In the original French he has a definite habit of dropping the letter R from all his speech. I’m not sure if that’s an impediment or a depiction of poor education.
Being ethnically Indian (Singaporean) myself that article really resonated with me. I definitely intend to introduce Tintin to my kid when he’s old enough. As a person who’s a minority in my own society, however, I think I’d actively point out to my son instances of prejudice where they do crop up. Herge definitely got a lot more enlightened after The Blue Lotus but he was still a product of his time and unintentional casual prejudice does creep in, even where the later albums are concerned. The Red Sea Sharks is a good example where the black Muslims en route to Mecca are depicted as naiive simpletons. Still a great story but like anything there’s a need to contextualise it.
I remembered seeing two different versions of that story, and looked it up to make sure I wasn’t imagining things:
Apparently, the Red Sea Sharks was his attempt to “make up for” Tintin in the Congo, by showing Tintin & Co. helping Africans rather than colonizing them, but he still muffed it - by making his Africans speak pidgin (that’s just half the problem - they also are, basically, easily manipulated by the bad guys, until Tintin & Haddock save them: as you say, naïve simpletons).
So he went back and altered the dialogue.
I can’t remember the altered dialogue, but my impression was it made the Africans considerably more dignified.
Yeah, but HP lived in England and bought his clothes from English tailors, and was created by a somewhat prejudiced English writer. It doesn’t necessarily reflect what real Belgian policemen were wearing at the time.
How much of his look was defined by the stories, though? And how much by film and TV? Was the bowler hat part of Christie’s conception, or, like Holmes’ deerstalker, something that became iconic through adaptations?
Heh. I still have two copies of the bogus Tintin in Thailand. Written by a Belgian author. Around the turn of the century, the old Voodoo Bar in the Nana Plaza red-light area was selling them. Then I saw a small item in the newspaper about police in Brussels having raided the distributor and confiscated all the copies there, so I hied on down to Nana and bought some up, giving one to another American upcountry. It’s pretty good.
Actually Poirot isn’t wearing a bowler. I think the technical term is Homburg. Note that Poirot’s topper has a dimple at the top; Bowlers are wholly convex.
Also, Poirot would never in a million years be caught wearing big heavy detective boots. He wears the most stylish of shoes.
“My only international rival is Tintin !” de Gaulle.
Well, yeah. I’m kinda surprised more posters aren’t over-excited with the pseudo-accusation of his collaboration. Not that that old Charles wouldn’t have shrugged it off, even if true.
Anyway, with regard to the OP, I think different nations have to diverge on issues: not everything needs to be universal; the trick is to cheerfully and respectfully accept each other’s choices.
Tintin, and the rest, are fine for peoples that can hack it, but America in particular is a special, and sensitive case. Not only should these be hidden from their children, but also from American college students who shouldn’t be exposed to stuff that might distress them.
Otherwise, they might, you know, talk about it.