#268 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Monday February 7)
Good morning,
MAUS
I am not one for graphic novels but some thirty years ago one caught my eye and, after reading several glowing reviews, I picked it up. I was not disappointed. I had really never considered that a graphic novel (which I still thought was nothing more than “another cartoon”) could possibly deliver an important message, much less one that sought to convey the horrors of the holocaust. But Maus I and Maus II, by Art Spiegelman, proved me wrong. With the Germans represented by cats and the Jews as the mice, Spiegelman tells his family’s tale, a tale that includes the holocaust, mental health and suicide. Spiegelman went on to receive a special Pulitzer Price (an honor reserved for the likes of Ida Wells, Aretha Franklin, Hank Williams, Jon Coltraine, Ray Bradbury, Bob Dylan, George Gershwin, and Duke Ellington). To my knowledge, he was only the second cartoonist (the first being Dr. Seuss himself) to receive the honor.
The Wall Street Journal called it “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust.” The New York Times said it was “the first masterpiece in comic book history.” Umberto Eco says, “Maus is a book that cannot put down…When two of the mice speak of love, you are moved, when they suffer, you weep…you are captivated by the language of an old Eastern European family…when you leave Maus, you are unhappy to have left that magical world.”
In these fraught times debating curricula, most sane people can see that a book that tells the story of such a painful event of tragic proportion through a (mostly) gentle book with affecting characters, through a metaphorical lens of cat and mouse, is a great concept. It is used in many schools and renders the holocaust approachable and understandable even by children of a tender age.
THE WISDOM IN TENNESSEE
But one Tennessee school board feels otherwise, claiming it their duty to reflect the needs of their constituents. They took exception to the book, banning it from the teaching of history, doing so on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Apparently the book contained several curse words and showed a female mouse’s nipple, in the form of a “dot.” I’m not kidding—Mouse pornography! For shame!
Mr. Spiegelman commented, after reading the minutes of the school board meeting, his conclusion that the real question of the school board was, “Why can’t they teach a nicer Holocaust?” At a time of rising antisemitism (along with disturbing increases in racial and ethnic violence against others), it would seem that creative and approachable ways to teach this subject would be welcome.
The subtitle of the first volume of Maus is “My Father Bleeds History.” Ironic, isn’t it? We are still bleeding the history of the holocaust, but apparently not enough to teach about the holocaust to reduce more bloodletting in the future.
ADVICE FROM THE PAST
As we consider the current efforts to ban books that may be seen as offensive or inappropriate, one may recall the prophetic words of the German poet Heinrich Heine, who wrote, more than a century before the holocaust and a little more than 200 years before our current fights:
“That was but a prelude;
where they burn books,
they will ultimately burn people as well.”
--Heinrich Heine, 1820
And then there is President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who would be called a “RINO” today (“Republican in name only), and who might be honored by that sobriquet. He spoke to book burning in the 1950s, saying “Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book…”
FROM THE FORMER GUY
If you think we are rid of Donald Trump, guess again. He is sending emails twice a day now. We should prepare for the onslaught of lies and whining all over again, as the 2022 election draws closer. Here is one of his latest emails, which I will recount verbatim, in his own special style (with all capitalization, italics, and other special features intact:
DO NOT SHARE
Friend,
TONIGHT, I will stand before the great people of Texas, as well as the entire Nation, and give an EPIC Rally speech.
This speech will be unlike any other. Your President is working day in and day out to SAVE AMERICA from the Radical Left, all the while they are working overtime with the Fake News media to TAKE ME DOWN.
I promise you that I will never stop fighting, Friend.
But, before I give my BIG SPEECH in TEXAS, I want to get your input. I’m requesting the help of Patriots across the Nation to help me prepare for my Official Rally Speech…
THE BEST PART IS THE SURVEY
At the end of the email is the “Official Trump Rally Speech Prep Survey.” Here is the question and the available choices of answers: “How would you rate the state of our nation right now?”
Terrible
Horrible
Very Bad
All of the Above
Have a great day,
Glenn