Syndication is working!

Posted by David

I’m now using FeedWordPress to syndicate all of your blog posts. What this means is that when you write a post on your blog, it will automagically get sucked in and reposted here onto this site. That means this page becomes a one-stop shop for y’all to find the posts from your classmates.

A couple of notes, followed by a question. If you are going to comment on one of your classmates’ blogs, when you click on the title link for the post, you’ll be redirected to that students’ post on his or her page, which is where you should leave your comment. I encourage you to read and comment on each others’ posts. (At times, I might require it, even!)

If you are planning to write posts that are unrelated to this class on the domain you’re using for this class, that’s okay, but we’ll want to make arrangements for that. (You’ll need to use a category that designates some posts as needing to syndicate here onto this page, while other posts have different categories and aren’t. Or you can set up a subdomain that is designated for posts for this class.) If this is an issue for you now, or if it becomes an issue for you at any point this semester, just let me know and we’ll work out a solution.

If you look over at the top of the right-hand sidebar, you will see a pull-down menu called “Categories.” All the posts that I write will be categorized as “David’s posts,” so if you choose that line from the pull down list you’ll go to a separate page that lists only posts by me. All the posts pulled in from your sites will be designated with the category “Student posts,” so you can see those separately too.

[FYI, once you start putting up the group blog posts, you’ll categorize them with “readers,” “responders,” or “historians” as appropriate and then those will show up as categories too. Is it okay if I admit that I’m looking forward, at the end of the semester, to pulling up the category page for the historians’ posts and seeing a reverse-chronological narrative describing where we’ve gone as a class all semester?]

So here’s the question: Does this feel too unwieldy for you? If you would prefer it, I can replace the link to this page in the navigation bar up above to links the pages for my posts and your posts separately. To me, that seems unnecessary, but if the blog space feels too crazy and chaotic for you, I can. Scroll down this page, check out your classmates’ posts embedded amongst mine and let me know any feedback you have.

Most important panel from first 2 chapters of Maus…

Posted by David

 

 I think the fifth panel on page 13 is significant in drawing out readers’ thoughts. Without any frames to decorate the panel, the author develops his father’s somewhat arrogant and confident characteristics by explaining and showing that his father called himself handsome that he “looked just like Rudolph Valentino,” a flawless, handsome movie star from what it looks like in the comic . By labeling such a characteristic, I felt relevant to the author because every dads including mine, likes  appeal to their children. Consequently, I was able to immerse more deeply into the author’s perspective early on in the story and was able to know more about his father as the  main character.

The most important panel from chapter 1 and 2

Posted by Eric

MAUS vol.1 pg 30 first panel:

Spiegelman uses the idea of conceptual vs. realistic visualization in the simplified drawing of his characters, in contrast to their vividly detailed surroundings. I decided to chose this panel as the most important, because it was the birth of Vladak’s first born son. In the story we are told that Vladak married Anja in February but gave birth to their first born in October.  I found this to be very interesting due to the fact that unless their son was premature it is possible that Richieu was conceived out of the marriage. The panel also shows the nurse as a pig probably to distinguish her from Art and his family as a non jew. 

More Real – More Human

Posted by Adam's blog

On page 23 in Maus by Art Spiegelman, Vladek, a Jewish survivor of Nazi Germany, tells his tragic story to his son Artie.  Vladek begins with his relationship with a girl named Lucia Greenberg.  After Vladek finishes, he asks his son not to put this information in his book.  Artie responds “But Pop – It’s Great Material is makes Everything More REAL – More Human.”  I believe this is so important and crucial to Vladek’s story.  When people read about the Holocaust it is very difficult to understand how vibrant and exciting Jews lives were before the war.  Vladek’s relationship with Lucia allows the reader to relate to Vladek before the war starts.

http://davidmorgen.org/eng101s14/2014/01/21/most-important-panel-from-first-2-chapters-of-maus/

Important panel from first two chapters of Maus

Posted by Max Solasz's BLOG | Max Solasz's BLOG

The panel that caught my attention more than others was the top one on page 35. In this panel, Vladek is in a ballroom setting, dancing with his wife. Surrounding Vladek and his wife, who are both depicted as mice, are all different kinds of animals. Spiegelman portrays the Jews as mice, the Germans as cats, and Polish citizens as pigs,and other citizens as rabbits, turtles, and more. The way Spiegelman uses animals to represent the people who experienced the Holocaust, portrays the animalistic nature of the people during this time and the actions that many horrible people were doing during the war. Vladek and his wife were the only Jews in the ballroom, which also shows how outnumbered the Jewish people were during this period.

Maus: Assignment #1

Posted by Wyatt

On page thirty-one, there is a panel toward the middle of the page that I found to be extremely eye-catching and important. Since I have only read the first two chapters of Maus, I can’t identify the significance of this panel to the graphic novel as a whole, but I do think its importance will be revealed as I continue to read the coming chapters.

The panel I found to be most important stands out in a variety of ways. First, the panel is the only panel on the page with a predominantly dark background. It also is the only panel on the page that is crooked and seems to be “stacked” on top of a few other panels. In the panel, Anja appears to be physically ill. In fact, the only two sentences in the panel express Anja’s pain. She says, “But I don’t care. I just don’t want to live.” What really strikes me as important about this panel is the foreshadowing I feel it contains. Any is in pain, begging for it to end. Since Maus is representative pain and suffering endured by millions in World War II, I see this panel as foreshadowing the eventual suffering of a main character. The dark background gives the panel a dark ambiance, and the striped pattern on Anja’s couch seems to allude to the typically black and white uniforms prisoners and captives were known to have worn.

Overall, the panel is definitely a container of importance. It is obvious that the author sought to emphasize its content by intentionally drawing it to stand out. Its contents are unique and [I think] extremely important to the story as a whole.

English Website: Link to Assignment

Maus Chapter 1

Posted by Eric

In the first two chapters, Panel 17 is a changing point in Artie’s fathers life.  He has decided to stop seeing the beautiful Lucia and marry Anja, someone who it seems he had  just met. This is a turning point in his life and a major event. It also changes the direction of the storyline by instead of him being chased by girls he will now settle down and the story progresses closer to the more important events of his fathers life.

 

 

Maus I – Most Important Panel from the first 2 chapters

Posted by Chris

Page 32, bottom panel:

I found this panel to be quite significant as it shows all the people on the train gazing at the giant swastika flag. Anja and Vladek were on their way to the sanitarium in Czechoslovakia when they spotted it hanging in the center of a town. It caught everyone’s eyes as it was the first time they had seen it. Using hindsight, it would obviously have a huge impact on their near future. They began to speculate what it could have meant, but little did they know just how much it would change their lives forever.