A piece of the book that really hit me personally was the “prisoner
on the Hell Planet” sequence. It is in chapter 5 on page 102. It is sort of a
departure or escape from the general narrative so far which focuses on the
father, Vladek. This section of the book is very Art centric.
The content was very strong, as is the rest of the book. It
is regarding Art’s mental health issues surrounding his mother’s suicide. The
reason it hit me was because of the main focus of the story, in this case Art,
and then the style.
What made me really enjoy Prisoner on the Hell Planet was
that it told me a lot more about Art Spiegelman, not just as a character in the
overall narrative, but also as an artist. To learn more of his back-story,
about his personal struggles in his own life really helped me sympathize more
with him and the inner demons he has been battling. It made me realize that
pain was something the Spiegelman’s had become accustomed to. It made him seem
kind of a tragic character, with an innate, intrinsic sense of sadness about
him, which made him seem like a regular, everyday human being. That made me
believe the story all the more. How honest and forthcoming he was about his own
mental health issues, and his own coldness towards his mother is not a
flattering image of the artist, but it is honest, and it gave credibility to
the rest of the work.
Maus is generally told with very gritty and crude drawings.
It suits the story and it actually adds to the enjoyment of the tale in
general. I found the style in the Prisoner on the Hell Planet to be gritty and
moody, but more developed. It is clearly a bit of a departure from the rest of
the story. As it is meant to be. It really suits the flashback sensibility of
the scene and it made me realize that Art Spiegelman IS a really good artist
and that the crude drawings in the rest of the book are that way by choice. As an
artist, it makes me appreciate the work and the author a lot more to know that
they are not copping out. This is a conscious decision in order to evoke a
certain emotion in the audience. This section definitely taught me something
and I really felt the weight of it.
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| Prisoner on the Hell Planet http://jperrryy.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/prisoner2.jpg |
Manu
Well said Manu, I also made a point of this section of the novel in my book review. This part of the novel hit me personally as well, because as you said we don’t learn a whole lot about Art Spielgemans’s character (Artie) throughout the book and I think that’s the reason it jumps out so much to the reader. Also, as you pointed out the Grittiness and crudeness of the drawings defiantly add to the dramatics because let’s face it; Maus has fairly simple illustrations and not much rendering on the sketches. However in “prisoner of hell planets” it’s a completely different ball game. The illustrations are so real, showing his mother in the bath tub and also the guilt he felt for his mother’s death. It really allows you to get know Artie and Vladek better and their relationship as well. Anyways, great job on the presenting your thoughts on this section of the novel.-KYLE LOCKREY------
ReplyDeleteI agree. I found it really difficult to chose between this part of the novel and the Time Flies chapter that I eventually picked. I liked how the angry angular-ness of it really reinforced the sense of peril and enclosure. All those corners imprisoning each and every frame or cell. I also really picked up on the layout of the first page. At the bottom left hand corner you have a hand holding the corner of the comic book, holding open for us the reader. This hand symbol is repeated at the very top first panel in the image of the hand holding the photograph of Art and his mother. the layers of reality constructed are so complex as to be almost baffling. It seems almost Kafka-esque.
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