What really struck me in the opening pages of Maus II was not so much the metatextuality of Art Spiegelman almost addressing the reader directly, but the way in which he does it.
Art appears in the first pages of the second chapter not as the Art we saw throughout book one and subsequently in book two (i.e., as a mouse) but as a human wearing a mouse mask. This is a definitely a deliberate choice. Spiegelman is distinguishing “Art Spiegelman – Writer” and “Art Spiegelman – Character”. But then the writer version also becomes a character.
It is a strange choice to make. Why does he need to make such a distinction between the two versions of himself? Why doesn’t he just frame his concerns about the project and his discussion with the therapist in the same conceit as previously? Why step outside the book?
I’m not sure I have answers to these questions, frankly. One could say he is just working through his writer’s block, but I think it is more than that. This is a deliberate choice he makes as creator of this world.
I suspect he is making an effort to do a number of things. One, I think he wants to justify his telling of his father’s story not as THE story but as A story. Two, I think he is trying to make it clear that not only is this his “oral” history of his father’s tale, but also his own story of his tale of dealing with his father at the end of Vladek’s life. He is making a clear distinction, not just in time, but in the story itself. His masked reflections on the creation of Maus are meant to be separate and distinct from the story he is telling of his father and hinself. But, because he is aware that he is still telling that story, he has to wear a mask and continue his metaphor.
At least that’s what I’m thinking at this moment.