Quote:
Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel
the Tintin books are considered classic children's comic books today and they are really a treasure i think. however some of them present quite shockingly racist (by our standards today) stories and attitudes. when we read them, we should think "oh my, look how racist our society was at the time these were written ; look how we have changed our perspective since then," and even examine why people had these opinions at the time and how they shaped many historical events, rather than thinking "oh, Hergé thought africans were a bunch of monkeys, they must really be so."
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I completely agree, Zelda. Another example are the "Dr. Thorndyke" detective stories of R.A. Freeman. Excellent stories, but they contain some quite shockingly crude (by today's standards) stereotypes of Jewish characters. Unfortunately, anti-Semitism was rife in the society in which Freeman grew up (late 19th and early 20th century Britain), and he is reflecting the views of that society.
Your point about using such things as an example of how our views have changed is, I think, a very well-made one.