Sunday, January 26, 2014
Speigelman and Vonnegut
The most notable difference between the two authors is that Manus is a graphic novel whereas Slaughterhouse Five was not. Speigelman has a somewhat lucid way of story telling. It is almost chronological (a first this happened...next this..way of story telling), despite the fact that real time conversations are injected in the story telling every now and then. Pictures always help to make clearer the story a person is trying to tell and so the pictures were helpful in this book. Speigelman's story seems very believable as opposed to Vonnegut's, which was questionable at many times. Vonnegut's story telling was all over the place, which I would say worked for him because sometimes you just need to get everything out even if you have to ramble on, or even if it is not clear. Vonnegut would write about some things more than others whereas Speigelman just tried to tell the full story without going back to certain incidents (so far in the book this is his method). I like Speigelman's way of story telling because while I know nothing in life is linear (including thinking), history telling is close to that and it's easier and more precise thus the reader does not have to make too many inference.
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I liked your point on the fact that since the story of Maus was drawn not written the former entitles it to a certain legitimacy. That a very similar story line could be more believable than the written word is kind of funny, because you would think it would be the other way around. The fact that Maus is a graphic novel makes the pretty morbid story seem a bit easier to read, that is it does not seem to shock you as much. The scene in Maus while Vladek is fighting on the front lines and even kills a man didn’t seem that violent nearly as violent as, say compared to the scene from The Things We Carried where the story of the Lemon tree is being described. I would wonder if that is also the reason that Speigelman’s used mice and cats in stead of human characters, to sort of make it easier to read.
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