After listen to the audio clips on NPR, what do you think of hearing Vladek's voice and Art's view on comics?
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In the audio clip we learned where Art Spiegelman received his inspiration for Maus, including the cover of a MAD magazine as well as an experience in 4th grade seeing how a little girl was affected by a romance comic. These really affected the way in which he depicted the struggles of Vladek and his family. At first he was going to draw specific detailed faces for the characters but decided not to because it was not just this family that struggled through the Holocaust. Those things that he cited as his influences made him want to make that change. In seeing how the cover of MAD really sent a message through that spoof he used the same technique, using subtle hints and clues that really are important in telling the whole story.
His experience in 4th grade with the girl, really showed him how the use of drawings can get the point across and tell a story. This stuck with him in the development of Maus using his drawings to show to overbearing influence of the Nazi in the lives of the Jewish people. This affects how I look at Maus because now every little drawing that normally wouldn't mean anything really does for example in Ch. 5 when Vladek and Anja leave the hideout the sidewalk is the shape of a swastika to show that no matter where you go their influence follows you. For me, this audio clip points out the importance in Maus of the subtle hints and clues Art uses to tell the story of Jewish struggles during the Holocaust.
After hearing Vladek's voice, it became obvious to me that he isn't just a character, but a human being. Viewing him as a human being, I found a whole new respect for Vladek because of what he went through. He wasn't just a character in a comic book with a horrifying past anymore. Just by hearing his voice, the story became so much more real. Comics are storytelling, but it's the voice that gives you the sense that it's real.
Throughout the interview, Spielgelman talked about his view on comics. He made it simple to understand what the influence of the comics was. It was interesting to hear that even when he was younger, he viewed comics as humor. I also found the music he listened to while making the comic interesting. It showed how focused he was on getting the atmosphere of the holocaust.
Being able to hear Art’s voice helps readers to better understand what his thoughts behind Maus were. He explained his reasoning as to why he portrayed these events through comics and why this was a topic that interested him.
Within the interview Art recalls an instance where he was in grade school and he saw a girl in his 4th grade class reading a comic. While reading this comic she began to cry, this helped Art realize just how much comics can affect a person. This helped him come to the conclusion to retell his stories through comics. This helps the readers of Maus understand what he was trying to make them feel through his stories. Often when people think of comics they think of something funny and amusing, however listening to this interview helps people realize that wasn’t what he was trying to portray. He was trying to give a new understanding to those who have a hard time doing so.
Also, by listening to this interview the listener gets a better understanding of what it was like for Art to recreate these stories. He was only showing what he was hearing from his father about the war and he had to come up with the visuals for these things on his own. Though the stories are in great detail, one who hasn’t been in these situations can’t truly understand and picture what it was really like for the ones who lived through it. One learns in school and is told by survivors what had happened but they can’t picture what was actually happening. By adding pictures through the comics it helps readers to have a better understanding and visual of what went on.
Lastly in the interview, listeners are told how the comic works. Which animals portray the given roles throughout the story. By making the characters animals instead of humans it again helps in more understanding. He does so by allowing readers to look at the war in a different view from what they are used to seeing in school and in pictures. The Jewish people are depicted as mice and the Nazis as cats. Everyone knows that cats try to ‘hunt down’ mice and by making then these animals it helps to show readers how much the Nazis did to capture the people of Jewish faith.
After listening to the audio clip, I gained a lot more respect for Art and Vladek. Finding out that Spiegelman dedicated thirteen years to the book, showed the determination and need he felt to share the story. I found the part about him listening to the sextet while he worked interesting too. He used the music to create some atmosphere of the time, and remember how so many great thing were ruined as a result of the Holocaust.
Art’s dedication and loyalty to the art of comics was also intriguing. The fact that he wanted to make comics since the age of 4 or 5 and followed through with his dreams was inspiring. His approach to changing the view of comics from a childish thing to a creative form of literature just speaks to his passion for the genre. He made a point to amplify the drama of the devastating story by telling it in a format that is generally associated with funny, light-hearted tales.
Hearing Vladek’s voice also changed the perspective I see the story from. Listening to him speak, telling his stories, made them that much more real. Hearing them out loud, especially with his accent, made them much more personal rather than just feeling like you are reading reported facts of a story. You could hear in his voice the pain that was stirred up from recalling times of such struggle, desperation, and suffering for him.
The Spiegelmans clearly have a dramatic family history, and it is an honor that they shared it, specifically in such a captivating way. The words would have made a powerful story on their own, but when illustrations are added, there is a whole new dimension and depth to the story that makes it that much more emotive.
Julie Wiegel
Listening to Vladek’s voice and hearing of Art’s influences for his comics puts racing thoughts through my mind. There is a big difference between seeing the words Vladek has spoken down on paper and hearing him speak them aloud. Listening to Vladek actually saying what happened to him almost feels like he is directly speaking to me. The same affect doesn’t happen when I read the story on paper. Although it is harder to understand Vladek’s thick Jewish accent, to put a sound behind words all of a sudden makes the words pop off the paper. It is almost as if I were in Art’s place listening to these stories first hand and being one step closer to visualizing what this terrible experience would have been like if I lived it.
Listening to Art’s influences for his comic career explains his style of writing a lot better. By being influenced by a magazine with such an iconic message, that the world is not what one would see fit, really shows his reasoning for doing such a controversial yet very important comic. Picking a sensitive topic, to most, like the holocaust was seen in Art’s eyes not only sensitive but very close to his heart. When a person typically thinks of comics they thinks of comedies and light hearted jokes that could make anyone laugh. By seeing and reading MAD magazines which focused on reality and not an idealistic society, Art saw that everything humans see is not just a happy joke. I think by writing Maus he wanted to bring that sense of “this is what you think, and this is what really happened” to the world to. It was very interesting to hear how Art often listened to a 1930‘s acapella sextet group in Berlin. I found it interesting because of the time period and place which was around the Nazi takeover time period. I figured that aside from hearing his father’s personal stories he actually tried to mentally put himself in that time period to have a closer connection.
No matter what the media says, they can’t ignore the facts or what has really happened in our world. With all the pop culture going on in the world today it is really nice to have such books to teach us the history of a time period the younger generations can learn from. The techniques used to make this book were also very clever to appeal to the younger generation. Maus was not a depressing story, it is educational and tells the journey of a man who struggled a lot but didn’t let his struggling defeat him.
I think it was very clever for Maus to be written as a comic because you could actually learn by seeing instead of reading. This was a very good idea because it widens the demographics for his book. Many people are visual learners this help kids stay interested in the book instead of just reading for another class assignment. Also when you have pictures you could learn more about the character. For example on page 12 when vladic is starting to tell his story you can see his prison number on his hand. Also the comic with in a the comic has some graphic picture that helped set the tone for the book which would be much harder for him to have accomplish is he only used sentences.
But I didn’t agree with spiegelman idea by classifying a ethnicity with an animal. This reinforces the idea just because you are one ethnicity mean you exactly the same as everyone else in your group. I also didn’t like how spiegelman made every animal look just about the same. If he games them a facial structure and emotion it would had more impacting effect on the reader just like how his comic within a comic did.
I thinks overall spiegelman did a great job on his graphic novel and e gave a whole new perspective on how people view the holocaust
Before listening to that npr interview with Art Spiegelman it was hard for me to conceptualize why wouldn’t he just write a book about his fathers experiences throughout the Holocaust. I thought that if he has so many stories to tell about it, why not write a book. I haven’t had much experience with graphic novels, so I wasn’t sure how a serious topic such as the Holocaust could be translated through pictures of animals. However, after starting to read the book, I understood how you could still send the same message, possibly even a more realistic one. The book “Maus” reads like a movie to me, so it is really easy to picture. After listening to the interview I became to realize why he drew the story instead of writing it. As a kid he loved comics and was always interested in them. In the interview he said that he could only see things through his eyes. If comics were what he was most comfortable in, then its clear as to why the story “Maus” is told in a graphic novel form.
For people who have only experienced Vladek’s character as a two-dimensional drawing, it can be difficult to see him as a human being; someone who actually lived through such a horrifying period of time. When we get to actually hear him speak, however, we are offered a completely new perspective on him-on the entire story, in fact. It can be difficult to conceptualize Vladek for who he really is when he is nothing more than lines on paper-and a mouse, no less. Vladek’s voice serves to deepen his character, and to give the book an even greater sense of truth. Much of what he said did, in fact, appear somewhere in the narration of the book, and hearing even such a small excerpt from a person who was speaking from his memories reminds me that every word that Art includes in this novel comes from his father. The fact that this book is hovering in the “nonfiction” category truly amazes me; it hardly seems possible that such an incredible tale could be entirely true. But when we hear the words directly from Vladek himself, it is impossible to forget that what we are reading is not simply a graphic novel, but an autobiography of sorts, the story of a person’s inconceivably chaotic life.
In addition to the story, the art is a necessary component in any graphic novel, and Art explains his fascination with stories being told visually through comics started at a very young age. He grew up in a time where comics where slowly undergoing a revolution; he speaks of underground comics, or comics that were not defined by commerce-they weren’t about “peddling newspapers, or selling melodramatic adventures to kids.” Art explains that this was the first time the idea of “comics for comic’s sake” ever spun around in anyone’s head. Art talks about comics the way most people talk about literature or fine art, and I think that is one of the major reasons Maus was so groundbreaking. Art’s attitude towards comics is drastically different than the common thought of comics simply being light, humorous, and primarily directed at children. Maus was one of the first Graphic Novels, if not the first, to tackle such a difficult topic, and in doing so successfully changed the way many people see comics.
When I first found out that English II was reading Maus, a story about Nazi Germany, I was excited and anxious. I have always loved history and the Holocaust is one particular topic that I find very interesting to study. For Maus to be a story about someone who actually lived through this horrific period in history, and telling readers first hand of what happened, instead of historians reciting facts in the formation of paragraphs of text squeezed onto one or two pages, makes the Holocaust seem even more real than it does already. “I don’t know how to experience the world except with my own eye balls” (Spiegelman, NPR Interview).
The NPR recording made the story more real. I feel that I often forget the fact that Maus was inspired by true events. I still can’t fathom that something this horrid and cruel actually took place in the history of the world and for Spiegelman to capture first hand, a story about what it was actually like to be a Jewish person living through these times is a very sentimental and heartbreaking story to share with the world. However, it is a good lesson for him to teach the children of America and other places about the Holocaust in a way that textbooks cannot.
To hear Vladek’s voice, is something that really shocked me. It is one thing to read words on paper in the comic, but it is something totally different and mind boggling to actually hear the voice of the person who is telling the story. There is power behind the comics as Spiegelman was stating in the interview. They can make you laugh and cry and that is a true gift that they posses. The fact that Spiegelman’s comics are in black and white, and often show characters drawn without any faces leaves a lot of room for interpretation for the reader. Spiegelman does a fantastic job of making you believe that you are living in the years of the Holocaust. You fear for Vladek and his family just like you would your own. Throughout the story you become more and more attached to the characters, not only as characters, but as human beings.
Omar Alzein
Blog Maus
Hearing Vladek’s voice increased my obsession with the story and increases the chills the reader gets from his gruesome tales. The sad and unbelievable events that occurred during the holocaust could not have been better expressed than through text and visuals, however the addition of voice with true compassion creates a sort of connection between the Jews from the 40’s and the listener. Art does not miss a single detail when writing his fathers broken English, which also contributes to the feeling of reality.
Art received his inspiration after he witnessed a girl crying while reading a romantic graphic novel; this was a bit of an upset. Just from a little girl crying he was inspired to spend over 10 years doing enormous amounts of work, one would assume there would be something greater. Not much else was learned about Art himself in the NPR interview but his portrayals of himself in his comics grasp his true personality and thoughts from that time. When I began reading Maus I could not put the book down and after learning more about Vladek and Art I don’t plan on dropping it anytime soon, this is honestly the best or one of the best books I have ever read.
The interview with Art Spiegelman that NPR conducted really changed my view of the entirety of the story, the process of writing it, and of Spiegelman himself. I thought it was interesting how Art discovered the power of comics from seeing a girl cry over a romantic comic. The fact that he took that memory into account while writing Maus shows how hard he worked on trying to make readers feel emotionally moved by the situations within the cells. All of the inspiration came from such a distant and seemingly irrelevant event.
But the girl crying wasn't the only thing that made him want readers to feel the suffering that people went through during the holocaust. Imagine having to listen to the tapes of your dead father recount story after story of him suffering. Listening to just a small section of the audio, where Vladek recounts how his other sin, Richieu, died, was bad enough. Listening to hours of tape like that encourage Spiegelman to try to get his readers to feel how he felt listening to his father day after day.
The most interesting topic from the interviews was how comics are different from normal literature, how they help readers understand by forcing them to look and take in he images in every cell and every strip. Seeing how art learned to read through images and comics, he must have figured that the easiest way for others to understand the holocaust was through comics as well. It is not a form of literature that is reserved for short, funny strips. It can be used to help any reader imagine any situation, making it quit useful in trying to assist readers to grasp the entire idea of the holocaust and the terror that came with it.
The interview with Art Spiegelman that NPR conducted really changed my view of the entirety of the story, the process of writing it, and of Spiegelman himself. I thought it was interesting how Art discovered the power of comics from seeing a girl cry over a romantic comic. The fact that he took that memory into account while writing Maus shows how hard he worked on trying to make readers feel emotionally moved by the situations within the cells. All of the inspiration came from such a distant and seemingly irrelevant event.
But the girl crying wasn't the only thing that made him want readers to feel the suffering that people went through during the holocaust. Imagine having to listen to the tapes of your dead father recount story after story of him suffering. Listening to just a small section of the audio, where Vladek recounts how his other sin, Richieu, died, was bad enough. Listening to hours of tape like that encourage Spiegelman to try to get his readers to feel how he felt listening to his father day after day.
The most interesting topic from the interviews was how comics are different from normal literature, how they help readers understand by forcing them to look and take in he images in every cell and every strip. Seeing how art learned to read through images and comics, he must have figured that the easiest way for others to understand the holocaust was through comics as well. It is not a form of literature that is reserved for short, funny strips. It can be used to help any reader imagine any situation, making it quit useful in trying to assist readers to grasp the entire idea of the holocaust and the terror that came with it.
After listening to the “Morning Addition” which included segments of an interview with Art Spiegelman, I was able to attain a greater understanding of the emotion, art, and inspiration illustrated by the middle-aged Jewish author of Maus. Hearing Art enabled me to encounter the man behind the book that can be categorized as one of the best in its field of literature, pointing out how real in fact these stories revealed are. Listening to Art directly and hearing the time that went into the making of Maus made me realize how zealous and sensitive this subject was to them both, and it was breathtaking to be a part of their story.
In the audio clip, Spiegelman speaks on how his love for comics first began at a young, as he observed that comics could affect people in a way other than comedy. He saw that not only could comics force someone to laugh but also cry, and so his idea developed. He also goes on to say…“I think one of the reasons Maus became a literary “success” is because people have an easier time reading than looking” (npr.org, Morning Addition). It was fascinating to see the motivation behind his Pulitzer Prize-winning book and his dedication to the story, even listening to tracks released when the novel takes place while it was being written for 13 years, truly wanting to be a part of the memories.
Listening to the audio clip, it was interesting to hear Art and his view on the book, finding out a considerable amount about his inspiration and love for graphic novels. From hearing Art, it made me recognize that this entire story is in fact real and not a fiction fantasy from someone’s imagination. I was able to connect to Spiegelman as he opened up, giving me a better understanding of his character through his thick New York accent.
Hearing Vladek's voice tells you how real things were back then. Vladek states that Tosha poisoned her kids and herself so that they won't go to the gas chambers. This statement tells you that things were getting worse for the jews during that time. The fact that Art Speigelman was brave enough to write about his parent's survival of the holocaust is amazing. Also it is depressing to hear his father talk about life during the holocaust. If I was in the position that Art was in I wouldn't even think about writing a comic book. It would have been too embarrassing for me to deal with.
Art's view on comics is really cool to know because he got very interested in them at a young age. He would be very observant when someone reads a comic and see how they react to it. For example in the audio: He described a girl in his fourth grade class crying after reading a comic. So he thought to himself that comics can make you cry too. Most of Art's comics was based on comedy. He liked to add some funny scenes while writing his comic. Art was really showing how creative he can be with such an interest in comics. Also Art wanted to add black and white drawing in his comics because the drawing the speaks the power of literature.
Overall Art's comics demonstrate tragedies and mishaps. He really showed his braveness for creating a comic about his life. Though reading dark tales are depressing but you always get a lesson out of them. They really teach you about such tragedies that happened a long time ago. Also even though some of Art's comics was reported as controversial because of Jews referred to as mice it still because a learning experience for people to understand.
Hearing Vladek's voice tells you how real things were back then. Vladek states that Tosha poisoned her kids and herself so that they won't go to the gas chambers. This statement tells you that things were getting worse for the jews during that time. The fact that Art Speigelman was brave enough to write about his parent's survival of the holocaust is amazing. Also it is depressing to hear his father talk about life during the holocaust. If I was in the position that Art was in I wouldn't even think about writing a comic book. It would have been too embarrassing for me to deal with.
Art's view on comics is really cool to know because he got very interested in them at a young age. He would be very observant when someone reads a comic and see how they react to it. For example in the audio: He described a girl in his fourth grade class crying after reading a comic. So he thought to himself that comics can make you cry too. Most of Art's comics was based on comedy. He liked to add some funny scenes while writing his comic. Art was really showing how creative he can be with such an interest in comics. Also Art wanted to add black and white drawing in his comics because the drawing the speaks the power of literature.
Overall Art's comics demonstrate tragedies and mishaps. He really showed his braveness for creating a comic about his life. Though reading dark tales are depressing but you always get a lesson out of them. They really teach you about such tragedies that happened a long time ago. Also even though some of Art's comics was reported as controversial because of Jews referred to as mice it still because a learning experience for people to understand.
The way that Vladek speaks shows how Art really did not have any other way to portray the way Vladek really was. The way he spoke really shows how Vladeks English was very butchered. That really gives the people reading a more descriptive way to picture Vladek.
Art's view on comics really shows how he thinks that pictures are really worth 100 hundred words. Art drew in black and white to show how powerful the situations were. The pictures and words really come together to show how important the scenes all are in the book.
When I first heard Vladek's voice in the audio clip, I could'nt really understand what was being said; unfortunately due to his accent and sound quality. But as I listened again and again, I finally was able to discern what was being said. Hearing Vladek's voice narrating over an image I had glanced at moments before was sort of a surreal experience considering it seemed like nothing I had imagined before.
After reading Spiegelman's "Maus" several times over, I had started to formulate views of my own about the book. After hearing Speigelman's own thoughts about his book, it sort of erased those judgements and replaced them with his own.
Listening to the audio clips on the NPR website helped me to learn more about Art Spiegelman and how he views comic strips. It was very interesting to hear that part of his love for writing and drawing comics came from when he saw a little girl crying while reading. This was what in a way made him realize that this is what he wanted to do with his life. He wanted write inspiring stories.
Listening to Vald's real voice in the audio clips will really change the way I read the second story of Maus. It will change because sometimes when I read the comic I because sometimes I forget that it is a real story. The story may illustrate mice but the things that happened did not happen to mice but to people. This is not a story about mice however a persons real life experiences. The audio clips also showed me audibly what i already knew about Vlad's english.
Listening Art and Vladek’s podcast is affect a lot to me to understand the book. And it makes me to think in different way toward the book. When I just read a book before I hear the audio clips, I just read not really seriously. Because, it was comic book, and the characters were not even a human. But after I listened to the audio clip, I’m thinking and reading more seriously toward the book.
When listen to the audio clip, one of the audio clip is the real record of Vladek’s voice. It makes us to feel more seriously. Because when we just read a comic book, we can’t think really seriously, but when we hear the real voice of the people we can feel their emotion and feel their real thinking. When we never experienced this situation and when just read book, we can’t really get it and can’t feel that. But when we hear real person’s speaking, it is more reliable and believable. Because of that effects all kinds of thing that author explained in the book is real and come to my heart seriously. Before that when the book explained Nazi killed people and threat bad, I couldn’t really feel the situation and it was just same feeling when I just read a fiction. But after that, everything is come to me as I experienced and I can really feel that.
Also there was an audio clip that talked about the Art’s comic. There was the reason that he decided to write a comic book, and when he felt comic book can express a lot to people. Before I knew that facts, I just liked this book because this was comic book and it was easy to read. But after I hear that audio clips the reason that I felt that is easy to read was because comic book can express a lot to readers. By that, I could feel that Art’s purpose by that. He wanted to share his story with many people regardless of their age, and wanted to explain as much as he can. So after I knew that fact, I read the book with more concentration to get everything that author is trying to explain.
When I listened to the audio clips, they affect a lot to my reading and view toward this book. I can feel realistic and serious in this book, and it makes me more concentrate. And by audio clip that explain Art’s comic, it makes me to more into this book make me see also every detail pictures. By listening to the audio clips, my view toward this book and attitude toward this book is totally changed. So I think that audio clips can impact a lot to readers.
Jiheon Jun
After listening I can understand on a better concept of how Art wrote the comics and what he was aiming to do. It helped me to get a better understanding of what he was thinking while he was writing it. I think NPR did a great interview with him and really asked good questions.
After hearing Vladek speaking on tape, it reminded me that this wasn't a fictional story that Art Spiegelman put together. The idea that a man had gone through so much hardship and still can come out alive and telling the story is amazing. Vladek's voice on the tape telling the very story that Art Spiegelman wrote showed that it wasn't a fake story about the Holocaust.
Hearing Vladek's voice also showed me that the accent used in the book when Vladek is talking is actually the accent that he used. It seems like Spiegelman put down word for word of what his father told him to make it a more realistic story. Hearing both the author's and the main character's actual voices made the story even more plausible then I had already thought it was.
-A Zaniolo
After i heard the audio clips, one thing i noticed is the author of the Maus wants to influent people by his comic books. According to the audio, Spiegelman was inspired by the girl who cried for the comic he drew. The most impresive sentaince i heard in the sudio was "i found out that comic can really impact others!" i think this is the purpose of Maus, to impact people, to remind people,to make up other's mind about this war.
We saw the extremely real comic senes base on his only experience, i believe he did that because he somehow think the real story can bring the audience into the comic, and it works so great! The combination of fictional animal appreance and real detailed story let readers be able to visually see actually the situation and the damage of Nazi. Especially Vladek's situation and life is represent of the survivor from world war 2.
I think this is what important to the readers. The author's view of the visual image and the strong emotion is good present in the Maus. Spiegelman was right, comic can influence people.
Hearing Vladek's voice was a bit of a shocker. It's strange hearing his voice because when reading the book I imagined his voice different. The view of comics Art has was interesting, because I would never guess that he was inspired when he was in fourth grade by a girl who cried reading a romance comic. His way of expressing situations hes been in, through comics is fascinating and he makes you feel as if you are apart of the comic.
Getting to hear Vladek's voice in the audio clips made the story Maus seem more real. I could picture the story and could see the experiences he faces actually happen in my mind. Hearing his European accent made Maus come to life. I felt the power in his voice, but I also felt the sadness. It was very noticable from the tone of voice that Vladek had talking on this subject.
Art Spielgelman's view on comics was interesting. Finding out that he started drawing MAUS with very detailed characters and changing all of them to simple pictures was very interesting. After reading and listening to Art on his view on the Holocaust and than seeing him change his characters shows to me that he remebered that not only his family suffered, but all of Jews did. To me the biggest influence seemed to be the girl in fourth grade. Seeing how drasticlly she was moved by the picture not only words made Art want to do this. How Art drew this comic I find to be amazing. Not only the story that i find to be moving, but also that he spent 13 years writing/drawing it impressed me a lot. I get the serious of the topic and Art's drive for the book thorugh the pictures and their detail. I find that the pictures tell the story way stronger than any words could. Art was very smart in choosing this way to tell such a powerful story to where it will please to many ages.
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