As a kid I hated reading. I always would rather "read," or rather "look", at a picture book than read a novel. I think reading a bunch of words was tiring while looking at pictures was simple. As i read Maus, I tend to think the other way now. I would rather read straight text than read some dialogue and look at pictures. I find graphic novels harder because the flow is interrupted everytime i spend some time looking at the pictures. Rather than reading text and letting my imagination play it all out as I read, I have to read the text, look at the pictures, and tie the two together. But there are many advantages to graphic novels. They're easier to read, much less draining on the eyes, and shorter. Yet there is something valuable in reading novels and allowing your imagination to run wild with the words you read.

I feel as if words can better convey the situation than a graphic novel. With graphic novels, it is primarily dialogue with a few narratives here and there. The rest of the situation you are suppose to get from the pictures. In the case of Maus, the pictures dont tell me too much. So far, I feel like the pictures havent enhanced my understanding of the story except for a few frames. It could be his style of drawing though.

I wonder what Maus would be like if it was a novel...surely Art Spiegelman would have to directly say the species of animals that represents whatever ethnicity. Doing that could detract and result in an awkward novel. i.e. when vladik sneaks onto the train. it would be weird to say that the mouse took off a fake pig mask.