Should kids still read Tintin?

Cafe Society
1

There’s an interesting, though short, article in The Atlantic, by an Indian writer, describing his love of the Tintin comics when young, and coming to terms with their depictions of race and imperialism. It got me wondering whether the Tintin comics will or should continue to be read in future generations.

Without a doubt, the worst stuff is from the earliest comics. There’s one set in the Soviet Union which hasn’t been published (at least in the USA) since forever. Those who have read it generally agree it’s propagandistic and just plain bad. After that came Tintin in Congo, which also wasn’t published in the series I read as a kid. The entire book is filled with pictures of the native black population drawn in a sambo-esque way, with skin that is actually black, short and childlike bodies, huge lips, etc… The storytelling, in which Tintin exposes the blacks to all the marvels of western civilization and they fall down and worship him (literally, at one point), is not so good. Tintin also kills a lot of endangered species in hilarious ways.

After that came Tintin in America, with an equally bad portrait of Native Americans, although it’s shorter, not filling the entire back. However, as Krishnadev Calamur points out, things got better as the series went on. In later books, characters from China and other non-European cultures are allowed to be depicted positively, as intelligent, brave, and resourceful.

Overall, I would want Tintin to survive and still be widely read by children, accepting the relatively few bad parts as artifacts of a bygone error. The good parts of Tintin still remain. The comics tell kids that there’s interesting stuff out there: mysterious islands to be visited, ancient tombs to be explored, strange meteors plunging from outer space, and so forth. Then there’s the fact that while the earlier stories were pretty simplistic, the later ones have intricate plots. Tintin is a hero who fights with his brains, rather than just punching and shooting, and he also avoids intentionally killing people.

2

I would definitely start children off on some of the more techy/exploration-themed Tintin books, like Red Rackham’s Treasure or the moon trip one, rather than the ones heavy on Exotic Natives. But if a kid is interested and wants to read others, then yeah, let them. Children are capable of understanding that even fun and interesting books can be ethically dubious in various ways that reflect the prejudices of their time.

For that matter, the society depicted in the Tintin books is inflexibly sexist, too, although the OP appears not to have noticed that aspect. :dubious: Everybody in Tintin who’s actually doing anything other than domestic/customer service or secretarial duties (or being an opera diva, in one case) is a man. Should that be a deal-breaker? I would say no.

3

The stories and drawing and jokes are all good, even after all these years. Consider it a teachable moment - just have a word or three with your kid on changing standards and how we ought to see, and treat, women and different ethnic and cultural groups better now.

4

+1
I read Tintin throughout my childhood , and still enjoy him. Haven’t read the controversial first two , but wouldn’t mind for the historical perspective

5

I’m reminded of those old racist Bugs Bunny and Popeye cartoons from the WWII era. Just because we don’t want kids watching those particular Bugs Bunny and Popeye cartoons doesn’t mean we don’t want kids watching any Bugs Bunny or Popeye cartoons.

Is it just a few Tintin books that are racist, or most/all of them?

6

I recommend only reading them from Cigars of the Pharaoh, when the regular cast of characters starts to come together. Or wait for Haddock’s intro in Crab With The Golden Claws, actually. Tintin without Haddock is like Asterix without Obelix, IMO.

7

There’s a middle road here. The options aren’t black and white - (1) Let kids read Tintin books or (2) Don’t let them read Tintin books. There’s (1.5) Engage with kids about what they’re reading.

Ask them if they’ve noticed anything about the characters, if they’re similar or different from each other/their family/their friends at school. Ask if they know when the books were written, and if they don’t show them how to find out. Talk about the changes that have happened in the world since 1929. Talk about Tintin’s character, how he’s curious and adventuresome and a good friend. And suggest some modern, inclusive and diversely-characterized graphic novels to read next (suggestions here.)

8

Absolutely. Congo is one book, and for a long time it wasn’t very available in English. America is more inaccurate than offensive. And while Blue Lotus isn’t as kind to the Japanese (who were real bastards at the time), there is one part that stands out. Thomson and Thompson play the Ugly [del]Americans[/del] Belgians and dress in stereotypically outdated “Chinese” outfits. The locals dress more accurately and T&T’s ignorance apparent.

9

They run a whole spectrum. The early books are highly racist, but go almost unread in North America at least (I never even heard of Tintin in the Congo until I was an adult). The later books are I think not very racist: Tintin befriends Chinese, Indians, Peruvians etc. and appears to treat them as equals. Indeed, a major plot point of one - The Castafiore Emerald - is about overcoming prejudice against Roma.

One thing remains a constant: in the Tintin universe, women hardly exist as main characters. Except for the Opera Diva, of course. :wink:

10

I say let kids read any damn thing that gets them to put the cell phone or game controller down for more than a minute.

11

They’re classics, but come from a different era, and thus, today, need to be understood with a bit of introduction, the same way we introduce Mark Twain or Rudyard Kipling.

Or (may God have mercy on us all) James Fenimore Cooper.

FWIW, the Fu Manchu books are still worth reading, despite being rather ghastly works of obnoxious ethnic bigotry. Like the Tintin books, the Fun Manchu novels get better with time. By the end, Sax Rohmer was writing quite nicely about Chinese culture, and could point to Chinese communism as the “peril” without needing a fictional “evil overlord” to point to. Count them – and Tintin – as triumphs of individual growth.

Here is a link to reprints of “Tintin in Lebanon” from an old issue of National Lampoon (“back when they used to be funny” tm.)

12

Herge had a Chinese friend named Chang who was a basis for the character in the story, but also asked Herge “to please be accurate with the Chinese, not like you were for the Congo” (paraphrased quote from memory of an interview, may not have been Congo). Herge took great pains to be accurate and used Chang as an advisor, and Chang was very happy that the result was “real” and not the western stereotyped Chinamen of the time.

13

Some of those befriending other ethnicities ones WERE early books though. Lotus was the 5th one, depending on how you count.

My 8 year old self would tell you not to read the mummy one. I kept it in the middle of my stack just so I didn’t have to look at the cover.

14

British stereotypes, surely? And…delightful! Of all the stereotyped characters around, these must be among the ones depicted with the least malice. They’re utterly adorable!

15

Apparently, at least, a number of Congolese still like Tintin, if that balms your aching conscience at all.

(But maybe they just really, really like moon tanks.)

16

Nope. Tintin and most of his regular supporting cast are all Belgians, living in Belgium.

17

Some people need to grow thicker skins and quit whining about things they can never change.

18

They do have a somewhat English vibe at least in translation. E.g. Marlinspike Hall sounds very English, but it almost certainly was called something else in French (apparently Moulinsart). It’s never explicit where they live.

19

A friend of mine once owned two identical black cats named Thomson and Thompson.

Not allowing fiction including racist/sexist/imperialist bias would cut the kids off from an enormous amount of entertaining literature pre-say…1965?

I’d hate to deny a child Babar, Doctor Dolittle, or Jules Verne, just to pick three off the top of my head.

20

We are in such a golden age of children’s literature that, with a few exceptions, I don’t think it’s vital for us to mine our own childhoods to find good books for kids to read. Introduce your kids to Pals in Peril, to Christopher Paul Curtis, to Tiffany Aching, to Kate di Camillio, to Neil Gaiman, to any of the dozens of spectacular children’s authors doing vibrant new work today. Fretting about whether something that already has a high entry-barrier, like TinTin, is worth going into despite its virulent racism, seems like wasted effort to me.

Of course, that’s true only if you’ve read the modern field of children’s literature and find its best works don’t hold up to TinTin. If you have a current base of knowledge and still think the older stuff is worth wading through virulent racism to access, go for it.