10 October 2014

Tintin en France

3 comments:

Robert said...

Are you aware that this book one of series about a French boy, a kind of "Young Indiana Jones", can no longer be sold or displayed in France due to their hate crime laws. Indeed, the libraries that have any copies of the books in the Tin Tin series (and there were more than a few) keep it in a locked and restricted room and you have to have special permission and a good reason to read them. You can not take them out like a regular library book, in fact, you cannot take them out of THE ROOM at all.
The reason is the story lines and wording in the world of Tin Tin, as he traveled to various countries in the series, Africans were "niggers", Arab were "wogs" and Asians were "slant eyes" and the natives had all the stereotypical traits that are unmentionable in today's PC society.
LBF...If you have a copy of the book you show DON'T bring it with you if you ever go to France for if you do at best you will be expelled on the next flight out and at worst you'll be spending some time as a guest of the French government. In either case the book will be confiscated.

Anonymous said...

Wow! What self-loathing that reflects! I wonder how these books fared in Quebec, where as I recall they were treated like a national treasure?

Robert said...

DawnofBetrayal:
Very good point...
I would be curious how long ago the Tin Tin books were treated like a "national treasure". I'm betting with Canada's strict "hate crime" laws and and three member civil rights courts they are not now so regarded.
I read that some poor Canadian had to pay $14,000 under their hate crime laws when he entered the company lunch room and remarked that the food the woman in there was preparing "smelled different". She, an immigrant, thought it was "racist" and made a complaint to the Civil Rights Panel and got that award.
Indeed, a Canadian-American was indicted in Canada for some sort of violation under their hate crime laws and faced prison time in Canada. He fled to the US as a dual citizen. Canada asked for his extradition and the USA refused saying what he did was not a crime in the US but if he goes back to Canada he's "toast". In few more years the way things are going he may be "toast" here too.
What happened to Tin Tin has happened to Mark Twain in another way...all of his books have been changed. The original "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" and perhaps his other writings have been sanitized. The word "nigger" is no longer used in current editions. I believe "nigger" was used 138 times in "Huckleberry Finn". Look for the older editions of Twain to be pulled from library shelves and publishers lists for using "bad words". The libraries will probably just throw the older editions out or create a version of THE ROOM for them and other "politically incorrect" books that use "unacceptable" language .