Reading Tintin - The Thin(?) Line

The Blyton's Noddy had Mr Golliwog who was removed since he was a racist caricature.

@Deepti: Even "Congo" caused a lot of furore, and had to be changed in English version. Wikipedia has got the details of all the controversy it caused, and continues to cause. Also, these two books are not advertised on the backs of other comics.

Fleiger,

A piece referencing Pu La on "Peshtonkaka" has to be good, and this one is!
Interesting and perfectly valid questions u raise.

@PH: Thanks... Every time I read any of PuLa's writings, I think about this. His writings capture almost every nuance, accent and characteristics of various castes/religion and use that for humour, yet I have yet to meet anybody who doesn't like that.

Then again, it maybe that we love the author so much, right?

Recently, Sesame Street characters were under the "cultural" microscope and it was ridiculous what they made out Ernie and Burt to be! This other extreme is also possible. I doubt Herge ever stepped out of France to research and write his books. He would have gone to La bibliotheque Nationale and gotten out a moth-eaten travelogue written by a colonist and created a story around it. I doubt Herge ever thought that his comic strip will be read by people from other parts of the world in a multicultural context so soon! He simply wrote them in French to entertain the french- it is like those toilet jokes shared amongst intimate friends!!

blokes... yeah but I think there is a big difference between speculating on ernie and burt's sexual orientation and some of the racial stereotypes depicted in tintin. in the congo one, the "natives" are depicted as downright savages, complete with huge lips, etc. sign of the times, maybe, but still a bit outrageous.

@Blokesablogin: As the introduction to "Congo", when it was finally published in comics/book form, says, it is a early 20th century creation by a writer in european country with colonies in other parts of the world. Congo was a Belgian colony, and one of the original panels showed Tintin teaching the Congonese kids about "their" country, Belgium (which was changed in the book).

But remember, Tintin has scenes mentioning Gypsies being unjustly blamed for a crime they didn't commit. I am not putting the entire blame on Herge, what I was doing was just taking one particular instance from his comics (which I like).

In fact, the book also contains scenes with hunts, which I did not mention as they were not relevant.

P.S. Tintin is Belgian.

Smallsquirrel: Yes, I think it is a sign of times. One of the parts I missed was linking to an article about how a pygmy was placed in a cage with other "interesting specimens" from Africa in first decade of century (I can't find the link now).

The new book has quite a few changes, which try to remove this depictions, and still it is a centre of controversies.

I am just trying to understand why this particular instance is so offensive, while some others are not.

Fleiger,

No question abt that, the man is inimitable. Nothing else in Marathi or any other language measures up. I'd heard he was influenced by Wodehouse but I didn't quite enjoy Wodehouse-it was too propah and British to have the same punch as Pu La. Besides Pu La is to be heard and seen, not just read.

For one thing he (like most good humorists) picked equally on ppl of all kinds. And his characters were interesting because they were real. Sure, they had all the pecularities of their "type" but their humanity and dignity always shone through their antics (eg Peshtonkaka's love for his wife, abhangs and philosophical musings); it's as though they were part of the one big joke- life itself.

Thanks for bringing this out!