darn biased stories

First off, I can't help but wonder how much of Maus is true. It's not the comic presentation that causes me to question is authenticity of the text, but rather the way that Spiegelman himself tells the story. There are many points in the book where it seems like IF this story is represented as it occurred, that Vladek seemed to tailor his story more to what Art was looking for to write his comic book than to really just tell his own story. And you wonder if this was a kind gesture on Vladek's part or a hinderance to the actual Holocaust narrative. It kind of reminds me of how a movie based on a book would go. Yeah sure, you get the overall plot going on still and it's BASICALLY the same thing, but a lot of little things are cut out in order to make the movie a hit and sensational. There could be a parallel drawn in this to the way that Maus is formulated. For all we know, Vladek as well as Art could have been editing or "tweaking" the story as need be to make it more appealing to readers and make it a better selling product. True, the fundamental story may still be there, but the way that things are emphasized and also as importantly, DE-emphasized may skew the way that the story is received by readers. I feel like the comic book form, because you get visual images as well as the layered narrative, is getting at the idea that this story is not really all so much another Holocaust narrative to be shared with the world but rather a story that's rooted at a much deeper and personal level in relation to Spiegelman himself.

Hmm, seems like I'm well on my way to sounding like many of the other literary criticisms already out on Maus.