This week we’ll read Maus volume 2, through chapter 2, page 74.
As usual, we’ll start on Tuesday with a close look at some pages in the book. Here are some we might start with, but we’d like to hear from you too.
1 The epigraph [p. 3] and the photo of Richieu [5]. Note how there are several un-numbered pages at the beginning of the volume. Why is that? What are these pages doing? Do we pay less or more attention to these opening pages, before the story begins? Why?
Here’s a tiny movie of the first few pages. Let’s think about how these elements of the text before the story begins work in our minds.
2 Let’s think about the long introductory section (pp. 11-24) set in the present, in the Catskills, on summer vacation. Let’s think about the reception of the book and Art’s celebrity. How does that affect our experience as readers? Also ponder how this section leads into the continued story (witnessing) of Vladek’s experience at Auschwitz.
3 Maps, space, the architecture of the page on pages 70-71.
4 “We were all on our own.” (29) — how do we understand this claim?
5 Chapter Two “Auschwitz. Time Flies.” Let’s look very closely at pages 42, 51, and 68, where Spiegelman (the author) has Spiegelman (the artist/narrator) think about his work so far, his conversation with his therapist Pawel, the ethics of thinking about survival or death.
Go here to fill out a form with questions and comments and observations about the readings or anything else on your mind for discussion at our meetings.
