Tintin Forums

Tintin books have been recenlty published in Iran for the first time after the revolution, however they have censored a lot of stuff, some of the censorships are ridiculously funny, check them out here:

http://tintinesque.com/

A fascinating insight, tintinesque. I look forward to reading more.

Extrememly interesting, are you Iranian yourself Tintinesque or merely reporting it from an outsiders view? I feel sorry for you!

But I recently saw some Jo, Zette and Jocko books in Iranian on ebay, might be worth reading them for other stuff like this!

Rik

(I posted a similar post over on the other Tintin forum, when I saw tintinesque's post there, so sorry if it is repetitious!)

That's interesting, tintinesque, but I am not sure that the "censorship" is ridiculous as such - not from the example you gave on your site, anyway.

If it is genuinely offensive to many people in the country to show a woman embracing a man who is not their husband, then to provide an adaptation which removes the offence, and allows the book to be read by a wider audience is surely to be applauded?

Maybe research has shown that the sales and advancement of Tintin will be increased and strengthened if "offensive" images are adapted?

The editing seems to have been handled tastefully and skilfully, with as much respect as the task could be done. It seems to me to be a much more faithful thing to do, and far more of a hommage, than, say, publishing the Rodier, showing Haddock and Tintin in nooses, and lynching Rastapopoulos (which is wholly un-Hergéian, in my opinion).

I went to your site fully expecting to see images blacked out or frames removed, but couldn't say I don't understand and respect the intention of the publisher. It is little different to the alterations Hergé made to The Black Island to cater to the taste of the UK publisher, or the blowing up of the rhino in Congo, which itself has been more or less supressed in English for many years.
The B&W release was also an attempt to diminish offence, and it will be interesting to see how the proposed colour release is greeted when that finally arrives.

jocko, I am Iranian myself, but I'm one of the fortunate ones who grew up reading the original pre-revolution editions (which had no censorship whatsoever).

jock123, I just replied to your post in the other forum. :)

Also, jock123, the thing is that it is NOT genuinely offensive to many people in Iran .

As is most other things, it's only offensive to a small religious minority who just happen to be in power and have contorl over everything, and thus impose their own beliefs upon others.

I take on board what you say, but again I repeat - why should it not be right to observe the worries of even a few people? What has quantity to do with it? Must a minority suffer offense just for being few in number?

The examples that you have given are not fundemental suppression, but changes of emphasis. It isn’t as if Hergé characters are being made to spout cant from some political or religious organisation.

Just because racism or anti-Semetism are NOT (your emphasis) offensive to many people, doesn’t mean that racism or anti-Semitism have any weight or standing, nor does it mean that legislating against them, or doing things to remove the possibility of offense, count as “censorship”.

Anyway, my point is not to negate the possibility of there being censorship in Iran; just that on the examples you have given, I personally don’t see what has been done as “ridiculously funny”, or that much different to the kind of changes made during Hergé’s life-time.

I could imagine him co-operating in reducing or eliminating offense when possible in such a manner were he alive today.

I can see it both ways but I have to side with tintinesque on this one...

Whilst a small minority may be offended they do not need to read them, it's unlikely that these books are going to be forced down everyones throat.

If you changed things because people get offended what do you thinks going to happen to Tintin? People get offended too easily these days and it would never end!

Rik

I have another example up on the blog, for anyone who'se interested.

I wouldn't have even noticed that if you hadn't pointed it out

Rik