Tuesday

Didn’t get a chance to write on Tuesday. This week has been CRAZY—as I’m sure it has been for all of you—and I’ll be glad when it finally comes to an end next week. I wanted to commend you, CA, for your winning speech. You’ll definitely have to take a picture of your giant trophy so we can all take a look! HA!

I was really impressed with Richard’s presentation on the censorship of comic books. I have never really been into comic books, and I only recently read my first graphic novel: Maus I and II. I would highly recommend these to anyone who is interested in reading this type of writing. I had never really considered comics as an effective medium but this comic was quite different from what I expected. Written from the perspective of mice you would think that it would be easy to keep a safe and “detached” distance from the emotional turmoil of the Holocaust. I was wrong. The writing was real and candid, and almost instantaneous personal attachment was achieved through Spiegelman’s characters. I suppose that is a little different from the typical superhero comic.

It was interesting to consider Spiegelman’s comic in light of Wertham’s claims on the effects comic books have on children. Wertham advocated that anything even remotely involving violence would encourage children towards deviant or violent behavior. Richard made the point that Wertham may have failed in his studies to account for the chance that children were using comics as a scapegoat, blaming their violent behavior on the violence portrayed in what they were reading.

I wonder—what would Wertham say of Spiegelman’s comic that revealed the harsh realities of the Holocaust?

I believe there is material that can encourage deviant behavior, though I don’t know that we can hold these sources as responsible for our actions. Our actions are our own. Rhetoric may lead one to a choice, but it can’t make you choose.

Anyways, I don’t know how reliable Wertham’s ethos could have been when he considered himself “Freudian” in thought.