Weeks 1 & 2 The Blue Lotus
Questions. Chose one or two questions to answer rather than all of them. Some questions might be combined in your answer. Remember to respond to other bloggers. Please answer in the comment section - do not create a new blog!
1) Are comics just a children's medium. What does Blue Lotus show us?
2) How does Farr (1991) justify Tintin's appeal to adults?
3) How does The Blue Lotus relate to what Said (1997) terms 'Orientalism' ?
4) Is The Blue lotus a racist text? Give your reasons.
5) Herge used the expression 'the wind and bone' to refer to his art work. What do you think he meant.
ENGL 602. Blog
ReplyDeleteComics as graphic novels, week 1-2: Tintin
Alister Kreft. 17974588
The earliest known comics date back to the mid 17thC-early 18thC though they did not 'grow in popularity till the 1930s with cheaper printing methods(pulp novellas etc) and emerging children’s culture/market.'(Babic, 2013) These earlier comics dealt with fashion, politics, social life had appeared in news publications centuries earlier and were short, only a few frames and lacking a narrative structure and not what I am referring to when I speak about comics, I speak of comic strips more akin to today's graphic novels.
Comics are not just for children, as some may think, though they act as a great starting point for early readers to draw meaning and plot as opposed to text heavy novels which can seem daunting to the non-assured reader, which is where I believe the misconception lies.
Comic strips emerged on the market primarily as light entertainment for children they quickly evolved as a vehicle to deal with more adult themes. Prior to the 1930s most published comics were what is known as pulp fiction and featured content aimed at boys and young men, adventures in far off lands and action stories, and had little content for the discerning adult. While these themes of adventure are present in The Blue Lotus there is a lot more going on under the surface of Tintin’s adventure that is more in the adult realm (politics, racism, drugs.) Herge himself stated Tintin was "for children aged seven to seventy"(Farr) acknowledging that there is relevance for adults in the adventures of the young Belgian journalist.
Over the course of the 20th Century comic strips have evolved and branched out to broach a wide range of topics. Tintin, especially The Blue Lotus, recognised as one of Herge’s finer works, universal appeal seems to lie in the combination of; Herge’s bright, clear illustrations, wild adventures in foreign lands and a dose of slapstick humour all enticing for the young reader, while on the other hand there is biting political commentary and satire as well as illicit themes like war and the drugs trade to attract the adult reader.
A common criticism of Herge’s early work was his portrayal of indigenous peoples, and indeed any non-European persons, being perceived as racist, this is even more true by today's standards and I believe is a valid judgement. Herge worked from Belgium and while he wrote convincingly of the many far off corners of the world that Tintin visited, Herge's experiences of those places was learned predominantly from newspaper articles. This gave him a highly Euro-centric perspective of events and his early depictions of Africans, Americans and Soviets are prejudicial and almost farcical through a present-day scope. This is well known among Tintinophiles and was at the forefront of Herge’s mind at the time of writing The Blue Lotus.
Knowing his work was perceived as racist Herge deliberately tried to counter this in TBL, only somewhat effectively, through thorough research and was helped immensely by a young Chinese art student working with him at the time. The result was a richer aesthetic and a more accurate depiction of Shanghai in 1931. Awareness of political struggles was always one of Herge’s strong attributes as a story teller and the political state in the setting of Shanghai 1931 is important to the narrative of The Blue Lotus. At the time, Shanghai and parts of China were occupied by Japanese forces and it is seen, quite clearly, that Herge is sympathetic to the Chinese struggle. The result of his sympathies is a negative depiction of the Japanese in The Blue Lotus, which seems to work against his efforts to be racially impartial in his depictions of foreign parties.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Babic, A. A. (Ed.). (2013). Comics as History, Comics as Literature: Roles of the Comic Book in Scholarship, Society, and Entertainment. Rowman & Littlefield.
Farr, Michael. (1991). Introduction. In Tintin: the complete companion (pp.8-9). London: John Murray.
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ReplyDelete1. Are comics just a children's medium. What does Blue Lotus show us?
ReplyDeleteComics are not just a form of literature meant for young children as many people unfamiliar with this genre would assume. Yes, they do work as an ideal starting point for introducing younger readers on to themes and plots ideas and work them towards more complex and word-based literature such as novels etc which seems intimidating to less confident readers (children). However, this is where the misunderstanding about comics being for children lies.
Comics where first created as an entertainment form for younger readers, however it wasn’t long before it developed into providing more adult based themes and therefore started to be aimed towards adults as well as younger readers. Before the popularisation of comics in the 1930-40’s, comics were mainly found in pulp magazines commonly known today as ‘pulp fiction’. The content of the comics mainly consisted of things aimed at younger children, mainly adolescent to teenaged boys. The storylines mainly consisted of things about fantasy lands, action and adventure and didn’t focus on content adults could relate to. Over time however these stories started to incorporate more mature audience driven themes such as political themes, war, drugs and alcohol and racism. This was very evident with Tintin and the Blue Lotus as there was a clear sense of adventure throughout the storyline, however underlying themes of political agendas and racism was apparent which allowed it to link towards adult readers more. Despite Herge arguing Tinitin’s adventures were not based around a political backdrop we see in many of his works still have undertones of politics which largely influence the narrative of the comic and that is evident largely when it comes to The Blue Lotus.
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ReplyDeleteTintin and the Blue Lotus
ReplyDeleteDivyesh Kumar
16949662
The Adventures of Tintin is a fairly aged tale first published in 1929, comics preceding the 1950’s were what is now identified as pulp fiction and Tintin and the Blue Lotus was first introduced in 1934. Comics are not only for young children as most people may assume. They are more of a generally sparsed out for all ages. Like Herge said himself, that Tintin was "for children aged seven to seventy"(Farr) recognising the Adventures of Tintin can be applicable to adults. These comics were available to purchase essentially as frivolous enjoyment for youngsters, but they immediately advanced to introduce more mature matters.
George Remi, popularly known as Herge is one of the many controversial comic book authors of the 20th century. (Laser-Robinson). Although there are tales of adventures and escapades which are represented in the Blue Lotus, the cleverly disguised themes of prejudice, drugs and political matters are also present. Herge art shows the dominance in manipulation to the human face as he depicted the Japanese, “Looking at Mr. Mitsuhirato, we see his stretched open mouth is frozen in a constant sneer that attempts to contain his jutting buck teeth.” (Laser-Robinson, p. 10). According to Harry Thompson (1991), he believes that Herge’s portrayal of the Japanese was “racist”, due to the innate violence, low income, visual characteristics of ‘buck-teeth’ and skin colour in Tintin and the Blue Lotus. In one of the comic strips, Gibbons steps onto the street causing the rickshaw man to stop so suddenly, where Gibbons ripens into fury and begins throwing racial slurs at the local. “Dirty little china-man!... to barge into a white man!”, He does this multiple times thoughout the comic. “You did that on purpose, yellow scum!... I’ll teach you respect for your betters!”. (Herge, p. 6, p. 7). The Blue Lotus can be split into two distinctive categories, realistic and iconic. Herge was able to impeccably switch between the two writing styles. The iconic type was blatantly his own style, and he incorporated his characters into realistic backgrounds. (Laser-Robinson, p. 5).
Herge. (1934). Tintin and the Blue Lotus
Laser-Robinson, S. A. (N.D) An Analysis of Hergé’s Portrayal of Various Racial Groups in The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus
Thompson, W. H. (1991). Tintin: Hergé and his Creation. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
2. Is The Blue lotus a racist text? Give your reasons.
ReplyDeleteYes, The Blue Lotus was a racist text. Herge’s perception of the indigenous people in most of his work can be viewed as racist. In his comics about TIntin, the way he went on to portray certain cultural groups and ethnicities can be taken offensively. Herge’s portrayal of native Americans, Soviets, Africans and Asians have been seen to be very stereotypical and offensive at times. Through Herge’s work, depictions of indigenous people have shown certain characters to be inferior and depiction of Soviets have seen them too be evil, thug like and murders. This was evident with The Blue Lotus as in certain parts of the text the Chinese characters were shown to be inferior to the European characters in the comic. It went as far as blatant racism by a European character attacking and degrading a local Chinese man for making an error calling him a “Dirty little China man”. However, Herge did try and counter the racism by showing the heros of his comics coming to the aid of the locals. This was also shown in The Blue lotus as Tintin rescued the local Chinese man being abused by his fellow European. However, this may not go down well with all readers and can still be seen as racism. This racism in Herge’s work can be attributed to the sterotypes of this era but many people still criticise Herge as being a recist.
Tintin - Dictionary definition of Tintin | Encyclopedia.com: FREE online dictionary. (2017). Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 26 October 2017, from http://www.encyclopedia.com/children/academic-and-educational-journals/tintin