Flash Gordon is mere escapism
The highly-regarded (I regard his opinion highly) Mr. Barbieri writes:
The original Flash Gordon, by Alex Raimond, was one of the worst-written comics in the history of comics. I have read it all, though in translation, and the writing stinks. Its importance was twofold: it unleashed the immense artistic genius of Raimond, and it opened to comics a whole new imaginative world – or rather worlds, because Mongo seems capable of becoming just about anything you want it to be. But being extremely badly written, it is also highly political. It is blindingly racist: Ming is the very incarnation of the Yellow Peril, Gordon is an Aryan superman (Gordon and all the good guys and girls come as close to nudity as was possible at the time, and there are several elements of sexual fantasy), and colonialism is a clear presence throughout the story. There are troops who wear the uniform of French Foreign Legion troopers, and primitive men with all the imbecility that racist fiction always bestows on primitive men. The great issue of American life, black people, is by-passed by never having a single one around – everyone is light-skinned, whether Eastern or Western in type; and this corresponds with the “benign neglect” with which the average American preferred to treat the racial question at the time – just forget that there were blacks in America. Military life and postures are taken for granted and are at the base of all values: everyone is a part of one fighting army or another, and people relate to each other as fighting men. Indeed, the worst sin of Ming is that he does not talk or think like a soldier: he is always treacherous, disloyal, plotting, underhanded. Althoughhe has the largest armies in Mongo, he prefers to get at his enemies by means of treachery (that is, if you look at it from another viewpoint, he prefers not to use war and violence). All these are political features, and I grant you that I represented them as much from an opposition side as I could (probably because I hate the writing in FG); but do not tell me that they are mere escapism.
I respectfully must disagree both with the assessment of Flash Gordon as an artistic work, and with the assessment of it as racist, Aryan, whatnot. Here your normal diamond clarity of insight into matter of comics and politics has simply failed you.
Come now: why does Ming look and sound vaguely oriental? Because things vaguely oriental have the air of the exotic about them: it is a shorthand comic book image to portray the idea of unexplored far places. A far planet is supposed to look exotic. It was exotic for the sake of exotic, not exotic for the sake of playing up white man’s fear of the yellow man. I can show you a picture of Ming dressed in a Roman outfit, complete with plume on a Hollywood version of a centurion’s helmet, if you like. Why does Ming dress like a Mandarin some times and a Roman other times? Because its neat.
For that matter, why is there a winged Viking from a flying city held aloft by atomic rays? Because Vikings are neat. Why is Robin Hood and his Merry Men in Lincoln Green on Mongo, namely Barin of Arboria? Because Robin Hood is neat. Why is Ayesha, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed on the planet Mongo, this time reincarnated as Azura, Queen of Magic, complete with a memory of the reincarnation of Flash as Callicrates? Because everyone copied the idea of an immortal queen from H. Rider Haggard, because the idea was neat.
Flash is a blonde, blue-eyed hero, but his actions are the very opposite of anything preaching race-supremacy. His whole purpose in the story is to get the various warlike races of Mongo to cooperate against their mutual foe, the imperial Ming. His is the very voice and exemplar of racial toleration: a walking ad for the Melting Pot. He is more like William of Orange than like Goering.
I notice also that Dale is a trim brunette. Where is our blonde master race, suddenly? And Zarkov is Slavic. Aren’t these the untermenschen? I do not see how the political theory can explain him. The “It’s Neat” theory explains him rather neatly: Zarkov is Slavic because he is Nickolai Tessla, the eccentric inventor every ‘mad scientist’ in pulpdom is modeled after.
(Aha! Dale does turn into a blonde for the film serial version. Is this because of a sinister racist agenda, then? Or is it because all the girls in Hollywood were supposed to look like Jean Harlowe that season?)
Why is Thun the Lion-Man the sidekick? I am not sure where this fits in with the racist theory, which contorts itself to pretend a loyal and brave supporting characters is an insult to the character thus portrayed, but to me it looks like the artist wanted to give his hero for his native sidekick a Tarzan, or Conan the Barbarian, or Hiawatha.
I grant you that Ming is supposed to be Fu Manchu. This is because Fu Manchu is the most impressive bad guy of all pulpdom ever. I notice that Princess Aura is Mongo’s version of Fa So Loee, the daughter of Fu Manchu–but here the political/racist theme interpretation get strained.
Why, if she represents the female Yellow Peril, does Aura look like a fashion model from New York, rather than a Dragon Lady from Peking, and have a Greek name? I note that in the movie, she is played by the sultry Ornella Muti (from the exotic, romantic land of Italy, not of Cathay).
Why are the beast-men dressed like cavemen? Because cavemen are neat–see Edgar Rice Burroughs for confirmation of this. Why have a planet boasting both rayguns and dinosaurs, spacerockets and swordfights? Why else? Rockets and sword go together–ask Frank Herbert and Geo Lucas for confirmation of this.
The other evidence you give for a political slant to Flash Gordon is that the evil tyrant is treacherous and the hero fights honorably, with chivalry. If this is a political statement, it is one played out on every schoolyard where little boys get into fistfights. This is the code of every single boy’s adventure story ever written since the world began.
No, if your theory is to hold water, my dear sir, you have to explain, not merely one character of out many, but the whole theme and scope of the work. My theory is that Flash Gordon is every boy’s adventure story from TREASURE ISLAND to KING SOLOMON’S MINES all rolled up onto one: Fu Manchu is there, yes, but so is Robin Hood (Barin) and Tarzan (Thun) and Eric the Red (Vultan) and Ayesha (Azura) and Tessla (Zarkov). And I have not even mentioned Frigia and Tropica, or the undersea city (shades of Captain Nemo). None of these fits with your ‘Yellow Peril’ theory of Mongo.
I set you the following challenge: if FLASH GORDON is a political tract in disguise, tell me what is NOT a political tract in disguise? (Is The Shadow a Yellow Peril racist because his foe (one of many) is Shiwan Khan? Of course, by that logic he is a Luddite, too, because another foe (one of many) is an evil robot machine.) If FLASH GORDON is not pure escapism, what is?
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
