I, Censor?

Books By Patti Liszkay
​Available On Amazon

​"Equal and Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
and the sequel, "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
​Available on Amazon.

​I, CENSOR?

     Recently the media has been dominated by the news story that the Minn County, Tennessee  school board voted this month to remove from the eight grade reading curriculum "Maus," the series of pulitzer-prize-winning graphic novels by Art Spiegleman,​

...that depict the vicious cruelty infllicted on the Jews during the Holocaust as told to Spiegelman by his father, a survivor of  the  Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
      To everyone who knows me, either personally or through my writing, I say prepare to have your mind blown: 
     I agree with the Tennessee school board.
   "Maus" should by no means be required reading for eighth graders. Emphasis here is on "eight-graders." And "required reading."
       Before going on I must admit that I haven't read "Maus." That is to say, I haven't read most of it. About thirty or so year ago, after having heard of its acclaim, I found some of the "Maus" editions at the library. I picked up the one with the image of mice as concentration camp prisoners,   

...read a few pages, and flipped through a few more. When I came to the images of the mice imprisoned in the concentration camp, dressed in the hauntingly iconic prisoner's uniforms and  beaten and tormented by cats in Nazi uniforms, I put the book back. I didn't need to see any more. 
     Which is not to say that I'd never before heard of or seen or been horrified by graphic images of the Holocaust. In fact while living in Germany in the 1970's Tom and I visited two Nazi death camps, Nazweiler-Struthof and Mauthausen. We felt that seeing the remains of those filthy camps, the gas chambers, the crematoria, the ugly green-tiled laboratories where there were drains in the floor to drain away the blood from the human bodies being butchered on the white tables, we felt that seeing all that, along with the terrible photos and drawings on display, awful as it all was to see, was the least we could do.  
​      Which is also not to say that, though I didn't finish "Maus," I don't consider Art Spiegelman's story one well worth the telling or worthy of a pulitzer prize. I do. I just don't think "Maus" should be required reading for eight-graders. Eleventh- or twelfth-graders? Sure. College students? Even better, as the older, more intellectually experienced and mentally mature a student is when they read "Maus," the better they'll be able not only to handle the very troubling subject matter on an emotional level, but the better they'll understand and appreciate the work, the more insights they'll have, the more they'll connect to the human interactions and the symbolism. 
       Eight-graders are simply too young to get "Maus." All but the most precocious kids at that age are oblivious to metaphore. But the more critical concern - my concern, at least - is that many kids of that age - maybe most kids - would find "Maus' not enlightening, not broadening, not, formative, but merely disturbing, upsetting, the stuff of nightmares or maybe even an immature and unhealthy morbid fascination.
         The legion of critics demonizing the Tennessee school board for removing "Maus" from the eight-grade reading list mock the school board's concern over some images of nudity, a few obscenities, some violence, a couple suicides. But should there not be objections to assigning  middle-schoolers a book with images of nudity? Especially when the images are  of people being degraded and tormented in their nudity?​

     Should there not be concernn over the use of obscenities in middle-school reading, especially when the obscenities are linked to cruelty?

      Should there not be concern over images of violence, especially violence against children?

...and of extreme violence?

...and of suicide, especially when it's a suicide-murder of children?

    All of which begs the question: For what? For what purpose should middle-schoolers be made to read "Maus?" Though Art Spiegelman is the creator of some works supposedly geared towards children - he is the creator of the "Garbage Pail Kids" cards - 

...he is the writer of mostly adult-themed comics. Surely Mr. Spiegelman didn't write "Maus" as reading material for youngsters, though now he claims to be flabbergasted that it shouldn't be considered as such. 
       Is there really such a great need to make children eat of the fruit of good and evil, to experience everything, to be exposed to everything, to be made to learn  what a terrible place this world can be  before they've barely reached puberty? Is it really such a crime to want to protect children, to allow them their innocence for as long as possible?
        Still, if eighth grade is the time to start reading about the Holocaust, there certainly must be more age-appropriate books to ease them into it, and in the meantime Art Spiegelman need not worry that the eighth-graders in one Tennessee school district won't be required to buy his book: they'll be reading it soon enough along with everybody else. Since the news broke about the removal of "Maus" from one curriculum the sales of his graphic novel have gone through the stratosphere. I may even snag a copy for myself.