Ideology of Tintin

Hergé started drawing his comics series The Adventures of Tintin in 1929 for Le Petit Vingtième, the children's section of the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, run by the Abbé Norbert Wallez, an avid supporter of social Catholicism, a right-wing movement. During World War II, Tintin appeared in the Brussels daily pro-German Le Soir; after the war he appeared in his own Tintin magazine (founded by a member of the Resistance, Raymond Leblanc) until Hergé's death in 1983.

As a young artist Hergé was influenced by his mentors, specifically the Abbé Wallez, who encouraged Hergé to use Tintin as a tool for Catholic propaganda to influence Belgian children. This shows in his earlier works within the Tintin series. As a result, European stereotypes pervade Hergé's early catalogue. A breakthrough came in 1934, when the cartoonist was introduced to Zhang Chongren, a Chinese student, who explained Chinese politics, culture, language, art, and philosophy to him, which Hergé used to great effect in The Blue Lotus. From this point onward, the artist developed ideologically, amidst the collapse of his country and the Second World War, and so did the series: the general trend of the postwar stories is to become more progressive and universalist.

First albums

The first Tintin book, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, was crafted on the orders of Hergé's superiors, to be anti-Soviet propaganda of limited outlook. Nonetheless, Hergé worked willingly: "I was sincerely convinced of being on the right path", he said later. His only source was Moscou sans voiles ("Moscow without veils"), a book written in 1928 by Joseph Douillet, former consul of Belgium in the USSR. In this book, appearing not much more than a decade after the October Revolution, Douillet denounced the communist system for producing poverty, famine, and terror. The secret police maintained order and the propaganda deceived foreigners. Nonetheless, the anti-totalitarian theme of this first book would persist throughout the series.

Hergé wanted the second book to take place in the United States, which fascinated him. Wallez disagreed: he distrusted the USA, the country of Protestantism, liberalism, of easy money, and of gangsters. Instead, he asked Hergé to draw a book about the Belgian Congo: the colony needed white workers at the time.[1]

Tintin in the Congo reflected the dominant colonialist ideology at that time. As put by Hergé in a later interview, "This was in 1930. All I knew about the Congo was what people were saying about it at the time: 'The Negroes are big children, it's fortunate for them that we're there, etc'".[2]

The paternalistic description of the indigenous people of Belgian Congo was more naive than racist, and Hergé developed an important theme of Tintin in this book: international trafficking.[3]

Turn-around from Tintin in America (1931–32) to The Black Island (1937–38)

With his next book, Hergé could finally send Tintin to the United States. "Tintin in America" (1932) represents a significant change in tone. The story was, like the previous ones, very caricatured, because of Hergé's limited knowledge of the country: America was the land of Al Capone, cowboys and gigantism. But Hergé also took the defense of the Native Americans (whom he called "Red Indians"), African Americans and blue-collar workers. He criticized lynching, the theft of Native American land, and American business rapacity.

Even more striking is the fifth book, The Blue Lotus (1934–35), set in China. For this story Hergé was put in touch with Zhang Chongren, a Chinese student then studying in Brussels, whose name may have been the basis for the name of character Chang Chong-Chen. Hergé was very concerned with portraying the country accurately, and the adventure can be read as anti-imperialist. It criticizes Japanese and Western involvement in China, including the international concessions and the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and shows with great disapproval Westerners making racist or ignorant remarks about the Chinese. The Japanese themselves are portrayed with little sympathy; most of those shown are soldiers or government agents involved in the invasion of Manchuria.

The Broken Ear (1935–36) is set mainly in the fictional South American republic of San Theodoros and takes a critical view of western businessmen conspiring to provoke a war over what they think will be profitable oil fields. They go about this using bribery, corruption, and the sale of arms to both sides. It then simply requires a border confrontation to be blown out of proportion in order to begin the conflict, much like the Mukden Incident shown in The Blue Lotus. The war over the Grand Chapo oil plains was based on the Chaco War of the early 1930s. It also depicted the Shuar indigenous people, famous for their tsantsas ("shrunken heads").

At first glance, The Black Island (1937–38) is a simple thriller with Tintin in pursuit of money forgers, with the chase to Scotland giving it a feel of Alfred Hitchcock's movie version of The Thirty-Nine Steps. Dr. Müller is a German villain and can be read as a clear parody of the Germans at the time.

The Second World War

Several stories were influenced by the menace of a second world war, and then by the war itself and the Nazi occupation of Belgium.

Despite the fact that Hergé was in favor of the neutrality of Belgium, King Ottokar's Sceptre (1938–39) could be read as anti-Nazi: Müsstler (a possible contraction of Mussolini and Hitler) is the leader of a conspiracy that seeks to merge the kingdom of Syldavia with its old enemy Borduria. The story could have been influenced by the Anschluss in Austria in 1938. Müsstler is the head of the Steel Guard, a name implying a pro-fascist paramilitary group which were common in Europe between the wars. An actual fascist and anti-Semitic group called the Iron Guard was very active in Romania in the years leading up to the Second World War. The Romanian Iron Guard was often in violent conflict with the King of Romania, King Carol II, who they accused of corruption and being influenced by his Jewish mistress. The leader of the Iron Guard, Codreanu, was executed shortly thereafter for treason by the Romanian government. The Iron Guard briefly formed the government in 1940 under Horia Sima after the King's abdication but Hitler ended up backing the more conservative General Antonescu in January 1941 and the Iron Guard was eliminated from government and purged. Thus, in the foreign policy of the Third Reich the Romanian monarchy and other authoritarian figures were supported over the local fascist party.

The early and unfinished version of Land of Black Gold (1939–40) alluded to the mobilization of Nazi war power. This unfinished adventure is set in the British Mandate of Palestine with British soldiers and officials. The beginning of the war and the defeat of Belgium prevented Hergé from finishing this version, though it did come out in 1950. He later rewrote it, setting the action in the fictional Arab Kingdom of Khemed and replacing the conflict between Arabs and Jews by a civil conflict between two Arab factions.[4]

During the war, Hergé worked for Le Soir, a newspaper which collaborated with the German occupiers. To avoid controversy during the Nazi occupation of Belgium, Tintin's adventures now focused mainly on non-political issues such as drug smuggling (The Crab with the Golden Claws), intrigue and treasure hunts (The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure), and a mysterious curse (The Seven Crystal Balls).

Somewhat controversial though, was The Shooting Star, which was about a race between two crews trying to reach a meteorite which had landed in the Arctic. Hergé chose the subject to be as fantastic as possible, to avoid trouble from the censors. Nonetheless politics intruded in that the crew Tintin joined was composed of Europeans from Axis or neutral countries, while their underhanded rivals were Americans. Tintin also flies in a German plane in the book (an Arado Ar 196).

Most damaging of all for Hergé was that these stories were published in Le Soir, a collaborationist newspaper. After the war he and other members of its staff faced lengthy investigations into their wartime allegiances. Hergé expressed his regrets in an 1973 interview: "I recognise that I myself believed that the future of the West could depend on the New Order. For many, democracy had proved a disappointment, and the New Order brought new hope. In light of everything which has happened, it is of course a huge error to have believed for an instant in the New Order".[5]

Post-war

The post-war stories are less controversial, developing several recurring themes:

In the first edition of The Red Sea Sharks, the black victims speak pidgin French and seem rather simple-minded. Hergé rewrote their dialogue in later editions.[8]

The last controversial album is Tintin and the Picaros, which has been seen both as left-wing and right-wing. In it, Tintin goes through profound changes. For the first time, Tintin seems to be flesh and blood, and perhaps even has weaknesses; for instance, he is at first uncharacteristically unwilling to travel to San Theodoros, where his friends have been falsely accused of espionage. At the end he intervenes dramatically through revolution. But as Benoît Peeters puts it, "it is quite clear that this is no real revolution but a palace coup. Tapioca is backed by Borduria, Alcazar by the International Banana Company; as for ordinary people, they remain impoverished in the shantytowns."[9]

Genderism

Hergé has also been accused of sexism, due to the almost complete lack of female characters in his books. The only woman character of importance is Bianca Castafiore, who is portrayed to be foolish and nearly oblivious to all negative reactions to her behaviour—though she does show loyalty, presence of mind and quick wit when hiding Tintin and Haddock from Colonel Sponsz in The Calculus Affair.

Hergé himself denied being a misogynist, saying that "for me, women have nothing to do in a world like Tintin's, which is the realm of male friendship".[10]

Other reasons were because he believed that sentimentality had little to do in Tintin's stories, which are mainly about men getting into all sorts of "misadventures rather than adventures", and wherein "mocking women would not be nice". He also felt that a man slipping on a banana skin, providing he does not break a leg, is much funnier than if it happened to a woman. As a female interviewer put it, "It has nothing to do with the misogynist world of the boy scout,"[11] referring to the fact that Hergé was a scout in his youth.

Tintin and the Jews

Some aspects of Tintin's adventures have resulted in accusations of antisemitism being levelled at Hergé,[12] accusations that are often connected to his work during World War II for Le Soir, a newspaper that collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of Belgium.

Before the war, there were some instances of sinister Jewish-looking figures in Tintin's adventures. In The Broken Ear (1935–7), Tintin questions a shopkeeper who is selling copies of the fetish he is looking for: the man wears a kippah, speaks in broken French and rubs his hands with "invisible soap".

As the war began, the first version of Land of Black Gold (1939–40) was being published. This version was set in the British Mandate of Palestine and featured Jewish Zionist terrorists led by a Rabbi. The story was suspended due to its political nature, but completed after the war.

Jews appearing in a scene in The Shooting Star which appeared in the original newspaper edition.
"Did you hear that, Isaac?... The end of the world!... What if it were true?..."
"Tee, hee!... Zat vould be a nice little teal, Salomon!... Ikh owe 50,000 Francs to my zurppliers... Zat vay ikh zould not have to pay..."

The most serious instance of alleged antisemitism, however, featured in The Shooting Star (1941), which appeared during the German occupation. In a scene that appeared in Le Soir on 11 November 1941, two evil-looking Jewish men, Isaac and Salomon, watch Philippulus the prophet inform Tintin that the end of the world is nigh. One of them, speaking in very twisted French, looks forward to this as it means that he will not be obliged to pay off his creditors.[13] In addition, the sponsor of the rival expedition sent to find the meteorite is called Blumenstein, is given the appearance of a stereotypical Jewish businessman, and uses underhand and potentially lethal methods to delay Tintin's ship. His bank is located in New York and his crew attempts to plant the American flag on the meteorite.

After the war and the exposure of the Holocaust, Jewish people became noticeably absent from Tintin's adventures. Land of Black Gold was redrawn at the request of Hergé's British publishers who felt that it was out-of-date now that the state of Israel had been established. The Irgun members in the British Mandate were replaced with a domestic insurgency in a fictional Arab emirate. The scene with Isaac and Salomon was left out of the book editions of The Shooting Star, while "Blumenstein" was renamed "Bohlwinkel" and relocated to the fictional country of São Rico. According to Hergé, both the original and the later name were honest mistakes:[14] he thought Blumenstein was a common American name, and chose Bohlwinkel because it sounded like "bollewinkel", a candy store.

Hugo Frey has argued that anti-Semitism continued in the post-war Flight 714. Tintin's old nemesis and the mastermind of the plot in the book is the evil Rastapopoulos, who Frey argues is an example of anti-Semitic caricature,[15] though other writers argue against this, pointing out that Rastapopoulos is not Jewish (his surname make him likely of Greek ethnicity), and surrounds himself with explicitly German-looking characters: Kurt, the submarine commander of The Red Sea Sharks, Dr. Krollspell, whom Hergé himself referred to as a former concentration camp official, and Hans Boehm, the sinister-looking navigator and co-pilot, both from Flight 714.[16]

In other works, Hergé showed much sympathy for oppressed peoples, such as the Chinese in The Blue Lotus, the black African Muslims about to be traded as slaves in The Red Sea Sharks, and the Gypsies of The Castafiore Emerald falsely accused of theft.

Big business

Much of Hergé's criticism was directed at big businesses and the ways they would affect the lives of ethnic minorities and the affairs of nations just for the sake of money. He also accused them of using unethical methods and being a cover for criminal activities.

These attacks started as early as Tintin in America following the discovery of oil on land occupied by Blackfoot Natives. Tintin is then surrounded by businessmen offering him up to tens of thousands of dollars for the rights to the oil. When Tintin announces that it belongs to the Blackfoot, the chief of the tribe is, in comparison, given a mere $25 and half-an-hour to vacate the premises. An hour later the Blackfoot Natives are forced away by soldiers armed with rifles and bayonets; by the next day a whole city has been built on the site. A factory that Tintin later visits produces tinned "rabbit" meat out of stray cats, dogs, and rats.

Oil also came into play in The Broken Ear. Western businesses General American Oil and British-South American Petrol get the states of San Theodoros and Nuevo Rico to go to war over territory which turns out not to have oil after all. This part of the story was inspired by the real-life Chaco War of 1932–35. One of the businessmen, R.W. Trickler, uses bribery, corruption, and false evidence in order to get his way. Arms dealer Basil Bazarov, who sells weapons to both sides, is based on the real-life Basil Zaharoff.

A similar situation occurred in Land of Black Gold, in which two rival oil companies, Arabex and Skoil Petroleum, separately support Emir Mohammed Ben Kalish Ezab and Sheikh Bab El Ehr respectively.

Big business was also shown as a cover for illegal activities: Rastapopoulos for example is a respected businessman who mixes with people in high places, but is also the leader of major smuggling operations: opium in The Blue Lotus and slaves in The Red Sea Sharks. The villain in The Blue Lotus is Mitsuhirato, a Japanese man who owns a fashion shop and an opium den (in a time and place where such dens were legal and considered legitimate), which cover his activities as a drug smuggler and secret agent of Japan, and who organizes the sabotage of a Chinese railway (based on the real-life Mukden Incident). Rastapopoulos and Mitsuhirato have an Arabic counterpart in Omar ben Salaad of The Crab with the Golden Claws.

The sponsor of the rival expedition in The Shooting Star, Mr. Bohlwinkel, is the head of a major banking organisation who uses unethical methods to delay the progress of Tintin and Haddock's ship. These include sabotage with dynamite and fake distress messages. Controversially, in his original version, Hergé gave the man a Jewish-sounding name and had him based in New York. These were changed in later editions.

Following the war, Hergé's attacks on big business was suspended as he focused more on espionage (the Moon adventures and The Calculus Affair); but it returned with a vengeance in The Red Sea Sharks. In this story Rastapopoulos becomes the Marquis di Gorgonzola, a media baron, airline owner, and arms dealer, who entertains influential people on board his luxury yacht. This serves as the cover of his business as a slave trader. When Emir Ben Kalish Ezab threatens to expose this for personal reasons, Rastapopoulos engineers his overthrow in favour of the Emir's enemy, Sheikh Bab El Ehr.

Tintin has a knack of meeting businessmen who appear friendly at first, but turn out to be far from ethical and can also be villains. Rastapopoulos and Mitsuhirato are two such examples; but there is also Laszlo Carreidas of Flight 714. At first shown as a friendly if eccentric person, Carreidas was revealed to be a cunning individual with a long history of unscrupulous behaviour not limited to the business world. A large part of his personal fortune was in a Swiss bank account under a false name and signature, presumably for taxation-related purposes, while he confesses under truth serum to a long history of unscrupulous activities.

Hergé's attack on big business and its interference in national politics went all the way to the final completed story, Tintin and the Picaros. In this adventure, guerrilla leader General Alcazar had the support of the International Banana Company, a reference to Banana republics and companies like the United Fruit Company (today Chiquita). Hergé's notes also reveal that Alcazar's wife was on the board of a company that kept him supplied with arms; a fact that may explain his marriage. To counter the rebels, Alcazar's enemy Tapioca struck a deal with Loch Lomond whisky and parachuted large amounts of their brand into the jungle, making the rebels too drunk to stage a coup. Loch Lomond also sponsored the local carnival.

References

  1. ↑ Benoît Peeters, Tintin and the World of Hergé, 1988, p. 29-30
  2. ↑ Numa Sadoul, Entretiens avec Hergé, Casterman, 1989, p. 74
  3. ↑ Benoît Peeters, Tintin and the World of Hergé, 1988, p. 31
  4. ↑ Benoît Peeters, Tintin and the World of Hergé, 1988, p. 86-89
  5. ↑ Haagse Post. March 1973
  6. ↑ Benoît Peeters, Tintin and the World of Hergé, 1988, p. 129
  7. ↑ Numa Sadoul, Entretiens avec Hergé, Casterman, 1989, p. 144
  8. ↑ Benoît Peeters, Tintin and the World of Hergé, 1988, p. 107
  9. ↑ Benoît Peeters, Tintin and the World of Hergé, 1988, p. 127
  10. ↑ Numa Sadoul, Entretiens avec Hergé, Casterman, 1989, p. 93
  11. ↑ Interview with Hergé available on youtube
  12. ↑ Hergé, Creator of Tintin: Antisemitism for all Ages, Benjamin Ivry, The Jewish Daily Forward, 17 November 2009
  13. ↑ Joris Goedbloed (16 December 2005). "'The Shooting Star'". WW2 People's War. Retrieved 17 November 2007.
  14. ↑ Tintin, Hergé & his creation, Thompson, 1991, ISBN 978-0-340-56462-2
  15. ↑ Hugo Frey, "Trapped in the Past: Anti-Semitism in Hergé's Flight 714" in Mark McKinney, ed., History and Politics in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels at p.31
  16. ↑ The Metamorphoses of Tintin: or Tintin for Adults by Jean-Marie Apostolidès, Jocelyn Hoy, published in 2009 by Stanford University Press
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