Good news for Tintinologists, if not guards of political correctness: Tintin in the Congo has been deemed “not racist” by a Belgian judicial adviser.
Tintin Ruling
Highly Recommended
The New York Times recommends eight new books it thinks you’ll like, including Alan Moore‘s Jerusalem, which we reviewed last month, and two novels – Jonathan Lethem‘s A Gambler’s Anatomy, and Jade Chang‘s The Wangs vs. the World – that were on our own most-anticipated October list.
“The town was called Dayton.”
Recommended Reading: Rachael Maddux’s “Hail Dayton,” which features one of the finest opening paragraphs ever printed.
Obsessing Over Women
Parul Sehgal cures your “bland biography”-induced malaise by prescribing “three delightfully deranging books” in which writers “riff on the women who’ve consumed them.”
●
●
We Do Not Know Her Real Name
Today in 1773, 20-year-old Phillis Wheatley became the first published African-American author of a book of poetry. Pair with our own Ed Simon‘s case for the candidacy of her work as national epic.
●
●
3 comments:
Add Your Comment: Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
A 19th-Century It Girl
Rachel Vorona Cote takes a look at Letitia Landon's many identities and how she went on to become a cautionary tale about talented women.
●
●
●
Reading for Representation
In 2013, only 93 of 3,200 children’s books were about black characters, according to a new study. “Children of color remain outside the boundaries of imagination,” Christopher Myers writes about the absence. In a follow-up piece, his father and fellow author Walter Dean Myers examines the paralyzing effect under-representation can have on readers. “Books did not become my enemies. They were more like friends with whom I no longer felt comfortable. I stopped reading,” he writes.
●
●
Charm City, Murdaland
In a piece for Aeon, D. Watkins – who previously blew onto the scene with his Salon essay, “Too Poor for Pop Culture” – looks into “the two Baltimores” he has known. Tracing the city’s history back to the Civil War, he defines the city as “a place split on ideologies because it’s too south to be north and too north to be south.”
●
●
Russia Debriefing
Mikhail Gorbachev is calling for an annulment of the recent Moscow elections because he’s concerned about “falsifications and rigging.” For your part, you can join the Stateside movement to echo Mr. Gorbachev’s call. Elsewhere, the Russian Socialist Movement is equally outraged. n+1 editor Keith Gessen has also translated some of the local protests.
●
●
Who was the Belgian judicial adviser — King Leopold II?
Oh yes it is!
When my son was young we read all the Tintin books together (well, he was five, I read to him). I’ve read through the Congo book to the best of my French abilities (there’s no English edition, thank god), and it’s utterly appalling.
Good one, Tom–the ghost of King Leopold II must be haunting judicial corridors in Belgium.