Spiegelman. ch6. of Maus I, “Mouse Trap,” summary

by Corry Shores
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Art Spiegelman

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, vol.1

Ch. 6
Mouse Trap

 

Brief summary:

We learn from Mala that perhaps Vladek’s extreme stinginess may perhaps not be from his traumas during the war, since other survivor friends do not behave this way. Vladek recalls the difficult period when they had to hide in sympathetic people’s houses (although always paying them), at times living for days in a basement without food. Against Anja’s better judgment, they trust smugglers to take them from Poland to Hungary, where (at this time at least) they would be safer. The smuggler’s deceived them, and they are instead captured by the Gestapo and sent to Auschwitz. We learn finally that Vladek burned Anja’s diaries from this period in a fit of despair following her suicide, even though Anja hoped Art would someday read them. Art is infuriated by this loss of a highly precious connection to his deceased mother, and he calls Vladek a murderer.

 

Summary

 

[We begin of course in the present.] Vladek’s door is unlocked, and so Art enters himself. He sees Mala crying in the kitchen. She is upset because she cannot live with Vladek any more. “He treats me as if I were just a maid or his nurse … worse! […] At least a maid has some days off and gets paid! He only gives me $50.00 a month. When I need a pair of stockings I have to use my own savings!” Art replies that this is how he always was. “Whenever I needed school supplies or new clothes Mom would have to plead and argue for weeks before he’d cough up any dough!” (130). Mala says that when she argues with Vladek, he moans like he is having a heart attack, which forces her to stop, even though he might be faking it [recall from the last chapter that Vladek had something like a minor heart attack]. “I feel like I’m in prison!” She continues, “I feel like I’m going to burst!” (130). Mala then says that after they married, she told Vladek that she needed clothes, and he only offered Anja’s (his prior wife’s) clothing. Art thinks it is because of the camps, but Mala says neither she nor other friends who also survived have Vladek’s disposition.

[[Note here that a running theme, that Vladek is obsessively conservational on account of his traumas during the war,  is now called into question, and the observation is made that many survivors did not end up this way.]] Art then expresses a concern. He is drawing his father and characterizing him [all perhaps in a way which intends to deconstruct the prejudicial metaphors and beliefs espoused by the Nazi’s], but instead, “in some ways he’s just like the racist caricature of the miserly old Jew” (131). 

[[For example, in an interview Art gave in 1991, he explains that the idea of ‘dehumanizing’ the characters into animal form comes from the Nazis’ own propaganda campaigns. “This particular menagerie, I tend to think of it as humans with animal heads. And these are animals that stand up and insist on their own humanity in spite of the fact that building something around this highly flawed notion. In that sense, this is Hitler’s idea, not mine. He said, ‘the Jews are certainly a race, but they are not human.’ He slated Jews for extermination, which is not something that is done to people, it is done to pests, to vermin.” From: “The Holocaust Through the Eyes of a Maus (Art Spiegelman)”. In a sense, there is supposed to be a deconstructive sort of operation done to these stereotypes, but perhaps, Art’s concern seems to be, he is only reinforcing them.]] Mala says that Vladek has hundreds of thousands in the bank, but “he lives like a pauper!” For example, Vladek takes papers towels from public bathrooms so that he will not need to buy napkins or tissues. Just after Mala says she cannot understand how Anja lived with Vladek, he enters the room.

Art shows them both the image of the black market Jews hanged in Sosnowiec, and the next panel when Vladek says it still makes him cry [see chapter 4; this is a remarkably powerful image]. Mala observes, “It’s an important book. People who don’t usually read such stories will be interested” (133).

 [[This is an important issue, namely, that the story is told so well in this comic form. Spiegelman addresses it in the interview mentioned above, “The Holocaust Through the Eyes of a Maus (Art Spiegelman)”. One of his ideas here is that the medium and the animal imagery and the simplification of the cartoon form enable a strong proximity and identification with the characters and events.]] Vadek says even he is interested, even though he never reads comics. Mala observes he would be interested, since it is his own story. Vladek replies that he knows the story by heart, but he is still interested in its comics form. Mala says it will be very successful [and indeed it was!], and Vladek says Art will be famous like Walt Disney. Art then leaves to get a pencil, saying “I’ve just gotta write this conversation down before I forget it!” (133).

Vladek welcomes them to the garden, but Mala excuses herself to the hairdresser. Vladek complains that she went just a week ago: “she sees more often the hairdresser than she sees me!” (134). Mala then complains that she cannot even leave briefly without Vladek making her feel guilty. After she leaves, Vladek complains that she is hard to endure, and Art suggests he and Vladek go sit in the garden. Vladek continues to complain about Mala, saying that she often threatens to leave him, to which Vladek apparently replies that if she does, she cannot come back (134).

As they emerge outdoors, Art suggests Vladek and Mala see a marriage counselor. Vladek says he does not want to confide private stories with a stranger. He also recalls that long ago he was warned by a lawyer that Mala is “money-conscious” (135). Vladek again mentions how Mala wanted to change the will just a month after settling on a version. Art says the reason to see a therapist is not about the will but about how to get along better. Vladek replies that with Mala, the issue is not getting along but rather it is just about money for her. Art then says, “I give up … I don’t know what to say,” and he begins asking about Vladek and Anja (135). As Vladek covers his legs with a blanket, Art asks, “what happened in 1944, after you left Srodula?” [intervening single panel cut to past, following later with the past on the next page].

[[The interjected past panel is visually similar to the swastika road formation from when the story left off in the prior chapter. We also notice again the visual combination of past and present.]] Vladek and Anja were sneaking back to Sosnowiec in the dark, trying to keep themselves hidden. They first go to Richieu’s governess, Janina [who is apparently a non-Jewish Pole, since she remained safely in town and is in pig form]. Janina sends them away immediately, since she is worried they will bring trouble. They are wearing their pig-masks [meaning that they are trying to appear as non-Jewish Poles.] Anja suggests they go to her father’s old house, since they might get some help from the janitor, Lukowski, who has known the family for years. Vladek notes that he is pretty well disguised, since he is wearing the sort of coat and boots that a Gestapo would wear when not in the service. But Anja was more vulnerable, since she was more visibly Jewish. They arrive at the house, and Lukowski lets them in (136).

[[Note the masks, especially when they are removed.]] Just as Anja was saying thank God there are still kind people left, “an old witch recognized Anja from her window” and yelled, “There’s a Jewess in the courtyard! Police!” (137). Vladek and Anja then hurry to the shed. Later Lukowski arrives and assures them probably no one heard the old woman, who is a little senile anyway. Vladek goes out alone to “scout around,” and it is nearly morning at the time. On the street Vladek hears someone following him (137). If Vladek walked slow, so did the pursuer; or if fast, the same as well. Finally, when they are alone, the man, also wearing a pig mask, asks “amcha?” which is Hebrew for “our nation?” Vladek affirms reluctantly, “a-amcha” (138). The man confides that he too is a Jew, hiding in Sosnowiec with his wife.

[[Note how in the first two panels, before we learn the pursuer is a Jew too, that the left border of the panel frame cuts-off the edge of his mask. So at first, we do not know whether or not he is non-Jewish or hiding it. The angle here is from Vladek’s side, which along with the man’s body language, makes the encounter seem confrontational. Then in the next panel, when it is revealed that he is wearing a mask, the angle changes to the pursuer’s perspective, which again along with the body language, makes the encounter suddenly become welcoming and friendly.]] The man suggests Vladek go to the black market on Dekerta street. At first there was no one there, but then a woman offers Vladek food that could be purchased without coupons. “She showed to me sausages, eggs, cheese … Things I only was able to dream about.” He buys some, and goes quickly back to Anja (138). He surprises Anja with all the wonderful goods. She thinks it is miraculous, asking how he managed it. Vladek replies, “I’m a magician! Have some milk” (139). [Single panel cut to the present.] Vladek says he goes back to the Dekerta black market, where “he could change jewelry for marks – and marks for food, or a place to stay” (139). There he saw more people, even some Jewish boys he knew before the war. He tells them [who are also wearing pig masks] that he needs a hiding place. They suggest he goes to Mrs. Kawka’s farm on the outskirts of town. She might take them if they pay. They go there, and she agrees to let them stay in her barn, as long as they promise to pretend they do not know her if they are ever caught.

[[Here the image is shown through a window, which gives a feeling of secrecy. We see also the mask in his hand, suggesting perhaps both a commitment to the disguise but also a humiliating admission it is fake. The angle is a bit imbalanced, which along with the body language, gives the scene a strong feeling of tension. The pattern on the exterior wall surrounding the window adds to this sense of confrontation, fear, and mistrust, since it looks a bit like lighting. Overall the structural lines seem skewed, which gives it an expressionist mood of uncertainty and the feeling that something is wrong.]]

Thus they live in the barn with Kawka’s cow [[we note the obvious dehumanization and animalization of the situation]]. When Vladek says he will leave for the market, Anja gets distressed, since she becomes terrified when left alone there. Vladek explains it is necessary and temporary.

[[Note the inclusion of the cow. Here we have both the animal forms of the humans and the pure animal of the cow.]] [Perhaps because the barn was so far away,] Vladek took a streetcar into town. There was a car for Germans and officials and another for regular Poles. Vladek would always use the official car, since he would have been quickly detected as a Polish Jew in the Pole car.

[[Here again we note the fluidity of identity.]] Vladek goes to the black market and meets a woman, Mrs. Motonowa, whom he has become friendly with and has been buying goods from. This time he buys bread from her. She cannot make change, but he [perhaps uncharacteristically] wants her to keep the change so that she can use it for her young boy. She then offers Vladek and Anja to stay at her house. Her husband comes home just 10 days every three months, so they will have to stay hidden during those times. She even offers to escort them there, since it is a bit far away. On their trip, they pretend different roles so to disguise themselves. Vladek walks with Motonowa like her husband would, and Anja walks with Motonowa’s son like a governess.

 
[[Here notice not only the masks, but as well Vladek’s uncharacteristic behavior of being generous. One interesting element in the Maus stories are the economics, how in the absence of other social structures and bonds that once held, what instead creates those bonds are temporary economic ties. One way we might look at this scene is that the generosity built a structure, or a ‘pack’, using Canetti’s term. In other words, perhaps without this and other economic acts, other flows of goods between them, the new living arrangement would not have been made. The other thing to observe is again the fluidity of identity and power of falsehood in the final panel.]]

The boy loved Anja, and she reminds him not to mention her or Vladek, since they will kill all of them. [Four panel cut to the present]. Art asks if they had to pay Mrs. Motonowa. Vladek says yes, since no one will risk their lives for nothing. And one time, when Vladek was unable to pay the full price for bread, Mrs. Motonowa claimed she could not get any, even though probably she could. Vladek overlooked this, understandingly, saying she was a good woman.

[[Note the first panel. There is a dynamic visual rhythm that is created with the distribution of characters, making your eyes jump between figures each evoking a different shade of feeling. We also see more on the economic relations, which are not understood by Vladek in a cold way but rather as somehow a strange mixture of pure business and a sense of loyalty or community.]] Anja even helps the boy learn German. When the teacher asks the boy how he improved so much, he cleverly tells her his mother helped him (142).

Vladek says that not everything was great about the situation. If anyone came, they had to hide in the closet. There was a close call even when Vladek sneezed while hiding. Then one day when Mrs. Motonowa was at the black market, she was searched by the Gestapo, who confiscated her goods. She is worried that they may come search her house, so she orders the Spiegelmans to leave. They then walk toward Sosnowiec, with Anja shaking in fear on the way. They speak German to disguise themselves.

[[We note the disguise of speaking in German.]]

They then hide in a large hole in a construction site.

[[Here we again see them reduced to a rodent-like, dehumanized existence.]] They return to the barn with the cow where they once lived. But now it is winter. Kawka says they can stay, as long as they promise to pretend Kawka has no knowledge of them being there, if caught. She sees Anja shivering, and takes her inside a while to warm up. Then she brings Vladek some food. He then says to Art, “In those days I was so strong I could sit even in the snow all night” (145). Vladek tells Kawka that he really wishes to leave Poland. She tells him that previously there was a young man and his son hiding in the barn, and two people smuggled them into Hungry, where they apparently are doing well now. Vladek excitedly says he wants to meet the smugglers (145). [Five panel cut to the present]. Vladek says the smugglers visit Thursday evenings, and that day was a Monday. Art is confused, because is not Hungry just as dangerous for Jews as Poland is? Vladek said at that time it was better in Hungry, but near the end of the war, all the Jews there were also sent to Auschwitz. Vladek was at Auschwitz, and he saw hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews there. “So many, it wasn’t even room enough to bury them all in the ovens. But at that time, when I was there with Kawka, we couldn’t know then” (146). The next day he goes to the Dekarta street black market, and he encounters Mrs. Motonowa. She expresses her guilt for having abandoned them. She invites them back. [Single panel cut to the present]. And that night they go back again (146).

But as soon as they got there, they receive news that Mrs. Motonowa’s husband is coming, and they will need to hide in the cellar for 10 days. They live there in the dark, co-habiting the space with rats.

[[Here we again see a real animal.]] Three days go by without Motonowa coming with food. They live off little candies. Since they cannot wash, Anja gets a terrible rash. Finally Motonowa comes down, and she explains she had to wait, because her husband was getting suspicious. Anja complains about the rats, but Motonowa notes they are better than the Gestapo, since rats will not kill them. [[It is ironic that they get better treatment from the rats than from the “humans”.]]

They finally get to live inside, but Vladek expresses his desire to live in Hungry instead (148).

[Since he will need to meet the smugglers at Kawka’s] he takes a streetcar the next Thursday to Sosnowiec. He was passing children. They were taught to fear Jews, and one of them starts yelling “Help! Mommy! A Jew!” [Single panel cut to the present.] Vladek approaches the mothers, saying “Heil Hitler,” and he tries to convince the children and the mothers he is not a Jew. He succeeds, but the experience was scary for him.

[[Here we have one of the most powerful examples so far of identity flexibility.]]

Vladek arrives, and the smugglers are in the kitchen. Vladek is sent to another room, where he sees a man named Mr. Mandelbaum, whom he knew from before the war. Mandelbaum owned a sweets shop that Anja and Vladek used to go to. Also there is his nephew Abraham, who was a “big member of the Jewish council” (150). They all gather with the smugglers, who describe their plans. They will take the Jews through the mountains, which Vladek observes is risky and expensive. The Jews discuss the proposition in Jewish. Vladek says he knows Kawka, but he is not sure if he can trust the smugglers. Abraham suggests that first he goes alone, then he will write back if he makes it safely. Vladek agrees to wait for the good letter from Abraham, and he would meet again there with Mandelbaum (150).

Anja does not like the idea. She feels safe with her current circumstances. Vladek raises the possibility that the Gestapo comes to search the house for black goods or that the husband comes and finds them. Anja resists. Mrs. Motonowa also says they should not do it, since they do not know anything about these smugglers. Anja replies “Snf. It’s like talking to a wall” (151) [[we might here notice Vladek’s stubbornness]]. Vladek reminds Anja that they will only go if they get assurances from Abraham. Mrs. Motonowa complains that she has been having nightmares since Vladek’s trip. Vladek then leaves them to find Miloch to see if he can help Miloch by giving over this place to him in case they go to Hungary.

[[Here we note the bond that was built between these cousins and not with the others, which is based on a flow of exchange.]] [Single panel cut to the present.] At Miloch’s house, he is hidden by his former janitor, who is a non-Jewish Pole. While there, the Janitor is entertaining company, so she must wait to take Vladek to Miloch. The janitor introduces Vladek as her own cousin. The guests complain that they are out of vodka, and one says, “Bah! She’s hiding her vodka!” and another continues, “Just like she’s hiding Jews in her yard!” (152). The janitor and Vladek freeze out of fear, and the guests demand more vodka or else they will inform the Gestapo about the hidden Jews. Vladek tells them to relax, and he sends the janitor to get some vodka from the store, which appeases the guests. They all drank until midnight, when the guests left (152). The janitor takes trash to the backyard dumping receptacle. Miloch is hiding in a tiny chamber set inside the receptacle, and he lives there with his wife and child. Even though it is cold, he is glad that the decomposing garbage creates some heat. Vladek notifies him that people know already about them hiding there. Vladek tells MIloch about the possibility of him going to Hungry and that opening up the better place to hide.

Vladek goes back to Kawka’s to meet with Mandelbaum and the smugglers. Abraham [to all appearances at least] sent a letter confirming he was safe, so Vladek agrees to go ahead with the plans. Anja is still very reluctant, but Vladek finally convinces her. [Two panel cut to the present.] Vladek tells Miloch about how to get to the place in Szopenice to hide. He says also Miloch and his family survived there until after the war, but he himself and Anja were not so lucky.

When the day comes and they are at the train station, one of the partners leaves to use the phone. The other partner tells the Jews not to worry, because he is just going to phone ahead to notify the next group who will meet them at the border. But they were still worried, and rightfully so. They come to Bielsko-Biala where Vladek once had his factory. Then the smugglers disappear. The Gestapo burst in and catch them all. Afterward, they march the Jews through Bielsko, past even Vladek’s former factory (155).

The Nazis confiscate Vladek’s things. They even scoop all the shoe polish out of a can and find a gold watch Vladek had hidden inside, saying “Well, well … a gold watch. You Jews always have gold!” (156). [Five panel cut to the present.] Vladek says this watch was a marriage gift from his father-in-law. Art interrupts and asks what happened to Abraham. Vladek says Abraham ended up in a concentration camp, but first Vladek will finish his current story before telling about Abraham. They languish in a prison with little food and nothing to do. A non-Jewish Pole also there in the cell asks for someone who can write in German. They only allow letters written in German to be sent out of the cell, and if he can write a letter in German, he can send for a food parcel. Vladek knew how to write in German, so he writes the letter. When the package came, he offers Vladek some of it. “It was eggs there … it was even chocolates. … I was very lucky to get such goodies!” (156). A truck comes and takes about 100 of them. Vladek meets again with Anja, and he gives her many of the things from the food parcel. The truck then takes them to Auschwitz, and they know they are doomed never to return, since they knew well already of this place.

[Final cut back to the present]. After they opened the truck, men were pushed one way and women the other, thus splitting up Anja and Vladek with no knowledge if they ever would see each other again. Art then says, “This is where Mom’s diaries will be especially useful. They’ll give me some idea of what she went through while you were apart” (158). Vladek says she went through the same terrible sorts of experiences as he did. Art suggests that since it is cold, perhaps they could go upstairs to look for the notebooks. Vladek says he looked but he cannot find them. Art suggests they check the garage. Then Vladek admits, “These notebooks and other really nice things of mother… one time I had a very bad day … and all of these things I destroyed” (158). Art is in disbelief. Vladek explains he could not deal with the pain and the memories when she died, so he burned them. Art complains, “Christ! You save tons of worthless shit, and you …”. Vladek says he never read them, but he recalls Anja saying, “I wish my son, when he grows up, he will be interested by this” (159). Art is enraged that Vladek would deny Anja her wishes and Art his precious connection to his mother, and he accuses Vladek of being a murderer.

Vladek says Art should not yell at his father like this, and he reminds Art that he was so severely depressed when he did this that he “didn’t know if I’m coming or I’m going!” (159). Art apologizes and excuses himself to leave, and as he walks away, he says to himself, “murderer” (159). This ends book one of Maus.

From:

Spielgelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, vol 1. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.

 

Or if otherwise noted:

Art Spiegelman. Television Program entitled, "The Holocaust Through the Eyes of a Maus (Art Spiegelman)." University of Washington Television (UWTV). Available on youtube: https://youtu.be/BLVG3GNvHkU

Priest, Ch1 of Logic: A Very Short Introduction, “Validity: What Follows from What?”, summary

by Corry Shores

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[Bracketed commentary and boldface (unless otherwise indicated) are my own.]

Summary of

Graham Priest

Logic: A Very Short Introduction

Ch.1
Validity: What Follows from What?

Brief Summary:
“Logic is the study of what counts as a good reason for what, and why” (Priest, 1). An inference draws a conclusion from premisses (or from a premiss). It is valid if the conclusion follows from those premisses. It is deductively valid if it necessarily follows, that is, if no other conclusion could possibly follow, and it can be determined as such when “there is no situation in which all the premisses are true, but the conclusion is not.” An inductively valid inference is based on reasoning given in the premisses, yet other conclusions could also follow instead.

Summary

After noting how in common usage we say “being illogical” as a form of criticism meaning “to be confused, muddled, irrational,” Priest then asks, “But what is logic?” He then quotes from the Tweedledum and Tweedledee scene in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. Alice becomes “lost for words,” and the twins begin to attack her argumentatively [the following quotes from Carroll]:

‘I know what you are thinking about’, said Tweedledum: ‘but it isn’t so, nohow.’

‘Contrariwise,’ continued Tweedledee, ‘if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be: but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.’
(1)

We see Tweedledee reasoning, which is what logic is all about (1).

Priest writes:

We all reason. We try to figure out what is so, reasoning on the basis of what we already know. We try to persuade others that something is so by giving them reasons. Logic is the study of what counts as a good reason for what, and why.
(1)

We need to grasp this claim in a certain way, and to work our way to this understanding, we now examine two inferences [quoting Priest]:

1. Rome is the capital of Italy, and this plane lands in Rome; so the plane lands in Italy.

2. Moscow is the capital of the USA; so you can’t go to Moscow without going to the USA.
(3)

As we see, each case above has a final clause ending with ‘so’. All the claims coming before the so are called premisses. They give reasons. The claims coming after ‘so’ are called conclusions, and they “are what the reasons are supposed to be reasons for” (3). Priest notes, “The first piece of reasoning is fine; but the second is pretty hopeless,” since “the premiss, that Moscow is the capital of the USA, is simply false” (3). However, had instead this premiss been true, if for example somehow the US capital indeed was moved to Moscow, then the conclusion would also be true.

It would have followed from the premisses; and that is what logic is concerned with. It is not concerned with whether the premisses of an inference are true or false. That’s somebody else’s business (in this case, the geographer’s). It is interested simply in whether the conclusion follows from the premisses.
(3)

An inference is called valid when “the conclusion really does follow from the premisses;” “so the central aim of logic is to understand validity” (3).

Although this task of determining validity might seem like a dull and pointless mental exercise, it is actually bound up with “a number of important (and sometimes profound) philosophical questions” (3). Although we will work through some of them throughout the book, we for now will look more at validity.

Often two sorts of validity are distinguished. We first consider the following three inferences [quoting Priest]:

1. If the burglar had broken through the kitchen window, there | would be footprints outside; but there are no footprints; so the burglar didn’t break in through the kitchen window.

2. Jones has nicotine-stained fingers; so Jones is a smoker.

3. Jones buys two packets of cigarettes a day; so someone left footprints outside the kitchen window.
(3-4)

W begin with the first one. Since there are no footprints outside, the burglar did not break in through the kitchen window.

The first inference is a very straightforward one. If the premisses are true, so must the conclusion be. Or, to put it another way, the premisses couldn’t be true without the conclusion also being true. Logicians call an inference of this kind deductively valid.
(4)

Now turn to the second inference: Jones is a smoker since his fingers are stained with nicotine. Although the premisses give us good reason to draw the conclusion, they are not completely conclusively in making the inference, since there are other reasons Jones’ fingers might be nicotine-stained. For example, he could have made the stains without smoking just to trick people into believing he is a smoker. When the inference is not deductively valid, but still gives good reason for drawing a conclusion, it is said to be inductively valid. Now finally consider the third inference, that someone left footprints outside the kitchen window, since Jones buys two packs of cigarettes a day. It “by contrast, appears pretty hopeless by any standard. The premiss seems to provide no kind of reason for the conclusion at all. It is invalid – both deductively and inductively.” (4) If someone were really to give this argument, other people would assume that really there is a missing premiss, for example, “that someone passes Jones his cigarettes through the kitchen window” (4).

We often reason inductively; “for example, in trying to solve problems such as why the car has broken down, why a person is ill, or who committed a crime” (4). Nonetheless, in the history of logic, much more attention has been given to deductive logic, “maybe because logicians have tended to be philosophers or mathematicians” (4). Although we look more at inductive logic later, we for now concern ourselves with deductive validity. In fact, it is probably better to start with deductive inference, since it is more “cut-and-dried” (4d). So until we later shift attention to induction, for now “valid” means simply “deductively valid” (5a).

As we noted, a valid inference is one “where the premisses can’t be true without the conclusion also being true” (5). We now ask, what does the “can’t” here mean? In our normal usages of the term, it can mean ‘lacking ability,’ like “Mary can play the piano, but Jon can’t” (5). Or it can mean something like ‘not permitted by some code of rules,’ as in, “You can’t go in here: you need a permit” (5).

But in our usage, “It is natural to understand the ‘can’t’ relevant to the present case in this way: to say that the premisses can’t be true without the conclusion being true is to say that in all situations in which all the premisses are true, so is the conclusion” (5). But then, we might ask, what do we mean here by “situation?” That is, “What sorts of things go into their makeup, and how do these things relate to each other?” Also we might wonder, “what is it to be true?” (5).

We will return to these questions later, but for now let us consider the fact that this definition of deductive validity still has some problems. And, “In philosophy, all interesting claims are contentious” (5). The first problem is that we cannot really know what holds in all situations, since among them are situations on distant planets in the cosmos, situations in fictional works, and situations “imagined by visionaries” (5). And since there would also be an infinite number of such situations, it would be impossible to take them all into account (5-6). “So if this account of validity is correct, and given that we can recognize inferences as valid or invalid (at least in many cases) we must have some insight into this, from some special source” (6).

This source need not be “some sort of mystic intuition” (6). Priest suggests the possibility, following Chomsky, that there are a finite set of rules out of which the infinity of possible sentences can be formed, and also that these rules are hard-wired into our brain, so we know which of the infinitely many are correct or not just by reading them. [Perhaps Priest is further suggesting that also we can judge whether or not any supposed situation is true also on the basis of a finite set of rules that are hard-wired into us.]

Main Ideas of the Chapter

● A valid inference is one where the conclusion follows from the premiss(es).

● A deductively valid inference is one for which there is no situation in which all the premisses are true, but the conclusion is not.
(quoted from Priest, 6, boldface his)

 

 

From:

 

Priest, Graham. Logic: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University, 2000.

 

 

Entry Directory, Priest, Logic: A Very Short Introduction

by Corry Shores

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Entry Directory for

Graham Priest

Logic: A Very Short Introduction

Preface

 

Ch.1 Validity: What Follows from What?

 

Ch.2 Truth Functions – Or Not?

 

Ch.3 Names and Quantifiers: Is Nothing Something?

 

Ch.4 Descriptions and Existence: Did the Greeks Worship Zeus?

 

Ch.5 Self Reference: What is this Chapter About?

 

Ch.6 Necessity and Possibility: What Will be Must be?

 

Ch.7 Conditionals: What’s in an If?

 

Ch.8 The Future and the Past: Is Time Real?

 

Ch.9 Identity and Change. Is Anything Ever the Same?

 

Ch.10 Vagueness: How Do You Stop Sliding Down a Slippery Slope?

  

Priest, Graham. Logic: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University, 2000.

Priest, “Preface” of Logic: A Very Short Introduction, Summary

by Corry Shores

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Summary of

Graham Priest

Logic: A Very Short Introduction

Preface

Brief Summary:
Logic is an ancient discipline that was revolutionized in the 20th century with mathematical techniques and is currently very useful in information and computational sciences. This book will give a brief, broad, and non-technical overview.

Summary

Priest writes:

Logic is one of the most ancient intellectual disciplines, and one of the most modern. Its beginnings go back to the 4th century BC. The only older disciplines are philosophy and mathematics, with both of which it has always been intimately connected.
(xi)

In the turn from the 19th to the 20th centuries, mathematical techniques were applied to logic, causing a major revolution in its development. More recently it has been very important for the fields of computation and information processing. “It is thus a subject that is central to much human thought and endeavor” (xi).

This book is not a textbook in logic; rather, it will give a brief introduction to logic as it is now understood. It will also provide some explanation of formal logic (xi).

Priest will begin each main chapter by addressing a philosophical problem or a logical puzzle. He proceeds by examining a particular approach to the problem or puzzle. That approach may not be a standard one, as in cases where logicians disagree on the proper solution, and “Nearly all the approaches, whether standard or not, may be challenged” (xi). Priest ends each chapter by addressing problems for the examined approach. “The aim is to challenge you to figure out what you make of the matter” (xii).

As he noted above, modern logic has become highly mathematical. But Priest will try to explain the ideas with little or no mathematics. However, the reader will need to master some new symbolism, which is inevitable when learning any new language. “And the perspicuity that the symbolism gives to difficult questions makes any trouble one may have in mastering it well worth it” (xii). Priest then warns the reader that reading logic books is not like reading novels where the pace is brisk and steady, for the most part. Rather, we will need to read slowly and carefully at some points in order to grasp the concepts (xii).

The last chapter is about logic’s historical development. It will “show that logic is a living subject, which has always evolved, and which will continue to do so” (xii). This final chapter also offers suggestions for further reading.

In the first of the two appendices there is a glossary of logic terms and symbols that we may consult as needed. The second appendix offers further questions related to each chapter for testing our understanding of the main concepts (xi).

“The book goes for breadth rather than depth” (xi). Each chapter could itself be further developed into a book of its own. “And even so, there are very many important issues in logic that I have not even touched on here. But if you hang in there till the end of the book, you will have a pretty good idea of the fundamentals of modern logic, and why people find it worth thinking about the subject” (xi).

From:

Priest, Graham. Logic: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University, 2000.

Spiegelman. ch5. of Maus I, “Mouse Holes,” summary

by Corry Shores
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Art Spiegelman

Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, vol.1

Ch. 5
Mouse Holes

 

Brief summary:

Vladek and Art discuss the comic that Art made some time ago, which depicts his mother’s suicide and Vladek’s and Art’s incredible grief over it. Vladek then describes a period during the war when they hid in “bunkers” (secret places hidden away in houses of the ghettos, where people survived by living a rodent-like existence). This is a very difficult time for them, when they had to be very careful and resourceful. In the present, Vladek entrusts Art with the key to a security box at the bank, which contains some saved items from this period, along with other valuables that Vladek wants to hide from taxation and from Mala, when he dies.

 

Summary

 

[As always, we begin in the present.] [Recall previously that Vladek wanted to fix the roof himself in order to save money, despite his son Art explaining that this is a bad idea for someone of his age and failing health.] Mala awakes Art in bed with a call, announcing that Vladek went ahead and climbed the roof to make repairs. He apparently got dizzy, came down, but now wants to climb again. Mala cannot dissuade him, which is why she now calls Art. Vladek takes the phone and asks Art to come help him. Art says he will call back after having some coffee (it is 7:30 AM), and he wonders if maybe he dreamt the whole conversation (p.96). As he gets out of bed, Art complains to his wife that in the past, Vladek used to prove how handy he was, which made Art neurotic about fixing things. He says, “One reason I became an artist was that he thought it was impractical – just a waste of time … it was an area where I wouldn’t have to compete with him” (97). Art then calls to say he will not help, but in the meantime, Vladek already found someone else to do it, and in the process makes Art feel guilty. When Art does arrive, he finds Vladek in the shed sorting long from short nails. Vladek seems preoccupied, and Art asks if everything is okay. He replies that not everything can be ok, and he sends Art away while he finishes his work (98). Art goes inside to talk to Mala. She says Vladek should sell the house and buy a condo in Miami, since he is getting too old to take care of this one. Art observes that Vladek seems depressed, and Mala suggests that it could be about the comic strip Art once wrote a while ago about his mother (Vladek’s first wife Anja). Mala’s friend’s son obtains a copy and gave it to Mala, who hid it from Vladek. However, he eventually found it (99). [The following pages reproduce the comic, “Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History,” at an angle and with Art’s finger showing, to indicate he is reading it while we are.] Art [seemingly] rereads it, and the reader sees it too. It opens by recalling Anja’s suicide, which Vladek discovers coming home from work.

In this comic, Art continues to explain that he was previously released from a state mental hospital, and under the conditions of his release, he had to live with his parents. He come home to a crowd of people gathered outside the home. A cousin pulls him aside, saying his mother is sick, then takes him to a doctor who explains her suicide.

Art begins to cry.

Despite being so broken apart himself, when he returned home, Vladek expected Art to provide comfort and assurance to him. In accordance with Jewish custom, Vladek and Art sleep together on the floor. “He held me and moaned to himself all night. I was uncomfortable… we were scared!” The next day at the funeral, Vladek apparently breaks down.

Later a family friend makes Art guilty for waiting to cry until after the funeral. In the following days, his father’s friends seemed to mix blame with their condolences, and when alone, Art was haunted by his own memories and conscience.

He especially remembers the last time when he saw her. She came into his room late one night, asking hesitantly if he still loved her. Although he says yes, while doing so, he “turned away, resentful of the way she tightened the umbilical cord” (103). As she walks out and closes the door, Art displays this transition as being like shutting prison doors [from the beginning his is drawn with a prison suit].

[The next page continues with the kitchen scene of Art and Mala.] Art is surprised Vladek took interest in this comic, since he never takes interest in any of Art’s comics work. Mala says this one was personal, and she herself was shocked by it. She also notes, however, that it was very accurate and objective, since she helped out after the funeral and saw how things were. Vladek enters. Art asks about the comic. Vladek says it made him cry to see the picture of dead Anja, and it brought back many memories of her. Yet he also notes “… of course I’m thinking always about her anyway” (104). Mala notes that in fact Vladek keeps many photos of her on his desk “like a shrine” (104). Vladek tries to defend himself, but not to Mala’s satisfaction, and she leaves. Art asks again about Anja’s diaries, but Vladek says he still cannot find them. Together they now go to the bank. Art is carrying a notepad and begins asking questions, beginning with, “what happened to you and Anja after the big selection at the stadium?” (105). Vladek says that things were quiet for a while, but then in 1943, all Jews in Sosnowiec were ordered to move to a nearby village called Srodula. As part of this move, the Jews had to pay the poles of this village to move to Sosnowiec. Although they would get a small place, at least they would not live on the street like many others had to.

[[Note in the panel above how the present and past are mixed in a single flashback transition.]] [The next three panels are exclusively in the present.] Vladek explains that he and the family members all had to work in German shops [cuts to past]. Jews with big sticks, working for the Nazis, marched the other Jews for an hour and a half each day to work. At night, they marched everyone back, counting all the people and locking them in the ghetto. In this scene, Anja tells Vladek to hurry home, because “Wolfe’s uncle Persis is at our house!” He is from Zawiercie, and as Anja explains, “He’s a big shot there … The head of their Jewish council. He wants Wolfe, Tosha and Bibi to go live with him in Zawiercie” (106) [I quoted because I do not remember these names or places]. When they enter the home, it seems that Persis is telling a group of people [Art’s family perhaps] that since Auschwitz is so much worse than the ghetto, it would be very bad to be deported. He explains to the people gathered around him that they do not have much influence, but he himself has much influence in Zawiercie. He can bribe the Nazis, and he has even succeeded in keeping his 90 year-old father with him. [Single panel cut to present]. Vladek explains that Persis was a good man, unlike the head of their own ghetto, since he actually tried to help the Jews of his town. Persis then offers to take with him Wolfe, Tosha, Bibi, Lonia, and Richieu. Then Anja’s mother resists, saying they should stick together. After that, someone [Vladek perhaps] tells her to be realistic, and finally she is persuaded (107). [Single-panel cut to present]. Later Persis comes back to take the people named before.

[Two-panel cut to present]. Things get worse in their own ghetto. One day that spring, Germans took over a thousand people from the village. They mostly took children, and if they would not stop screaming, they would smash the children to death against the walls.

[[Again note the present-past overlap in the final panel above.]] [Single panel cut to present]. Art then asks what happened to Richieu. Shortly after the Nazis decided to clear out Zawiercie. They shoot Persis and the rest of the Jewish council there, and they round up everyone else to send to Auschwitz. Tosha, the woman taking care of Richieu and other children, decides to kill herself and the three other children, including Richieu. [Cut to present]. Vladek says it was a great tragedy. They learned of this only later. Vladek then describes the “bunkers” they built to hide in, since Germans started taking everyone, even if they had papers. Vladek arranged a hiding place in their cellar where coal was stored. He then draws the structure on Art’s notepad. There was a coal bin in the kitchen with a false bottom. Under the false bottom was an entrance below into a bunker.

[[Note the rodent-like strategies they took to survive the threat of the Nazis.]] Even though the Nazis and their dogs know Jews were hiding somewhere, they could not discover them. The conditions were bad in the bunker, with worms crawling over them. They had enough food to stay for days.

Then later in June all the highest people of the Jewish council, the Judenrat, were arrested, including someone named Moniek Merin. They were placed into another house, and there they made a bunker in the attic. [Single panel cut to present].

[[We see again rodent-like “burrowing” but this time in the attic rather than in the ground.]] By the end of the next month, the Nazis came to take all 10,000 Jews in the ghetto. “Except to sneak for food, we stayed mostly in the bunker” (112).

[[Again we note the rodent-like strategies. We see one person squeezing through a hole, bringing a store of food.]] One night when sneaking out for food, they discover someone in their house. He insists he was just looking for food for his family. They suspect he is an informer, but they take pity on him, letting him live and also sending him off with food the next morning. That afternoon, the Gestapo came and took them to a building in town separated by wires, where they had to sit and wait (113). They waited with 200 other people, and every Wednesday vans came to take people to Auschwitz. The were caught on a Thursday [so they still had some time]. Vladek sees out the window his cousin Jakov, carrying a box. Vladek calls out to him for help, and Jaokov says there is nothing he can do. But then Vladek made signs that he could pay [a panel shows Vladek displaying a pocket watch]. Jakov then assures Vladek not to worry, because another cousin Haskel would come to help them. [Doubled panel cut to present]. Art is then confused, asking that, if they were family, why did they not help anyway? Vladek replies that at this time, there were no more family ties, since everyone had to take care of themselves first.

[[Note the restructuring of relations, like how Canetti describes the way that the relations among members in “packs” are always in flux. “In the changing constellation of the pack, in its dances and expeditions, he will again and again find himself at its edge. He may be in the centre, and then, immediately afterwards, at the edge again; at the edge and then back in the centre” (Canetti, 93).]] The next day comes Haskel, who is a chief of the Jewish police. He says that he can get out Vladek and Anja along with their nephew, but not the in-laws, who are too old to get past the guards. Anja’s parents plead with Vladek to convince Haskel to get them out, even offering a gold watch and a diamond. Haskel takes the jewels, but he does not take the parents. Vladek and Anja escape, yet they must do so while seeing Anja’s father in agony and despair. [Exactly what takes place is a bit confusing, so please consult the page displayed below. It seems that the operation went like this. Haskel brings two work girls with a large pail of steaming food. He sends the girls to the kitchen, then has Lolek (the nephew) carry the pail out with him, enabling his escape. Then the next day, presumably the same thing happens (there is no mention of what happens to the first two girls and if they come back the next day or if another pair come or whatever else). This time, both Anja and Vladek together carry a pail, while Haskal carries something else along with them, maybe another pail.]

[[We begin by noting the economic relation, in the first panel. There is an opportunistic exchange of goods and services that creates a stronger bond, and a larger composite grouping or whole, which is temporary and responsive to the immediate needs of the given circumstance, rather than being based on the family relations which already existed between the people. We next observe the power of falsity, as the escapees survive in this situation by modifying their identities into kitchen helpers. We also note the use of window pane lattice, which serves visually like the bars of a jail cell. In the final panel we observe a number of things. The first is the conjunction of present and past, with the current Vladek and his memory superposed on one another. And there is a contrast between Vladek’s bowed head and his father-in-law’s upturned wailing head. We also notice here the expressionist contortion of the lines of the window and the dark and light shading contrasts. The narrowing of the vertical bars gives the impression of falling down a hole or trap. And so the father-in-law is not only locked away behind bars, but he is also in world of inner torment and despair, visually appearing like a rat in a cage or trap. And lastly, we see how prior social privileges that could be bought in the past with wealth no longer apply under these new fluid conditions where such privileges are less established and more generated spontaneously and temporarily using guile and resourcefulness.]]

[Continues in present for 7 panels.] Right afterward Anja’s parents died in the gas chambers in Auschwitz. Vladek calls Haskel a Kombinator or Kombinacya, “a schemer – a crook” (116). While they are walking, Vladek picks wire up off the ground, since it is useful. When Art questions the need for this, Vladek replies, “Why always you want to buy when you can find!?”

[[This is the combination of past and present, but not in memorial form. Rather, they are combined in automatic habitual behaviors which condense all his past experience of dealing with shortages into one present action of conservation.]]

Haskel was a big person in the ghetto. He was respected by the Gestapo, and he even played cards with them. “He lost to them big amounts of money, so they would like him” (116). Haskel sets them up at the Braun shoe shop. Haskel had a Kombinator brother Pesach, but also a good brother Miloch, who helps Vladek at the shop [at this point we do not know what Anja is doing]. He shows Vladek what to do, but says he only really needs to look busy when the German commission comes to inspect. [Three panel cut to the present.] Vladek then recalls the informer who discovered their attic bunker. Haskel arranged for him to be shot, and Vladek happened to be on the work detail that buried him. His corpse’s eyes were still open, since he was struggling to survive when he was killed (117). [Eight panel cut to the present.] Vladek continues the story, but is suddenly hit with what seems to be a small heart attack or seizure or something like that, and he asks Art for his nitrostat pills. They take a seat to rest a while. Vladek mentions that Haskel survived the war, and he even sent him gifts. Art mentions that he was a rotten guy, and Vladek replies “Yes. I don’t know why. I know only that I sent” (118). Vladek then says one night a Nazi stopped him, held a gun to his head, asked for his papers, and said he will “blow your brains out.” But then he sees that he is “a member of the illustrious Spiegelman family,” and the soldier continues, “Go on your way then, and give Haskel my regards.” Vladek says, “…such friends Haskel had” (118). Vladek tells Haskel and Miloch about this later, and they tell Vladek he is lucky, since the soldier is called “the shooter” and he kills one Jew every day just for fun. Someone comes and asks the group if they will go to Pesach’s to buy cake. “For years we didn’t see any cake. Hardly even bread we saw,” Vladek explains. But indeed Pesach was selling cake to whomever could afford it. Pesach, a Kombinator, says he has confiscated the ingredients from captured Jews. Vladek pays the high price and buys him and Anja some cake. [Single panel cut to the present.] But actually instead of flour they accidentally used laundry soap, making many customers that night “sick like dogs” (119).

[Page 120 is all set in the present.] Vladek then describes one of Pesach’s tricks that he played before the war. He had a resort hotel. Apparently many guests did not want to pay high Polish taxes, so they instead paid Pesach extra not to register them. [This of course was an illegal arrangement, and it meant also that they should not be found there by the authorities, since they are evading taxes.] So when an inspector came, these unofficial guests needed to run off and hide somewhere. One day Pesach and his wife failed to make enough deserts for everyone. So, they lied and yelled, “inspectors are coming!” About 40 percent of the guests fled, and “Pesach had enough desserts left over even for the next day!” (120). Art and Vladek then rise up from the steps where they sat, and Vladek notes that without the medicine, something very bad could have happened. He continues that Miloch survived the war along with his wife. He recently had a seizure on the street, but he forgot his pills. His wife ran to the drug store to get some, but when she returned, Miloch was dead. “Nu? So life goes,” Vladek observes (120). Vladek now wants to finish what he has to say about Srodula, since they are nearing the bank [and will be interrupted by their visit to it] (120). The vans kept coming each week to take the people to Auschwitz, and Vladek and Miloch wonder when their turn will come. The two go into the shoe shop, where no one is present yet, and Miloch confides in Vladek that Haskel has made plans to escape, as have Pesach and himself. There is a pile of shoes, and Miloch moves some of the shoes to reveal a hidden tunnel, leading to a secret bunker that could hold up to 16 people.

[[We yet again notice the rodent strategies of burrowing.]] Their nephew Lolek refused to join them in the hole, since he is sick of hiding. “Always Lolek was a little Meshuga,” Vladek explains. Lolek thought that since he was an electrician, they would value his skills and preserve him. In truth, he was taken to die in Auschwitz on one of the next transports. Anja falls into despair, since she has seen all her family taken off to death, and they recently learned about the deaths of Tosha and Richieu. Anja even cries out that she wants to be left to die. Vladek convinces her she must struggle to survive. [Page 122 ends with a single panel cut to the present.]

[[Here past and present, in the transition to the final panel, is successive. However, the similarities in the composition make the images overlap, bringing them into a parallel formation.]] As the Nazis clear the ghetto out, twelve people hide in the bunker. There is a crying child who needs to be quieted, and one person suggests they keep him under blankets. Vladek explains, “It was nothing to do all day but to lie and to starve. The whole day and night Anja sat writing into her notebook” (123). Through a peephole they saw soldiers searching for remaining Jews. They all were starving. They even resort to gnawing on wood to stave off hunger.

[[Here they are reduced again to rodent-like strategies of gnawing on blocks of wood.]]

After a while, Pesach enters the bunker with a plan. He says that in exchange for a fortune, one of the guards agrees to look the other way while they escape. Then, “our group will mix in with the Poles when they walk past Srodula on the way to work tomorrow” (124). Many agree to join, but Miloch and Vladek do not agree, since they do not trust the Germans. A bunk-mate offers Vladek two watches and some diamond rings just to advise him and his girlfriend on when to leave [apparently they trusted Vladek’s ability to accurately assess risks]. Vladek did not want to take too much, so he only took a small watch [it is not explained why he did not just give the advice for free. He must have needed the watch too much for such charity]. The next day, Vladek secretly follows the others who planned to escape, to see what would happen. They give the money to the guard, but what happens after, Vladek does not see. He only hears loud shouting [and a panel has the sounds “TAKKA TAKKA TAKKA” which could perhaps be gun fire, but that is not clarified]. Vladek did not go see what happened but instead fled back to the bunker (124). Only a few remained there. But after noticing the guard house lights being out for two nights, they think it is safe to emerge. They see that Srodula is deserted. They had already organized good clothes and I.D. papers. [[They now wear pig masks, which might suggest that the I.D. papers conceal their Jewish heritage and instead only show them as normal Poles.]] They split up in different directions, mixing in with the Poles going to work, and Miloch gives Vladek his address, saying Vladek should get in touch when he finds a safe place.

[[Notice the masks on Miloch and Vladek, but how the figure on the far right does not wear a mask. Here we have both the fluid identity of the Jews in this situation and the power of falsehood.]] The wife of the guy who previously asked for advice [on the prior page she was called his girlfriend] had friends to take them, which they did, until he ran out of money and were reported. Vladek and Anja did not have a place to go to, so they walked toward Sosnowiec, without an idea where to go once they arrived.

[Note the swastika formation of the road. Perhaps this suggests that no matter where they do go, they will be hunted by Nazis.] [Final cut to the present.] Vladek and Art arrive at the bank. Vladek requests they assign a key to Art so he can access Vladek’s safety box (125). As they walk to the room with the boxes, Vladek instructs Art to run here if anything bad ever happens to him [that is, if Vladek ever dies]. Art is to remove everything from the box, so that it cannot go to taxes, and also to prevent Mala from taking any of it. Art expresses his reluctance to think about Vladek’s death. Art asks why Vladek does not just spend the money now while he is alive. Vladek does not answer this question, and instead says that he will keep Art’s copy of the key in his [Vladek’s] desk, since Art would probably lose it. Vladek opens the box and shows golden cigarette and powder cases that he had in the attic bunker. Art is confused how he still has them [since later as we learn Vladek was taken to the camps and thus would have lost everything of value in the process]. Vladek explains that he hid them in the chimney [[again note the rodent stocking strategy]]. Then, he explains, “After I came out from the camps in 1945 I sneaked back to Srodula and – at night while the people inside slept – I digged these things out from the bottom of the chimney” (126). Vladek then shows a large diamond that he gave to Anja when they first came to the U.S. Anja wanted Art to give it to his wife. But Vladek kept it instead, fearing Mala would demand it. Vladek then complains that Mala does not want Vladek to share their possessions with family, including Art, and that she had Vladek change his will three times. Art replies, “C’mon – Mala’s okay!” (127). Vladek then claims that when he had a heart attack, while still sick in bed, Mala demanded they change the will again. Vladek continues that he pleaded with Mala, asking, “what you want from me?” According to Vladek, she screamed, “I want the money! The money, the money!” (127). Vladek then expresses regret that he remarried, and buries his head in his hands, saying, “Oy, Anja! Anja! Anja!” (127). Art tells Vladek to go easy, and suggests they go home.

 

From:

Spielgelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, vol 1. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.

 

Or if otherwise noted:

Canetti, Elias. Crowds and Power. Transl. Carol Stewart. New York: Continuum, 1962 / 1973.