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Home , Art Spiegelman, Harold Gray, Maus

Thomas ArtSpiegelman's : Graphic Art Doherty andthe Holocaust

In presenting a "Special Award" to 's Maus in 1992,the PulitzerPrize committeedecided to finessethe issueof genre. The memberswere apparently befuddled by a project whosemerit they could not deny but whose medium they could not quitecategorize. The obviousrubric (Biography) seemed ill-suited fora comicbook in an age whenever-larger tomes and ever-denser scholarshipdefine that enterprise. Editorial cartooning didn't quite fit either,for Maus illustratednot the news of the day but events of the past.The classificationproblem had earlierbedeviled the New York TimesBook Review, where the work had criss-crossed the Fiction and Non-FictionBest Seller Lists. Originally, Maus was placedon theFic- tionList, a decisionSpiegelman protested in a wryletter to the editor: "Ifyour list were dividedinto literature and non-literature,I could gracefullyaccept the compliment as intended,but to theextent that 'fiction'indicates a workisn't factual, I feel a bitqueasy. As an author,I believeI mighthave lopped several years off the thirteen I devoted to mytwo-volume project if I couldhave taken a novelist'slicense while searchingfor a novelist'sstructure."1 In a tinybut telling blip on the culturalradar, the Timesobligingly moved the volume from the Fic- tionto Non-FictionBest Seller List. The veracityof the image-even thecomic book image-had attainedparity with the word. Fromits first appearance in 1980 in the comic magazine Raw ("High Culturefor Lowbrows") to the complete two-volume edition issued in 1991,Maus presented an unsettlingaesthetic and scholarly challenge, notleast to print-orientedpurists who scoffed at thenotion of comic bookartistry and bewailed the incursion of pop culture into the under-

AmericanLiterature, Volume 68, Number1, March1996. Copyright C) 1996by Duke UniversityPress. CCC 0002-9831/96/$1.50. 70 AmericanLiterature graduatecurriculum. In the handsof Spiegelman, a con- ceitobscene on its face-a Holocaustcomic book-became solemn andmoving, absorbing and enlightening. Occupying a landscapethat crossedGeorge Orwell with Max Fleischer,where Nazis were snarl- ingcats, Jews forlorn mice, and Poles stupidpigs, Maus redrewthe contractualterms for depictions of the Holocaustin popularart. As a graphicreaction to theaesthetics of Nazism and a newmode of in- quiryinto the past, it offered a media-wise vision whose rough images puttraumatic history into sharp focus. Spiegelmanissued his cartoon biography in two volumes published in 1986 and 1991respectively.2 Maus Part I: A Survivor'sTale: My FatherBleedsHistory tracks Vladek, the artist's aged father and oedipal muse,from the thriving of prewar Poland to thegates ofAuschwitz. Prodded by his cartoonist son Artie, Vladek flashes back toa youngmanhood in which his experiences are alternately mundane (workand courtship) and monstrous (mass executions and casual bru- tality).Maus PartII: A Survivor'sTale: And Here My Troubles Began findsthe old mansicker and crankieras he divulgeshis strugglefor survivalto Artie,himself now given to spasmsof guilt (natch) over thecritical and commercial success of the first volume of Maus. In goodpostmodern fashion, the interview sessions between father and son-and the artist'sbehind-the-scenes scaffolding-are incor- poratedinto Vladek's narrative. Parallel lines intersect as Artiede- terminesto makeVladek's memory speak and to depicthis ownen- tanglementsas son and artist.Yet the conflations-writer/illustrator ArtSpiegelman drawing mice Artieand Vladekfor a comicbook biographyof his real lifefather called Maus-never get too cuteor convoluted.Nor does Spiegelmanallow the kvetching of an American babyboomer to detractfrom or comparewith his father'spassage throughhell. As theartist confides to his shrink,"no matterwhat I accomplish,it doesn't seem much compared to survivingAuschwitz" (MausII, 44). Finally,though theirs is a father-sonrelationship of un- usualbitterness and anguish(Artie's wife Franqoise seems the only non-neuroticin Vladek's contemporary orbit), the artist is faithfulto his father'slife and memory.To the realVladek, who died in 1982, Artieis a goodson. The inherentaudacity of the projectearned Maus an extraordi- naryamount of popular attention in thepress, and, by andlarge, the responsewas rhapsodic.In additionto the PulitzerPrize, the work ArtSpiegelman's Maus 71 garnereddozens of laudatory reviews and inspired op-ed pieces in the pages ofthe major metropolitan dailies, a suresign of its statusas a culturalas wellas a literaryevent. By thetime a consumer-friendly packagededition of bothvolumes appeared in storesfor the 1991 Christmasseason, Maus had enteredthe national lexicon. In Febru- ary 1994the Voyager Company issued a multimediaCD-ROM ver- sionentitled The Complete Maus, an elaboratehypertext that includes preliminarydrawings, journal entries, home movies, and tape record- ingsfrom the interview sessions between Spiegelman and his father.3 Thoughdenied by the artist, rumors of a forthcomingfeature-length, animatedmotion picture version (not by Walt Disney) persist. Significantly,though, the tentacles of corporate synergy have thus farstopped short of the manufacture of a lineof Maus-inspired toys forchildren. Even theforces of commerce recognize that when the Holocaustis the subject,neither the market nor expression is free. No matterhow austereand reverentthe tone, no matterhow tradi- tionalthe format, any representation ofthe Holocaust attracts a spe- cialmeasure of critical scrutiny and, if judged lacking, earns a severe measureof opprobrium. The usualcriteria for literary and cinematic excellence-originality,wit, formal innovation, and the sundry "plea- sures of the text"-are suspendedfor depictions of . Saul Friedlanderexpresses a consensussuspicion of "the trap of self- feedingrhetoric or ofsheer camera virtuosity" in literaryand cine- matictreatments of the destruction of European Jewry. "The issueis one ofindiscriminate word and imageoverload on topicsthat callfor so muchrestraint, hesitation, groping, on eventswe areso farfrom under- standing."4Itremains one event in twentieth-century history in which poeticlicense and tolerant forbearance are notgranted automatically. Froma traditionalistvantage point, the readilyaccessible, easy- on-the-eyecomic-book format of Maus wouldin itselfdisqualify and indictthe work. Spiegelman's medium is associatedwith the madcap, the childish,the trivial.By its verynature it seems ill-equippedfor themoral seriousness and tonalrestraint that have been demanded ofHolocaust art. But-also by itsvery nature-the cartoon medium possessesa graphicquality well-suited to a confrontationwith Nazism andthe Holocaust. The mediumis notthe message, but in the case of Maus themedium is boundup withthe message, with the ideology of Nazismand theartist's critique of it. Spiegelman'sartistic style and animatingpurpose are shaped by the two graphic media whose images 72 AmericanLiterature makeup thevisual memory of the twelve-year Reich-cartoons and cinema.Both arts are intimately linked to the aesthetic vision and his- toricallegacy of Nazism. From this perspective, cartoons become not justan appropriatemedium to renderthe Holocaust but a peculiarly aptresponse to a genocidalvision. Followinga lineof inquiry first marked off by Hans-JurgenSyber- berg'sOur Hitler (1978), Spiegelman sees Nazismnot only as a force of historybut also as an aestheticstance. To the Nazis, art was more than an expressionof a totalitarianethos; it was the ratio- nale forit. The Nazi aestheticcelebrated perfection in formjust as Nazi ideologydemanded purity of bloodlines. Official pronounce- mentscondemned abstract impressionism and othermodernist ex- pressionsas entartete"Kunst" (degenerate "art") sprungfrom dis- eased mindsand foistedon Germanyby Bolshevikart criticsand Jewishgallery owners. Adolph Hitler, the Reich's most powerful art critic,inveighed constantly against modernist expressions of all sort- "Dadaistsensationalists, Cubist plasterers, and Futurist canvas smear- ers."5 For theNazis, matters of aesthetics were not the esoteric domain ofa smallcoterie of artistesand buffsbut a compellingstate inter- estto be overseenand regulated by the full-blown Reichsministry for PopularEnlightenment and Propaganda headed by Joseph Goebbels. In Munichon 18 July1937, an officiallysponsored twin bill of Nazi- approvedand Nazi-forbidden museum shows put the Reichministry's aestheticson fulldisplay: the GreatGerman Art Exhibition of 1937 and its ostensibledoppelganger, an exhibitionof "DegenerateArt" whichopened the next day in the same city (to much larger crowds). The exhibitions'guidebooks condemned the misshapen visages and contortedphysiques of abstract impressionist portraiture and African- influencedsculpture as a defilementofthe Aryan ideal; the Reich was threatenedby an "endlesssupply of Jewish trash."6 Forbidden to en- visionthe human body in anyway short of perfection, artists no less thanadministrators expunged the sick, the infirm, and theretarded fromtheir sight. As Susan Sontagobserved: "Fascist art displays a utopianaesthetics-that of physical beauty and perfection.Painters andsculptors under the Nazis often depicted the nude, but they were forbiddento showany physical imperfections.... They have the per- fectionof a fantasy."7Always, the theoreticians of Kunst and Kultur abettedthe thugs. ArtSpiegelman's Maus 73

The visionof physicalperfection was expressedmost vividly in film,the high-definitionmedium of choice. If the posters,portraits, andsculptures that comprise the kitsch of the Nazi era todayaccrue valueonly as collectibleartifacts, the cinematic legacy has endured bothas archivalmaterial and dramatic inspiration. Tellingly, the occa- sion of Sontag'sremarks on fascistaesthetics-her famous essay "FascinatingFascism"-was a reviewof a collectionof photographs by Nazi filmmakerLeni Riefenstahl.Riefenstahl's screen images of muscularbodies and flawless,chiseled faces, her celebrationof the graceand power of the (perfect) human form, projected the aesthetic idealwith all theimpact of tour de forcefilmmaking. Triumph of the Will(1935), Riefenstahl's documentary record of the 1934 Nazi Party Congressat Nuremburg,worshipfully frames the hallowedfaces of beatificHitleriugend and fanaticLabor Serviceworkers, while the superhumansin Olympia(1938) defy gravity itself, as sinewymara- thonrunners strain over roadways and high divers fly through the air. In Nazi art,the Greek ideal of human perfection lived-literally so in theopening of Olympia, when Greek statues come alive, the marble menof the classical age incarnatedas athletesin the BerlinGames of1936. No wonderthat, on film,the Nazis continueto exerta perverse fascinationand seductiveattraction. The visualpleasure of the gaze, the scopophilicvoyeurism that makes moviegoing so hypnoticand enticing,is an eroticallycharged experience.8 For the moviegoer, physicalperfection and bodily beauty are likelyto arousemore than disinterestedcontemplation. Famed as an exemplaryspecimen of gorgeoushumanity, bathed in shimmeringchiaroscuro, shot from adoringcamera angles, the big screenstar is a modelhuman being and a sexuallyalluring object of the gaze.9Yet whereHollywood harnessesthe erotic energy of its starsfor commercial exploitation, Goebbels'sReichsfilmkammer sought to transferthe sexualenergy intoa "spiritualforce for the benefit of the community." 10 Ofcourse eroticism is notso easilyexpunged from the tantalizing spectacleof beauty and youth.So magneticand alluringis theNazi celebrationof the perfect human form that the attractions-especially on thebig screen-are at leastas powerfulas therevulsions. In con- temporaryfilms that recreate the set designand resurrect the model humansof the Nazi era,the erotic energy nascent in Nazi aesthetics is morelikely to be ecstaticallyreleased than spiritually repressed. 74 AmericanLiterature

Thinkof Luchino Visconti's The Damned (1969), Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972),Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter (1974), Lina Wertmuller's SevenBeauties (1976), Sam Peckinpah's Cross ofIron (1977), or Rainer WernerFassbinder's Lili Marleen (1981).11 Cartoonspartake of none of this sexual power. A mediumof rough edgesand broad caricature, of presexual creatures and anthropomor- phicanimals, it evokes rather than records the human form. Cartoons definethemselves against the aestheticsof photographic reproduc- tionor realistrepresentation. Unlike film, they offer few scopophilic pleasuresand little chance of complicity with the aesthetics of Nazism, ofthe spectator-readerassuming an adoringgaze at Nazi spectacle andWehrmacht specimens. Not thatthe cinema-obsessedThird Reich was obliviousto the propagandisticpower of the cartoon medium. Just as theNazis took to thescreen to celebratethemselves in a high-definition,cinematic format,the Jews were consigned to a lower-definitionmedium better suitedto their status in the aesthetic hierarchy. Comic art-"low defi- nition,deep involvement" inMarshall McLuhan's terms-is the visual mediummost congenial to caricature and low blows. The pivotalinspi- rationfor Spiegelman's cat and mousegamble was thevisual stereo- typesof Third Reich symbology, the hackwork from the mephistoes at Goebbels'sReichsministry and Julius Streicher's venomous weekly Der Sturmer-theanti-Semitic broadsheets and editorial cartoons de- pictingJews as hook-nosed,beady-eyed Untermenschen, creatures whoseferret faces and rodent snouts marked them as humanvermin (figs.1 and2). Hence,Spiegelman's ironic boast that Maus "was made in collaborationwith Hitler.... My anthropomorphizedmice carry traceelements of [editorialcartoonist] Fips's anti-SemiticJew-as-rat cartoonsfor Der Sturmer, but by being particularized they are invested withpersonhood; they stand upright and affirmtheir humanity. Car- toonspersonalize; they give specific form to stereotypes."12But again it is filmthat generated the iconic image of anti-Semitism under the ThirdReich: the notorious sequence from Fritz Hippler's Der ewige Jude(1940) thatcross-cuts between rabbinical ghetto dwellers and swarmingsewer rats. From subhumans to nonhumans,the Jews are linkedwith vermin, to be eradicated,like plague bearers, from the Fatherland. Pushingagainst that deep backgroundis the animationlegacy of Americanpopular culture. Like any mass-mediated American, Spiegel- ArtSpiegelman's Maus 75

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Figures1-2: Cartoonsfrom Der Sturmer (March 1937) reproduced from microfilm copies on fileat the Jewish Division of the New York Public Library. man'sown cartoon memories are of Saturday mornings filled by ,Micky Mouse, and Tom and Jerry. Because Vladek's past and his son's presentencompass a graphicaesthetic bound by Der Sturmer and SteamboatWillie, Joseph Goebbels and WaltDisney, the car- toonworld is an apt ifdisjointed recreation of theirshared experi- ence. The gulfin timeand space bridgedby Vladek'slife alone- fromthe unspeakablehorrors of the Auschwitzpast to the serene banalityof a Catskillpresent, from death camps to holidaycamps-is a displacementfor which surrealist technique is redundant.'3 Aboveall, though -more thanthe supermen in Riefenstahl'sfilms or thecartoon rodents in Streicher'speriodicals-the pertinent and indeliblevisual backdrop to Maus is theHolocaust itself. As muchas anymilestone in history,the Holocaust is madereal and vividby its motionpicture documentation. Recorded on 16mmfilm by the Army SignalCorps, the Soviet Army, and the Nazi's own photographic units, the newsreelfootage of the Nazi deathcamps-which first stunned Americanmoviegoers in lateApril 1945 and which has beena staple ofwartime documentaries and archivalcompilations ever since-is a permanentpresence in thepopular memory bank. Documentaries such as the War Department'sDeath Mills (1946),Alain Renais's 76 AmericanLiterature

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Nightand Fog (1955)and the BBC's "Genocide"episode of the World at War(1975) series have bequeatheda frightfulmontage: emaci- atedsurvivors staring blankly from behind barbed wire fences; bull- dozerscorralling and buryingheaps of corpses;mountains of hair, eyeglasses,and suitcases;and childrenunrolling their sleeves to ex- pose serialnumbers tattooed on their arms. The aestheticstrategy in- fusingClaude Lanzmann's epic nine-hour documentary Shoah (1986), a meticulouschronicle of the bureaucracy of genocide, presumed an intimateacquaintance with this filmic legacy. Reasoning that the Holo- caustfootage was alreadyin the mind's eye ofany sentient spectator, Lanzmannelected not to show a singleframe of archivalfootage. Similarly,the cinematography in Stephen Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993) imitatedthe black and whitefilm grain of the archivalfoot- age, ratherthan incorporating it, to evokethe celluloidmemory of Holocausthistory. Forthe graphic artist grappling with the visual legacy of 1939-1945, thephotographic immediacy of the Holocaust presents something of an aestheticquandary. Against the horrific photorealism of the death camps,impressionist illustrations of existentialtorment seem lame ArtSpiegelman's Maus 77

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Figure5. and self-indulgent.What representational artist can matchthe scale ofHitler's project or his cold eye fordetail? Unable to competewith thereal life horror shows recorded in the newsreels and documentary meditations,artists facing the Holocaustseek to createa pictureof realitythat though not photographic is still a goodlikeness. In a literal returnof the repressed, the impressionist techniques censored by the Nazisare resurrectedto delineatethe full horror of Nazism. Workingfrom a lowbrowrung of the ladderof art,Spiegelman sketcheda low-definitionrevision of the high-definition detail of the newsreelNazis andthe Holocaust footage. Relying mainly on sparse blacklines and the shadings of the monochromatic scale, the cartoon- ist conjuresthe survivor's landscape with rough sketches, black sil- houettes,and white space. The pictureslack detail but not depth, the low-definitionmedium enhancing the deep involvement ofthe reader. "The mouseheads are masks,virtually blank," commented Spiegel- man,"like Little Orphan 's eyeballs-a whitescreen the reader can projecton." 14 In Maus,cartoons are notjust a shieldagainst the visualpleasures of big screen Nazism but a mediumthat reverses the processof projection. The referenceto HaroldGray's is a clue to thecare with which Spiegelman deploys his medium's peculiar advan- tages.Besides Nazism, Maus is investedwith the history and aesthet- ics ofthe cartoon. In a purelycomic-book composition, Vladek and his firstwife Anja confront a series of dead end roadszigzagging like a swastikaacross the page, the couple trapped in the frame of the comic and ofhistory (fig. 3). Anotherframe assumes the shape of the Star ofDavid and seemsto pinVladek under a spotlightof anti-Semitism (fig.4). Amongthe low-definition renderings, a highlighted detail di- rectsattention to itself-the telltale tail of Anja, Vladek's unmistakably 78 AmericanLiterature

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Jewishwife, for example, or thetattooed serial number on Vladek's forearmas he pedals his exercisebike (fig.5). ThroughoutMaus, comic-specificassociations and tropesdot the cartoon landscape, as whenfree-floating, Chester Gould-like arrows signpost points of in- formation("Zyklon B, a pesticide,dropped into hollow columns," reads one) or when,in an audaciousinterlude of true comic relief, theexclamatory typography ofthe Sunday funnies lightens things up (fig.6).'5 The differencesin mediadialectics notwithstanding, thegrammar ofcinema translates readily into comic-book terms. In a mosaicpre- sentationakin to cinematicmontage, panels and mapssplash across thepage, figures bleed out of and break across rectangular frames, and elaboratelydesigned layouts greet the eye before a close-ininspection ofthe individual panels (fig.7). Whena triptychof panels zooms in froma mediumshot to a close-up,the sequence of still images dupli- catesthe dynamic telescoping of the camera lens (fig.8). Unlikethe height-to-width"aspect ratio" of a filmscreen, however, the comic framehas a malleabilityand elasticitythat can heightendramatic effectand visual , as whenthe dimensionsof the screenexpand lengthwise to accentuatethe horizontal movement of thetransport trains (fig. 9). Perhapsto balancethe highrisk gamble of the imagery,the lan- guage and tone of Spiegelman'scomic book work is temperedand austere.In Holocaustliterature, the languageof low melodramaor highadventure, the relianceon genericmachinations and literary ArtSpiegelman's Maus 79

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Figures8 & 9. thetwo main devices of comic book narrationare the dialoguebal- loon and theboxed commentary positioned at thetop of the frame; theseset strictlimits on expositionand dialogue. The narrativecraft ofthe cartoonistis to pruneaway excess verbiageto accommodate the limitedspace available.Claiming a dual kinshipwith the narra- tivevoice of the novel and the narrative voice-over of cinema, cartoon expositionmust be conciseand ellipticallest it bleed over into-and overpower-theimage. The forcedeconomy inspires Spiegelman's most impressive literary achievement:his unobtrusivemodulation of Vladek's voice. Infused withthe music of second-language English and Yiddish syntax, Vla- dek'sfirst person voice-over is devoidof oratorical flourish or self-pity. "Allsuch things of the war, I triedto putout from my mind once for all,"Vladek tells Artie, "until you rebuild me all thisfrom your ques- tions"(Maus II, 98). Or:"And we camehere to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.And we knewthat from here we willnot come out any more"(Maus I, 157). Justas the toneof Maus conformsto expectations,Spiegelman's researchmethod is traditionalenough: probe the subject, master the ArtSpiegelman's Maus 81 historicalrecord, "reality test" the testimony,and organizeall into a coherentvision of the individualin theweb ofhistory. Maps and diagramsof wartime Europe and the gas chambersat Auschwitz are testimonyto the scrupulousscholarship that invests the book with historicalauthority as wellas emotionalpower (fig. 7). The firstin- junctionof Holocaust literature is to getthe facts straight-to master thedetails and maintain an utterfidelity to the known record.17 At one pointArtie disputes his father's memory on a matterof fact; at another he solemnlypledges to concealan anecdotethe old manrelates in confidence,a sequence he has alreadyillustrated. Rather than conceal thetruth from the reader, he exposeshimself as a liarto his father- in serviceto a greatertruth and higher trust. Spiegelman'sfidelity to the unvarnished truth is apparentin his un- sparingportrait of Artie as a (sometimes)petulant son andhis father as a (usually)insufferable human being. Indeed the maddeningly self- absorbedand thoroughly unpleasant Vladek comes off as something ofan ethnicstereotype himself. "In someways he's just like the racist caricatureof the miserly old Jew," Artie worries (Maus I, 131).As a workingartist in a culturewhose own sensitivities to ethnicportraits canbe exquisite,Spiegelman challenges the real comic-book mentali- ties.Rendering the truth in stereotype(ethnic group members can be quitetrue to form)and thelie (thatthe group image defines the individual),the artist refuses to flinchfrom a literalillustration ofthe complexityof being human, of being both an ethnictype and a unique individual,a cartoon character and a fullyrealized human. Artie'sfather forthrightly defies one stereotype:the stereotype of theHolocaust survivor. Neither saintly sufferer nor guilt-ravaged wit- ness,he is mostappealing at his mostannoying. Vladek seems pretty muchthe same irascible SOB beforeAuschwitz as after.Preternatu- rallyself-interested (he's thekind of romantic suitor who checks out his girlfriend'smedicine cabinet to makesure she has no hiddenail- ments)and resourceful (at various points he worksas salesman,sol- dier,laborer, tinsmith, shoemaker, and translator),Vladek is a born survivorbut not a bornSurvivor. Stubbornly, gallantly, he refusesto be ennobled.When Fran,oise berates him for his own bigotries ("You talkabout blacks the way the Nazis talked about the Jews!"), his reply is unrepentant:"Ach," snorts Vladek. "It's noteven to comparethe shvartzersand the Jews!" (Maus II, 99). 82 AmericanLiterature

Nearthe end of the book, the end of Vladek's nightmare in history, Spiegelmanpastes a photographof his fatherinto the Maus layout,a realphotograph, sharp and clear,of a handsomeand healthyyoung manwho looksalmost natty in thegray stripes of a campinmate's uniform.The picturewas taken shortly after the war, Vladek explains, at a souvenirphoto shop. Amid the rough lines of Spiegelman's comic bookart, the snapshot on filmseems pallid and duplicitous. The true pictureof this survivor's tale is inthe cartoons. BrandeisUniversity

Notes 1 ArtSpiegelman, "A Problemof Taxonomy," The New YorkTimes Book Review,29 December1991, 4. Spiegelmandid suggest a possiblecompro- mise:that the Times add a special"nonfiction/mice" category. 2 ArtSpiegelman, Maus I:A Survivor'sTale: My FatherBleeds History (New York:, 1986) and Maus II: A Survivor'sTale: And Here MyTroubles Began (New York: Pantheon Books, 1991). Subsequent ref- erencesto Maus are citedparenthetically. 3 CalvinReid, "A 'Maus' That Roared," Publisher's Weekly, 31January 1994, 26-27.Spiegelman is quotedas saying,"I wasnot interested in animation orin licensing Maus. It wouldjust be destroyed.But The Complete Maus willallow for a lotof extra information about the original that should be usefuland interesting." Typical of the hypertext adaptations challenging theperceptual boundaries of both print and movingimage media, The CompleteMaus billsitself as a documentthat "grants the user unprece- dentedaccess tothe historical and structural details behind the finished book.The pages ofMaus are linkedto preliminarysketches, alternate drafts,archival photographs, and drawings made by prisoners and audio fromthe interviewsbetween Art Spiegelman and his fatherthat were thebasis forthe narrative." For readersof the comic book version, the CD-ROMversion is aptto be an expansive,if spooky, excursion into the Spiegelmans'backstory. The taperecordings of Vladek comprise its eeri- est and mostelectrifying moments-a melodic, sparse voice fromthe pastsummoning the vision again before the eyes. In truth,the CD-ROM seemsmore a supplementto theoriginal than an autonomoustext, an ancillarypackage that assumes the "user" has alreadyexperienced the narrativeof Maus inthe antediluvian role of "reader." 4 Saul Friedlander,Reflections ofNazism: An Essayon Kitschand Death (NewYork: Harper and Row, 1984), 96; italicsin original. 5 FromHitler's 1938 speech opening the second Great German Art Exhibi- ArtSpiegelman's Maus 83

tion;quoted in Berthold Hinz,Art in the Third Reich (New York: Pantheon Books,1979), 10. 6 FromThe Guide to the Exhibition ofDegenerate Art; quoted in Hinz, 41. 7 Susan Sontag,"Fascinating Fascism," in Moviesand Methods:An An- thologyed. Bill Nichols(Berkeley and Los Angeles:Univ. of California Press,1976), 40. 8 LauraMulvey's "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema," the touchstone essayon thescopophilic gaze, is reprintedin Mulvey,Visual and Other Pleasures(Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1989), 14-26. 9 Althougha good deal of written criticism has madethis point, it is vividly exploredin twodocumentary films on theaesthetics of Nazism,Peter Cohen'sTheArchitecture ofDoom (1986) and Roy Muller's The Wonderful, HorribleLife of Leni Riefenstahl (1994). 10 Sontag,41. 11 For a comprehensivediscussion of film and the Holocaust, see Annette Insdorf,Indelible Shadows: Film and theHolocaust (New York: Random House,1983). 12 ArtSpiegelman, "Drawing Pens and Politics:Mightier Than the Sore- head,"The Nation, 17 January 1994, 46. Hence, too, the epigraph to Maus PartI: "The Jewsare undoubtedlya race, but they are nothuman."- AdolphHitler. 13 Takenfrom a Nazi newspaperarticle in themid-1930s, the epigraph to Maus Part II joins togethera comicand not-so-comicconstellation of aesthetics,history, and cartoons: " is themost miserable idealever revealed.... Healthy emotions tell every young man and every honorableyouth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bac- teriacarrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be theideal type of animal.... Awaywith Jewish brutalization ofthe people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wearthe Swastika Cross!" 14 Spiegelman,The Nation, 17 January 1994, 46. 15 The singlebest work on comicbook aesthetics is ScottMcCloud, Under- standingComics: The Invisible Art (Northampton,Mass.: KitchenSink Press,1993). On Maus specifically, see JosephWitek, Comic Books as His- tory:The Narrative Art ofJack Jackson, Art Spiegelman, and (Jackson:Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1989), 96-120. 16 NechamaTec, Dry Tears: The Story of a LostChildhood (New York: Oxford Univ.Press, 1984). 17 In thewake of recent Neo-Nazi efforts to denythe Holocaust, demands forscrupulousness in researchand monitoringof careless scholarship have becomeparticularly urgent. In thislight, it is worthnoting that Spiegelman'sinsistence on his ownhistorical precision came afterthe publicationof his secondvolume in 1991-notafter the first volume in 1986.The guidelinesfor literary adaptions of the Holocaust, no less than 84 AmericanLiterature

historicalworks, are articulatedby Pierre Vidal-Naquet: "It remains the case nonethelessthat if historical discourse is notconnected-by as manyintermediate links as one likes-to whatmay be called,for lack of a betterterm, reality-we may still be immersedin discourse,but such discoursewould no longerbe historical"(Assassins of Memory: Essays on theDenial ofthe Holocaust, trans. Jeffrey Mehlman [New York:Columbia Univ.Press, 1992], 110-11).