Archive for: Tintin in Otherland

Strange Windows: The Adventures of Tintin in Otherland, Part V: Radio Coda

On Wisconsin Public Radio’s Here on Earth program — moderated by the able Jean Feraca — Gene Kannenberg and I chat about Tintin and field listeners’ calls; you can find a streaming of the show at this link. Enjoy my dulcet tones– or, rather, my robotic stammer. ——————————————— Some have chided me for overlooking the [...]

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Strange Windows: The Adventures of Tintin in Otherland, Part 4

After three installments criticising Hergé for rampant racism and xenophobia, I uneasily picture his ghost appearing before me, with a quizzical smile. « So, » says the ghost, « you’ve really dragged me through the mud, eh ? But what about yourself, Alex? Are you a racist?” “No!” I answer. ”No, but…” New York, Washington [...]

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Strange Windows:The Adventures of Tintin in Otherland, Part 3

The entire Tintin in Otherland series is here. ____________________ The immediate aftermath of the war was harsh for Hergé, even though he could be accused, at worst, of passivity. He learned his lesson – what political satire there was in his books would henceforth be muted; minorities treated with greater respect. The books would be [...]

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Strange Windows: The Adventures of Tintin in Otherland, Part 2

[Part One here.] Wherever you look, you come face-to-face with the Other. Other race, other religion, other sex, other age, other individual… you name it. Reactions to the Other are complex and often self-contradictory: they run the gamut from instinctive loathing to fascinated attraction. The same person may be viciously hostile to, say, Indian immigrants, [...]

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Strange Windows: The Adventures of Tintin in Otherland, Part 1

The children’s comics album Tintin au Congo, by the  Belgian cartoonist Hergé, has been much in the news of late– and not in a good way. In Britain, the Commission for Racial Equality has condemned the book’s “abominable” racism (and proving once more that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, its sales have jumped [...]

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