So...about those Tintin shenanigans...

Wouldn't it be simpler to explain to children

You mean, say, if Lonsdale-Cooper and Turner had written an explanatoory foreword, that could have been included in this edition on the indicia page? If only someone had had the foresight!

It might be that unlike Narnia, the Democratic Republic of Congo is an actual country with people living in it who can be offended by how they are portrayed in books.

I have heard that Tintin in the Congo is very bad, but does feature a great zen moment when Tintin shoots an entire herd of antelope.

I actually haven't read the English colour edition -- is there a foreword?

No, I mean actually explaining to them, by their fathers.

I thought Congo had disappeared (gotta know my decolonization better), so yeah, that's a valid argument. But even though: we all grew up with (I know I did) some weird, colonialistic and plain wrong expressions of entertainment and I, at least, didn't turn out to be a racist...and besides "Tintin In Congo" (alongside "Tintin and The Soviets") is a really, really, bad comic, that pales in comparison with the latter Tintin books, was disowned by Herge and whose portrayal of the places visited is completely unrealistic.

What I think I'm meaning to say is that it's so unrealistic and, above all, OLD, that I feel they are overreacting a little.

Wouldn't it be simpler to explain to children that it's an outdated, badly made, badly researched piece of propaganda, that has nothing to do with other Tintin stories?. Does "the congo" says something more to kids today than "narnia"?.

I think parental explanations would be pretty mandatory for Tintin in general, which is often racist and almost always imperialistic. I don't think kids should be kept from reading it anymore than I think they shouldn't get to read Kipling, because after all both of these have all sorts of wonder and laughs and awesomeness that it'd be a shame for kids to miss out on, but parents should talk about this stuff.

Exactly!
And I think that what bugs me most is that these works should be read, and even pointed at and laugh at a little, just to prove that their depictions are ridiculous, simplistic and (sometimes) even racist, not shunned into the adult section of the bookstore and given the aura of the prohibited and forbidden.

Actually, I have no problem with Tintin and the Congo being shunted to the adult section. It's pretty nasty stuff. (And I speak as a self-confessed Herge obsessive.)

The giraffe bit is ROFLs, though.

Also, the idea that Herge "learned" from his mistakes is a bit overdone -- "The Red Sea Sharks" is pretty horrendous too (although of course it's a great story, which Congo isn't).

I actually haven't read the English colour edition -- is there a foreword?

yeah.

"this fuss is slly" and "parents should talk to their kids" are so bovs that it's hardly worth bringing up.