>Coming to Terms With Tintin
https://archive.is/Q6h8P
>Highlights
Neither comic [Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin in the Congo] was available in English until decades later, and it was then that I read them with a mixture of horror, amusement, and embarrassment. In one frame in Congo, an African tribe worships Tintin.
In another, he resolves a dispute over a straw hat, leading a member of the tribe to say: “White master very fair. Him give half hat to each one. Him very good white.”
There’s certainly irony in a child of the former colonies idolizing a character who might be dismissed by casual critics as a proxy for the white-man’s burden (and by more serious ones as a racist).
But I couldn’t entirely disavow the series.
What those comics taught me was that heroes, even boyish, never-aging ones like Tintin, are deeply flawed, and if you ruminate on something long enough, even a cherished childhood memory, you will inevitably see those flaws clearly.
There were things that I loved about Tintin that made it easier to reject those things I did not—without ignoring them altogether.
... I set out to rebuild my library. 22 Tintin albums, bought all-new, were among my wife’s first gifts to me. (Keeper, that one.) We decided to skip the first two.
which tumblr did you take this from?
>>83470536
Google says The Atlantic. Anyway, this gem:
>When I left Mumbai for the U.S. in 1998, I bequeathed my old, dog-eared, tattered collection—by now almost complete—to my younger brother in a moment of largesse. Those volumes had been amassed carefully over years in newspaper-recycling shops that doubled as used bookstores (a casualty, alas, of the post-paper era). Giving them up, along with my Asterix comics, books on cricket, and volumes of fiction was, at the time, wrenching. Still, I expected to be back. Tintin and the others would await my return. But when it became apparent I’d be in America far longer than two years, I set out to rebuild my library. 22 Tintin albums, bought all-new, were among my wife’s first gifts to me. (Keeper, that one.) We decided to skip the first two.
Yes?
Herge himself was ashamed of his first two Tintin volumes. He quickly came to realize that swallowing what he was told about other places and peoples without bothering to do any study or thought for himself was a recipe for disaster, and a major motivator in his becoming so focused on research and detail on his works beyond that rough start.
You don't have to be some essjaydubya to acknowledge this as a non-controversial part of Herge's development as an artist (and, to some degree, as a person).
>>83470578
That writer did to his thesaurus what the Belgians did to the Congo.
>>83470092
>In another, he resolves a dispute over a straw hat, leading a member of the tribe to say: “White master very fair. Him give half hat to each one. Him very good white.”
What's the problem
>>83470698
I think we sometimes forget that nostalgia is not everything.
>>83470840
The implication that negroes aren't capable of handling even the simplest disputes without the intervention of a "white master".
>>83470698
>>83471214
So the hand-wringing and pious approach to what amounts to leaving two books off a shelf doesn't ring any alarm bells to either of you?
>>83471353
Who cares?
They were arguably his worst two books. It's really no great loss, and highly justifiable just based on quality.
>>83471411
The article's about the author's thoughts on Tintin after he reread the books as an adult - I thought the tone of it and the things he actually did about it would have been as relevant as the navel-gazing.
>>83470698 >>83471353
He was not only embarrassed about the overall lack of narrative quality derived for the "common-knowledge" approach; he directly acknowledged it was mortifying in moral and social terms as well
Since we conveniently choose to adopt some kind of social-time-singularity approach to our perception of moral advancement (as apparently the best thing some can say about themselves is that people were shittier half a century ago), it's equally easy to deem somebody else's evolving views completely meaningless if they get in the way of your 100% safe black-and-white critical statements (pls RT)
>>83471353
>hand-wringing and pious approach
God you're full of yourself.
>>83470092 >>83470578
> I CANNOT EMPHASIZE ENOUGH HOW THIS IS ABOUT ME
I mean, it's an editorial and all, but I'm really so very tired of this type of writing; It's obviously increasingly appealing to writers, but a proper autobio/actual info ratio is apparently not a factor anymore
![bellum[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/1Jo8MhR.jpg "bellum[1].jpg")
>>83470092
>https://archive.is/Q6h8P
>His work on a wartime newspaper allied with the Nazis is well documented
You mean an illustrator worked during the war!? He didn't just lie down and died of starvation? I am beyond words...
Trying to pass Hergé for a Nazi is the kind of thing that pisses me off to no end.
pic related, it's an Hergé's character tagging "Hitler is a madman" on a wall. It's from 1939, and the strip publication was halted shortly afterwards when Hergé joined the belgian army to fight Germany.
Also, Jo, Zette & Jocko, Popol & Virginie or Quicke & Flupke are totally examples of right-wing indoctrination....
Btw, did you guys knew that every adventure before the Scepter of Ottokar was remade by Hergé after ww2 (except Tintin and the Soviets). It's one of the reason why there is such a big step in quality and tone between the early and the late issues.
First edition books, like the Cigars of the Pharaoh, were more pulp and goofy before being remade.
Friendly reminder that the people of the Congo like Tintin and don't take that one comic seriously at all
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-19663751
>>83471992
The fact that Herge is a famous Belgian who came out and said (paraphrasing) "My bad, I hadn't realized I'd just been taking in all the Colonialist propaganda at face value." probably went a long way with that.
That, and everybody loves Tintin, because Tintin is awesome.
>>83471775
Did they keep the Tintin scenes in the Rabbi's Cat movie? Really need to get my shit together and watch it some day soon
>>83470092
Herge moved past that shit though. He only delivered three cringey books in total and the Soviets book was pretty accurate in all regardings other than the fact that Tintin survived that shit.
>>83470578
He writes like Ignatius C. Reilly
>>83471804
>"Welp, one of my favorite childhood series is pretty problematic"
>"Better do some serious soul-searching about how far we've come as a species, so I can thoroughly establish how future-proof and un-hidebound my moral compass is"
>this is concise and grounded, somehow
