Nicole Duran, Period 1, 02/16/2022

Nicole Duran
Period 1.
2/14/22
Modern Mythology 2022

Socio-Political Consciousness

On Maus & Banned Books

It was maybe a month ago when I got the book. It was only this year that I learned the last good comic book shop on the island was just a few blocks down from school, next to the library. My mom wasn’t too happy that I discovered it, said I wasted too much money on books I would finish in less than an hour. Still though, I’d go in and browse the shelves and come out with one or two or sometimes if I’m lucky three to go home and read right away. I remember going deeper into the store, looking past the kids books and manga and marvel towards the queer books and the comic strip anthologies. There I found a little square book, paperback with red and yellow and two little mice in front of a Nazi flag. It wasn’t my first time seeing the book. I bought it that very same day, but I didn’t read it until much later.


The same book showed up much more recently, not even a week has gone by since I saw it flying past the Twitter trending page. Something about it being banned in Texas, being added to the ever growing and ever stupid “Banned Books List.” I saw it there the other day, and I looked on my bookshelf where I had left it and decided to read it through. It was much longer than I thought. Where once I flew past pastel protagonists discovering their inner strength I stared down at black and white mice that painted a picture of pain so intense that not many other books had been able to instill in me. I wholly admit that as a child I was fascinated with the Holocaust. I’d see book after book in scholastic catalogs about horrors that I don’t think I could ever begin to understand. When you’re a child though, every book is a story, and it takes a lot of growth and a lot of learning for that story to become reality. I’ve read books about the Holocaust. I’ve read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and The Book Thief. But Maus? Maus isn’t so much a book as it is real life.


I mention all this as an introduction, however if given the chance I would discuss my thoughts on the book in its entirety. As much as I could, anyway. It’s a series, and I’ve only gotten through part one of many. The first part of Maus was written by Art Spiegelman in 1980, telling a story of his father’s experiences as a Polish Jew in World War II, and the strained relationship he held with him all these years later. You might imagine then, why a book like this wouldn’t exactly be looked kindly upon by those with more conservative viewpoints. Looking through The Banned Book list you’ll find story after story banned due to near anything under the sun. From queer characters to people of color, to mentions of rape and sexual content. It seems like just because something is perceived as “bad” or “controversial”, it should be done away with entirely. With a lot of these books I’m sure people could argue that the author didn’t have to include these topics, an argument that while justifiable is rather stupid. A lot of people don’t have to do a lot of things, but if we based our worldview on that then I think very little would get done as a whole.


It also raises a counterargument: What if the book did have to be this way? I think this is where The Banned Book List goes from childish to downright harmful (not to say it was ever good, but this is where I think it hits a turning point). It’s one thing to try and silence a fictional story, one that may or may not be influenced or inspired by real life events, but it’s another thing to silence a biography, the very life and experience of a living breathing person, just because some parents or school administration believe it to be “a little too much.” History is not kind. It’s not meant to be. To censor a very real, very tragic event that has killed millions, is not protecting children. It is erasing and reconstructing our world to where the bad guys have won. There are very few Holocaust survivors left, very few who will remain to tell their story before history takes them too. What kind of world would we live in if we failed them?


For Maus specifically, it’s an issue of ignoring history so heavily it’s negated. For every book on The Banned Book List though, it’s an issue of bigotry. When parents and school officials say it’s “for the children” it’s never the way they want you to think. It’s not that the children are impressionable and will be shocked and copy what they read. It’s that children are impressionable and will start to think. What world would we live in where a trans woman can walk down the street without fear of being murdered? What example would we set for our children if they start wondering why the clerk side eyes their black friend while shopping? What backwards thinking would we be encouraging if we tell kids with ADHD that they’re worthwhile?


I remember in August of 2017, I was staying at my great aunt's house in St. Louis with my mom for a few weeks. It was a few months after my grandma had passed and we were happy to be around family again in a place that wasn’t fogged by mourning. I remember getting ready for bed scrolling through my phone when I saw the articles. Riots were starting in Charlottesville. I saw photo after photo of fires and flags, from Confederate to Nazi to Gadsden. I sat with my mother as we looked at what was happening, a resigned acceptance that this was what our world was like.


I’ve had to act normal while talking to friends who firmly tell me that Trump isn’t racist.


I’ve been seated in a half empty diner for nearly forty minutes, all but refused service because my mom and I are not white.


I’ve had to change college plans because I can’t go to certain states without worrying about my safety.


I’ve had to sit through zoom calls where guys with less than half a brain have decided to make me the object of their sexual jokes and fantasies because I so dared to sit.


I’ve had grown adults surprised by my wellspokeness and manners far too many times to be normal.


I’ve been embarrassed in front of classes because teachers have feigned ignorance when confronted with the reality that they need to wear a microphone in order for me to hear them.


I say this all not for pity or attention, but to make a point. Every single thing in these “banned” books has happened to someone in real life. Every. Single. One. It doesn’t matter how small a detail or how miniscule an event. Those that refuse to accept this, refuse to accept reality. To those people, you’ve lived a very small and sad little life.