Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer-prize winning author of “Maus: A Survivor’s Tale,” said books about difficult topics need to be contextualized, not banned, and people should not seek a fuzzier narrative of the Holocaust when the fact is it was a genocide.
In his graphic novel, Spiegelman tells the story of the Holocaust, depicting Nazis as cats and Jews as mice. The book grapples with the mass murder of Jews in Europe, as well as the ways in which the members of Spiegelman’s family who survived the Holocaust dealt with the atrocity.
“It’s certainly about Jews, but it’s not just about Jews,” Spiegelman said. “This is about othering and what’s going on now is about controlling – controlling what kids can look at, what kids can read, what kids can see in a way that makes them less able to think, not more. And it takes the form of the criticisms from this board.”
The author’s pushback against banning books comes after the McMinn County Board of Education voted unanimously in January to remove Spiegelman’s award-winning graphic novel from its curriculum, citing language and nudity in the book.
The discussion with Spiegelman was hosted by a group of Chattanooga-area and Tennessee organizations, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, B’nai Zion Congregation, Mizpah Congregation, Ascension Lutheran Church and the Tennessee Holler.