Received and Perceived

   The concept of the movement from what is Received by us and what is Perceived by us in Understanding Comics was very interesting. This concept helped to explain how as art moves from being photo realistic to a picture of a face that consists of two dots a line and a circle, we still perceive the image of the smiley face as a human face.  It also explains that with more detail and realism comes less imagination from the reader.  For example a detailed picture of a man doesn’t allow us to imagine it as ourselves or perceive the image as we would like to. It simply shows us a picture of a man how it is meant to be with less wiggle room for imagination.  A more ambiguous image of a stick figure however, can allow the reader to imagine the image as more than just a stick figure.  That stick figure can transform into almost any person or represent almost any person.
    While reading Maus, this concept can be applied to the artist’s choice to use animals for the characters.  The animals take on a very personified role rather than the role of actual animals.  They behave like humans instead of behaving as animals do. They wear clothing and speak with each other.  Spiegelman’s choice to use mice for the main characters is similar to the use of ambiguous stick figures.  We are able to interpret the characters as we see fit.  Mice obviously aren’t Jewish and didn’t get killed by a animal Hitler in the Holocaust.  They can’t do these things in real life but we perceive them as the humans who actually went through these parts of history.
    The openness to interpretation continues through other aspects such as setting and props in the story.  As I was reading the very Jew-y English dialect and accent spoken by Vladek, I couldn’t help but hear his voice in my head as Mel Brooks’ character voice Yogurt from Spaceballs (who speaks with a similar accent that I imagined).  Concepts such as these are just a few that make comics a very unique medium.