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Hergé: Seeking quotes from him on his political views?

marsbar
Moderator
#1 · Posted: 26 Mar 2009 10:20
Request for help from site reader, Mikko Ellila:
Could you post a quote from Hergé about his political opinions?
In the famous interview by Sadoul, he says something like "I am leaning somewhat toward the right" etc.
I can't find this quote on-line in French, and I don't want to order the book from Amazon just to get this one quote.
Amilah
Member
#2 · Posted: 26 Mar 2009 17:31
Well, there would be 253 other reasons to order that book.

Anyway, the quote you're looking for is probably (p.93 of the Casterman [2000] edition):

J'essaye avant tout d'être un homme de bonne foi. Je ne nie pas un arrière-fond de "droitisme", parce que j'ai fait mes classes dans un collège catholique, comme un jeune bourgeois. Mais je ne me sens pas du tout "bourgeois", je ne me sens pas plus "de droite" que "de gauche". Ce qui est vrai, c'est que je suis un homme d'ordre.
Which translates roughly as :
I try, above all, to be a man of good faith. I don't deny having an ingrained "rightism" about me, because I've been educated in a Catholic school, like a young bourgeois. But I don't feel "bourgeois" at all, I don't feel more "right-wing" than "left-wing". What is true, is that I am a man of order.
I've already quoted/translated somewhere on the forum this little puerto-allegre-flavored rant, from the very same book (p.61 of the Casterman [2000] edition) :

- Vous pensez donc que les puissances d'argent mènent le monde ?

- J'en suis convaincu. Pas de la manière rocambolesque qu'on voit dans Tintin... Mais l'économie mène le monde, les puissances industrielles et financières conditionnent notre mode de vie. Ces messieurs, évidemment, ne portent pas de cagoules quand ils sont réunis dans leurs conseils d'administration. Mais le résultat est le même que s'ils en portaient. Produire, tel est leur premier objectif. Produire toujours davantage. Produire, même s'il faut, pour cela, souiller les rivières, la mer, le ciel ; même s'il faut détruire les plantes, les forêts, les animaux. Produire et nous conditionner pour nous faire consommer de plus en plus, de plus en plus d'automobiles, de dèodorant, de spectacle, de sexe, de tourisme... C'est contre cette forme de civilisation - si l'on peut encore appeler ça "civilisation" - que se révolte aujourd'hui une partie de la jeunesse, surtout aux Etats-Unis. Qu'on ne s'y trompe pas : la contestation à  tort et à  travers, les cheveux longs, les jeans, les serre-tête, l'objection de conscience, la pop-music, la recherche de certaines philosophies orientales, la drogue même sont autant de signes du refus opposé par cette jeunesse à  ce genre de vie. Cette jeunesse refuse de se laisser résuire au rôle de bète à consommer.

- Et Tintin, lui, est-il aussi contre la société de consommation ?

- Tout à fait contre, bien sûr. Tintin a toujours pris parti pour les opprimés. Et les opprimés, dans ce cas-ci, c'est nous tous, victimes que nous sommes de cette forme de société.
And quite typical is also this part about racism (p.76 of the Casterman [2000] edition):

- Maintenant, serais-je quand même raciste à mon insu ? Le racisme est une notion enracinée fortement dans l'esprit et difficile à extirper. Il faut beaucoup d'intelligence et de conscience pour ne pas rester replié sur soi-même, sur ses traditions propres, pour comprendre vraiment. [...] La barrière des cultures, des coutumes, des façons de vivre est indéniable. Si j'avais une fille, j'hésiterais sans doute à  approuver son marriage avec un éranger, et cela pour lui éviter de futures difficultés. Mais lorsque je raisonne ainsi, peut-être suis-je encore raciste?

- Oui.

- Ah ah. Diable.
That is (again clumsily translated by me) :

Now am I a racist without knowing it ? Racism is a notion strongly rooted in the mind, and hard to extirpate. It requires a lot of intelligence and consciousness, in order to not stay withdrawn into oneself, on his own traditions, to understand truly. [...] The barrier of cultures, customs, lifestyles, can't be denied. If I had a daughter, I'd probably hesitate to approve her marriage with a foreigner, and this to spare her future difficulties. But when I think that way, maybe I'm still a racist ?

- Yes.

- Ah ah. Damn.
This book shows Hergé was a clever, subtle, complex fellow, always questionning himself, always trying to look from a certain distance at the person he was, the realities of his world, and what he owed to his education and integrated thinking habits. Makes him (and this book) highly interesting. That's why I took the time to quote more than you asked. One quote won't suffice to grasp who Hergé was. Three won't either, but they help realising how much more is required.
Balthazar
Moderator
#3 · Posted: 26 Mar 2009 20:19
Thanks for posting all those interesting quotes and doing all that translation work, Amilah.
I wish someone would translate that book (and several others about Hergé and his work) into English. (Or that I'd wake up one morning with a fluent knowledge of French!)

I think Hergé also said (possibly in this same interview) something like:

"The left always accuse me of being right-wing; the right always accuse me of being left wing."

That's entirely from memory, though; I read it (in translation) in one biography or another (probably Harry Thompson's) but I've probably got the wording wrong.

Anyway, this refusal to commit to any simplistic political "side" or fixed belief (especially in post-war years) is maybe relevant to the way he deliberately mixed up left- and right-identifiers in the paraphanalia of the Kurvi Tash (Plexi Glazs) and Tapioca regimes.

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