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You should read Maus if you haven't already. It's an excellent book. That panel comes from a short sequence in the book called Prisoner on Hell Planet. I first
by aahortwwy 5y ago
You should read Maus if you haven't already. It's an excellent book.
That panel comes from a short sequence in the book called Prisoner on Hell Planet. I first read Maus as a child (10 or 11 years old, so younger than 8th grade) and I found that whole sequence incredibly confronting. The characters are suddenly depicted as humans (the rest of the book they are anthropomorphic animals), the art style changes to become harsher and scarier, and it depicts the suicide of the artist's mother, including the author's last memory of her alive and his feelings of guilt over her death. When I read the book as a child that sequence stuck out to me as particularly graphic and disturbing, and on my subsequent readings I would skip it. I think it's a really important part of the book precisely because it's so jarring and intensely personal. I also think it's a great book to have in a school curriculum, but it doesn't surprise me that parents would complain.
What I found somewhat bemusing about the whole discussion in the meeting minutes was that it didn't focus on the content of the book that may disturb children, but rather on the occasional use of crude language and sexual discussions. One of the board members goes on a bizarre tangent about a poem which includes the line "The heavenly blisses of his kisses, fill me with ecstasy," and how one of the discussion questions for that poem is for children to define the word "ecstasy." He goes on to say:
> So, my problem is, it looks like the entire curriculum is developed to normalize sexuality, normalize nudity and normalize vulgar language. If I was trying to indoctrinate somebody’s kids, this is how I would do it. You put this stuff just enough on the edges, so the parents don’t catch it but the kids, they soak it in. I think we need to relook at the entire curriculum.
Which is such a weird thing to say in a discussion over whether a particular text is appropriate for a module on the Holocaust.
Pointing out that the author drew comics for Playboy is also a really weird thing to say when the nudity being discussed is an image of the author's dead mother.
- FooBarBizBazz 5y ago> it didn't focus on the content of the book that may disturb children, but rather on the occasional use of crude language and sexual discussions. Yeah, it seems to miss the point. You can ask whether a topic like this is appropriate for children of a certain age. For eighth graders, I think it is. But for younger children, maybe not. There is also a question of whether exposure to this sort of thing -- this true destruction of innocence -- achieves what it sets out to. I have seen historical sites like these that have made a serious impression on me -- and I'm not sure a good one. Combined with the forms of argument, the dehumanization, the dishonesty, that I see routinely on the Internet, I end up profoundly distrustful of people, especially people in groups. And then I think -- is that a good thing? For it to be brought to everyone's attention that genocide is an option and a possibility? One that, perhaps, they need to prepare for? One that, perhaps, their enemies are plotting? "God, well if that's what's going on, maybe we need to get them first!" I don't know. I'm not really making this argument. When push comes to shove I think it's part of a complete education. But seeing some of these things has actually fucked with me a little.
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- qohen 5y agoOne of the board members goes on a bizarre tangent about a poem which includes the line "The heavenly blisses of his kisses, fill me with ecstasy," The "poem" is actually the lyric to the 1921 song, "I'm Just Wild About Harry", for a Broadway musical, "Shuffle Along"; it was the most popular song in the show. It was later sung in a movie by Judy Garland and and was covered by other artists such as Peggy Lee. It was also used as a campaign song by Harry S. Truman in his run for president. The song has a Wikipedia page [0] as does the show "Shuffle Along" from which it came [1], which was the first Black Broadway musical and which launched the careers of notables such as Josephine Baker and Paul Robeson and which was "credited with inspiring the Harlem Renaissance" [1]. P.S. The original (it's a comic duet in the show) [2] Judy Garland's version [3] A new rendition was used in 2020 as the theme for a TV rom-com [4] And there are other versions on YouTube. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Just_Wild_About_Harry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Just_Wild_About_Harry [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuffle_Along https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuffle_Along [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IlwAuSEunM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IlwAuSEunM [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDu-qmYtEdU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDu-qmYtEdU [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in-_tVp33_4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in-_tVp33_4
- qohen 5y agoPointing out that the author drew comics for Playboy is also a really weird thing to say Seemed like an ad hominem attack to me -- here's the passage from the article: Allman went on to say that Spiegelman had once done artwork for Playboy: “You can look at his history, and we’re letting him do graphics in books for students in elementary school.”