| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Well, is Tintin a hero or racist? |
| Hero |
|
50% |
[ 8 ] |
| Racist |
|
12% |
[ 2 ] |
| Hero and Racist |
|
18% |
[ 3 ] |
| Neither |
|
12% |
[ 2 ] |
| Not sure |
|
0% |
[ 0 ] |
| What a stupid poll. Haven't you anything better to do? |
|
6% |
[ 1 ] |
|
| Total Votes : 16 |
|
| Author |
Message |
Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
|
 Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:18 am Post subject: Tintin - hero or racist villain? |
 |
|
Bloody hell - at last an article in The Guardian today that's not about muslims or American politics!
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/open_thread/2007/07/the_misadventures_of_tintin.html
| Quote: |
The misadventures of Tintin
Herg�'s hero has drawn stinging criticism from the Commission for Racial Equality for his exploits in the Congo. So is Tintin racist?
Not for the first time, perhaps, Herg�'s comic book hero Tintin finds himself under threat. Having fallen foul of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), Tintin in the Congo has been removed by the bookshop chain Borders from the children's section in all its branches.
Herg� and his creation have been in the dock on this charge before, but rarely has the prosecution put the case in such uncompromising language. "This book contains imagery and words of hideous racial prejudice," said a spokesperson.
Yet Tintin retains many fans. Only recently, New Yorker critic Anthony Lane mounted a carefully argued case exculpating Georges Remi from the taint of collaboration with Belgian fascists and racist stereotyping in Tintin's adventures. Lane argued that Remi's close friendship with a Chinese student turned him into a liberal anthropologist rather than an imperialist bigot.
Tintin: hero or villain - what do you think? |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
ChimpumCallao
Joined: 17 May 2005
Location: your mom
|
| Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:57 am Post subject: |
|
|
Wow. The posts on the Guardian thread are....reasonable. At least the few I read.
And I completely agree. The drawings in the book aren't exactly pleasent, and I don't think a black person, especially an Africa would much appreciate the way people saw them back in Tintin's time, but to ban it is ridiculous.
Where would it stop? Why makes a book inherently more racist than another racist book? The people offended? The time it was written?
Free speech was meant to protect speech we DON'T like. The speech we all think is OK needs no protection. If one does not like TinTin, don't read it, and when you encounter a time to make a statement about it, say why you find it deplorable.
I agree with Guardian readers.....I may have to go lay down for a while. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
|
| Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I loved Tintin as a kid and this makes me almost angry. People are such idiots. Whats next..Enid Blyton? Christ just rape my youth why don't you. Bloody idiots. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guri Guy
Joined: 07 Sep 2003
Location: Bamboo Island
|
| Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:36 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I read Tintin and Asterix the Gaul when I was younger too. Political correctness is out of hand here. I think the book was made 70 years ago? Perhaps it gives unflattering stereotypes of some ethnic groups but some common sense needs to apply here. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bejarano-korea
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
|
| Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 5:47 am Post subject: |
|
|
Well, in the 1960s Herge publicly stated his charactures of Africans was wrong and he publicly apologized.
My opinion is like Bernard Manning, Herge was a product of his time and thats where his work should be left.
Anyone who thinks his drawings of Africans in the Congo are acceptable in todays climate however, is an idiot.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
|
| Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 7:46 am Post subject: |
|
|
I think it's something that should be kept around for historical purposes only. Out of the reach of kids.
Oh wait, kids don't read comics anymore. Out of the reach of impressionable forty year olds |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guri Guy
Joined: 07 Sep 2003
Location: Bamboo Island
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 2:22 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I get it bejarano-korea. So by your impeccable logic, Shakespeare's works are a product of their time and should be left in their time too. Othello for example has some unflattering portrayals of Jews and Africans. Attitudes that aren't acceptable in today's climate. Where do we draw the line then? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bejarano-korea
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 2:55 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Guri Guy wrote: |
| I get it bejarano-korea. So by your impeccable logic, Shakespeare's works are a product of their time and should be left in their time too. Othello for example has some unflattering portrayals of Jews and Africans. Attitudes that aren't acceptable in today's climate. Where do we draw the line then? |
I've read a bit about this subject since the post came up GG, and basically not only did Herge apologize about his African charicatures. He re-drew the whole book!
So why on earth, is the original of 'Tintin in the Congo' being published when there is a more updated copy with less offensive animation?
Herge drew the line in this paticular case. If it is good enough for him, why is it not good enough for you? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guri Guy
Joined: 07 Sep 2003
Location: Bamboo Island
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:42 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Well, I was not aware the original was still being published instead of the revised edition. I agree that would be stupid. Was that the author's conscious choice or the publisher's? If it is the author's then it shows his apology was insincere. If it was the publisher's choice then they should be punished.
Have they condemned Asterix the Gaul yet? I really enjoyed those books too. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:47 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Guri Guy wrote: |
Was that the author's conscious choice or the publisher's? If it is the author's then it shows his apology was insincere.
|
The author died in 1983. Those books are very old you know! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Wangja
Joined: 17 May 2004
Location: Seoul, Yongsan
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 5:49 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| JMO wrote: |
| I loved Tintin as a kid and this makes me almost angry. People are such idiots. Whats next..Enid Blyton? Christ just rape my youth why don't you. Bloody idiots. |
Enid Blyton was virtually off the shelves for years - main reason was I think "sexism" or rather, sexula stereotyping.
Crappy books anyway. One step up from the Bobsey Twins. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 7:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Wangja wrote: |
| JMO wrote: |
| I loved Tintin as a kid and this makes me almost angry. People are such idiots. Whats next..Enid Blyton? Christ just rape my youth why don't you. Bloody idiots. |
Enid Blyton was virtually off the shelves for years - main reason was I think "sexism" or rather, sexula stereotyping.
Crappy books anyway. One step up from the Bobsey Twins. |
Did you ever see that Comic Strip episode (with Rik Mayal et al) where they went to town on Blyton and really took the piss, enacting their own version of one of her plots. Great stuff. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JMO
Joined: 18 Jul 2006
Location: Daegu
|
| Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2007 11:00 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Yea i saw those skits. They were funny, along the lines of 'look at that african fellow, he looks like a criminal'. The books were written a while ago though.
I loved them as a kid and 'The Secret Island' is a book I still read today. I was a prolific reader even back then so I was aware she wasn't the best about compared to Roald Dahl etc. She was a special part of my childhood though and I read all those series..Willow farm, secret seven, five findouters, famous five etc etc. They are dated now and were dated when I read them also, but I would still like my kids(if i have any) to read them.
They were very innocent books, were children had long summers to have adventures and solve mysteries, and at the end of the day you could go home for tea and biscuits. Whats wrong with that? I didn't know they were off the shelves..I read them in the 80s/early 90s but most of them had been kicking around our house since the 70s probably. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
R. S. Refugee
Joined: 29 Sep 2004
Location: Shangra La, ROK
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 3:23 am Post subject: |
|
|
OK. I have to admit it. Even though this thread was started by one of my favorite posters (and having met her, I know she'd be a great poster girl   ), I really haven't read very deeply on this thread.
I just wanted to post a quick question that will undoubtedly give (yes, that is what we call a split infinitive, I think) away my age.
When you say "Tintin" is that short for Rin Tin Tin? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
cwemory
Joined: 14 Jan 2006
Location: Gunpo, Korea
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 15, 2007 4:55 am Post subject: |
|
|
| R. S. Refugee wrote: |
OK. I have to admit it. Even though this thread was started by one of my favorite posters (and having met her, I know she'd be a great poster girl ), I really haven't read very deeply on this thread.
I just wanted to post a quick question that will undoubtedly give (yes, that is what we call a split infinitive, I think) away my age.
When you say "Tintin" is that short for Rin Tin Tin? |
No...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintin_and_Snowy
the work in question is here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintin_in_the_Congo |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
