote about his mother that he included in the book. I don't know if I could ever do that but I'm inspired by his demonstration.||

||In regards to the art, I think it was amazing - so detailed and very obviously thoughtful. One of the discussion questions asked why use animals instead of humans, and Idk the real answer and when I started reading the book Idk either, but the deeper I got into the book, I wonder if using the mice to represent Jews is because of how resourceful mice are. People see mice as pests and often want to exterminate them, but they persist and they thrive despite hardships. They are incredibly smart, solving puzzles and looking for loopholes, they are survivors. Idk if this was Art's intent, but it was my takeaway.||

This book has been on my radar for a long time, I'm so glad I finally read it!

opaque terrace
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Finished Part 1. ||God, this graphic novel is so powerful. I'm glad we get to see Vladek's story from how he becomes a successful textile factory owner and then how he slowly lost everything. Seeing how gradual this all was is kind of a punch in the gut. It had to be so terrifying, never knowing when the shoe was gonna drop. I knew about the gradualness from reading history books, but reading biographical accounts is a whole nother thing.||

void tulip
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Chapter 3 of the second book
|| it really baffles me how Vladek can be this openly racist after everything that happened to him as a Jew||

void tulip
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Finished this and my god is this a masterpiece
|| from the beginning to the end the artistry was topnotch. There are so many panels that will stick with me.
Also the characters are amazingly portrait. It would've been so easy to just make it black and white, evil and good but no, Vladek as a character is flawed in the best way possible. Being racist after everything that happend, being so controlling with everybody as a form of love (?). Art didn't have to expose his father like that but I'm glad he did. Easy 5 stars||

pearl nexus
#

Hello readers 🫶 @everyone

This buddy read has ended! Just popping in once more to announce the end and list out the final list of participants!

No discussion questions this time!
All the past discussion questions went unanswered so I get the vibe that nobody wants to circle back to this book to discuss it after they've finished it kekcry

Points will be awarded to nyx, your imaginary friend, jac, katto, ahri, spicy, abi, celine, acid, haze, vaude, nunes

thanks everyone!

pearl nexus
cold summit
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I did look at them, considered how to answer them and then never did omg

pearl nexus
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it's all good abi! ❤️

peak edge
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oh i thought

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i had time

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GOODBYE

tribal musk
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Ong I usually just miss questions SWEAT

cold summit
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thank you amanda, lemondrop, and spicy FrogCuteHeart

last ledge
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Thank you for hosting!

void tulip
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Thank you for hosting cattoHearts

opaque terrace
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Thank you Amanda, Lemondrop, and Spicy for hosting!

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I'll get to the second book soon peepoHide

coarse pecan
#

From <t:1768435200:D> to <t:1773532800:D> | Leader(s): @azure frost

Book Link

ID: 695536a0866b9555e3726a5e
Announcement: #buddy-reads message

15195.png
Goodreads
The Complete Maus

On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of its …

coarse pecan
azure frost
azure frost
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Announcement soon!

topaz gulchBOT
#

@azure frost,@heavy ether,@meager mango,@meager hound,@coarse pecan,@opaque terrace,@finite seal,@fading hull,@peak edge,@thick siren,@shell wedge,@tired rampart,@proud yew,@mild dawn,@hybrid radish,@rocky valley

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Welcome, one and all, to the Complete Maus BR! I am your host, Sendi Paradium.

Few things before we get into this one.

Firstly this is one of my favorite indie graphic novels of all time. For those who are unaware what that means, this book was published and written independently as its own work outside of major comic book companies such as Marvel, DC, Skybound, Image, etc. It has the reputation of being one of the "big three" of Indie Comics written in the 90s, one of the others being anything written by Alan Moore, creator of V for Vendetta and Watchmen.

Secondly, this book has a TW/CW for a reason. I don't need to sugarcoat anything, we all see the cover. This book is about the Holocaust. Keeping this in mind, this book will get into political discussion due to the subject matter, but I still expect the utmost respect from everyone when we cover this book, even if we disagree on our overall ranking of the book as a narrative. But that goes without saying lol.

Now then, a few questions to get discussion rolling.

  1. When do you plan to start this one? :D
  2. Have you read any books about the Holocaust before (besides for school or for education)?
  3. What do you think the purpose of the anthropomorphic animals on the cover is for? How will this contribute to your reading experience or to the narrative in your opinion?
  4. What type of animal do you think you would be in this narrative if you were a character here?

Be sure to post your thoughts in channel and I'll see you on the other side!

topaz gulchBOT
heavy ether
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  1. Hopefully around the end of the month. (Currently on a work trip, then taking a personal trip.)
  2. I have read so many. Mostly in my adult life. Some nonfiction and others historical fiction.
  3. Not sure if this is like a representation of a group of people? If so, I think it will be an interesting contribution to see how people are perceived and what this may mean for them or other stereotyping.
  4. I’m honestly not sure. Once I have a better context of the animals, maybe I could answer better.
peak edge
#

MAUS

azure frost
tired rampart
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  1. I plan to start reading it after 2 weeks. Currently finishing another book.
  2. I haven’t read many books in general or about the holocaust. I would like to learn more about it.
  3. I think the purpose could be as metaphors or possibly to make it less disturbing to readers. This will contribute to my experience as it could help me see the narrative in a different perspective and shed light on things I didn’t know about before
  4. I would be a rat as my zodiac is also a rat

**edit This is the first book I’m doing since joining the server 🙂

azure frost
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I had 1, then 16, then another 1, then this one!!

tired rampart
coarse pecan
coarse pecan
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starting this Shy

azure frost
coarse pecan
#

Part I Ch 1 || 'promise i won't include the part about your crazy ex-gf who tried to sabotage your marriage to mom, dad'...ends up including anywaysShrugFreg😅||

meager hound
# topaz gulch Welcome, one and all, to the Complete Maus BR! I am your host, Sendi Paradium. ...
  1. I plan to start it today or tomorrow :)
  2. I‘ve read a lot of books about it in school, but I don‘t think I‘ve read books about it in my free time.
  3. I guess that different animals are different kinds of people? To highlight the different groups? (That the nazis are some kind of predator or something like that? I haven‘t looked into the book yet)
  4. I don’t know, because I don’t know what animals exist in the book and what they mean.
heavy ether
#

Starting! (I also realized I’m way behind others, so will try to read other comments after I finish.)

azure frost
#

Those before comments came from BRs from the Dark Ages™ of OBC.

random saddleBOT
#

Those before comments
came from BRs from the
Dark Ages™ of OBC.

- Soupy Sendi Be Paintin 🍜 🎨
heavy ether
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Not me reading 2025 and thinking that’s this year still…It’s been a January.

azure frost
heavy ether
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Well, guess I’ll be ahead of the game instead, then. I’m excited either way!

heavy ether
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Part 1 Chap 1
||I like the start of this as we get to see the father’s background. That ex seems far too clingy. Glad he was able to smooth things over with Anja.

His kid agreeing not to put all of that in to totally put it in made me chuckle. But, it definitely shows the humanity of the characters.||

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Part 1 Chap 2
||Poor Anja. Seems like she is suffering from postpartum depression, maybe? I am glad to see her improving after some time away and that Vladek was able to be with her.

Not the draft! I can imagine the things he is going to see over the next few years as this war progresses.||

heavy ether
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Part 1 Chap 3
||Vladek pushing his son to eat everything on his plate has to stem from his experiences during the war and not having enough to eat all the time, so food is precious. I doubt the son fully understands this (kid him or even present).

Oh, his eating stems from before WWII. Wow, poor man.

Those few months as a POW, then working on moving mountains (literally - that’s crazy!) to be followed up by his escapes to get home show a true depth and persistence. Every time I read what people do to survive during this time is always mind boggling.||

heavy ether
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Part 1 Chap 4
||Vladek is an interesting character. His thoughts on the events happening around him and his insistence on certain things to try and react are well done.

I am glad that he still has quite a few plans to try and stay alive.||

meager hound
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part 1 chapter 1 || I like that Art is a character himself - I thought that it is just from the perspective of his father. And I don't really want to read further (but I will) because of what'll happen. ||

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|| + it seems like Artie's mom is sometimes called Anna and sometimes Anja? ||

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p1 ch2 || oh the police are pigs, ah and the nazis are cats ||
|| it's kind of interesting that the polish police arrested someone for having communist documents & especially someone who didn't know anything about them (and also that she didn't say that Anja gave them to her) - but I don't know polish laws in 1938 ||

heavy ether
meager hound
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|| but they're different names? it's kind of confusing to me because the person, that I picture for "Anja" is quite different to "Anna" (but that's obviously because of people named Anna or Anja who I know) + they're similar, but not that similar? but Idk how Anja is pronounced in English||

#

|| ah well, (German) wikipedia says that Anja is (apparently Russian) nickname for Anna/Anne||

azure frost
# meager hound || but they're different names? it's kind of confusing to me because the person,...

||Common names in certain languages were often Americanized by individuals from Europe and etc. coming into American tmk. It's because unfortunately people like to profile others based on a name alone (and some historical examples of people being forced to be given Americanized names when they were forced into slavery in the States) so I presume it's something like that. A tactic to save themselves the trouble of potential discrimination based on that obviously non-English name steeped in a tradition of bigotry and intolerance. For a survivor of the Holocaust, it makes perfect sense.||

meager hound
#

|| that would make sense, but she's already called Anna in the beginning by her parents while Vladek calls her Anja ||

azure frost
coarse pecan
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Part I Chapter 3 || really shows the human side of war with Vladek being frightened, but army leaders forcing him to kill anything that moved . also i know that he'd received previous training, but the fact this oncoming war with the Germans seemed so sudden that everyone only received a few days of training is astonishing||

#

Part I Chapter 4 || this chapter really highlighted the start of Jewish oppression and aryanization in Poland, though it is interesting to see how Vladek and his inlaws managed to use their lucrative connections to get by both with trying to find work and evading the concentration camps ||

|| this chapter also brought to light the fact that some Jewish people aided the Gestapo's , possibly believing that some Jewish prisoners would satiate the Germans and save more people ||

|| what happened to Vladek's father, sister Fela, and her four kids is heartbreaking blobOohCry ||

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Part I Chapter 5 || a lot happened here too but it was especially revealing that the definition of family shifted, with Vladek having to bribe his cousins who were apart of the Jewish-affiliated Gestapo to avoid transportation to Auschwitz. others who housed Jewish people would also rat them out when they received no more monetary benefit. And the revelation of Richieu's death, i have no words||

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Part I Chapter 6 || the fact a black market formed and it was simply to sell food to Jewish people is gut-wrenching ||

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Part 2 Chapter 1 and 2 || it was sweet to see how the priest tried to bring a bit of light on such a horrendous situation when he signified that Vladek's number totaling to 18 implied that he would make it out alive. after seeing so much betrayal and dehumanization, the brief moments when Maus captures a postiive human moment is pleasant but also so sad ||

|| Very interesting pov from Art himself, following the critical acclaim and positive reception of the first Maus book ||

||Maybe your father needed to show that he was always right - that he could always SURVIVE - because he felt GUILTY about surviving. - Art's shrink||

|| this chapter highlights the generational trauma the Holocaust has on both survivors and their children ||

|| its sweet that during all the suffering, Vladek and Anja still found one another, and how Vladek saved everything for Anja to be transferred closer to him. but devestating that Vladek ended up being transferred away from his wife soon after ||

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Part 2 Chapter 3 || i think more and more we see the lasting psychological effects the Holocaust had on Vladek into his old age. he's extremely frugal and wants to do everything himself, but i think thats only bc he feels the need to prepare for any emergency that could happen at any time. the fact he admits that he burned Anja's diaries because he didn't wanna remember that part of the past anymore blobOohCry ||

|| i feel so bad that Vladek and many Jewish people were so close to the end of the war, only for them to be forced to march to Dachau, another camp within Germany ||

|| sigh the last moments of this chapter are painful to read with Vladek being racist towards a hitchhiker of colour ||

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finished || anti-Jewish sentiment was still a fixture even after Germany's defeat which sucks. the fact that some Jewish people were also killed bc they wanted their homes and businesses back 😠 i am happy though that Anja and Vladek reunited after months of not knowing whether the other was alive || i think this was a 4.25 ⭐ for me Shy

azure frost
meager hound
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p1 ch3 || why did his father throw out his coat?? (other parts of the chapter are definitely more important, but this confused me) ||

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|| and I'm sad that this p.o.w camp was probably better (while being terrible) than what'll happen next ||

meager hound
#

p1 ch4 || everything that's happening is so horrible

there is a jewish police? I didn't know about that, but it makes sense I guess - they tried to save themselves (but I'd guess that they still got treated badly & maybe still got murdered or sent to the camps)||

heavy ether
#

Part 1 Chap 5
||The development of what happens is so aligned with other things that I have read about this time period. I do like that this is a different voice and perspective.
I wonder how Vladek and Mala got in a relationship since he doesn’t appear to care for her in anyway close to Anja.||

heavy ether
#

Part 1 Chap 6
||The paranoia and uncertainty that the Jews faced every day (especially when hiding) is devastating to read. It’s also heart wrenching to read about trusting someone for that to have been false and being found out. Vladek and Anja go through so much. It’s wild to see how long, overall, they were free from being in prison or camp. (Not that being terrified and in hiding was great either.)||

heavy ether
#

Part 2 Chap 1
||The small acts of kindness make the overall events in this even harder to read at times. The man that informs Vladek of the meaning behind the numbers he was given on his arm is a sweet gesture to further instill hope in him.

I have read about cases where some got better treatment because they had the right job/found the right person to get a connection with. I’m glad to see Vladek is one of those.||

heavy ether
#

Part 2 Chap 2
||That Vladek was able to find Anja and help get her to the camp he was in is amazing. Reading about the atrocities at these camps never gets easier.||

heavy ether
heavy ether
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Part 2 Chap 3
||The way Vladek acts regarding food and money is wild, but likely psychological and a remainder of his time in the war where these things helped keep you alive. It seems so extreme and I understand Artie’s frustration about it. I don’t think this trauma is something really discussed among family.

It was difficult to read of Vladek’s blatant racism as well, considering what he went through.||

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Part 2 Chap 4
||I’m glad that they have some photos still of the family they lost. How difficult this must be for Vladek to talk about to Artie.||

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Part 2 Chap 5
||I love a reunion and it was so nice to see Anja and Vladek find each other after everything that happened.||

#

Finished!
||The bits of hope and humor sprinkled in to this made it a slightly easier read considering how heavy the subject matter is. I found the use of animals as the different races/etc to be an interesting tool to convey sentiments in a more clear way.

I am glad that Anja and Vladek are able to find each other after everything and continue their family. The amount of pain and suffering that so many people went through is difficult to wrap my head around, but this put many things into perspective. I also appreciate that we saw more of the trauma around money and food that isn’t always prevalent in other books. As well as the generational trauma that came out of this. Very eye opening.||

azure frost
# topaz gulch Welcome, one and all, to the Complete Maus BR! I am your host, Sendi Paradium. ...

Doing my own version of this :D

  1. Plan to start this week, and hopefully conclude by the end of the month easily.
  2. Typically, no. Aside from this one, I unfortunately haven't read many Holocaust narratives outside of school. But this one is my favorite for obvious reasons that I'll get into.
  3. Definitely to be used as metaphors of some kind, although to what extent, I will not spoil here.
  4. Komodo Dragon, because I have venom in my bite and will not let go of my convictions when I grasp ahold of them :D
meager hound
#

p1 ch5 || I really don't understand Mala's & Vladek's relationship (+ Vladek seems kind of hm weird? in general - probably because of what he lived through & his age?) ||

#

|| oh that mini comic - that's creepy & why is Artie blamed for his mom killing herself? ||

azure frost
# meager hound || oh that mini comic - that's creepy & why is Artie blamed for his mom killing ...

||Now this I do know. It's most likely an internalized guilt being externalized and how the generational trauma of the events of the Holocaust affected both Art and his mother in the future. Art was affected due to how his mother was affected. His mother most likely committed suicide due to the stresses of raising a child and the post-traumatic stress that would come with being a victim of a concentration camp. Art's way of coping with his mother's loss was to discuss it in... well, art. This was one of those "character study" moments I've mentioned in #book-talk when recommending this book. It's an examination of Art Spiegelman's story as much as Vladek and Anja's. And that is just as important, imo, as the main narrative going on.||

meager hound
azure frost
meager hound
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|| that's very understandable - especially (in Art's case) if someone important to you committed suicide
(I just didn't understand why other people blamed him in the comic, but it makes sense that it is the way he depicted his emotions)||

azure frost
meager hound
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|| ah well that explains what he's wearing & why he's in that .. prison at the end xD I was very confused about the story (and I didn't really understand it) ||

meager hound
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p1 ch6 || oh I'm glad that Miloch & his family survived with hiding at Motonowa's house ||

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|| kind of predictable but very sad that the smugglers didn't really smuggle them to Hungary ||

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|| it's sad the he burned the note books & I understand that Art is angry at that (I wouldn't call his father a "murderer" for it, but I feel like Art & his father have a very strained relationship in general) ||

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finished part 1 || ugh I feel like the next chapters will be the most horrible - they must've had extreme luck to even survive Auschwitz ||

meager hound
#

p2 ch1 || oh Mala left? good for her ||

meager hound
#

|| vladek was very lucky - but that makes sense I guess, he wouldn't have survived otherwise ||

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p2 ch2 || oh vladek died & art doesn't know how to finish the comic now? ||

meager hound
#

|| everything of that is so extremely horrible :(( ||

meager hound
#

finished || that was a lot, it's horrible that all of this happened. It feels even worse when reading a personal story about what happened & how it shaped the survivors and their children. ||

meager hound
#

I don't know what else to write, I feel very .. empty? after reading this. I hope nothing like that'll happen ever again (but it doesn't really feel unrealistic sadly)

azure frost
azure frost
#

Part 1 - My Father Bleeds History:

  • ||First framing device is already very good. I enjoy the humor of hearing about Art's parents and I think it really adds such a beautiful dichotomy compared to the later chapters of bigotry and hatred. Vladek's little cycling also gets me every time and the constant berating for Art's smoking is very funny to me. Albeit, it will cause some tension later tbh.||
  • ||The state of Germany at that moment as soon as Vladek goes over for business in the nonrural areas is also very great for palpable, real drama. I adore the symbolism and the ominous horror of the Nazis being present for every facet of this time. Makes the buildup to the eventual later chapters also make much more sense and have much more weight as well.||
  • ||The mask symbolism with the Poles and the pig masks. Uwu Bravo, Art! Such a great metaphorical touch.||
  • ||Anja's insistence that she needs to keep her baby cattoCry faceAngryCry I fucking hate Nazis fr.||
  • ||Vladek really is such a strong character and you feel his presence quite a bit. Ik it is contradictory as to what Art wants, but I can't help but wonder what an adaptation of this work would be like and how amazing it would be as an arthouse animated film. Something like Persepolis or even like Flow. The scenes beg to be animated so badly just based on the presentation and how avant-garde it is.||
  • ||The fact that shoe polish is what catches Vladek, and not being a POW by the Germans, really is a testament to the amount of luck this man had up until this point. The fact that something as mundane as shoe polish or jewelry got him caught and profiled/sent to a camp is so frustrating. Yet it makes sense for an irrationally horrific evil empire like the Nazis tried to be. God this book is also so relevant to the current climate as well with how it describes profiling and how it hurt everyone no matter how mundane the situation.||
azure frost
#

Part 2 - And Here My Troubles Began:

  • ||Before we get into Auschwitz, we already have major tension between Art and his wife on the domestic front over his father and their relationship. And this I think is what makes Maus different from other Holocaust narratives I've read before. It doesn't insist upon itself or focus the narrative heavy on everything around the Holocaust. It doesn't beat you over the head with the tragedies and the horrors and the immediate fear. It builds. Like how Vladek experienced it in real time. Like how Art experienced it in his... well... art. And the shifting focus allows us to see both Art and Vladek as dual protagonists that need each other to complete the narrative just as much as the Holocaust completes Art's generational trauma.||
  • ||Auschwitz is treated with the weight it deserves here. It feels fetid, squalor-filled, and ruthless. It feels like a setting and a monster waiting to consume Vladek. Which is why this works so well. The lengths Vladek has to go in order to really show how willing he is to survive (from smuggling to stealing to repairing to taking odd jobs to get back to his wife) is heartbreaking to witness. And I think what makes it worse is the sincerity of the broken syntax with Vladek's English in his later years. It makes him feel childlike and innocent, despite the horrors he has been wrought.||
  • ||And then Vladek dies in the next chapter. And we are confronted with more of Art's symbolic terror at the commodification of tragedy and how the pressure is killing him. Maus has won awards. The strip is successful. Yet Art is empty and feeling horrible because of it. And Françoise is doing her best to support Art but it's not working the best that it could be. Because Art has this trauma he needs to control and confront, and the only way to do that is to write and finish Maus.||
#

(Cont.)

  • ||Vladek is truly complex though and I could go on about how brilliantly layered this character is. He has so much baggage. So many horrible things he does. From how he treats Mala and even Anja at points, how he relies on Art for medical purposes and how he is just... flat out racist. Firehose racism even. Ironically this humanized him even more. It made him seem like a person. A regular, average, bigoted person like you would see in any story. An everyman with problematic views and problematic things to say and do. Yet he's not a villain. He's a victim. A normal person. A victim. It's such a brilliant writing choice. These were real people, real folks, and everyday individuals affected by the Holocaust. Not martyrs, not saints, not even heroes. Just average people affected by the worst regime in history. And it feels like that.||
  • ||The Typhus descriptions in Chapter 3 got to me. despairge despairgesad||
  • ||American dogs... I see what you did there, Art. Also good callback to the chapter about French Frogs and depicted the French as Frogs. Very creative.||
  • ||The gravestone at the end... the reunion... the fact Art's father called him Richieu. It just hurts. It hurts to read. Yet at the end of all the strife is peacefulness. Calm. Vladek passes away in his sleep. And Art is left with a testament to bleeding, bloody history. A narrative that says "Never Again" with both fascism... and generational trauma.||
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Final Thoughts:

5 starry

Just as good as how I remembered it in the 8th Grade.

#

Five Years Later, it still holds up.

#

Read it and cherish it with your heart.

topaz gulchBOT
#

@azure frost,@heavy ether,@meager mango,@meager hound,@coarse pecan,@opaque terrace,@finite seal,@fading hull,@peak edge,@thick siren,@shell wedge,@tired rampart,@proud yew,@mild dawn,@hybrid radish,@rocky valley

#

Hey folks! Sendi here!

Sorry I'm a little late with this announcement but we've got less than a month left with this BR and I'm hoping you guys will have fun telling me your thoughts on this tragic narrative we find ourselves caught up in. Vladek and Art's story has touched my heart and soul in ways I cannot even describe, so I hope that you all are enjoying yourselves with this BR too, despite the subject matter.

Now then, a couple questions for this round:

  1. OVERALL: What do you think ||of the dual perspectives? Do you think it enhances the narrative past what is normally expected of a Holocaust or true story?||
  2. Part 2 Spoilers: ||Does knowing about Vladek's death midway through Part 2 spoil anything about your reading, or does it enhance the tragedy of the narrative you are consuming?||
  3. OVERALL: Do you think Vladek is a good person, a bad person, or more than both?
  4. OVERALL: What does Art's narration add to the story in terms of humanizing Vladek and allowing us to relate to the story despite the dour subject.

Started:
Reading:
Finished: Sendi Paradium, Pea, Sakura, Tomotoshiekah
DNF:

If anyone is missing from this list, let me know ASAP! Toodles, Organized Readers!

topaz gulchBOT
coarse pecan
# topaz gulch Hey folks! Sendi here! Sorry I'm a little late with this announcement but we've...
  1. || i like it! shows the long-term trauma and consequences that survivors and their children endured through generational trauma and it definitely enhances the narrative of whats typically expected (beyond the happily ever afer) as we see Art's own struggles (especially with his parents) and his opinions of his father ||
  2. || I don't think Vladek's death spoiled anything during the reading nor did it enhance the tragedy, i think it just offered Art more reflection that he portrayed in the book ||
  3. || both, i mean i think everyone is a bit of both to be honest. he can sympathize for himself and people like him, but he was also racist to those not like him ||
  4. || im happy with Art's narration bc it humanized Vladek by revealing the best and worst parts of him and opened up more opportunities for readers to relate and connect to the story whether it be from Vladek or Art's pov ||
topaz gulchBOT
#

@azure frost,@heavy ether,@meager mango,@meager hound,@coarse pecan,@opaque terrace,@finite seal,@fading hull,@peak edge,@thick siren,@shell wedge,@tired rampart,@proud yew,@mild dawn,@hybrid radish,@rocky valley

#

Hello folks! We have two days left on this BR! If anyone needs an extention, the time is now to ask ^^

Started:
Reading:
Finished: Sendi Paradium, Pea, Sakura, Tomotoshiekah
DNF:

If I missed anyone from this list, let me know ASAP. Thanks for coming along on this horrific journey through history with me, Art Spiegelman, and his father. Keep reading in the free world, OBCers!

topaz gulchBOT
#

Something went wrong! Please try again later

opaque terrace
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I started today and I hope to finis it in a couple days!

random saddleBOT
#

I started today
and I hope to finis it
in a couple days!

- vetrina
opaque terrace
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Thanks Haikubot

azure frost
opaque terrace
azure frost
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Get your thoughts in soon before I finalize everything!!

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You got this :D

opaque terrace
azure frost
opaque terrace
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Part 1: ||This part was a reread for me (I never got around to reading Part 2 because the first part was heavy the first time around combined wtih news events last year margeshame ). I really enjoyed the reread. This read, I'm really appreciating how the story is structured: how Vladek is telling Art the story in real time and how we see glimpses of their present day (at the time of writing) lives. This time around, I'm also struck by how lucky Vladek and Anja were for years and how many times they narrowly escaped being caught. It's still terrible what happened to them, but I'm glad they made it through. I still feel terrible about Richieu and Vladek's dad and Anja's grandparents despairge All this death was so meaningless and cruel. ||

opaque terrace
#

Part 2 Ch 1: ||I'm kinda glad Mala left Vladek lol. He sounds like an awful husband. I'd love to hear her side of the story about her last day at the bank with Vladek. That priest was so nice and gave so much hope 🥺 Vladek was so lucky to be able to make himself useful to the kapo||

Part 2 Ch 2: ||Man, the part at the beginning with Art years later was so raw. It must have been so rough for him to continue part 2 after his father died. Mancie was so kind and didn't even ask for payment PleadingHearts I'm so glad Vladek and Anja could kinda see each other briefly! Even if Vladek was beaten for it despairge ||

Part 2 Ch 3: ||Man, this chapter was heavy with the march through the woods, the train ride, and the typhus despairgesad I hate that Vladek is spouting the same racist nonsense about black people as people spout about jewish people.||

Part 2 Ch 4: ||Man, the part of the chapter before the Americans find the prisoners were so harrowing. I'm so glad Vladek still has so many photos of his family blobnoplease ||

Part 2 Ch 5: ||Aww, the part with current Vladek being in and out of the hospital and him calling Art Richieu is heartbreaking. I'm so happy Vladek and Anja were able to find each other again!||

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Finished! 5 stars. ||The entire book is just so good. It's raw, real, and heartbreaking. I love that Art chose to portray his father as a traumatized and flawed man, and also emphasized that what happened to people in the camps was random; good people and bad people were tortured and killed all the same.||

azure frost
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Good work!

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I'll make the announcement a bit late and submit points here soon :)

azure frost
#

@everyone

Alrighty folks. With Gregg down, gotta make my announcement here.

During the time it took to read this book and the days leading up to the end, I visited the Holocaust Museum in D.C. It was a sobering experience that I found profound and quite relevant to this BR. Attached are a couple of photos with relevant quotes and information about the times, as well as a visual of ||one of the types of traincars Vladek was placed on.||

Started:
Reading:
Finished: Sendi Paradium, Pea, Sakura, Tomotoshiekah, Vetrina
DNF:

If anyone is missing from this list, let me know ASAP.

Thank you guys for taking this journey through history with me.

SPOILER_20260315_161643.jpg SPOILER_20260315_154921.jpg SPOILER_20260315_154909.jpg SPOILER_20260315_161609.jpg
heavy ether
coarse pecan
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thanks for hosting and sharing these photos with us Sendi blobHeart

opaque terrace
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Thank you for hosting Sendi! cattoHearts

heavy ether
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Random ask: did I miss points being submitted for this?

pearl nexus
heavy ether
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Ah. For some reason I thought he was back up. Sorry!