Editing Hergé (section)

== Personal life ==

Hergé was a highly private person,{{Sfn|Thompson|1991|p=156}} being described by biographer [[Harry Thompson]] as "reserved [and] unostentatious".{{Sfn|Thompson|1991|p=155}} According to his biographer Pierre Sterckx, Hergé appeared "very conventional" in public, but in reality was "extremely erudite, with an insatiable curiosity, constantly on the watch".{{Sfn|Sterckx|2015|p=7}} He greatly enjoyed walking in the countryside,{{Sfn|Peeters|2012|p=92}} gardening,{{Sfn|Thompson|1991|p=156}} and art collecting,{{Sfn|Thompson|1991|p=156}} and he was a fan of [[jazz]] music.{{Sfnm|1a1=Thompson|1y=1991|1p=156|2a1=Peeters|2y=2012|2pp=206–207}} Although he disliked making public or press appearances,{{Sfn|Thompson|1991|p=155}} Hergé insisted on personally responding to all [[fan mail]] received, which took up a considerable part of his time.{{Sfn|Assouline|2009|p=151}} He stated that "not replying to children's letters would be to betray their dreams."{{Sfn|Peeters|2012|p=313}} Friends described him as a humorous man, known particularly for his [[Self-hatred#Self-deprecation|self-deprecating]] jokes.{{Sfn|Thompson|1991|p=156}} Colleagues described Hergé as [[Egocentrism|egocentric]], an assessment he agreed with.{{Sfn|Thompson|1991|p=156}} He was known to be authoritarian in dealing with his assistants and refused to share credit with them for their part in his work.{{Sfnm|1a1=Assouline|1y=2009|1pp=147, 208|2a1=Thompson|2y=1991|2p=154}} Sterckx noted that "on the one hand he could be distant, even frosty, but on the other he was affectionate".{{Sfn|Sterckx|2015|p=7}}

Throughout his first marriage he had a number of affairs with other women.{{Sfn|Assouline|2009|p=134}} He had no children, having been rendered sterile by radiation treatment,{{Sfnm|1a1=Assouline|1y=2009|1p=211|2a1=Peeters|2y=2012|2p=206}} but in the 1950s offered to adopt his brother Paul's two children, Denise and George, when their parents were experiencing trouble in their relationship. Paul declined the offer, with Denise and George later noting that they had no great affection for their uncle, deeming him awkward around children.{{Sfnm|1a1=Assouline|1y=2009|1p=211|2a1=Peeters|2y=2012|2pp=258–259}} Hergé was raised as a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]], although he was never a devout practitioner of the religion.{{Sfn|Sterckx|2015|p=12}} His adherence to Catholicism declined in later life as he developed a keen interest in [[Taoism]],{{Sfnm|1a1=Assouline|1y=2009|1pp=185, 212–213|2a1=Peeters|2y=2012|2p=332}} and became an [[Agnosticism|agnostic]].{{Sfnm|1a1=Assouline|1y=2009|1p=208|2a1=Sterckx|2y=2015|2p=12}} He was a fan of the ''[[Tao Te Ching]]'' and [[Arnaud Desjardins]]' ''The Path to Wisdom'',{{Sfn|Assouline|2009|p=213}} as well as [[Fritjof Capra]]'s ''[[The Tao of Physics]]'' and the work of [[Jean-Émile Charon]].{{Sfn|Peeters|2012|p=332}}

=== Political views ===

Politically, Hergé was a fervent [[royalist]], and remained so throughout his life,{{Sfn|Assouline|2009|p=147}} also believing in the [[Belgian nationalism|unity of Belgium]].{{Sfn|Assouline|2009|p=210}} In his early life, Hergé was "close to the traditional right-wing" of Belgian society,{{Sfn|Apostolidès|2010|p=9}} with Sterckx noting that through his work he was "plunged into rightist, even extreme right-wing circles".{{Sfn|Sterckx|2015|p=54}} According to Harry Thompson, such political ideas were not unusual in middle-class circles in Belgium of the 1920s and early 1930s, where "patriotism, Catholicism, strict morality, discipline and naivety were so inextricably bound together in everyone's lives that right-wing politics were an almost inevitable by-product. It was a world view shared by everyone, distinguished principally by its complete ignorance of the world."{{Sfn|Thompson|1991|p=24}} When Hergé took responsibility for {{Lang|fr|[[Le Petit Vingtième]]}}, he followed Wallez's instruction and allowed the newspaper to contain explicitly pro-fascist and [[Antisemitism|anti-semitic]] sentiment.{{Sfn|Assouline|2009|p=38}} Literary critic [[Jean-Marie Apostolidès]] noted that the character of Tintin was a personification of the "New Youth" concept which was promoted by the European far-right.{{Sfn|Apostolidès|2010|p=10}} Under Wallez's guidance, the early ''Adventures of Tintin'' contained explicit political messages for its young readership. ''Tintin in the Land of the Soviets'' was a work of [[Criticism of socialism|anti-socialist]] propaganda,{{Sfn|Farr|2001|p=12}} while ''Tintin in the Congo'' was designed to encourage colonialist sentiment toward the [[Belgian Congo]],{{Sfnm|1a1=Assouline|1y=2009|1p=26|2a1=Lofficier|2a2=Lofficier|2y=2002|2p=24|3a=Peeters|3y=2012|3p=45}} and ''Tintin in America'' was designed as a work of [[anti-Americanism]] heavily critical of capitalism, commercialism, and industrialisation.{{Sfnm|1a1=Farr|1y=2001|1p=35|2a1=Peeters|2y=2012|2p=56}}

In contrast to Hergé's involvement in Belgium's right-wing, Sterckx thought the cartoonist to have been "a liberal and independent spirit",{{Sfn|Sterckx|2015|p=54}} someone who was "the very opposite of a conservative [or] a reactionary of the right".{{Sfn|Sterckx|2015|p=7}} [[Michael Farr]] asserted that Hergé had "an acute political conscience" during his earlier days, as exemplified by his condemnation of racism in the United States evident in ''Tintin in America''.{{Sfn|Farr|2001|p=29}} Literary critic [[Tom McCarthy (novelist)|Tom McCarthy]] went further, remarking that ''Tintin in America'' represented the emergence of a "left-wing counter tendency" in Hergé's work that rebelled against his right-wing milieu and which was particularly critical of wealthy capitalists and industrialists.{{Sfn|McCarthy|2006|p=38}} This was furthered in ''The Blue Lotus'', in which Hergé rejected his "classically right-wing" ideas to embrace an [[anti-imperialism|anti-imperialist]] stance,{{Sfn|Peeters|2012|pp=76–77, 82}} and in a contemporary ''Quick & Flupke'' strip in which he lampooned the far-right leaders of Germany and Italy, [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Benito Mussolini]].{{Sfn|Goddin|2008|p=148}} Although many of his friends and colleagues did so in the mid-1930s, Hergé did not join the far-right [[Rexist Party]], later asserting that he "had always had an aversion to it" and commenting that "to throw my heart and soul into an ideology is the opposite of who I am."{{Sfn|Peeters|2012|p=89}}

=== Accusations of racism ===

Hergé faced repeated accusations of racism due to his portrayal of diverse ethnic groups throughout ''The Adventures of Tintin''. According to McCarthy, in ''Tintin in the Congo'' Hergé represented the Congolese as "good at heart, but backwards and lazy, in need of European mastery".{{Sfn|McCarthy|2006|p=37}} Thompson argued that Hergé had not written the book to be "deliberately racist" and that it reflected the average early 20th-century Belgian view of the Congolese, which was more patronising than malevolent.{{Sfn|Thompson|1991|p=40}} The book provoked no controversy at the time,{{Sfn|Assouline|2009|p=28}} coming to be perceived as racist only in the latter half of the 20th century.{{Sfn|Time|2010}}

In the following adventure, ''Tintin in America'', Hergé depicted members of the [[Blackfoot Confederacy|Blackfoot]] tribe of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] as "gullible, even naive", though it was nevertheless "broadly sympathetic" to their culture and plight, depicting their oppression at the hands of the United States Army.{{Sfn|Farr|2001|p=29}} ''The Blue Lotus'' received both criticism for depicting the Japanese as militaristic and buck-toothed{{Sfn|Thompson|1991|pp=62–63}} and praise for representing a less stereotypical vision of China than was the norm in Europe at the time.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Grey |first1=Tobias |title=What Tintin Taught Europeans About China |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-tintin-taught-europeans-about-china-11608919200 |access-date=8 January 2021 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=26 December 2020}}</ref>

Hergé has also been accused of utilising [[Antisemitism|anti-semitic]] stereotypes, despite Hergé's protestations that the character of Rastapopoulos was Greek, and not Jewish.{{Sfnm|1a1=Assouline|1y=2009|1p=42|2a1=Peeters|2y=2012|2p=64–65}}

From his early years, Hergé was openly critical of racism. He lambasted the pervasive racism of U.S. society in a prelude comment to ''Tintin in America'' published in ''Le Petit Vingtième'' on 20 August 1931,{{Sfn|Peeters|2012|p=56}} and ridiculed racist attitudes toward the Chinese in ''The Blue Lotus''.{{Sfnm|1a1=Thompson|1y=1991|1p=62|2a1=Lofficier|2a2=Lofficier|2y=2002|2p=35|3a1=Peeters|3y=2012|3p=77}} Peeters asserted that "Hergé was no more racist than the next man",{{Sfn|Peeters|2012|p=46}} an assessment shared by Farr, who after meeting Hergé in the 1980s commented that "you couldn't have met someone who was more open and less racist".{{Sfn|BBC News|2010}} In contrast, Laurence Grove, president of the International ''Bande Dessinée'' Society, opined that Hergé adhered to prevailing societal trends in his work, noting, "When it was fashionable to be a Nazi, he was a Nazi. When it was fashionable to be a colonial racist, that's what he was."{{Sfn|BBC News|2010}} Discussing Tintin's racist elements, the Vietnamese-American novelist [[Viet Thanh Nguyen]] observed that "Hergé's work is deeply flawed, and yet riveting narratively and aesthetically. I have forgotten all the well-intentioned, moralistic children's literature that I have read, but I haven't forgotten Hergé."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Nguyen|first=Viet Thanh|date=29 January 2022|title=Opinion {{!}} My Young Mind Was Disturbed by a Book. It Changed My Life.|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/29/opinion/culture/book-banning-viet-thanh-nguyen.html|access-date=31 January 2022|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>