Little, Brown Drops Tintin Au Congo

As the French publisher Casterman works with the Herge estate to resolve complaints emanating from sources in that country about the outdated to awful depictions of Africans in Tintin Au Congo, the American publisher Little, Brown has pulled the book from its list and decided against its inclusion in a forthcoming complete Tintin set. Kudos to Publishers Weekly for picking up on the story.

This is a terrible move by Little, Brown. It establishes an unfortunate and massively untenable precedent, invests in the book a kind of power that is better off being defused by rational engagement, and as it's likely the company is either unwilling or unable by contract to let someone who wants to publish the book in a competitive edition, this decision effectively keeps it from market in a way that approaches the thoroughness as if a law were passed against it. It's worse in America than it would be in France, even, because the notion of a culture moving a book from the shops to the library shelves is more convincing in a country where you can believe it would be available in most libraries.

A lot of art offends without directly meaning to, embodying elements of racism, sexism, classism, and for those of us with religious beliefs or even certain political beliefs dozens of other upsetting notions if not outright instances of venomous reprisal against values we hold dear. I imagine a lot of Tintin offends someone, not just this one book. I don't understand the put in a drawer notion, because no drawer will ever be big enough. I guess this is the point where I make the joke that if this somehow ends up with future generations never having to see Cuba Gooding Jr.'s performance in Lightning Jack, it's all good. But I'm not certain there's anything funny about this.
 
posted 10:18 pm PST | Permalink
 

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