My first question when I read this headline 'Group asks shops to remove "racist" Tin Tin book was which one? It's Tin Tin in the Congo. Do I have that one? I don't think so. My second reaction was, if they are going to do this with Tin Tin, next they'll be banning Asterix books. The books are riddled with chauvinistic and racist jabs of different ethnic groups. And they even make fun of the French big noses.What happened to a sense of humour and the art of caricaturing? If Herge was such a racist, would he make Chang (a Chinese) Tin Tin's buddy in The Blue Lotus? Tin Tin in the Congo was written in the 1930's. What do you expect? The Wiki entry reads that "They set out into the Congo where Tintin goes out to hunt. Several scenes follow, depicting Tintin being cruel towards animals." Can anyone tell me which part of a 'hunt' is not cruel to animals?
Knock knock... anyone home?
So it only took 'a complaint from a member of the public' to take a 70 something year old book of the shelf. Obviously, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) in Britain is an overzealous bunch of people with nothing better to do. I bet they were the same lot who asked for changes in The Magic Faraway Tree (also written 70 years ago) so that it could be more politically correct:
a. The removal of the Golliwog, who's been replaced with a teddy bear
b. The character Dame Slap becoming Dame Snap, and no longer smacks children,
c. Bessie has been changed to Beth because of connotations of black slavery, Jo to Joe and Fanny to Frannie (for obvious reasons)
If we are going to be rewriting what already been written in order to be more modern and politically correct, then are we not rewriting history? Why not start with the bible. I'm sure there's plenty of corrections that need to be made in there. Also how are kids going to learn anything if groups like the CRE are sheltering them from what was the state of the world in 1930's. That was then and this is now. Hell, the evolution of racism is not over yet but at least it is slightly better than what it was 70 years ago. If this idiotic human rights lawyer took his time to explain this to their kids - would it not be more beneficial for their educational experience?
Photo of the Day
I found these babies at the supermercado today and what a coincidence! They are called "congo babies" - chocolate covered peanuts. There's PC going right out the window!
7 comments:
Herge became pretty apologetic about the Congo book towards the end of his life. But still, it's ridiculous to change these things; Rudyard Kipling and JRR Tolkien might be next. They even changed the Asterix translations for the pirate in the crow's nest.
Herge in fact very ignorant of the world around him, before he did the blue lotus.
read the synopsis of the documentary Tin Tin and I here.
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2006/tintinandi/about.html
see if you can track a copy down, it's very good viewing.
the bio on wiki is fairly accurate according to the documentary as well
I think i bought some filipino (actual name) biscuits when i was in madrid.
Finished the Amber Spyglass, I think I need to re-read it because i did a majority of it over two days in excitement but missed out some parts. I really do wonder how they are going to pace the 3rd movie if they make it, because it really does start to follow paradise lost in terms of structure.
I also bought a copy of paradise lost afterwards as well :P
usotski: I own all the old published versions of Asterix apart from the new books in recent years so I'll compare the crow's nest pirate when I return to HKG.
wookie: Our bro-in-law told me about the Filipinos and he was the one who found me the packet of congo babies.
If you have "The Complete Guide To Asterix", you can find it in there. They have a side-by-side comparison.
Ninjawookie (if that is your real name): Pullman is really not a fan of God, huh? Wonderful book, though.
Yep, I've got the Complete Guide but haven't looked at it for years.
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