A good question for French leaders: “What would Asterix do?”
Asterix and Obelix
France’s most famous freedom fighter turns 50 next week. The elite of its air force will perform acrobatics, its politicians will gush their praise, and central Paris will host a giant festival. The hero in question is Asterix the Gaul, the diminutive warrior who first appeared in the French comic magazine Pilote on Oct. 29, 1959.
France has reason to be proud of Asterix. He is arguably their greatest military hero ever. Whereas Napoleon was eventually defeated, Asterix fights on to this day. And in an era when American exports from Disney to Coca-Cola dominate the world, hundreds of millions of people have read Asterix comics (325 million to be precise), in languages ranging from Mandarin to Arabic to Latin. While the days of Joan of Arc and Charles Martel are long gone and France’s real military gumption is questioned and sometimes derided—most recently in Afghanistan—Asterix’s heroic championing of the underdog inspire the brave-of-heart around the world.
When the creator of Asterix, Rene Goscinny, died in 1977, France mourned. One obituary described his death “as if the Eiffel Tower had fallen down.” His illustrator, Albert Uderzo, then took over and since then has added nine Asterix comic books to the 24 Goscinny had completed. To Asterix purists, there is a noticeable difference in quality between the two sets. It hasn’t gone unnoticed either that the number Goscinny produced parallels the number of books in another literary classic: The Odyssey.
The comics, set in 50 B.C., tell the story of a little village that is the only place in all of Gaul unconquered by Roman legions. The village’s defenders are aided by a magic potion, mixed by their druid, that gives them superhuman strength and helps keep the Romans at bay. Asterix, the most quick-witted of the inhabitants, is sent by the village on missions across the world. On his adventures he prefers to rely on his wits, only resorting to fists when necessary. His over-sized sidekick, Obelix, on the other hand, seizes any opportunity to beat-up Romans.
Asterix’s popularity is no mystery. Many find the story of a little village defending its freedom against a tyrannical oppressor appealing. The most obvious analogy is perhaps the comparison between Asterix’s daring and the French Resistance against the Nazis in World War II. Goscinny’s Romans can also be read as the Soviet Union, or any modern-day oppressor. For some, predictably, Asterix represents the little man standing against globalization. But what unites all readers in their admiration is the humor on every page.
Not unlike movies like “Shrek,” Goscinny’s double-entendres, caricatures, and distinctive voices are enjoyed by both children and adults. Lessons are learned and history is told, with novel twists. The flat shaped nose of the Sphinx in Egypt, for example, is explained by Obelix having accidentally knocked it off during a climb. Famous pieces of art, historical figures, and geographical places are all covered with similarly humorous bents.
National stereotypes are mocked too. The British are shown as being overly-polite drinkers of hot water with a drop of milk, and driving their chariots on the left side of the road. The Germans are militaristic and humorless. The Belgians love Brussels sprouts. Readers can even have a laugh at the French: People from Marseille are hot blooded, those from Normandy overuse cream on food, and Paris is full of traffic jams.
Cutting humor laces the comic right down to the names of the characters. (And here the English translators, Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge, deserve credit). There is the village druid, Getafix; the old man, Geriatrix; and the fishmonger, Unhygenix. Asterix’s name itself is a pun. An asterisk (*) refers to a footnote or exception-Asterix personifies the exception to Roman rule.
Most Europeans need no introduction to Asterix. Even in Britain (where I spent my childhood), with its usual disdain for most things French, Asterix was a hit, perhaps because he stood as a testament to what many British wanted France to be. I remember some confused classmates when a history teacher first told us that Romans ruled all of Europe.
The one place where Asterix has never taken hold, despite appearances on the cover of Time Magazine and in the television series South Park, is in the U.S. Explanations given range from the uncharitable (the jokes are too sophisticated) to the understandable (the American market is already saturated) to the most plausible (Asterix is culturally European; America never had a Roman invasion).
It’s not too late, however, for Americans to reconsider Asterix and join the celebrations. Saluting a great freedom fighter is very American. It could also do wonders for relations with France. “What would Asterix do?” has the potential to be a winning argument in convincing a skeptical French leader to help defend freedom against a tyrannical force. Indeed one can easily imagine Asterix and Obelix liberating North Korea’s concentration camps, knocking the heads of Iranian Revolutionary Guards together, and freeing Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest. They certainly wouldn’t hesitate to meet the Dalai Lama.
And there is even reason to suspect that, in creating his libertarian-inclined character, Goscinny took inspiration not only from France’s heroes, but also from the U.S. For where does Asterix hail from? A fictional village, in what used to be called Armorica. Close enough.
Mr. Freedman is director of policy analysis and communications at the Soufan Group, a strategic consultancy.
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Full article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704500604574484640860393848.html
Tongue in cheek no doubt, the writer stated:
“And there is even reason to suspect that, in creating his libertarian-inclined character, Goscinny took inspiration not only from France’s heroes, but also from the U.S. For where does Asterix hail from? A fictional village, in what used to be called Armorica. Close enough.”
Armorica has no link whatever with America and there is no evidence of any inspiration from the U.S.:
1- What is Armorica?
Armorica or Aremorica is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul that includes the Brittany peninsula and the territory between the Seine and Loire rivers, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic coast.[1] The toponym is based on the Gaulish phrase are-mori “on/at [the] sea”, made into the Gaulish place name Aremorica (*are-mor-ika ) ‘Place by the Sea’. The suffix -ika was first used to create adjectival forms and then, names. The original designation was vague, including a large part of what became Normandy in the 10th century and, in some interpretations, the whole of the coast down to the Pyrenees. Later, the term became restricted to Brittany.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armorica
2- “Goscinny died suddenly in 1977 but Uderzo later continued the series alone, extending an international series of adventures of the warrior, his friend Obelix and his pet, Dogmatix.
Uderzo said the pair originally sought to create an authentically French comic. “What we wanted with Pilote was to create our own, homegrown comic strip heroes, because at the time youth magazines were full of comic strips from America,” he told the news conference.”
Source: Comic Book Hero Asterix the Gaul Hits 50
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,654167,00.html