In The Guardian, I read that in France there are calls for Asterix the Gaul to be removed as the face of a campaign promoting childrens' rights. Jean-Pierre Rozenczveig, of Defence for Children International, apparently feels that Asterix is too French, for a wonderful multicultural society like, um, France. The portrayal of Asterix's resistance to the Roman invaders also has inappropriate connotations, according to M. Rozenczveig, given that France is "aspiring to a happy and peaceful coexistence of all its diverse groups".Even in terms of a European continent that is busily suppressing its own culture to make way for that of the immigrants, this has to be one of the most idiotic things I've ever heard. To paraphrase Obelix, "these leftists are crazy"! Not only are the Asterix books brilliant, but they have been translated into over a hundred languages. It seems unlikely that they would have gained such a vast readership all over the world if they were bigotedly Gallocentric.
But, of course, all this takes a back seat when compared with the fact that Asterix and his friends are hideously white (as Gaul/France, and the rest of Europe, tended to be 2,000 years ago). However, I have the solution. Because I know of a set of cartoons depicting a non-white Arab Muslim and his friends, which I feel fit very well with the new, multicultural image of France. I'm sure they'd go down well...
2 comments:
I have great hopes of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Heh. That was the one 'comic' that i avidly read at the school library. I don't know why but for some reason i could follow the story well in this comic and they always made me smile. Other than that i could never get into comics, i was always more of a book person. (another odd thing is that i didnt have a favourite character of the two)
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