Thursday, January 27, 2022

I Bet He Farted While Walking By the Prettiest Girl In Class

Art Spiegelman's Maus is one of my favorite books. It's one of the few books that I routinely recommend and have given five stars to. I received copies of Maus at Christmas of 1996 and I've read it practically every year since then. Part of the reason I am who I am is because of Maus. It made me think about people's lives and their trauma more and every time I read it, different parts of it stick out and I can always--ALWAYS--find something from the present day to apply to the past.

And that's why Maus is so important. Banning a book about the Holocaust because it shows nudity, contains swear words, or the death of children is just ignorant and I wonder of this Tennessee county school board understands the Holocaust at all. Maus shows nudity because that's how it happened. It contains swear words because people swear. It shows the deaths--murder--of children because Nazis murdered children. It's not that hard to understand.

Anyway, I could wax on all day about my love for Maus but instead, I encourage you to read it if you haven't. Borrow it from the library or buy a copy from your nearest bookstore. Lend it to your kids, read it to them or with them. Talk to them about it. Be better than this school board.

It's not the stupidest plan Wilberforce has ever had. What mistakes is Wilberforce making that causes people to pick on him? Did he really mean 'tentacles'? Did he call the teacher "Mom"? Did he...you know...and not have a book nearby to hide it? Was he just sitting by himself reading and a girl call him 'weird'? Is some jackass calling him "Pimpolo" in a stupid accent? But now we're not talking about Wilberforce.