Art Spiegelman talks about his resignation
An interview with Corriere della Sera
TomDispatch.com
http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch
Art Spiegelman decided to leave the New Yorker, in protest to what he calls
"the widespread conformism of the mass media in the Bush era." "The
decision to leave was mine alone," the author of Maus, the saga of Jewish
mice exterminated by Nazi cats that won him the Pulitzer Prize (the first
given to a comic book), explained in an interview with the Corriere della
Sera.
"The director of the New Yorker, David Remnick, was shocked when I
announced my resignation. He attempted to dissuade me. But I told him that
the kind of work that I'm now interested in doing is not suited to the
present tone of the New Yorker. And, seeing that we are living in extremely
dangerous times, I don't feel like stooping to compromise."
(Q) Do you also consider yourself a victim of Sept. 11?
"Exactly so. From the time that the Towers fell, it seems as if I've been
living in internal exile, or like a political dissident confined to an
island. I no longer feel in tune (agreement) with American culture,
especially now that the entire media has become conservative and
tremendously timid. Unfortunately, even the New Yorker has not escaped this
trend: Remnick does not feel up (able) to accept the challenge, while, on
the contrary, I am more and more inclined to provocation.
(Q) What kind of provocation?
I am working on the sixth installment of my new strip, "In the shadow of no
tower," inspired both by memories of Sept. 11 -- on that day, I had just
left my apt, a few steps from the tragedy - and a present in which one
feels equally threatened by both Bush and Osama. The series was
commissioned by the German newspaper "Die Zeit", but here in the USA, only
the Jewish magazine "The Forward" has agreed to publish it.
(Q) Did you feel snubbed by the refusal of the New Yorker to publish it?
Not at all. I knew from the beginning that the tone and content of the
strip -- what, at this point in time, is of most concern to me -- were not
in harmony with those of the New Yorker. A wonderful magazine, mind you,
with delightful and refined covers, but also incredibly deferential
(obsequious) to the present administration. If I were content to draw
harmless strips about skateboarding and shopping in Manhattan, there would
have been no problem; but, now, my inner life is inflamed with much
different issues.
(Q) For what do you reproach the New Yorker?
For marching to the same beat as the New York Times and all the other great
American media that don't criticize the government for fear that the
administration will take revenge by blocking their access to sources and
information. Mass media today is in the hands of a limited group of
extremely wealthy owners whose interests don't coincide at all with those
of the average soul living in a country (USA) where the gap between rich
and poor is now unbridgeable. In this context, all criticism of the
administration is automatically branded unpatriotic and un-American. Our
media choose to ignore news that in the rest of the world receives wide
prominence; if it were not for the Internet, even my view of the world
would be extremely limited.
(Q) Then the Bush revolution has triumphed?
Yes. In Reagan's time, "liberal" was a dirty word and to be accused of such
an offense was an insult. In the Bush jr. era, the radical right so
overwhelmingly dominates the debate that the Democrats have all had to move
to the right just to be able to continue the conversation.
(Q) Will the New Yorker be the same without Spiegelman?
The New Yorker existed long before I came on board. The great majority of
the readers who adore the warm and relaxing bath of their accustomed New
Yorker (probably, in English, a contemptuous illusion to the hot tub) were
very upset by the "shock treatment" of my covers. These readers will feel
more at ease with the calm and subdued (submissive) New Yorker of the
tradition which from the Twenties mixed intelligence, sophistication,
snobbery, and complaisance with the status quo. Every time that I put
pencil to paper, I was flooded with letters of protest.
(Q) Which of your works caused the most controversy?
The cover with the atomic bomb issued on the 4th of July. The one from last
Thanksgiving where turkies fell from military aircraft. The only one
universally well- received was the Sept. 24 cover with the Twin Towers in
two-toned black. The censorship of my work began as soon as I first set
foot in the magazine, long before the 11th of September.
(Q) What kind of censorship?
Large and small. For the Thanksgiving cover with turkies dropped in the
place of bombs, I chose the title "Operation Enduring Turkey" to mimic
"Operation Enduring Freedom" then begun by America in Afghanistan. But
David Remnick forced me to change the title.
(Q) Is it possible that the media is more reactionary than their readers?
I don't think so at all, not after reading in the polls that George W. Bush
is the most admired man in America. The world I see is very different from
what they see. Those who think like me are condemned to the margins because
the critical alternative press of the Vietnam War era no longer exists. The
NYT chose to remain silent about the enormous protest marches that took
place during the summer; and the readers of The Nation, the only newspaper
with any guts, are at most 50 thousand: nothing in a country as large as ours.
(Q) What does your wife Francoise Mouly, the artistic director of the New
Yorker, think of all this.
She thinks that I've left her at the New Yorker as a hostage, but I don't
think she wants to follow my example. Sometimes, I think I would like to
emigrate to Europe; and seeing that in America they won't even let me
smoke, the temptation is very great.
Q) Your plans after the New Yorker?
In May, at the Nuage Gallery in Milano, there will be an exhibition that
covers my ten years at the New Yorker. Ten is a better number than eleven
and, who knows, perhaps I left the magazine simply because it better suited
the book and catalog that accompany the exhibition.
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=03/02/12/6405160
