Bert Stabler was talking over in another thread about imperialism, art, and taste and how the three interact. In that vein, I thought I’d reprint one of my favorite sequences from Tintin.
This is an avenging Inca Mummy, summoned by the conflation of ancient magic and the sacrilege of European explorers.
The moments I most like in Tintin are almost invariably the creepy, surreal ones. I find Herge’s humor repetitive and precious in general — and for me the clear line style only emphasizes the clean, scrubbed, antiseptic cuteness of the slapstick. The weird dream moments, on the other hand, are all the weirder for their pristine perfection. The clarity itself becomes frightening. In the second panel above from “The Seven Crystal Balls,” the Inca mummy’s face at the window, almost unnoticeable but still preternaturally distinct, seems more real than real, it’s perfect finish giving it an undeniability. Even though this is (sort of) only a dream, as it turns out, the dream looks as solid as the mundane window the mummy climbs thorugh. The fact that different content is presented so rigorously through the same form becomes in itself uncanny.
But what is the difference in form? Well, it’s pretty clearly racial difference. A lot of pulp narratives, from Sherlock Holmes to Fu Manchu, draw much of their spark from colonial fever dreams, and that’s certainly the case for Tintin as well. In “Seven Crystal Balls,” the Inca curse, and the mummy itself, are the parts of the story I remembered best from my childhood, and still find most compelling. They’re creepy and cool and unsettling, with an emotional depth that isn’t there, for me at least, in, say, the drawing room comedy of the Castafiore Emerald.
This, then, is really a case where I don’t like the sequence despite its racism and imperialism. As far as I can tell, I like it because of them. The fascination/repulsion Herge feels towards the strange gods of colonized cultures generates real creative frisson. Which makes me wonder if maybe that’s true of racism and stereotypes in general. It seems like, beyond their other uses, they sometimes have an appeal which might be called aesthetic. A certain amount of cultural creativity goes into shaping the person in front of you into a phantom monstrosity, and that creativity can itself be exciting and fascinating. The dream’s appeal is its vividly imagined ugliness; the exhilaration of imposing on the world the gothic products of one’s skull.
Nobody can seriously contest that racism is a serious problem in Tintin, all the more fascinating as Hergé became aware of it and actually tried to fight it– which gives many of the albums an interesting tension, as in Le Lotus Bleu and Coke en Stock.
I don’t think Les Sept Boules de Cristal suffers from racism, though, apart from the “exotification” of the Other. (A South American variant on Edward Said’s Orientalism!) Key to the story is that unsettling conversation Tintin has with the man on the train, who asks how Frenchmen would feel if Incan archeologists came and dug up the kings buried in the cathedral of St Denis.
That sort of reversal of thinking is more typical of antiracism. It certainly made me think as a child.
There is a back and forth, I’d agree. The exotification of the other is fairly intense, though — and the book is built around the idea of a nefarious plot by, apparently, every Indian on the planet, involving secret magics.
The fact that the Indians apparently don’t know what an eclipse is is also a painful touch.
The scene above, with grotesque Incan mummies as nightmare symbol of evil — I don’t know. It seems fairly racist to me.
Also at the end, the Incas, hypnotized by Tintin’s shenanigans with the eclipse, basically grant the Europeans absolution for raiding their tombs on the grounds that, you know, the Europeans didn’t mean any harm. The criticism of the man on the train at the beginning is effectively neutralized by the end of the narrative. You could see the whole book, in fact, as bent on refuting the critique of imperialism, both in the sense that it rejects the argument, and in the sense that it shows the Incas as alternately exotically dangerous and foolishly childish.
I’d agree with you, though, to the extent that voicing the critique is itself valuable, even if the point ultimately seems to be to dismiss it. Herge does seem to be struggling with his racism, though I don’t think he overcomes it. It’s possible that part of the creative power here actually comes from the struggle rather than from the racism itself per se….the idea in the above sequence after all is a vision of European guilt in some sense; the Inca taking revenge, even if that revenge can only be imagined in a gothic exoticized manner.
Man, that is my favorite sequence in all the Tintin books. Scared the shit out of me when I first read it.
Yeah; I got a shock seeing it again while reading it to my son.
That and the terrifying dream sequence from Shooting Star….
Well, I agree that the eclipse gag was pretty pathetic, and was already a cliché in Hergé’s time; I first heard it ascribed to Columbus.
(Some Western series of the ’60s, perhaps Gunsmoke, ran a variant on this with Plains Indians. They basically responded, “Who are you kidding? It’s just another fucking eclipse.”)
But the end, where the cursed scientists are delivered, seems to me more generous than you see it, Noah. There is a real feeling of compassion and forgiveness on the part of the Incas.
Eh, I just like seeing llamas spit in Haddock’s face.
But I agree, Noah, that it’s more interesting to see Hergé struggling with his racism than either giving in to it (Tintin au Congo) or going all PC (vide the Rom in ‘Les Bijoux de la Castafiore’.)
And Frank, I agree– for me, that’s the most terrifying sequence in comics history. Makes E.C. look like the Care Bears. I’m sure when I first read it, my shit ripped through my P.J.’s like a cruise missile.
But why should they be compassionate or forgiving? The Europeans still have their shit! And it’s kind of all based on Tintin fooling them with the eclipse gag; they think he’s chosen by the gods, and so he basically lies to them (European’s stole your shit because they just want what’s best for you! No, really!)
The llamas spitting in Haddock’s face is a good gag though. Herge draws a mean llama.
A delightful and insightful post, Noah.
“Racism” is a demonizing term which gets tossed about too freely, like “sexist.” Like a good liberal Canadian, Seth was horrified at hearing Joe Matt going on about how appealing he found Asian women. Said Seth, “That’s racist!” By that reasoning, it’s also “racist” for an Anglo to find Thai cooking exotically appealing, no?
Yet you astutely point out how…
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This, then, is really a case where I donâ??t like the sequence despite its racism and imperialism. As far as I can tell, I like it because of them. The fascination/repulsion Herge feels towards the strange gods of colonized cultures generates real creative frisson. Which makes me wonder if maybe thatâ??s true of racism and stereotypes in general. It seems like, beyond their other uses, they sometimes have an appeal which might be called aesthetic…
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I’m reminded of how the great graphic designer Milton Glaser praised the communicative effectiveness and power of the cliché. Is not a racial/cultural stereotype another kind of cliché?
Your comment also explains at least some reasons why some European comics creators – though surely not racist themselves – enjoy replicating the visual tropes of racial stereotypes.
In John Kricfalusi’s blog, re the new “Robin Hood” movie:
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Khato said…
All of this modern, post millenial thinking has lead me to question just one thing:
“Where is all the colour?”
Everywhere I look it’s either gunmetal grey, dirt brown, or pure mechanical RGB shades blasting my eyeballs out. Robin Hood doesn’t even have his hat, so how do we know which generic browncoated thug is the hero? People would say that previous Robin Hoods are fruity:
http://www.vintageculture.net/images/errol-flynn-robin-hood1.jpg
But they have a wonderful sense of theatre and iconic appearance that the current trend of culture doesn’t want to hold onto – Clash of the Titans was another example of turning an iconic tale into something malformed. What do we HAVE now? Sleek, white faceless machines and dirty, grotty men playing in brown and grey muck. Can we get some artistry in here?
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That “sense of theatre and iconic appearance” is surely there a’plenty in the depictions of slant-eyed, inscrutable Orientals, easily affrighted, blubber-lipped blacks, for all their other serious failings.
Come to think of it, does not the stereotype of the obnoxious American tourist – in shorts and garish Hawaiian shirt, cameras festooned bout his fat neck, crass and loud in his proudly ignorant denunciations of how “backward” the natives are – have a “sense of theatre and iconic appearance” too?
(Out of curiosity, I typed “stereotype american tourist” into Google images, and found stuff such as the Halloween costumes for these: http://www.traditioninaction.org/Cultural/images/A039_Avoid.jpg , http://images.buycostumes.com/mgen/merchandiser/12767.jpg
And Duane Hanson’s sculpted tourists: http://www.styleleague.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/duane_hanson_tourists_2.jpg . Are these “racist” too?)
Hey Mike. I would say that there’s a lot of difference between fetishizing Asian women and enjoying Thai cooking. There’s a ton of history and power dynamics and actual exploitation behind the first; not so much with the second. Racism isn’t a math problem; treating it as one can lead you into some confused thinking.
That’s an interesting point from Glaser. And yes, I think racist portrayals are similar in some ways to cliches, in form if not exactly in content.
As we know from Joe Matt’s comics, it’s not that he “fetishizes” Asian women – since he clearly appreciated good looking women whatever their ethnic background – but enjoys that they’re subtly different from all the Caucasian women around. Is this not another version of vive la différence?
Surely there are some who are only interested in women of other races, their personalities of relative irrelevance. Yet, does this “positive prejudice” deserved to be called “racism”?
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rac·ism
–noun
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
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http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/racism
To take the hardly-mythical weakness of black males for blondes; are there “power dynamics and actual exploitation” involved there?
And, is “exotification” of the Other always a Bad Thing? Fu Manchu may be the stereotype of the sinisterly inscrutable Oriental, but he’s a powerful, intimidating figure.
Women’s Lib may be outraged when women are considered sex objects, yet don’t countless women strive mightily to be appreciated in that limited fashion; in a passionate encounter, might they not prefer to be found exciting for their sex appeal, as the quintessence of Woman, rather than for being Jane Higgenbothan, an individual?
Again, racism isn’t a math problem. Approaching it as if you can solve it by looking in a dictionary is really going to leave you nowhere in particular.
I haven’t seen the Joe Matt discussion in question. Asian women are frequently fetishized, though, and stereotypically portrayed as exotic, subservient, and possessable. This can have various practical results, from people not taking them seriously on up to exploitive sex tourism and worse. It can also function in interpersonal relations fairly innocuously. But the idea that only “negative” stereotypes can be seen as racist is deeply confused. Noble savage images, for example, can end up being used as an excuse for exploitation, as they are in this Tintin comic.
Women’s lib isn’t one thing. There’s lots of sex positive feminism which talks about why and when people might want to be objectified, and why and when they wouldn’t. I like Andrea Dworkin, but referring to “women’s lib” as if it equals Andrea Dworkin is silly.
If you’re at a place where you’re wondering whether Fu Manchu is racist, you probably need to take a step back and think about what you’re saying. If the choice is between being a supervillain and being a victim, some Asians would probably pick supervillain, sure. But that doesn’t change the fact that the supervillain portrayal is quite, quite racist, and was used to justify actual discriminatory policies, both personal and international, for many years.
“To take the hardly-mythical weakness of black males for blondes; are there “power dynamics and actual exploitation” involved there?”
Sure there are, in various ways. There’s a strain of black liberation rhetoric that advocated raping white women, for example. Just because someone faces various forms of stereotyping doesn’t mean they can’t oppress others. That’s part of the reason black and women’s liberation movements have such a complicated history with each other.
Alex: when Mark Twain wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, the eclipse trick was apparently already familiar enough to be parodied. My favorite parody, though, was by Sergio Aragones in Mad. When the eclipse comes as predicted, the Africans who are about to burn the white explorer at the stake all run into their huts, only to run right back out with their little pinhole viewers.
For what it’s worth, Hergé himself, from what I recall, later admitted that the eclipse twist was bogus. It’s a pity because it mars what is arguably the finest TINTIN story — I suspect in part because it had the biggest input from E.P. Jacobs, who surely contributed massively to the rich, creepy mood of the first half, situated in post-WWII Belgium. In fact, I believe Jacobs, after completing work on PRISONERS OF THE SUN, felt he had contributed so much he requested a co-author credit and was turned down — Hergé was always adamant that only his name be credited on all his books (in contrast to, say, Franquin, who always credited collaborators).
Hey Kim. Thanks for the info; I have to admit I was only vaguely aware that Herge relied on collaborators….
I see from Wikipedia that Jacobs did some of his own work as well…anyone have any recommendations? Is any of it even in English?
Go to Amazon.com, my son. Cinebook has actually been doing an excellent job of publishing Jacobs’s BLAKE AND MORTIMER in English. Start with THE YELLOW M, which is one of the best and the most “accessible” in some ways. Then once you’ve adjusted yourself to the stuffy wordiness, get the PYRAMID two-parter, then SOS METEORS which is the most wildly SF-y, and once you’re hooked, the NECKLACE one which has no fantastic element at all (his publisher told him to tamp it down) but is weirdly compelling.
Untranslated to date are the SECRET DE L’ESPADON two-parter (weird cold-war stuff, hard to read now), L’ENIGME DE L’ATLANTIDE (good mid-period stuff), and the amazing time-travel masterpiece LE PIEGE DIABOLIQUE which is my favorite and was released in English by Comcat years ago (you can find it on Amazon or eBay but it ain’t cheap — I’d say wait for Cinebook).
The non-Jacobs BLAKE AND MORTIMERs are pretty good pastiches (arguably better than the final Jacobs one, LES TROIS FORMULES DU DR. SATO, which doesn’t really work and of which the second half was (poorly) finished by Other Hands after his death), including some clever “interstitial” plotting between the Jacobs episodes, but they’re the methadone you buy when the Jacobs heroin has dried up.
All right; the Yellow M it is! Thanks Kim.
“Racism” is a demonizing term which gets tossed about too freely, like “sexist.”
No, they are terms that are used nowhere near as often as they should be, mostly because many men as well as white people are very adamant at surpressing it, like you are in this discussion, by pretending that they are used too freely.
This isn’t actually the case in the real world, as racism and sexism get a free pass all the damn time.
It’s telling that you worry more about the “demonisation” of poor white males than about what racism/sexism does to women/POC.
I’m generally on board with that — though to be fair to Mike, I doubt he thought he had even a faint chance of getting me to back off anything I said. He’s talked to me before…..