IMPERIALIST · . IDEOLOGY .
IN THE DISNEY
COMIC
The Name "Donald Duck" is the
Trademark Property and the Cartoon Drawings are
the Copyrighted Material Qf Walt Disney Productions.
There is no connection between LG. Editions, Inc. and
Walt Disney and these materials are used without
the authorization or consent of
Walt Disney Productions.
How to Read Donald Duck
was originally published in Chile as' Para Leer al Pato Donald
by Ediciones Universitarias de Valparafso, in 1971.
Copyright © Ariel Dorfman andI Armand Mattelart 1971
OTHER EDITIONS:
Para Leer al Pato Donald, Buenos Aires, 1972
Come Leggere Paperino, Milan, 1972
Para Leer al Pato Donald, Havana, 1974
Para Ler 0 Pato Donald, Lisbon, 1975
Donald I'lmposteur, Paris, 1976
Konsten Att Lasa Kalle Anka, Stockholm, 1977
Walt Disney's "Dritte Welt", Berlin, 1977
Anders And i den Tredje Verden, Copenhagen, 1978
Hoes Lees ik Donald Duck, Nijmegen, 1978
Para LerD Pato Donald, Rio de Janeiro, 1978
with further editions in
Greek (1979), Finnish (1980),Japanese (1983),
Serbo-Croat, Hungarian and Turkish.
How To Read Donald Duck
English Translation Copyright@I.G. Editions, Inc. 1975, 1984, 1991
Preface, lntroduction, Bibliography & Appendix
Copyright@I.G. Editions, Inc. 1975,1984,1991
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying or recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the Publisher, I.G. Editions, Inc.
For information please address
International General, Post Office Box 350,
New York, N.Y. 10013, USA.
ISBN: 0-88477-037-0
Fourth Printing
(Corrected & Enlarged Edition)
Printed in Hungary 1991
CONTENTS
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION
Ariel Dorfman & Armand Mattelart
9
INTRODUCTION TO THE ENGLISH EDITION (1991)
David Kunzle
11
APOLOGY FOR DUCKOLOGY
25
INTRODUCTION: INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO BECOME A
GENERAL IN THE DISNEYLAND CLUB
27
I. UNCLE, BUY ME A CONTRACEPTIVE . . .
33
II. FROM THE CHILD TO THE NOBLE SAVAGE
41
III. FROM THE NOBLE SAVAGE TO THE THIRD WORLD
48
IV. THE GREAT PARACHUTIST
61
V. THE IDEAS MACHINE
70
VI. THE AGE OF THE DEAD STATUES
80
CONCLUSION: POWER TO DONALD DUCK?
95
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
100
APPENDIX:
DONALD DUCK VS. CHILEAN SOCIALISM:
A FAIR USE EXCHANGE
John Shelton Lawrence
113
PREFACE
TO THE ENGLISH·· EDITION
To say that this book was burnt in Chile
should not come as a surprise to anyone.
Hundreds of books were de stroyed, and
thousands more prohibited and censored.
It was written in the middle of 1971, in the
middle of the Chilean revolutionary process.
Copper had been rescued, the land was being
returned to the peasantry, the whole Chilean
people were recovering the industries that during
the twentieth century had been the means of
enrichment for Mr. Rockefe l l er, Grace,
Guggenheim, and Morgan. Because this process
was intolerable to the United States government
and its multinational corporations, it had to be
stopped. They organized a plan, which at the
time was suspected, and since has been confirmed
by Mr. Kissinger, Ford and Colby to have
been directed and financed by the United States
intelligence services. Their objective: to overthrow
the constitutional government of Chile. To
realize their objective, an "invisible blockade"
was imposed: credits were denied, spare parts
purchased for industrial machinery were not sent,
and later, the Chilean State bank accounts in the
U.S. were blocked, and an embargo preventing
the sale of Chilean copper throughout the world
was organized.
There were, however, two items which were
not blocked: planes, tanks, ships and technical
assistance for the Chilean armed forces; and
magazines, TV serials, advertising, and public
opinion polls for the Chilean mass media, which
continued, for the most part, to be in the hands
of the smaII group which was losing its privileges.
To maintain them, with those of the U.S., their
media prepared the climate for the bourgeois
i n s urrection which finally materialized some
years later on the 11th of September 1973. Each
day, with expert U.S. advice, in each newspaper,
each weekly, each monthly magazine, each news
dispatch, each movie, and each comic book, their
arsenal of psychological warfare was fortified. In
the words of General Pinochet, the point was to
"conquer the minds," while in the words of
Donald Duck (in the magazine Disneylandia
published in December 1971, coinciding with the
first mass rallies of native fascism, the so-called
"march of the empty pots and pans") the point
was to "restore the king."
But the people did not want the restoration
of the king nor of the businessman. The popular
Chilean cultural offensive, which accompanied
the social and economic liberation, took multiple
forms: w a l l p�intings, popular papers, TV
programs, motion pictures, theater, songs, literature.
In all areas of human activity, with dif-
fering degrees of intensity, the people expressed
their will. Perhaps the most important arm of
t h is of fensive, was the work of the State
Publishing House IIQuimantu," a word meaning
"Sunshine of Knowledge" in the language of the
native Chilean Mapuche indians. In two and a
half years it published five million books; twice
the amount which had been published in all of
Chile during the past seventy years. In addition,
i t transformed the content of some of the
'magazines it had inherited from before the
Popular Unity government, and created new
ones. It is in this multi-faceted context, with a
people on the march to cultural liberation - a
process which also meant criticizing the "mass"
cultural merchandise exported so profitably by
the U.S. to the Third World - that How to Read
Donald Duck was generated. We simply answered
a practical need; it was not an academic exercise.
For the mad dog warriors on that September
11th, there were no paintings on the walls. There
were only enormous "stains" which dirtied the
city and memory. They, using the fascist youth
brigades, whitewashed all the singing, many-
10
colored walls of the nation. They broke records,
murdered singers, destroyed radios and printing
presses, emprisoned and executed journalists, so
that nothing would be left to remind anybody of
anything about the struggle for national libera­
tion.
But it was not enough to clean these cultural
"stains" from the
'
street. The most important
task was to eliminate all those who bore the
"stain" inside themselves, the fighters, workers,
peas ant s , employees, students, and patriotic
soldiers, to eliminate these creators of a new life,
to eliminate this new life which grew, and for
which we all created.
This book, conceived for the Chilean people,
and our urgent needs, produced in the midst of
our struggle, is now being published far from
Chile in the uncleland of Disney, behind the
barbed wire network of ITT.
Mr. Disney, we are returning your Duck.
Feathers plucked and well-roasted. Look inside,
you can see the handwriting on the wall, our
hands still writing on the wall:
Donald, Go Home!
Dorfman and Mattelart
January 1975,
in exile
INTRODUCTION
TO THE ENGLISH EDITION
(1991)
David Kunzle
"Entertainment is America's second biggest
net export (behind aerospace) .... Today
culture may be the country's most important
product, the real source of economic power
and its political influence in the world."
(Time, 24 December 1990)
The names of the Presidents change; that of
Disney remains. Sixty-two years after the birth of
Mickey Mouse, twenty-four years after the death of
his master, Disney's may be the most widely known
North American name in the world. He is, arguably,
the century's most .important figure in bourgeois
popular culture. He has done more than any single
person to disseminate around the world certain
myths upon which that culture has thrived. notably
that of an "innocence" supposedly universal, beyond
place. beyond time-and beyond criticism.
The myth of U.S. political "innocence" is at last
being dismantled. and the reality which it masks lies
in significant areas exposed to public view. But the
Great American Dream of cultural innocence still
holds a global imagination in thrall. The first major
breach into the Disney part of this dream was made
by Richard Schickel's The Disney Version: The Life,
Times, Art and Commerce of Walt Disney (1968).
But even this analYSiS, penetrating and caustic as it
is, in many respects remains prey to the illusion that
Disney productions. even at their worst. are·
somehow redeemed by the fact that. made in
"innocent fun." they are socially harmless.
Disney is no mean conjuror, and it has taken the
eye of a Dorfman and Mattelart to expose the
magician'S sleight of hand to reveal the scowl of
capitalist ideology behind the laughing mask, the
iron fist beneath the Mouse's glove. The value of
their work lies in the light it throws not so much
upon a particular group of comics, or even a
particular cultural entrepreneur, but on the way in
which capitalist and imperialist values are supported
by its culture. And the very simplicity of the comic
has enabled the authors to make simply visible a
very complicated process.
While many cultural critics in the United States
bridle at the magician'S unctuous patter, and shrink
from his bland fakery, they fail to recognize just
what he is faking, and the extent to which it is not
just things, but people he manipulates. It is not
merely animatronic robots that he mold$, but human
beings as well. Unfortunatelyt the army of media
critics have focused over the past decades
principally on the "sex-and-violence" films, uhorror
comics" and the peculiar inanities of the TV
comedy t as the great bludgeons of the popular
sensibility. If important sectors of the intelligentsia in
the U.S. have been lulled into silent complicity with
Disney, it can only be because they share his basic
values and see the broad public as enjoying the
same cultural privileges; but this complicity
becomes positively criminal when their common
ideology is imposed upon non-capitalist,
underdeveloped countries, ignoring the grotesque
disparity between the Disney dream of wealth and
leisure, and the real needs in the Third World.
It is no accident that the first thoroughgoing
analysis of the Disney Ideology should come from
one of the most economically and culturally
dependent colonies of the U.S. empire. How To
Read Donald Duck was born In the heat of the
struggle to free Chile from that dependency; and It
has since become. with Its many Latin American
editions. a most potent Instrument for the
interpretation of bourgeois media In the Third World.
Until 1970. Chile was cof11)letely In pawn to U.S.
corporate Interests; its foreign debt was the second
highest per capita In the world. And even under the
Popular Unity government (1970-1973), which
initiated the peaceful road to socialism, it proved
easier to nationalize copper than to free the mass
media from U.S. Influence. The most popular TV
channel in Chile imported about haH its material
from the U.S. (including FBI, Mission Impossible,
Disneyland, etc.), and until June 1972,
'
eighty
percent of the films shown in the cinemas (Chile
had virtually no native film Industry) came from the
U.S. The m ajor chain of newspape rs and
magazines, including EI Mercurio, was owned by
Agustin Edwards, a Vice-President of Pepsi Cola,
who also controlled many of the largest Industrial
corporations in Chile, while he was a resident in
Miami. With so much of the mass media serving
conservative interests. the government of the
Popular Unity tried to reach the people through
certain alternative media, such as the poster, the
mural and a new kind of comic book. 1
1 Cf. Herbert Schiller and Dallas Smythe "Chile: An End
to Cuhural Colonialism" Society, March 1972, pp. 35-39,
61. And David Kunzle "Art of the New Chile: Mural,
Poster and Comic Book in a 'Revolutionary Process' II in
Aft and ArchittJCIurs in the Service of Politics, edited by
Henry Millon and Linda Nochlin, Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press, 1978.
2 EI Mercurio (Santiago de Chile).13 August 1971. The
passage below is slightly abridged from that published on
pages 80-81 in the Chilean edition of How To Read
Donald Duck.
IIAmong the objectives pursued by the Popular Unity
government appears to be the creation of a new mentality
in the younger generation. In order to achieve this
purpose, typical ot all Marxist societies, the authorities
are intervening In education and the advertising media
and resorting to various expedients.
·Persons responsible to the Government maintain that
education shall be one of the means calculated to
achieve this purpose. A severe critique is thus being
instituted at this level against teaching methods,
textbooks, and the attitude of broad sectors of the
nation's teachers who refuse to become an instrument of
propaganda.
aWe register no surprise at the emphasis placed upon
changing the mentality of school children, who in their
immaturity cannot detect the subtle ideological
contraband to which they are being subject.
"There are however other lines of access being forged
to the juvenile mind, notably the magazines and
publications which the State publishing house has just
launched under literary mentors both Chilean and
foreign txrt in either case of proven Marxist militancy.
"It should be stressed that not even the vehicles ot
12
The ubiquitous magazine and newspaper kiosks of
Chile were emblazoned with the garish covers of
U.S. and U.S.-style comics (including some no
longer known in the metropolitan country):
Superman, The Lone Ranger, Red Ryder, Flash
Gordon, etc.-and, of course. the various Disney
magazines. In few countries of the wortd did Disney
so completely dominate the so called "children's
comic" market, a term which in Chile (as In much of
the Third World) Includes magazines also read by
adults. But under the aegis of the Popular Unity
government publishing house Ouimantu, there
developed a forceful resistance to the Disney
hegemony.
As part of this cultural offenSive, How To Read
Donald Duck became a bestseller on publication in
late 1971, and subsequently in other Latin American
editions; and, as a practical alternative there was
created, in Cabro Chico (Little Kid, upon which
Dorfman and Mattelart also collaborated), a
delightful children's comic designed to drive a
wedge of new values into the U.S.-disnified cultural
climate of old. Both ventures had to compete in a
market where the bourgeois media were long
entrenched and had established their own strictly
commercial criteria for the struggle, and both were
too successful not to have aroused the hostility of
the bourgeois press. EI Mercurio, the leading
reactionary mass daily in Chile, under the headline
"Warning to Parents"2 denounced them as part of a
government "plot" to seize control of education and
juvenile recreation and amusement are exempt from this
process, which aims to diminish the popularity of
consecrated characters of world literature, and at the
same time replace them with new models cooked up by
the Popular Unity propaganda experts.
aFor sometime now the pseudo-sociologists have been
clamoring, in their tortuous jargon, against certain comic
books with an international circulation, judged to be
disastrous in that they represent vehicles of intellectual
colonization for those who are exposed to them ... Since
clumsy forms of propaganda would not be acceptable to
parents and guardians, children are systematically given
carefully distilled doses of propaganda from an early age,
in order to channel them in later years in Marxist
directions.
IIJuvenile literature has also been exploited so that the
parents themselves should be exposed to ideological
indoctrination, for which purpose spe cial adult
supplements are included. It is illustrative of Marxist
procedures that a State enterprise should sponsor
initiatives of this kind, with the collaboration of foreign
personnel.
"The program of the Popular Unity demands that the
communications media should be educational in spirit.
Now we are discovering that this "education" is no more
than the instrument for doctrinaire proselytization
imposed from the tenderest years in so insidious and
deceitful a form, that many people have no idea of the
real purposes being pursued by these publications."
It is now widely known, even in the U.S., that EI
Mercurio was CIA fund�: -Approximately haH the CIA
funds (one million dollars) were funnelled to the
opposition press, notably the nation's leading daily, EI
Mercurio. " (Time, 30 September 1974. p.29).
the media, "brainwash" the young, inject them with
"subtle ideological contraband," and "poison" their
minds against Disney chara cters. The article
referred repeatedly to "mentors both Chilean and
foreign" (i.e. the authors of the present work, whose
names are of German-Jewish and Belgian origin) in
an appeal to the crudest kind of xenophobia.
The Chilean bourgeois press resorted to the
grossest lies, distortions and scare campaigns In
order to undermine confidence in the Popular Unity
government, accusing the government of doing
what they aspired to do themselves: censor and
3 In autumn 1973, UNESCO voted by 32 to 2 to condemn
the book-burning in Chile. The U.S. (with Taiwan) voted
with the Junta.
"Hey, Hegel!
13
silence the voice of their opponents. And seeing
that, despite their machinations, popular support for
the govemment grew louder every day, they called
upon the military to intervene by force of arms.
On September 11, 1973 the Chilean armed forces
executed, with U.S. aid, the bloodiest
counterrevolution in the history of the continent.
Tens of thousands of workers and government
supporters were killed. All art and literature
favorable to the Popular Unity was immediately
suppressed. Murals were destroyed. There were
public bonfires of books. posters and comics.3
Intellectuals of the Left were hunted down, jailed.
tortured and killed. Among those persecuted. the
authors of this book.
Look what a fat
little worm I've
caughtII
IICongratulations,
Marx! I'va got a
nice morael toolt
i£l-I.. HEGEL!
iM1RA E.L�'"
SANO CdOR01;TO
(SUe. c:.ool"
iiE. FELlC.''"TC" MARXl ')Q TAM..
1!5\1!N T'e.NtiO UNA BUENA
"How dreadful! 'ilie
kittens are n't .
prepared for' this!"
"Go awayl Don't
you reali ze we
aren't scarecrows.1I
IG;LUF'! OC�c:,\ONALN£N'"
TE. Mf!. "TOPO c.c:Jo-J -npa;"
a\UE � \NMUNa, A
LA vc:rz. DE LA C.ON­
C.\ENC.\A.
"Get him,comrade! II
PRI!.�.
"Gulp! Occasionally
I run up against
guys who are
immune to the
voice of
conscien ce" .
iSE ACE.RC� EL eRAN.ilERO CON UNA
liThe farmer is
coming with a
shot -gun! It
"Ha! Firearms are
th e only thing
these bloody
birds are afraid
-----_____ of". ______
'-______� . E.��\
All these years How To Read Donald Duck has
been banned in Chile; even with the recent
democratic opening since Plnochet was voted out� it
is still not available In its homeland. All these years
Disney comics have flourished with the blessing of
the fascistoid govemment, and free of competition
from the truly Chilean, Popular Unity style comics,
whose authors were driven into exile, and silenced.
The "state of war" declared in 1973 by the Junta to
exist in Chile, was openly declared by the Disney
comic too. In an Issue of late 1973, the Allende
government, symbolized by murderous vultures
called Marx and Hegel (meaning perhaps, Engels),
is being driven off by naked force: IIHal Firearms are
the only things these lousy birds are afraid of."
How To Read Donald Duck, has, of course, been
banned in Chile. To be found in possession of a
copy was to risk one's life. By Mcleansing" Chile of
every trace of Marxist or popular art and literature,
the Junta protected the cultural envoys of their
imperial masters. They knew what kind of cuHure
best served their interests, that Mickey and Donald
helped keep them in power, held socialism at bay,
restored "virtue and innocence" to a "corrupted"
Chile.
How To Read Donald Duck is an enraged, satirical
and politically impassioned book. The authors'
passion also derives from a sense of personal
victimization, for they themselves, brought up on
Disney comics and films, were injected with the
4 If we continue to refer to Disney Production� after the
death of Walt as "Disney" and "he", we do so in response
to the fact that his spirit, that of U.S. corporate capitalism.
continues to dominate the organization.
5 Neither comic book nor syndicated newspaper strip is
mentioned in the company's Annual Report for 1973.
They presumably fall within the category Publications,
which constitutes 17% of the group •Ancillary Activities."
This group, of which Character Merchandizing, and Music
and Records (270/0 each) are the major constituents,
showed an extraordinary increase in activity (up 280/0
over the previous year, up 2280/0 over the last four years,
the contribution of Publications being proportionate), so
as to bring its share of the total corporate revenue of
$385 million up to 100k.
Written solicitation with Disney Productions regarding
income from comic books proved unavailing. The
following data has been culled from the press:
The total monthly circulation of Disney comics
throughout the world was given in 1962 at 50 million,
covering 50 countries and 15 different languages
(NeWSWHk,31 December 1962, pp. 48-51). These have
now risen to 18: Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English,
Finnish, Flemish, French, German,· Hebrew, Italian,
Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Serbo..Croatlan,
Spanish, Swedish, and Thai. The number of countries
served must have risen sharply in the later fifties, to judge
by the figures published in 1954 (71me, 27 December, p.
42): 30 million copies of a "single tltle" (Walt Disney's
Comics and Slories) were being bought in 28 countries
every month.
In the United States, discounting special "one-shotperiodicals
keyed to current films, the following 14 comic
book titles were being published In 1973 under Disney's
14
Disney ideology which they now reject. But this
book is much more than that: it is not just Latin
American water off a duck's back. The system of
domination which the U.S. culture imposes so
disastrously abroad, also has deleterious effects at
home, not least among those who work for Disney,
that is, those who produce his ideology. The
circumstances in which Disney products are made
ensure that his employees reproduce in their lives
and work relations the same system of exploitation
to which they, as well as the consumer, are subject.
To locate Disney correctly in the capitalist system
would require a detailed analysis of the working
conditions at Disney Productions and Walt Disney
World. Such a study (which would, necessarily,
break through the wall of secrecy behind which
Disney 4 operates), does not yet exist, but we may
begin to piece together such information as may be
gleaned about the circumstances in which the
comics were created, and the people who created
them; their relationship to their work, and to Disney.
Over the last generation, Disney has not taken the
comics seriously. He hardly even admitted publicly
of their existence.5 He was far too concerned with
the promotion of films and the amusement parks,
his two most profitable enterprises. The comics tag
along as an "ancillary activity" of interest only
insofar as a new comic title (in 1973 Robin Hood)
can be used to help keep the name of a new film in
name: Arislokittens, 8eagle Boys, Chip and Dale, Daisy
and Donald, Donald Duck, HuB}' Dewey and Louie Junior
Woodchucks. Mickey Mouse, Moby Duck, Scamp,
Supsrgoof, Uncle Scrooge, Walt Disney Showcase, Walt
Disney's Comics and Stories, Walt Disney's Comics
Digest. It should be stressed that while the number of
Disney titles has recently increased, their Individual size
has diminished considerably, as did, presumably. their
circulation.
The Disney comics publishing franchise, Western
Publishing, stopped producing Disney comics about
1980, as did the Burbank headquarters. No Disney
comics were being published at all for several years, until
in 1984 the license was picked up by Gladstone (Another
Rainbow Press, in Phoenix, Arizona). Gladstone
published eight different titles, with circulation averaging
50,000-65,000 per title, seven of the titles containing Carl
Barks reprints, and with about haH the material obtained
from abroad, notably the Gutenberghus group in
Copenhagen. Smelling money, and fearing loss of
control, Disney refused to renew Gladstone's license, and
since 1989 are producing their own comics again, with
tie-ins to TV serials. The most important of these TV
productions, from our point of view, is that featuring Carl
Barks' creation Uncle Scrooge, who is presented now in a
sanitized version, as the -miser with the heart of gold".
The number of different foreign language comics (which
continued to flourish in the absence of a U.S. edition) now
stands at about 25, including very recently, a pilot edition
to test .the potentially huge Russian market. An important
innovation, introduced by Gladstone and retained by
Disney for the U.S. edition, is that personal credits of
authors and artists are printed on the inside covers of
each issue.
the limelight. Royalties from comics constitute a
small declining fraction of the r evenue from
Publications, which constitute a small fradion of the
revenue from Ancillary Activities, which constitute a
small fraction of the total corporate revenue. While
Disney's share of the market in "educational" and
children's books In other formats has increased
dramatically, his cut of the total U.S. comics cake
has surely shrunk.
But in foreign lands the Disney comics trade is still
a mouse that roars. Many parts of the world, without
access to Disney's films or television shows, know
the Disney characters from the comics alone. Those
too poor to buy a ticket to the Cinema, can always
get hold of a comic, if not by purchase, then by
borrowing it from a friend. In the U.S. moreover,
comic book circulation figures are an inadequate
index of the cultural influence of comic book
characters. Since no new comedy cartoon shorts
have been made of Mickey Mouse since 1948, and
of Donald Duck since 1955 (the TV shows carry
reruns), it is only in the comic that one finds original
stories with the classic characters devised over the
last two decades. It is thus the comic books and
strips which sustain old favorites in the public
consciousness (in the U.S. and abroad) and keep it
receptive to the massive merchandizing operations
which exploit the popularity of those characters.
Disney, like the missionary Peace Corpsman or·
"good-will ambassador" of his Public Relations men,
has learned the native lingoes-he is fluent in
eighteen of them at the moment. In Latin America
he speaks Spanish and Portuguese; and he speaks
it from magazines which are Slightly different, in
other ways, from those produced elsewhere and at
home. There are, indeed, at least four different
Spanish language editions of the Disney comic. The
differences between them do not affect the basic
content, and to determine the precise significance ot
such differences would require an excessive amount
of research; but the fact of their existence points up
some structural peculiarities in this little corner of
6 Some statistics will reveal the charader and extent of
foreign participation in the Disney comic, as well as the
depth of Disney's penetration into the Latin American
continent. The Chilean edition, which also serves
neighboring Peru, Paraguay and Argentina, used, around
1972, for its four comics titles (one weekly, three biweeklies)
totalling 800,000 copies sold per month: 4,400
pages of Disney material, of which well over a third came
direct from Disney studios, just over a third from Disney's
U.S. franchise, Western Publishing Company, less than a
quarter from "aly. and a small fraction from Brazil and
Denmark. The Mexican edition (which uses only half as
many pages as the Chile group) takes almost exclusively
from the U.S. On the other hand, Brazil. with five titles
totalling over two million copies sold per month, is fairly
dependent upon Italy (1,000 out of 5,000 pages) and
generates 1,100 pages of its own material. Another Latin
American edition Is that of Colombia Italy is perhaps the
most self-sufficient country of all, producing itself over
half of its 5,600 annual pages. France's Journal de
Mickey, which sells around 340,000 copies weekly,
consists of about half Disney and half non-Disney
15
Disney's empire. For the Disney comic, more thar
his other media, systematically relies on foreigr
labor in all stages of the production process. ThE
native contributes directly to his own colonization.6
Like other multinational corporations, Disney's ha�
found it profitable to decentralize operations
allowing considerable organizational and production
leeway to its foreign subsidiaries or "franchises,"
which are usually locked into the giant popular
press conglomerates of their respective countries.
like Mondadori in Italy or International Press
Corporation in Britain. The Chilean edition, like
other foreign editions, draws its material from
several outside sources apart from the U.S. Clearly,
it is in the interests of the metropolis that the various
foreign subsidiaries should render mutual
assistance to each other, exchanging stories they
have imported or produced themselves. Even when
foreign editors do not find it convenient to
commission stories locally, they can select the type
of story, and combination of stories ("story mix")
which they consider suited to particular public taste
and particular marketing conditions, in the country
or countries they are serving. They also edit (for
instance, delete scenes considered offensive or
inappropriate to the national sensibility),7 have
dialogues more or less accurately translated, more
or less freely adapted, and add local color (in the
literal sense: the pages arrive at the foreign press
ready photographed onto black and white
transparencies ("mats"), requiring the addition of
color as well as dialogue in the local idiom). Some
characters like Rockerduck, a freespending
millionaire rival of Scrooge; Fethry Duck, a "beatnik"
type; and 0.0. Duck, a silly spy; are known only, or
chiefly from the foreign editions, and never caught
on at home. The Italians in particular have proven
adept in the creation of indigenous characters.
Expressed preferences of foreign editors reveal
certain broad differences in taste. Brazil and Italy
tend towards more physical violence, more blood
and guts; Chile, evidently tended (like Scandinavia,
material.
There is a direct reverse flow back to the mother country
in Disneyland, a comic for younger readers with more
stylish drawing started about 1971, produced entirely in
England, and distributed by Fawcett in the U.S. This, and
Donald and Mickey, the other major Disney comic serving
the non-U.S. English-speaking world, sell around 200,000
copies per week each in the United Kingdom.
7 A collection of such editorial changes might reveal
some of the finer and perhaps more surprising nuances
of cultural preference. The social sensibility of the
Swedes, for instance, was offended by the inclusion of
some realistic scenes of poverty in which the ducklings
try to buy gifts for the poor ("Christmas for Shacktown"
1952). By cutting such scenes, the editors rendered the
story almost incomprehensible.
A country with a totally different cultural tradition, such
as Taiwan, cannot use Disney comics in their original
form at all, and changes the very essence of favorite
characters. Thus Donald becomes a responsible, model
parent, admired and obeyed by his little nephews.
Germany and Holland), to· more quiet adventures,
aimed (apparently) at a younger age group.
The counterrevolution of 1973 provoked In the
Chilean edition aberrations like the blatant antlMarxism
reproduced In this Introduction, which was
an e mbarrassment to Disney HQ. Local flavor
enters also throug h the necessity of finding
equivalents for puns. this Is wen Illustrated on page
54, where we have not followed the principle of
using the English original when available, but
translated from the Spanish of the Chilean edition
used by the authors.8 In the original English the
ducklings offer to teach their hosts"square dancing"
which picks up the IeIt-motlY of -squareness" In the
primitive Andean host culture; the Chilean Spanish
introduces a pun on "aJadrarse", which means both
to square (oneself) and to stand at attention (as
soldiers before superiors). If this were a post-1973
co m ic, one would be te mpted to see it as a
conscious militarization of the anodyne but
untranslatable original; whether an unconscious
militaristic choice Is at play here, among other
possible non-militaristic, unhierarchical puns, we
leave moot.
The tremendous and increasing popularity of
Disney abroad is not matched, proportionately, in
the home market, where sales dropped, to a degree
probably exceeding that of other comic classics,
ever since the peak reached In the early '50s.
Competition from television is usually cited as a
major cause of the slump in the comics market;
logistical difficuHies of distribution are another; and
a third factor, affecting Disney in particular, may be
sought in the whole cultural shift of the last two
decades, which has transformed the taste of so
many of the younger children as well as teenagers
in the U.S., and which Disney media appear In
many respects to have Ignored. If the Disney
formula has been successfully preserved in the
fil ms and amuse ment parks eve n within this
changing climate, it Is by virtue of an Increasingly
heavy cloak of technical gimmickry which has been
thrown over the old content. Thus the comics,
bound today to the same production technology
(coloring, printing, etc.) as when they started thirtyfive
years ago, have been unable to keep up with
the new entertainment tricks.
The factors which sent the comics trade into Its
commercial decline In the U.S. have not weighed to
anything like the same extent in the less developed
nations of the world. The "cultu ra l lag," an
expression of dominance of the metropolitan center
over its colonized areas, Is a familiar phenomenon;
even in the U.S., Disney comics sell proportionately
better In the Midwest and South.
8 The justification for this would seem to be apparent, but
was criticized by some reviewers of the book. See the
otherwise most favorable review by Robert Boyd, "Uncle
Scrooge, Imperialist", The Comics Journal, Comics
Library no. 1 38, October 1 990, p. 54.
16
Fueling the foreign market from within the U.S. has
in recent years run Into some difflcuHies. The less
profitable domestic market, which Disney does not
directly control and which now relies heavily on
reprtnts, might conceivably be allowed to wind down
aHogether. As the domestic market shrinks, Disney
pushes harder abroad, in the familiar mechanism of
imperialist capitalism. As the foreign market
expands, he is under Increasing pressure to keep it
dependent upon supply from the U.S. (despite or
because' of the fact that the colonies show, as we
have seen, signs of independent productive
capacity). But Disney was faced with a recruitment
problem. as old workhorses of the profession, like
Carl Barks, retired. and others became disillusioned
with the low pay and restrictive conditions.
Disney has responded to the need to revitalize
domestic production on behalf of the foreign market
in a characteristic way: by tightening the rein on
worker and product, to ensure that they adhere
rigidly to established criteria. Where Disney can
exercise direct control, the controll'Tl.lst be total.
Prospective freelancers for Disney in the 1970s
received from the Publications Division a sheaf of
Comic Book Art Specifications, deSigned in the first
instance for the Comic Book Overseas Program.
(Weste rn Publishing, which was not primarily
beholden to the foreign market, and which was also
trying to attract new talent. aHhough perhaps less
strenuously, operated by unwritten and less
inflexible rules). Instead of inviting the invention of
new characters and new locales, the Comic Book
Art Specifications do exactly the opposite: they
insist that only the established characters be used
and moreover, that there be ano upward mobility.
The subsidiary figures should never become stars in
our stories, they are just extras." This severe
injunction seems calculated to repress exactly what
in the past gave a certain growth potential and
flexibility to the Duckburg cast, whereby a minor
charader was upgraded into a major one, and might
even aspire to a comic book of his own. Nor do
these established characters have any room to
manoeuvre even within the hierarchical structure
where they are Immutably fixed; for they are
restricted to "a set pattern of behavior which must
be complied with." The authoritarian tone of this
instruction to the story writer seems expressly
designed to crush any kind of creative manipulation
on his or her part . He Is also discouraged from
localizing the action in any way, for Duckburg is
explicitly stated to be not in the U.S., but
"everywhere and nowhere: All taint of specifiC
geographical location must be expunged, as must
all taint of dialect In the language.
Not only sex. but love is proh ibited (the
relationship between Mickey and Minnie, or Donald
and Daisy, is "platonic"-but not a platonic fonn of
love). The gun laws outlaw all flreanns but "antique
cannons and blunderbusses;" (other) flreanns may,
under certain circumstances, be waved as a threat,
but never used. There are to be no "dirty, realistiC
business tricks," no "social differences,"9 or
"political ideas." Above all, race and racial
stereotyping Is abolished: "Natives should never be
depicted as negroes, Malayans, or singled out as
belonging to any particular human race, and under
no circumstances should they be characterized as
dumb, ugly, inferior or criminal."
As is evident from the analysis in this book, and as
is obvious to anyone at all familiar with the comics,
none of these rules (with the exception of the sexual
prohibition) have been observed in the past, in
either Duck or Mouse stories. Indeed, they have
been floutett, time and again especially by Barks,
whose struggles with the censor make absurdist
reading.10
Duckburg is Identifiable as a typical small
Californian or Midwestern town, within easy reach of
forest and desert (like Hemet, California, where Carl
Barks, the creator of the best Donald Duck stories
lived); the comics are full of Americanisms, in
custom and language. Detective Mickey carries a
revolver when on assignment, and often gets shot
at. Uncle Scrooge is often guilty of blatantly dirty
business tricks, and although defined by the
Specifications as "not a bad man", he constantly
behaves in the most reprehensible manner (for
which he is properly reprehended by the younger
ducks). The stories are replete with the "social
differences" between rich and penniless (Scrooge
and Donald), between virtuous Ducks and
unshaven thieves; political ideas frequently come to
the fore; and, of course, natives are often
characterized as dumb, ugly, inferior and criminal.
The Specifications seem to represent a fantasy on
the studios' part, a fantasy of control, of a purity
which was never really present. The public is
supposed to think of the comics, as of Disney In
general, in this way; yet the past success of the
comics with the public, and their unique character
vis-a-vis other comics, has undubitably depended
on the prominence given to certain capitalist sociopolitical
realities, like financial greed, dirty business
tricks, and the denigration of foreign peoples.
Yet today, when the Studios once more resume
control of U.S. production, the Specifications are still
as restrictive as ever, and the contract with artists is
(in the view of an ex-Gladstone senior editor)
"frightening," including the demand, for instance,
that all rights to the work be sold everywhere and in
perpetuity-Ita waiver of all human rights." Artists
are required to surrender not only their original
artwork (which Gladstone permitted them to keep
and sell independently), but all sketches, notes,
9 The contradiction here is nakedly exposed in the
version of the Specifications dist ributed b y the
Scandinavian Disney publishers: ..... no social differences
(poor kids, arrogant manager, humble servant) ... Donald
Duck, in relation to Uncle Scrooge, is . . . underpaid . . .
grossly exploited in unpleasant jobs . . . 11
10 See Thomas Andrae, ''The Expurgated Barks," The
17
reference materials of all kinds, and "all other ideas
or concepts, tangible or intanglble"-as one of
Gladstone's veteran artist-authors put it, "like they
own even our unspoken thoughts in advance."
Since a large proportion of the comics stories were
always largely produced and published outside the
Studios, their content has never, in fact, been under
as tight control as the other Disney media. They
have clearly benefitted from this. I would argue that
some of the best "non-Disney Disney" stories, those
by the creator of Uncle Scrooge, Carl Barks, reveal
more than a simplistiC, wholly reactionary Disney
ideology. There are elements of satire in Barks'
work which one seeks in vain in any other corner of
the world of Disney, just as Barks has elements of
social realism which one seeks In vain in any other
corner of the world of comics. One of the most
intelligent students of Barks, Dave Wagner, goes so
far as to say that "Barks is the only exception to the
uniform reactionary tendenCies of the (post-war)
Disney empire."11 But the relationship of Barks to
the Disney comics as a whole is a problematical
one; H he is responsible for the best of the Duck
stories, he is not responsible for all of them, any
more than he is responsible for the non-Duck
stories; and even those of his stories selected for
the foreign editions are sometimes subjected to
subtle but significant changes of content. It could be
proven that Disney's bite is worse than his Barks.
The handful of U.S. critics who have addressed
themselves to the Disney comic have Singled out
the work of Barks as the superior artist. But the
picture which emerges from the U.S. perspective
(whether that of a liberal, such as Mike Barrier, or a
Marxist, such as Wagner) is that Barks, while in the
main clearly conservative in his political philosophy,
also reveals himself at times as a liberal, and
represents with clarity and considerable wit, the
contradictions and perhaps, even some of the
anguish, from which U.S. society is suffering. Barks
is thus elevated to the ranks of elite bourgeois
writing and art, and it is at this level, rather than that
of the mass media hack, that criticism in the U.S.
addresses itself. At his best, Barks represents a
self-conscious guiHy bourgeois ideology, from which
the mask of innocence occasionally drops (this is
especially true of his later works, when he deals
increasedly with certain social realities, such as
foreign wars, and pollution, etc).
From his exile within the "belly of the monster"
Dorfman himself, since the first publication of this
book, has taken a more generous view of the
comics he excoriated, at least those by Barks whom
he too recognizes as an unrivalled satirist, and
Carl Barks Ubrary III, Uncle Scrooge 2, p. 517-524. On p.
52 we find specifications issued in 1954 by Dell Comics,
Western Publishing's distributor.
11 Private communication 4 July 1974. For Wagner's
article on Barks, see "Donald Duck: An Interview".
Radical America, VII, 1,1973, pp. 1-19.
whom he even compares to Lewis Carroll.12
Over the last twenty years Barks has become
something of a cult figure which has generated a
small literary industry, while his original comic books
and the lithographs and paintings done since his
retirement in 1967 have been eagerly sought after
and bought at high prices, much In contrast with his
. earlier obscurity and relative poverty. His working
conditions u nder Disney make him look like a
Donald Duck vis-a-vis Uncle Scrooge as Uncle
WaH.
"A man who never seemed to have time or money
for a vacat ion, whose life was continuous and
seemingly monotonous labor, paid piece-rate at a
level which never permitted him to save, who never
had and never sought an adventure, who never
traveled abroad and little in the United States (only
to the Califomia and Oregon forests), who lived in
other words, something of the life of the 'average'
U.S. worker (a life presu mably shared by the
parents of many of his readers)-this man wrote
ceaselessly about a wortd of constant leisure, where
·work' was defined as consumption, the exotic
exploit, and fierce competition too avoid work, to
which end weaHh flowed freely from all quarters of
the globe."
When this passage was read to Barks in an
interview transcribed In Barrier's Carl Barles and the
Art of the Comic Book,13 Barks' response was, with
a laugh, "too true to be funny", and concluded, in a
typical self-deprecation loyal to the capitalist myth
that true talent will always be rewarded, " I just didn'
have the ability, so I was where I was".
And where is Barks now? Critics of all stripes, all
over the world, are agreed as to his importance; but
t he po l it ical and ideolog ical nature of this
significance, despite the extraordinary success of
How To Read Donald Duck, has yet to penetrate
the fortresses of Barks specialty scholarship in the
U.S. It is ironically-but logically-in the U.S. that
the severest limits are put on Barks Interpretation;
and it is in Latin America-no less logically-that
Dorfman and Mattelart's theories have met with
least critical opposition and suppression (there have
been thirty-three printings in Spanish, including
pirated editions; the book has been translated into
fifteen d iffere nt languages worldwide) . A big
German publisher has produced In a popular art
paperback series an analysis, based on Dorfman
and Mattelart, of Barks' stories, taken in historical
12 "Get Rich, Young Man. or Uncle Scrooge Through the
Looking Glass,· in the Village Voice, 28 December 1 982;
see also an interview with Dorfman, Salmagundi no. 82-
83 Spring-Sum m a r 1 989. A notable intellectual
imprimatur of Barks may be found In a review by Robin
Johnson of the Carl Batks Library and the Barrier book on
Carl Barks in the New York Review of Books, 26 June
1 986, pp. 22-24.
13 New York: Lilien, 1 986, p. 85.
1 8
sequence 1946-67, a s tied to major moments in the
U.S. struggle for hegemony in the Third World: the
Korean War, the Cold War, the quest for oil, the
space race, the Cuban revolution, the Vietnam War,
etc.14 Yet Barks chief biographer and bibliographer,
Mike Barrier, can still claim that "the best stories [of
Barks] resist efforts to draw lessons for present-day
American society from them ... The satire is directed
not at some social injustice, but human nature."15
Disne y still weighs heavily, alas , over that
necessary and valuable enterprise. the publication
in thirty volumes of the entire oeuvre of Cart Barks,
just now colT1>lete.16 Its useful but largely defensive
and eulogistic critical apparatus has been
impervious to the Dorfman-Mattelart approach, the
resonance of which in so many quarters is not even
admitted. Worse, the publishers. working under
l icen s e fro m Disney, had to yield to Dis neymandated
tampering of Barks'original text and
images by depollticizing them. In our illustration on
page 57, fo r instance , the phrase "wo rkers'
paradise" is replaced by "McDuck Enterprises" and
"revolution" by .,akeover" and "war".17
Dorfman and Mattelart's book studies the Disney
productions and their effects on the world. It cannot
be a coincidence that much of what they observe in
the relationships between the Disney characters
can also be found, and maybe, even explained, in
the organization of work within the Disney industry.
The system at Disney Productions seems to be
designed to prevent the artist from feeling any pride,
or gaining any recognition, other than corporate, for
his work. Once the contract is signed, the artist's
idea becomes Disney's idea. He is its owner,
therefore its creator, for all purposes. It says so,
black and white, in the contract : "all art work
prepared for our comics magazines is considered
work done for hire, and we are the creators thereof
for all purposeS' (stress added). There could hardly
be a clearer statement of the manner in which the
capitalist engrosses the labor of his workers. I n
return for a small fee o r wage, h e takes from them
both the profit and the glory.
Walt Disney , the man who never by his own
admission leamed to draw, and never even tried to
put pencil to paper after around 1926, who could not
even sign his name as it appeared on his products,
acquired the reputation of being (in the words of a
justly famous and otherwise most perceptive
political cartoonist) .,he most significant figure in
14 David Kunzle, Carl Barks, Dagobert und Donald Duck,
We/teroberung aus Entenperspektive, Frankfurt am Main:
Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1 990.
15 Mike Barrier. Carl Barles and the Art of the Comic
Book, p. 61 .
16 The Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney Comics,
Phoenix, Arizona: Another Rainbow Press, 1 983-1 990.
17 See Carl Barks Libraty, V, Uncle $crooge 3, pp. 5n,
591 , and 592.
graphic art since Leonardo"18 The man who
ruthlessly pillaged and distorted the children's
literature of the world, is hailed (in the citation for
the President's Medal of Freedom, awarded to
Disney in 1 964) as the "creator of an American
folklore . " Throughout his career, Disney
systematically suppressed or diminished the credit
due to his artists and writers. Even when obliged by
Union regulations to list them in the titles, Disney
made sure his was the only name to receive real
prominence. When a top animator was individually
awarded an Oscar for a short, it was Disney who
stepped forward to receive it.
While the world applauds Disney, it is left in
ignorance of those whose wor1< is the cornerstone of
his empire: of the Immensely industrious, prolific
and inventive Ub Iwerks, whose technical and
artistic innovations run from the multi-plane camera
to the character of Mickey himseH; of Ward Kimball,
whose genius was admitted by Disney himseH and
who somehow survived Disney's stated policy of
ridding the studios of "anyone showing signs of
genius."19 And of course. Carl Barks, creator of
Uncle Scrooge and many other favorite "Disney"
characters. of over 500 of the best "Disney" comics
stories, of 7,000 pages of " Disney· artwork paid at
an average of $45 a page ($1 1 .50 for the script, $34
for the art),20 not one signed with his name, and
selling at their peak over three million copies; while
his employers, trying carefully to keep him ignorant
of the true extent of this astonishing commercial
success, preserved him from individual fame and
from his numerous fans who enquired in vain after
his name.
Disney thought of himself as a "pollinator" of
people. He was indisputably a fine story editor. He
knew how to coordinate labor; above all, he knew
how to market ideas. In capitalist economics, both
labor and ideas become his property. From the
humble inker to the full-fledged animator, from the
poor student working as a Disneyland trash-picker
to the highly skilled "animatronics" technician, all
surrender their labor to the great impresario.
Like the natives and the nephews in the comics,
Disney workers must surrender to the millionaire
Uncle Scrooge McDisney their treasures-the
surplus value of their physical and mental
resources. To judge from the anecdotes abounding
from the last years of his life, which testify to a
pathological parsimony, Uncle Walt was identifying
18 David Low."leonardo da Disney." in the New Republic.
5 January 1 942 , pp. 1 6- 1 8 ; repri nted i n the s a m e
magazine, 22 November 1 954.
19 Cited i n Walt Disney, compiled by the ed itors of
Wisdom [Beverly Hills. CAli XXXII. December 1 959.
20 Barrier, Carl Barks. p. 85.
21 Cited in Schickel, p. 297.
22 Cf. Bill Davidson. uThe Fantastic Walt Disney" in the
Saturday Evening Post, 7 November 1 964, pp. 67·74.
23 Diane Daisy Miller. The Story of Walt Disney, New
York, 1 956, p. 1 39ft.
1 9
in small as well as big ways less and less with the
unmaterialistic Mickey (always used as the personal
and corporate symbol). and more and more with
Barks' miser, McDuck.
Literature, too, has been obliged to pour its
treasures into the great Disney moneybin. Disney
was, as Gilbert Seldes put it many years ago, the
"rapacious strip-miner" in the "goldmine of legend
and myth." He ensured that the famous fairy tales
became his: his Peter Pan , not Barrie's , his
Pinocchio, not Collodi's. Authors no longer living. on
whose works copyright has elapsed, are of course
totally at the mercy of such a predator; but living
authors also, confronted by a Disney contract, find
that the law is of little avail. Even those favorable to
Disney have expressed shock at the manner in
which he rides roughshod over the writers of
material he plans to turn into a film. The writer of at
least one book original has publicly denounced
Disney's brutality.21 The rape is both artistic and
financial, psychological and material. A typical
contract with an author excludes him or her from
any cut in the gross. from royalties, from any share
in the "merchandizing bonanza" opened up by the
successful Disney film. Disney sews up all the rights
for all purposes. and usually for a paltry sum.22
In contrast. to defend the properties he amassed,
Disney has always employed what his daughter
termed a "regular corps of attorneys"23 whose
business it is to pursue and punish any person or
organization. however small, which dares to borrow
a character, a technique, an idea patented by
Disney. The man who expropriated so much from
others will not countenance any kind of petty theft
against himself. The law has successfully protected
Disney against such pilfering, but in recent years, it
has had a more heinous crime to deal with: theft
compounded by sacrilege. OutSiders who transpose
Disney characters, Disney footage or Disney comic
books into unflattering contexts, are pursued by the
full rigor o f the law. The publisher of an
"underground" poster satirizing Disney puritanism
by showing his cartoon characters engaged in
various kinds of sexual enterprise,24 was sued,
successfully. for tens of thousands of dollars worth
of damages ; and an "underground" comic book
artist who dared to show Mickey Mouse taking
drugs, is being prosecuted in similar fashion.
A recent roundup of the ravages of Disney's legal
army of 65 lawyers quaerens quem devoret makes
24 Reprod uced i n David Kunzle, Posters of Protest
(catalogue for an exh ibition h e ld at the Unive rs ity of
California. Santa Barbara. Art Galleries. February 1 970),
fig. 1 1 6. Even the publisher of a Japanese magazine
ca rry i ng a t ra n s lated extract of t h i s work and a
reproduction of the poster. has been threatened by the
long arm of Disney law. Ironically. cheap pirated copies of
the poster abound; I even picked one up in a bookstore in
Mexico City. Its popula rity in Latin America is further
attested by the delight it aroused when exhibited as part
of the U.S. Posters of Protest show, in the Palace of Fine
Arts, Santiago de Chile (September 1 972) .
grim reading. Just three examples: forcing a Soviet
artist to remove from a Beverly Hills Gallery a
painting in homage to U.S. popular culture. showing
Mickey Mouse handing a Campbell's Soup can to a
Russian (would It have been alright H Mickey had
bee n handing him a copy of the new Russian
edition of Mickey Mouse comic?) ; preventing fiveand
six-year old children from putting Disney comic
characters on their nursery school walls; threatening
to sue a Canadian town govemement which wanted
to erect a statue to a bear cub supposed to have
inspired A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh. In three
years , Disne y has filed 1 .700 copyrig ht
infringeme nts s uits In U.S. cou rts ; this Is not
counting the innumerable suits settled out of court.
Well, they need the money: Disney only netted $3.4
billion gross in 198�t with a net income of $520
million. This is Scroogery at its finest; not a penny
may be sto len f ro m the Gre at M o ney B i n of
Character Merchandising. Disney even contracts
with local investigative and law firms to identify and
pursue local offenders, who, according to Disney
lawyers, are social pests akin to drug dealers, and
"part of organized criminal cartels."25
Film is a collective process, essentially teamwork.
A good animated cartoon requires the conjunction
of many talents . Disney's longstanding public
relations image of his studio as one great, happy.
democratic family, is no more than a smoke screen
to conceal the rigidly hierarchical structure, with
very pooriy paid Inkers and colorers (mostly women)
at the bottom of the scale, and top animators (male.
of course) earning five times as much as their
assistants. In one instance where a top animator
objected, on behalf of his assistant, to this gross
wage differential, he was fired forthwith.
People were a commodity over which Disney
needed absolute control. If a good artist left the
stu d io for a nother job, he was considered by
Disney, if not actually as a thief who had robbed
him, then as an accomplice to theft; and he was
never forgiven. Disney was the authoritarian father
figure, quick to punish youthful rebellion. In post-war
years, however, as he grew in fame, wealth, power,
and distance. he was no longer regarded by even
the most innocent employee as a father figure, but
as a n u ncle-the rich u ncle. Always "Walt" to
everyone, he had everyone "walt" in.26 ''There's only
one S.O.B. in the studio," he said, "and that's me."
For his workers to express solidarity against him
was a subversion of his legitimate authority. When
members of the Disney studio acted to join an AFLCIO
affiliated union, he fired them and accused them
of being Communist or Communist sympathisers.
Later, in the McCarthy period, he cooperated with
the FBI and HUAC (House Unamerican Activities
Committee) in the prosecution of an ex-employee
for "Communism. ..
25 Gail Diane Cox, " Don't Mess with the Mouse," National
Law Journal, 1 1 , no. 47. 31 July 1 989, pp. 25-27.
20
Ever since 1 935. when the League of Nations
recognized M ickey Mouse as an "International
Symbol of Good Will" , D i s ney has been an
outspoken political figure, and one who has always
been able to count upon govemment help. When
the Seco nd World War cut off the extremely
lucrative European market, which contributed a
good half of the corporat e inco m e , the U . S .
government helped h i m turn t o Latin America.
Washington hastened the solution of the strike
which was crippling his studio, and at a time when
Disney was literally on the verge of bankruptcy,
began to commission propaganda films. which
became his mainstay for the duration of the war.
Nelso n Rockefeller, then Coordinator of Latin
American Affairs, arranged for Disney to go as a
"good-will ambassador" to the hemisphere. and
make a film in order to win over hearts and minds
vulnerable to Nazi propaganda. The film, called
Saludos Am/gos, quite apart from its function as a
commercial for Disney, was a diplomatic lesson
served upon Latin America, and one which is still
considered valid today. The live-action travelogue
footage of "ambassador" Disney and his artists
touring the continent, Is interspersed with animated
sections on "life" in Brazil, Argentina, Peru and
C hile , which define Latin America as the U .S.
wishes to see it, and as the local peopl es are
supposed to see it them selves . They are
symbolized by comic parrots. merry sambas, lUXUry
beaches and goofy gauchos. and (to show that
even the primitives can be modem) a little Chilean
plane which braves the terrors of the Andes in order
to deliver a single tourist's greeting card . The
reduction of Latin America to a series of picture
postcards was taken further in a later film, The
Three Caballeros, and also permeates the comic
book stories set in that part of the world.
During the DepreSSion, Disney favorites such as
M ickey M ouse a nd the Three Little Pigs were
gratefully received by critics as fitting symbols of
courageous optimism in the face of great difficulties.
Disney always pooh-poohed the idea that his work
contained any particular kind of political message,
and proudly pointed (as proof of his innocence) to
the diversity of political ideologies sympathetic to
him. Mickey, noted the proud parent , was "one
matter upon which the Chinese and Japanese
agree." "Mr. Mussolini. Mr. King George and Mr.
President Roosevelt" all loved the Mouse; and if
Hitler disapproved (Nazi propaganda considered all
kind s of mic e , even Disney's. to be dirty
creatures)-'Well," scolded Walt, "Mickey is going
to save Mr. A. Hitler from drowning or something
one day. Just wait and see if he doesn't. Then won't
M r. A. H itler be ashamed l"27 Come the war,
however, Disney was using the Mouse not to save
Hitler, but to damn him. Mickey became a favorite
26 I.e."walled in". The pun is that of a studio hand, cited in
"Father Goose", Time, 27 December 1 954, p. 42.
27 Cited by Schickel, p. 1 32.
armed forces mascot; fittingly, the climactic event of
the European war, the Normandy landings, were
code-named Mickey Mouse.
Among Disney's numerous wartime propaganda
films, the most controversial and in many ways the
most important was Victory Through Air Power..
Undertaken on Disney's own initiative, this was
designed to support Major Alexander Seversky's
theory of the Meffectiveness" (i.e. damage-to-cost
ratio) of strategic bombing , i ncluding that of
population centers. It would be unfair to project back
onto D isney ou r own g u i lt ove r Dre sde n and
Hiroshima, but it is noteworthy that even at the time
a film critic was shocked by Disney's "gay dreams of
holocaust."28 And it is consistent that the maker of
such a film should later give active and financial
support to some noted propo nents of massive
strategic and terror bombing of Vietnam, such as
Goldwater and R e agan. D is n ey's support fo r
Goldwater in 1964 was more than the public gesture
of a wealthy conservative; he went so far as to wear
a Goldwater button while being invested by Johnson
with the President's Medal of Freedom. In the 1 959
presidential campaign, he was arrogant enough to
bully his employees to give money to the Nixon
campaign fund, whether they were Republicans or
not.
Disney knew how to adapt to changing cultural
climates. His post-war Mouse went "straight;". like
the U.S., he became policeman to the world. As a
comic he was supplanted by the Duck. Donald Duck
represented a new kind of comedy, suited to a new
age: a symbol not of courage and wit, as Mickey
had been to the '30s, but an example of heroic
failure, the guy whose constant efforts towards gold
and glory are doomed to eternal defeat. Such a
character was appropriate to the age of capitalism
at its apogee, an age presented (by the media) as
one of opportunity and plenty, with fabulous wealth
awarded to t h e f o rt u n ate a nd the ru thle ss
competitor, like Uncle Scrooge, and dangled as a
bait before the eyes of the unfortunate and the
losers in the game.
The asce ndancy of the D uck family did not
however mean that Mickey had lost his magic. From
darkest Africa Time magazine reported the story of
a district officer in the Belgian Congo, coming upon
a group of terrified natives screaming "Mikimus."
They were fleeing from a local witchdoctor, whose
'usual voo had lost its do, and in the emergency, he
had invoked, by making a few passes with needle
and thread. the familiar spirit of that infinitely greater
magician who has cast his spell upo n the entire
world-WaH Disney." 29 The natives are here cast,
by Time, in the same degraded role assigned to
them by the comics themselves.
Back home, meanwhile, the white magic of Disney
seemed to be threatened by the virulent black
28 Schickel, p. 233.
29 Time, 27 December 1 954, p. 42.
30 Cf. Frederic Wertham , Seduction of the Innocent,
21
magic of a ve ry d ifferent k i nd o f co mic. The
excesses of the &Chorror comic" brought a major part
of the comic book industry into disrepute, and under
the fierce scrutiny of moralists, educators and child
psychologists all over the U.S. and Europe, who
saw it as an arena for the horrors of sexual vice,
sadism and extreme physical violence of all kinds.30
D is n ey , of cou rse , emerged not ju st m o ra l ly
unscathed, but positively victorious. He became a
model for the harmless comic demanded by the
new Comics Code Authority. He was now M r.
Clean, Mr. Decency, Mr. Innocent Middle America,
in an otherwise rapidly degenerating culture . He
was champio n e d by t h e most re act io nary
educational officials, such as California State
Superi ntendant of Publ ic I nstructio n , Dr. Max
Rafferty, as "the greatest educator of this centurygreater
than John Dewey or James Conant or all
the rest of us put together."31 Disney meanwhile (for
all his honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, etc.)
continued , as he had always done , to express
public contempt for the concepts of "Education,"
&Cl ntellect ," "Art," and the very idea that he was
" eaching" anybody anything.
The public Disney myth has been fabricated not
o n ly f ro m the m an ' s works but a l so f ro m
autobiographical data a nd p e rsonal
pronouncements. Disney never separated himself
from his work ; and there are certain formative
circumstances of his life upon which he himself liked
to enlarge, and which through biographies and
interviews, have contributed to the public image of
both Disney and Disney Productions. This public
image was also the man's seH-image; and both fed
into and upon a dominant North American selfimage.
A major part of his vast audience interpret
their lives as he interpreted his. His innocence is
their innocence, and vice-versa; his rejection of
reality is theirs; his yearning for purity is theirs too.
Their aspirations are the same as his; they, like he,
started out in life poor, and worked hard in order to
become rich; and if he became rich and they didn't,
well, maybe luck just wasn't on their side.
Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago in 1 901 .
When he was four, his father, who had been unable
to make a decent living in that city as a carpenter
and small building contractor, moved to a farm near
Marceline, Missouri. Later, Walt was to idealize life
there, and remember it as a kind of Eden (although
he had to help in the work) , as a necessary refuge
from the evil world, for he agreed with his father that
"after boys reached a certain age they are best
removed from the corruptive influences of the big
city and subjected to the wholesome atmosphere of
the country."32
But after four years of unsuccessful farming, Elias
Disney sold his property, and the family returned to
1 954.
31 Schickel, p. 298.
32 Cited in Schickel, p.35.
the city-this time, Kansas City. There, in addition
to his schooling, the eight year old WaH was forced
by his father Into brutally hard, unpaid work33 as a
newspaper delivery boy. getting up at 3:30 every
morning and walking for hours In dark, snowbound
streets. The memory haunted him all his IHe. His
father was also In the habit of giving him, for no
good reason, beatings with a leather strap. to which
WaH submitted '0 humor him and keep him happy."
This phrase In HseH suggests a conscious attempt,
on the part of the adult, to avoid confronting the
oppressive reality of his childhood.
WaH's mother, meanwhile, Is conspicuously absent
from his memories, as Is his younger sister. All his
three elder brothers ran away from home, and it is a
remarkable fact that after he became famous, Walt
Disney had nothing to do with either of his parents,
or, indeed, any of his family except Roy. His brother
Roy, eight years older than hlmseH and throughout
his career his financial manager, was from the very
beginning a kind of parent substitute, an uncle
father-figure . The e limination of true parents,
especially the mother, from the comics, and the
incidence in the films of mothers dead at the start,
or dying in the course of events, or cast as wicked
stepmothers (Bambi, Snow White and especially
Dumbo),34 must have held great personal meaning
for Disney. The theme has of course long been a
constant of world folk-literature, but the manner in
which it is handled by Disney may tell us a great
deal about 20th century bourgeois cuHure. Peculiar
to 'Disney comics, surely. is the fact that the mother
is not even, technically, missing; she is simply nonexistent
as a concept. It is possible that Disney truly
hated his childhood. and feared and resented his
parents. but could never admit It. seeking through
his works to escape from the bitter social realities
associated with his upbringing. H he hated being a
child , one can also understand why he always
insisted that his films and amusement parks were
designed in the first place for adults. not children,
why he was pleased at the statistics which showed
that for every one child visitor to Disneyland, there
were four adults. and why he always cof'T1)lained at
getting the awards for Best Children's Film.
As Dorfman and MaHelart show, the child in the
Disney comiC Is really a mask for adult anxieties; he
33 I.e. his father added the money he earned to the
household budget. Newspaper delivery is one of the few
legally sanctioned forms of child labor still surviving
today. Most parents nowadays (presumably) let their
children keep the money they earn, and regard the job as
a useful form of early ideological training, in which the
child leams the value and necessity of making a minute
personal ·profit- out of the labor which en riches the
millionaire newspaper publisher.
34 According to Richard Schickel, Dumbo is lithe most
overt statement of a theme that is implicit in almost all the
Disney features-the absence of a mother" (p. 225).
35 Schicke', p. 48. Cf. "Top Management's Roster Lists
Very Few Jews, Very Few Catholics. No Blacks. No
Women." cited by D. Keith Mono "A Rea' Mickey Mouse
22
is an aduH seH-image. Most critics are agreed that
Disney shows little or no understanding of the "real
child," or real childhood psychology and problems.
Disney has also . necessarily, eliminated the
biological link between the parent and childsexuality.
The raunchy tOUCh, the barnyard humor of
h is early films , has long since been sanitized.
Disney was the only man in Hollywood to whom you
could not tell a dirty joke. His sense of humor, if It
existed at all (and many wrHers on the man have
expressed doubts on this score) was always of a
markedly 1:»athroom" or anal kind. Coy anality is the
Disney substitute for sexuality; this is notorious in
the films. and observable in the comics also. The
world of Disney, inside and outside the comics, is a
male one . The Disney organization excludes
women from positions of importance. Disney freely
admitted "Girls bored me. They still do."35 He had
very few intimate relationships with women; his
daughter's biography contains no hint that there
was any real intimacy even within the family circle.
Walt's account .of his courtShip of h i s wife
e stablishes it as a purely co mmercial
transaction.36 Walt had hired Lillian Bounds as an
inker because she would work for less money than
anyone else; he married her (when his brother Roy
married, and moved out) because he needed a new
room-mate, and a cook.
But just as Disney avoided the reality of sex and
children, so he avoided that of nature. The man who
made the world's most publicized nature films,
whose work expresses a yearning to return to the
pu rity of natural , rustic living, avoided the
countryside. He hardly ever left Los Angeles. His
own garden at home was filled with railroad tracks
and stock (this was his big hobby) . H e was
interested in nature only in order to tame it, control
it, cleanse it. Disneyland and Walt Disney World are
monuments to his desire for total control of his
environment, and at the end of his life he was
planning to turn vast areas of California's loveliest
"unspoiled" mountains, at M ineral King, into a 35
million dollar playground. He had no sense of the
special non-human character of animals, or of the
wildern ess ; his conce rn with nat u re was to
anthropomorphize it.
Disney liked to claim that his genius, his creativity
Operation- Playboy, December 1973, p. 328.
36 His daughter's words (Miller, Ope cit., p. 98) bear
repeating: "Father [was] a low-pressure swain with a
relaxed selling technique. That's the way he described it
to me ... [he was] an unabashed sentimentalist ... [but] to
hear him talk about marrying Mother, you'd think he was
after a lifetime's supply of her sister's fried chicken: His
proposal came in this form: 'Which do you think we ought
to pay for first, the car or the ring?" They bought the ring.
and on the cheap, because it was probably "hot· (stolen).
According to Look magazine (1 5 July 1 955, p. 29), "Lillian
Bounds was paid so little, she sometimes didn't bother to
cash her paycheck. This endeared her greatly to Roy ."
[who) urged Walt to use his charm to persuade the lady to
cash even fewer checks."
"sprouted from mother earth."37 Nature was the
source of his genius, his genius was the source of
his wealth, and his wealth grew like a product of
nature, like com. What made his golden comfield
grow? Dollars. "Dollars." said Disney, in a remark
worthy of U ncle Scrooge M cDu ck , "are l ike
ferttlizer-they make things grow."38
As Dorfman and Mattelart observe. it is Disney's
ambition to render the past like the present, and the
present like the past. and project both onto the
future. Disney has patented-"sewn up all the rights
on"--tomorrow as well as today. For, in the jargon
of the media, "he has made tomorrow come true
today," and "enables one to actually experience the
future.If His future has now taken shape in Walt
Disney Wortd in Orlando, Florida; an amusement
park which covers an area of once virgin land twice
the size of M anhattan . wh ich i n its f i rst year
attracted 1 0.7 million visitors (about the number
who visit Washington, D.C. annually) . With its own
laws, it is a state within a state. It boasts of the fifth
largest submarine fleet in the world. Distinguished
bourgeois architects, town planners, critics and land
37 TIme, 27 December 1 954, p. 42.
38 Newsweek, 31 December 1 962, pp. 48-51 .
39 Peter Blake, in an article for the Architectural Forum,
June 1 972 (stress added).
23
speculators have hailed Walt Disney World as the
solution to the problems of our cities, a prototype for
living in the future. EPCOT (Experimental Prototype
Community of Tomorrow), was intended as, in the
wo rds of a we l l-know n critic39 "a working
community, a vast, living, ever-changing laboratory
of u rban design . . . (which) u nderstandably . . .
evades a good many problems-housing, schools,
employment, politics and so on ... . They are in the
fun business." Of course.
The Disney parks have brought the fantasies of
the '1uture" and the '1un" of the comics one step
nearer to capitalist "reality." "In Disneyland (the
happiest place on earth) ," says Public Relations,
"you can e ncounte r 'wild' animals and native
'savages' who often display their hostility to your
invasion of their jungle privacy ... From stockades in
Adventureland, you can actually shoot at Indians."
Meanwhile, out there in the real real world. the
"savages" are fighting back.
David Kunzle
Los Angeles, February 1991
Th e rea d e r o f th is book may feel disconcerted,
not so mu ch because one of his idols
turns out to have feet of clay , b ut rather because
the kind of language we u se here is intended to
break with the false solemnity which general ly
cloaks scie ntific i nvestigation. In order to attain
knowledge, which is a form o f power, we cannot
conti nue to endorse , with bli nded vision and
sti lted jargon , the initiati on rituals with wh ich
our spiritual h igh priests seek to legitimize and
protect thei r excl usive privileges of thought and
e x p ression. Even when denou ncing prevail ing
fa llacies, investigators tend to fal l with their
language into the sa me k in d of mystificati on
wh ich they hope to destroy. Th i s fear of
breaking the confines of l a nguage, of the futu re
as a conscious fo rce of the i magi n ation, of a
close and lasting contact with the reader, this
dread of appearing insignificant and naked before
o n e ' s p a r t i c u l a r limi ted public, betrays a n
aversion for l ife and for reality a s a whole . We
do not want to be l ike the scientist who takes
his umbrella with him to go study the rain.
We are not about to deny scie ntific rationalism.
Nor do we aspire to some clu msy popularization
. What we do hope to ach ieve is a more
di rect and practical means of communicati on,
and to reconci le pleasu re with knowledge.
The best critical en deavor incorporates, apart
from its analysis of rea l ity, a degree of methodological
se l f-criticism . The problem here is not
one of relative com plex ity or s i mpl icity, but one
of bringin g the terms of criticism itse lf u nder
scruti ny.
Readers wil l judge this experi ment fo r thems
e l v e s , p r e fe r a b l y in an active, productive
m anne r. It results from a joi nt effo rt; that of
two resea rchers who u ntil now have observed the
preordained l i mits of their respective disci pl i nes,
the human istic and socia l sciences, and who
f o u n d t h e m s e l ve s 0 b l i ged to change their
methods of interpretation and communication.
Some, fro m the bias of their in dividual ism, may
rake th is book over sentence by sentence, carving
it up, assign ing this part to that person, in the
hopes of may be restoring that social division of
i ntel lectu a l labor wh ich leaves them so comfo
rtably settled i n thei r armchair or univers ity
chai r. Th is wo rk is not to be subjected to a
I etter-by-l etter breakdown by some hysterical
com puter, but to be consi dered a joint effo rt of
conception a nd writing.
Furthermore , it is part of a n e ffo rt to achieve
a wider, more massive distri bution of the basic
i deas conta i ned in this book . Unfortu nately,
these i deas are not always easi ly accessible to all
the readers we would Iike to reach, given the
· lucational level of our people. This is especially
Ie case since the criticism contained i n the book
lnnot fol low the same popular channels which
iP. bourgeoisie controls to propagate its own
.ll ues .
We are grateful to the students of CE R EN
:entro de Estudios de la Realidad Nacional,
f�nter for the Study of Chi lean Society, at the
;ltholic University ) , and to the seminar on
')ubliterature and Ways to Combat it" (Depart�ent
of Spanish, University of Chi le) for the
26
constant individual and collective contri butions
to our work.
Ariel Dorfman, me mber of the Juvenile and
Educati onal Publications Division of Quimant(j *,
was able to participate in the development of
this book thanks to the assignment offered to
h i m by the Department of Spanish at the
University of Chile. Armand Mattelart, head of
Quimantu's Investigation and EvaJuation of the
Mass Media Section, and Research Professor of
CEREN, participated in the book than ks to a
simi lar dispensation.
4 September 1 97 1 ,
First anniversary of the triumph of the
Popular Unity Government
INTRODUCTION : INSTRUCTIONS
ON HOW TO BECOME A GENERAL IN THE
DISNEYLAND CLUB
"My dog has become a famous l ifeguard
and my nephews wil l be brigadier-generals.
To what greater honor can one aspire?"
Don ald D uck ( D 422 * )
" Baby frogs wil l be big frogs somedayI
which bring h igh prices on the market . . .
I 'm going to fix some special frog fooc! and
s pe e d up the g r o wth of those l ittle
hoppers ! "
Donald D uck ( D 451 , C S 5/60 )
I t wo uld be wrong to assu me that Walt D isney
is me rely a business man . We are all fami l iar with
the massive merchand is in g of h is characters i n
·We use the following abbrevia tions : 0 = Disneylandia,
F = Fan tasias, TR = Tio Rico ( Scrooge McDuck ) ,
T 8 = Tribilin (Goofy) . These magazines are publish ed
in Chi le by Empresa Ed itorial Zig-Zag (now Pinset ) , w ith
an average of two to fou r large- and medium-sized
stories per issue. We obtained a l l available back issues
a n d p u r c h a sed cu rrent issues during the months
following March 1 971 . Our sample is thus inevitably
somewhat random :
Disneylandia : 1 85, 1 92, 2 1 0, 28 1 , 292, 294, 297,
303, 329, 342, 347, 357, 364, 367 , 3 70, 3 76, 377, 379,
381 , 382, 383, 393, 400, 401 , 421 , 422, 423, 424, 43 1 ,
432 , 433, 434, 436, 437, 439, 440, 441 , 443, 444, 445,
446, 447, 448, 449, 451 , 452, 453, 454, 455, 457.
Tio Rico : 40, 48, 53, 57, 6 1 , 96, 99, 1 06, 1 08, 1 09,
fi l ms , watches, u m brel las, records, soaps, rocking
cha i rs, neckties, lamps, etc. There are D isney
stri ps in five thousand newspapers, translated
i n to more than thirty languages, spread over a
hundred countries. Accord ing to the magazi ne's
own pu bl icity puffs, in Chi le a l one, Disney
comics reach and del ight each week over a
mil l ion readers. The former Zig-Zag Company,
now bizarre ly converted into Pi n sel Publish ing
Enterprise (Juven ile Pu bl ications Com pany Ltd. ) ,
su pplies the m to a major part of the Latin
American con ti nent. F rom thei r n ational base of
operations, where there is so much screami ng
about the trampling u nderfoot (the su ppression,
i ntimi dati on, restriction, repression, curbi n g, etc. )
1 '1 0, 1 1 1 , 1 1 3, 1 1 5, 1 1 6, 1 1 7, 1 1 9, 1 20, 1 28.
Fan tasias : 57, 60, 68, 82, 1 40, 1 55, 1 60, 1 65, 1 68,
1 69, 1 70, 1 73, 1 74, 1 75 , 1 76, 1 77 , 1 78.
Tribilin : 62, 65, 78, 87 , 92, 93, 96, 99, 1 00, 1 0 1 ,
1 03, 1 04, 1 06, 1 07 .
(Translator 's Note : Sto ries f o r which I have been
able to locate the U.S. originals a re coded th us: CS =
(Walt Disney 's ) Comics and Stories ; DA = Duck Album ;
D O = Donald Duck ; GG = Gyro Gear/oose ; H D L =
Huey, Dewey and Louie, Junior Woodchucks ; and US =
Uncle Scrooge.
The figures fol lowing represent the origin a l date of
issue ; thus 7/67 means J u ly 1 967. Somet imes, h owever,
when there is no mo nth ly date, the issue nu mber
appears fol lo wed by the year. )
� the l i berty of the press, th is conso rtiu m, con;
died by financiers and "ph ilanthropists" of the
(�vious Christian Democrat regime ( 1 964-70),
1'; just permitted itse lf the luxu ry of converting
·veral of its publications from biweeklies to
,'ekly magazines.
Apart fro m h is stock exchange rating, Disney
I s been exalted as the inviolable com mon
d t u r a l heritage of contemporary man ; h is
laracters have been incorporated into every
l me, they h ang on every wal l , they decorate
' ljects of every kind; they constitute a l ittle less
l ;Hl a social env ironment i nviting us all to joi n
; I � great u n iversal Disney famil y , which extends
·yond a l l frontiers and i deologies, transcends
I ferences between peoples and nations, and
;rt i cularities of custom and language. Disney is
. (� great supranational b ridge across which all
! man beings may commu n icate with each other.
qd a mi dst so much sweetness and l ight, the
qiste red trademark becomes invisible.
D isney is part - an immortal part, it would
I�m - of our common collective vision. It has
·>� n observed that in mo re than one cou ntry
.ckey Mouse is more popular than the national
' 1 0 of the day .
I n Central America, AID (the U.S. Agency for
iernational Development) - sponsored fi lms
nmoti ng contraception feature the characters
; lm " Magician of Fan tasy." In Chile, after the
!l thquake of July 1 971 , the children of San
'rnardo sent Disneyland Gomics and sweets to
: p i r stricken fellow children of San Antonio.
q d t h e yea r be f o re, a Chilean women's
. tgazine proposed giving Disney the Nobel Peace
*
! ze.
We need not be su rprised, then, that any
nuendo about the world of Disney should be
lerpreted as an affront to moral ity and civi/
a t ion at large. Even to whisper anything
iainst Wa lt is to u ndermine the happy and inIcent
palace of childhood, for which he is both
; ardian and gu ide.
No sooner had the first children's m agazine
' e n i s sue d by the Chilean Popular Unity
nvernment publish ing house OuimanttS, than
' e reactionary journals sprang to the defense of
• " At the time of h is death ( 1 966) , a small , informa l
I t worldwide group was promoting - with the covert
-, istance of h is publicity department - his nomination
, the Nobel Peace prize" (from Richard Schickel, The
:sney Version, New York, 1 968, p . 303). San Bernardo
a working�lass suburb of greater San tiago; San
" tonio a port in the central lone. (Trans. )
28
Disney :
"The voice of a newscaster struck deep
into the microphone of a rad io station in
the capital. To the amazement of his listeners
he announced that Walt Disney is to be
ba nned in Chi le. The govern ment propaganda
experts have come to the concl usion
that Chi lean chi ldren should not think ,
feel , love o r suffer through animals.
"So, in place of Scrooge McDuck,
Donald and nephews, instead of Goofy and
Mickey Mouse, we children and grownups
wil l have to get used to reading about ou r
own society, which, to judge from the way
it is painted by the writers and panegyrists
of our age, is rough, bitter, cruel and hateful
. It was Disney's magic to be able to
stress the happy side of l ife, and there are
always, in h uman society , characters who
resem ble those of Disney comics.
"Scrooge McDuck is the miserly
mill ionaire of any country i n the world,
hoarding h is money and suffering a heart
attack every time someone tries to pinch a
cent off h i m, but i n spite of it all, capable
of revealing human traits which redeem
h im in h is nephews' eyes.
HDonald is the eternal enemy of
work and l ives dependent u pon his
powerfu l uncle. Goofy is the innocent and
guileless common man, the eternal victim
of h is own clumsiness, which hurts no one
and is always good for a laugh.
"Big Bad Wolf and Little Wolf are
m a s te r l y m e a n s of t e a ching ch i ldren
p leasantly, not hatefully, the di fference
between good and ev il. For Big Bad Wolf
h i mself, when he gets a chance to gobble
up the Three Little Pigs, suffers pangs of
conscience and is unable to do his wicked
deed.
"And final ly, Mickey Mouse is Disney
in a n utshel l . What human bei ng over
the last forty years, at the mere presence
of Mickey, has not felt his heart swell with
emotion ? Did we not see him once as the
"Sorcerer's Apprentice" in an unforgettable
cartoon which was the delight of chi l dren
and grownups, which preserved every single
note of the masterly music of Prokoviev [a
reference no doubt to the music of Paul
Dukasl . And what of Fantasia, that prodigious
feat of cinematic art, with musicians,
orchestras, decorations, flowers, and
every animate being moving to the baton
of Leopold Stok owski ? And one scene, of
the utmost splendor and rea l i sm, even
showed elephants executing the most elegant
performance of "The Dance of the
Dragonfl ies" [a reference no dou bt to the
"Dance of the hours"] .
"How can one assert that children
do not l earn from tal king ani mals? H ave
they not been observed time and again
engagin g in tender dialogues with their pet
dogs a nd cats, while the latter adapt to
their masters and show with a purr or a
twitch of the ears thei r u nderstandi ng of
the orders they are given ? Are not fables
full of val uable lessons in the way animals
can teach us how to behave u nder the most
difficult circumstances?
"There is one, for i nstance, by Tomas
de I riarte which serves as a warn i ng
a g a i n s t t h e d a n ge r o f i mposing too
stri ngent prin ci ples upon those who wo rk
for the publ ic. The mass does not always
blindly accept what is offered to them ." *
Th is pro nouncement parrots some of the ideas
prevailing in the media about chi l dhood and
children's l i terature. Above a l l , there is the impl
ication that politics t::annot enter into areas of
"pu re ente rtainment," especially those design ed
for children of tender years. Ch ildren 's games
h ave their own rules and laws, they move,
su pposedly, in an autonomous and asoci al sphere
l i ke the Disney characters, with a psychology
pe c u I i ar to c reatu res at a "privileged" age.
I nasmuch as the sweet and doci le child can be
sheltered effectively from the evi l s of existence,
from the petty rancors, the hatreds, and the
p o l i tical or ideological contamination of his
el d ers, any attempt to politicize the sacred
domaine of chil dhood th reatens to introduce perve
r s i t y where there once reigned happiness,
innocence and fantasy. Si nce animals are alsn
exempt from the vicissitudes of h istory and
politics, they are conven ient symbols of a world
beyond socio-economic realities, and the animal
characters can represent ordinary human types,
commo n to all dasses, countries and epochs.
*La Segunda (Santiago) , 20 July 1 971 , p. 3. This
daily belongs to the Mercurio group, which is contro lled
by Augustin Edwards, the major" press and industrial
monopolist in Chile. The writer of the article quoted
worked as Public Relations officer for the American
copper companies Braden and Kennecott. (cf. A. Mattelart
" Estructura del poder informativo y dependencia"
29
D i s n e y thus establishes a mora l background
wh ich draws the chi l d down the prope r ethical
and aesthetic path. It is cruel and unnecessary to
tear it away from its magic garden , for it is ruled
by the Laws of Mother Nature; ch i ldren are just
l i ke that and the makers of comic books, in the i r
infi n ite wisdom, u nderstand the i r behavior and
their biologically-determi ned need fo r harmony.
Thus, to attack Disney is to reject the unquestioned
stereotype of the ch ild, sanctified as
the l aw in the name of the immutable human con­
dition.
The re are automagic
· ·
anti bodies i n Disney.
They tend to neutral i ze criticism because they
are the sa me values already instil led into people,
in the tastes, reflexes and attitudes which inform
everyday experience at all levels. Disney manages
to subject these values to the extremest degree of
com mercial explo itation. The potential assai ler is
th us condemned in advance by what is k nown as
"pu blic opin ion," that is, the th i n k ing of people
w h o ha\l e already been conditioned by the
Disney message and have based the i r social and
fam i l y l i fe upon it.
The publi cation of this book wil l of cou rse
provoke a rash of hostile comment aga inst the
auth ors. To facil itate our adversaries' task , and in
order to lend uniformity to their criteria, we
offer the fo ll owing model , which has been drawn
up with due consideration fo r the philosophy of
the journals to which the gen tlemen of the press
are so attached :
I NST RUCT IO NS ON HOW TO EXPE L
SOM EO N E F ROM TH E D ISN EY LAN D CLUB
1 . The autho rs of this book are to be defined
as follows: indecent and immoral (while D i sney 's
worl d is pure) ; hyper-com pl i cated and hypersophisticated
(wh ile Walt is si m ple, open and
si ncere ) ; members of a sin ister elite (while Disney
is the most popular man in the worl d ) ; pol i tical
agitators (while Disney is non-partisan, above
politics ) ; calculating and embittered (wh i l e Walt
D. is spontaneous, emotional , loves to laugh and
mak e laughter) ; su bverters of youth and domestic
peace (wh ile W.O. teaches respect for
p arents, love of o ne's fellows and protection of
in "Los Medios de Comunicacion de Masa s: La I deologia
de la Prensa Liberal en Ch ile" Cuadernos de la Realidad
Nacional ( C E R E N, San tiago ) , 3, Marzo de 1 970) .
• • A word-play o n the advertising s logan for a
wa s h i n g ma chine, wh ich cleans "automagicamente"
(automatically and magica lly) - Trans.
I he weak) ; unpatriotic and antagonistic to the
national spirit (while Mr Disney, being international,
represents the best and dearest of our
na t i ve trad itions) ; and finally, cultivators of
" M a r x i s m -f iction," a theory imported from
abroad by "wicked foreigners"* (wh ile Unca
Walt is against exploitation and promotes the
cl assless society of the future).
2. Next, the authors of this book are to be
accused of the very lowest of crimes : of daring
to ra ise doubts about the chi ld's imagination,
that is, 0 horrod, to question the right of
ch ildre n to have a literature of their own, which
mterprets them so well, and is created on their
behalf.
3. F INA LLY, TO EXPE L SOM EONE F ROM
T H E D I SNEY LAND C LU B, ACCUSE H IM R EP
E A T E D LY O F T R Y I N G TO BRAINWASH
C H I L D R E N W I T H T H E D O CT R I N E OF
CO LO R LESS SOCIAL R EALISM , I MPOSED BY
PO LIT I CAL COMM ISSA RS.
There can be no doubt that chi Idren's literature
is a genre like any other, monopolized by
special ized su bsectors within the cultu re industry .
Some ded icate themselves to the adventure story,
some to mystery, others to the erotic novel, etc.
But at least the latter are directed towards an
amorphous public, which buys at random. I n the
case of the children's genre, however, there is a
virtual ly biologically captive, predetermined
audience.
Ch ildren's comics are devised by adults, whose
work is determined and justified by their idea
of what a child is or should be. Often, they even
cite "scientific" sources or ancient traditions ("it
is popular wisdom, dating from time immemorial")
i n order to explain the nature of the
public's needs. In reality, however, these adults
are not about to te ll stories which would jeopardize
the future they are planning for their
children .
So the comics show the child as a miniatu re
adult, enjoyi ng an idealized, gilded i nfancy
which is rea lly nothing but the adult projection
of some magic era beyond the reach of the harsh
discord of daily life. It is a p lan for salvation
which presupposes a primal stage within every
e x i ste n ce, sheltered from contradictions and
permi tting i maginative escape. �uvenile l iteratu re,
e m'bo d y i n g p urity, spontaneity, a nd natural
virtue, while lacking in sex and violence, represents
earthly paradise . It guarantees man's
* Actual words of Little Wolf (0 21 0)
30
own redemption as a n adult: as long as there are
children, he wil l have the pretext and means for
self-gratification with the spectacle of h is own
dreams . In h is children's reading, man stages and
perf.orms over and over again the supposedly u nproblema
tical scenes of h is inner refuge. Regal ing
himself with ' his own legend, he falls i nto tautology;
he admires himself in the mirror, thinking
it to be a window. But the child playing down
there in the garden is the purified adu lt looking
back at himself.
So it is the adult who produces the comics,
and the child who consumes them. The role
of the apparent ch ild actor, who re igns over th is
uncontaminated world, is at once that of audience
and dummy for h is father's ventriloqu ism.
The father denies his progeny a voice of h is own,
and as i n any authoritarian society, he establishes
h imself as the other's sole i nterprete r and spokesman.
All the little fel low can do is to let his
father represent him.
B u t w a i t a m i n u te, gentlemen I Perhaps
ch ildren really are l i ke that?
Indeed, the adults set out to prove that this
literature is essential to the chi ld, satisfying
his eager demands. But this is a closed circuit :
child ren have been conditioned by the magazines
and the cu lture which spawned them. They tend
to reflect in their daily l ives the characteristics
they a re supposed to possess, in order to win
affection, acceptance, and rewards; in order to
g row u p properly and integrate into society. The
D i s n e y wo r l d is sustained by rewards and
pun ishments; it hides an iron hand with the
velvet glove . Consi dered, by defin ition, unfit to
choose from the alternatives available to adults,
the you ngsters intu it "natural" behavior, happily
accepting that their i magination be channel led
into incontestable ethical and aesthetic ideals.
Juvenile literature is justified by the chi ldren it
has generated th rough a vicious circle.
Thus" adults create for themselves a childhood
embodying their own angel ical aspirations, which
offer oonsolation, hope and a guarantee of a
"better," but unchanging, future. This "new
reality," this autonomous realm of magic, is artfu
lly isolated from the reality of the everyday.
Adu lt values are projected onto the child, as if
childhood was a special domaine where these
values could be protected uncritically. In Disney,
the two strata -adult and child- are not to be
considered as antagonistic; they fuse in a single
e m br a ce, and histo ry becomes biology. The
identity of parent and child inhi bits the emer-
gence of true generational confl icts. The pure
child will replace the corrupt father, preserving
the latter's values. The future (the child ) reaffirms
the presen t (the adult) , which, in turn,
transmits the past. The apparent independence
which the father benevolently bestows upon this
l ittle territory of his creation, is the very means
of assuring h is supremacy.
But there is more : this lovely, simple, smooth,
translucent, chaste and pacific region, which has
been promoted as Salvation, is unconsciously
infiltrated by a multiplicity of adult confli cts and
contrad ictions. This transparent world is designed
both to conceal and reveal latent traces of real
and painful tensio ns. The parent suffers th is spl it
consciousness w ithout being aware of his inner
t u r mo i I . N o s t a I g i cally, he appropriates the
"natural disposition" of the child i n order to
conceal the guilt arising from his own fal l from
grace; it is the price of redem ption for his own
condition. By the standards of h is angel ic model ,
he must judge h i mself gu ilty ; as much as he
needs this land of enchantment and salvation, he
could never imagine it with the necessary purity .
He could never turn into h is own chi l d . But this
salvation only offers him an i mperfect escape; it
can never be so pure as to block off all his real
l ife problems .
In juvenile literature, the adu lt, corroded by
the trivia of everyday life blindly defends his
image of youth and innocence. Because of this, it
is perhaps the best (and least expected) place to
study the disgu ises and truths of contemporary
man. For the adult, in protecting h is dreamimage
of youth , h ides the fear that to penetrate
it would destroy h is d reams and reveal the reality
it conceals.
Thus, the imagination of the child is conceived
as the past and future utopia of the
adult. But set up as an inner realm of fantasy,
this mo del of his Origin and his Ideal Futu re
Society lends itself to the free a ssimilation of all
his woes. It enables the adult to partake of h is
own demo ns, provided they have been coated in
the syrup of parad ise, and that they travel there
with the passport of in nocence.
Mass culture has granted to contemporary
man, in h is constant need to visualize the real ity
about him, the means of feed ing o n h is own
problems without hav ing to encounter ail the
difficulties of form and content presented by the
modern art and l iteratu re of the elite. Man is
offered knowledge without com mi tment, a selfcolonization
of h is own imagination. By dominating
the ch ild, the father dominates himself.
31
The relationship is a sado-masoch istic one, not
unlike that established between Donald and his
n e p h e ws . S i m i larly, readers find themselves
caught between their desire and their real ity, and
in their attem pt to escape to a purer real m, they
only travel further back into their own trau mas.
Mass cultu re has opened up a whole range of
new issues. While it certai nly has had a levell i ng
effect and has exposed a wider audience to a
broader range of themes, it has si mu Itaneously
generated a cultu ral elite wh ich has cut itself off
more and more fro m the masses. Contrary to the
democratic potential of mass cu ltu re, this el ite
has plu nged mass cultu re in to a suffocating complexity
of solutions, approaches and techniques,
each of which is comphrensi ble only to a narrow
c i rcle of readers. The creation of ch ildren's
culture is part of this special i zation process.
Ch ild fantasy, although created by adults,
becomes the exclusive reserve of ch ildren. The
s e l f -e x i l ed father, once having created this
specialized i maginary world, then revels in it
through the keyho le. The father must be absent,
and without direct jurisdiction, just as the chi ld
i s without direct obl igations. Coercion melts
away in the magic palace of sweet harmony and
repose - the palace ra ised and administered at a
d istance by the father, whose physical absence is
designed to avoid direct confrontation with his
p rogeny. This absence is the prerequisite of h is
omn ipresence, his total invasion. Physical prese
n ce wo u l d be superfluous, even counterproductive,
sin ce the whole magazine is already
h is projection. He shows up instead as a favorite
uncle handing out free magazines. Juvenile l iteratu
re is a father su rrogate. The model of paternal
a u t h o r i t y is at every poi nt immanent, the
i mplicit basis of its structure and very existence.
The natu ral creativ ity of the child, which no one
in h is right mind can deny, is channelled through
the apparent absence of the father into an adu ltauthoritarian
vision of the real world. Paternal ism
in absen tia is the indispensable vehicle for the
defense and i nvisible control of the ostensibly
auto nomous childhood model. The comics, l ike
television, in all vertically structured societies,
rely u pon distance as a means of authoritarian
reinfo rcement.
The authoritarian relationship between the
real l i fe parent and ch ild is repeated and rei nforced
with in the fantasy world itself, and is the
basis for all relations in the entire world of the
comics. Later, we shall show how the rel ationship
of ch i1d-readers to th e mao�7inp. thpv rn n -
" UEY.. LOUIE.
UA��
I!.WEY DUCK Hi
Dc;.NDERGAKTE AftE
�E LESS0t'u�I
SO MUC# r� •
'lODAY WE WILL PLAY THAT WE A�E
ALL /JIG BUSINESS' MEN J
OH,BOY! I'D LIKE 10
BE A 8ANKa l
,ume is generally based on and echoed in the
.vay the characters experience their own fantasy
vorld within the comic. Children will not only
i dentify with Donald Duck because D onald's
..I tuation relates to their own l ife, but also be:ause
the way they read or the way they are
'xposed to it, i mitates and prefigures the way
i )onald Duck l ives out his own problems. F iction
11> LikE 10 BE
A M£«HANT!
reinforces, in a circular fashion, the manner i n
which the adult desi res the comic be received and
read.
Now that we have peeked into the paren tchild
relationsh ip, let us be initiated into the
D isney world, beginning with the great fami ly of
ducks and mice.
Daisy :
Donald :
II If you teach me to skate this
afternoon, I will give you something
you have always wanted."
"You mean . . . "
Daisy : IIYes . . . My 1 872 coin."
Nephews : "Wow ! That would complete
o u r co i n co l l e ct i o n , Unca
D onald."
(0 433}
There is one basic product which is never
stocked in the D isney store: parents. Disney's is
a universe of uncles and grand-uncles, nephews
and cousins; the male-female rel ationshi p is that
of eternal fianctfs. Scrooge McDuck is Donald's
uncle, Grandma Duck is Donald's aunt (but not
Scrooge's wife), and Donald is the uncle of
H uey, Dewey, and Louie. Cousin Gladstone
Gander is a "distant nephew" of Scrooge; he has
a nephew of his own called Shamrock, who has
two female cousi ns (DA 649, 1 955). Then there
are the more distant ancestors like grand-uncle
Swashbuckle D uck, and Asa D uck, the greatgreat-great
u nde of Grandma Duck; and (most
distant of all) Don de Pato, who was associated
with the Spanish Armada (DO 9/65) . The various
cousins incl ude Gus Goose, Grandma D uck's idle
farmhand, Moby D uck the sa ilor, and an exotic
oriental branch with a Sheik and Mazuma lO uck,
"the richest bird in South Afduckstan," with
nephews. The genealogy is tipped decisively i n
favor of the masculi ne , sector. The l adies are
spinsters, with the sale exception of Grandma
Duck who is apparently widowed without her
husband having died, si nce he appears just once
(0 424) under the suggestive title "History Repeats
Itself. " There are also the cow Clarabelle (with a
short-l ived cousin , F 57) , the hen Clara Cluck,
the witch Magica de Spel l , and natural ly Minnie
and Daisy, who, being the girl friends of the
most i m portant ch aracters are accompanied by
nieces of their own ( Daisy's are called Apri l ,
May , and June; she also has a n uncle o f her own,
Uncle Dourd uck, and Aunts Drusi l l a and Tizzy ) .
Sin ce these women are not very susceptible to
men or matrimonial bonds, the masculine sector
is necessarily and perpetually composed of bachelors
accompanied by nephews, who come and go .
Mickey h as Morty and Ferdy, Goofy has G il bert
(and an u ncle "Tribil io," F 1 76), and Gyro G earloose
has Newton; even the Beagle Boys have
uncles, aunts and nephews cal led the Beagle Brats
(whose female cousins, the Beagle Babes, make
the occasional appearance ) . It is predictable that
any future demographic increase wil l have to be
the result of extra-sexual factors.
Even more remarkable is the duplication and
triplication - i n the baby department. There
a re four sets of triplets in this world : the
nephews of Donald and the Beagle Boys, the
nieces of Daisy, and the inevitable three piglets.
The quantity of twins is greater still. M ickey's
nephews are an example, . but . the . majority prol
i ferate without attribution to any uncle : the
chipmu nks Chip and Dale, the mice Gus and Jaq.
This is all the more significant in that ' there are
in numerable other examples outside of Disney:
Porky and Petunia and nephews; Woody Woodpecker
and nephews; and the l ittle pai r of mice
co nfronting the cat Tom.
The exceptio n - Scamp and Big Bad Wolf wil
l be consi dered separately.
I n this bleak world of family clans and
solitary pairs, su bject to the archaic prohi bition
of marriage within the tribe, and where each and
every one has his own mortgaged house but
never a home, the last vestige of parenthood,
male or female, has been eliminated.
The advocates of Disney manage a hasty
rational i zatio n of these features into proof of innocence,
chastity and proper restraint. Without
resorting polemically to a thesis on infant sexual
,�ducation already outmoded in the n ineteenth
century, and more suited to monastic cave dweliers
than civi l ized people (admire our mercurial *
qy le ), it is evident that the absence of fath�r and
mother is not a matter of chance. One is forced
t o the paradox ical concl usion that in order to
,:onceal normal sexuality from children , it is
I)ecessary to construct an aberrant world - one
"N h ich, moreover (as we shall see later), suggestive
nf sexual games and in nuendo. One may wrack
; >ne's brains trying to figure out the educational
,J alu e of so many u ncles and cousins; persumably
1 hey help eradicate the wicked taint of infant
�exual ity. But there are other reasons.
The much vaunted and very inviting fantasy
flJorld of 0isney systematically cuts the earthly
oots o f h is characters. Their charm supposedly
les in their familiarity, their resemblance to
Hd inary , common or garden variety of people
vho c ross our path every day. But, in D isney,
�haracters only fun ction by virtue of a suplression
of real and concrete factors ; that is,
heir perso nal h istory, their birth and death, and
h ei r whole development in between, as they
i rOW and change. Since they are not engendered
ly any biological act, Disney · characters may
• " Mercu rial" - akin to the sty le of EI Mercurio,
loted for i ts pompous moralism. (Trans. )
34
a s p i re to i m m o r ta l i t y : whatever appareAt,
momentary sufferings are inflicted on them in
the course of their adventures, they have been
l iberated, at least, from the curse of the body.
By eliminating a character's effective past, and
at the same time denying him the opportun ity of
self-examination in respect to his prese nt predicament,
D isney den ies him the only perspective
from which he can IOQk at himself, other than
from the world in which he has always been submerged.
The futu re cannot serve hi m either :
reality is u nchanging.
The generation gap is not only obl iterated
between the child, who reads the com ic, and the
parent, who buys it, but also with in the comic
itself by a process of substitution in wh ich the
uncles can always be replaced by the nephews.
Since there is no father, constant replacement
and displacement of the uncle is painless. Si nce
h e i s n o t ge n e t i c a l l y responsi ble for the
youngster, it is not treasonable to overr ule h i m .
I t is as i f the uncle were never rearly k ing, an
appropriate term si nce we are dea l ing with fai ry
tales, but only regent, watching over the throne
unti l its legitimate heir, the young Prince Charming,
eventu ally comes to assume it.
But the physical absence of the father does
not mean the absence of paternal power . Far
from it, the relations between 0i sney characters
are much more vertical and authoritarian than
those of the most ty rannical real l ife home,
where a h arsh discipline can sti l l be softened by
sh aring, love, mother, siblings, so lidari ty , and
mutu al aid. Moreover, in the real life home , the
matu ring ch ild is always exposed to new alternatives
and standards of behav io r, as he responds to
pressu res from outside the fami l y . But sin ce
power in D isney is wielded not by a father, but
by an u ncle, it becomes arbitrary.
Patri archy in our society is defended, by the
patriarchs, as a matter of bio logical predetermi
nation (undoubtedly susta ined by a social
stru cture which institutional izes the education of
the ch ild as pri marily a fam i ly responsi bil ity ) .
Uncle -authority , o n the other h and, not having
been conferred by the father ( the uncl e's broth ers
and sisters , who m ust in theory have given
birth to the nephews, simply do not exist ) , is of
pu rely de facto origin , rather than a natu ral
r i g h t . I t i s a contractual relati onsh ip masquerad
ing as a natu ral relationsh ip, a ty ranny
which does not even assu me the responsi b i l ity of
breeding. And one cannot rebel against it i n the
name of n atu re ; one cannot say to an u ncle " you
are a bad father."
With in this fami l y peri mete r, no one loves
anyone else, there is never an expression of affection
or loyalfy towards another human be i ng.
In any moment of suffering, a person is alone;
there is no d isinterested or friend ly hel ping hand.
One e ncou nters, at best, a sense of pity, derived
from a v iew of the other as some cripple or beggar,
so me old down-and-out dese rving of our
charity. Let u s take the most extreme exam ple :
the famous love between M ickey and Pluto . AI·
though Mickey certainly shows a charitable kind
of affection fo r his dog, the l atter is always
u nder the o bl igatio n to demonstrate h is usefulness
and hero ism. I n o ne episode (0 381 ) , havi ng
behaved very badly a nd h av ing been locked up in
the cel l ar as punishme nt, Pl u to redeems h i msel f
by catch ing a th ie f (th ere i s always o n e aro u nd) .
The police g ive Mickey a hundred-doll ar reward,
and offer another hund red to buy the dog i tself,
but Mickey refuses to se l l : " 0. K. P l u to, you cost
me around fifty dolla rs i n damages th is afternoon
, but th is rewa rd leaves me w ith a good
profit." Com mercial relations are common co i n
here, even i n so "maternal " a bond a s tha t
between M ic key a n d h is bloodhound.
With Scrooge M cOuck, it is of course worse.
I n one episode, the nephews, exhausted after si x
months scouring the G ob i dese rt on Scrooge 's
behalf; are upbraided for h aving taken so long,
and are paid one doll ar fo r their pains. They flee
thankfu lly , in fear of yet more fo rced labo r. It
never occurs to them to object, to stay put and
to demand better tre atment.
But McDuck obl i ges them to depa rt once
more, sick as they are , in search of a co i n
weighing several tons, fo r which the avarici ous
mill ionaire is evidently prepared to pay a few
cents (TR 1 06, US 1 0/69) . It tu rns out that the
gigantic coi n is a forgery a nd Scrooge has to buy
the authentic on�. Donald smi les in re l ief; "Now
that you have the true H unka JlV1ka, U ncle
Scrooge, we can all take a rest. " The tyran t rep
l ies: " Not unti l you retu rn that counterfeit
hunk of ju nk and bring back my pen n ies ! " The
ducks are depicted in the last pictu re l i ke slaves
in ancient Egypt, push ing the rock to i ts destiny
at the other end o f the globe, I nstead of com i ng
to th e real i zation th at he ought to open his
mo uth to say no, Donald reaches the very opposite
concl u sion : "Me and my big mouth ! " N ot
even a complaint is perm itted against this un·
q u e s t i o ned su premacy. What a re the consequences
of Daisy's Aunt Tizzy discovering a year
35
l ater that Daisy h ad dared to attend a dance she
d isapproved of? " I ' m go ing . . . and I am cutti ng
you out of my wil l , Daisy ! Goodbye ! " (0 383,
DO 7/67 ) .
The re i s n o room fo r l ove i n th i s world. The
you n gsters adm i re a dista nt un cle ( U nca Zak
McWak ) who i nvented a "spray to k i l l applewo
rms." (0 455, DO 5/68) , "The whole world is
than kfu l to h i m for th at . . . He's famous . . . and
rich," the nephews excl a im. D onald sens ibly repl
ies "Bah ' Brains, fame, and fortune are n 't
everything. " "Oh, no? Wh at's left?" ask Huey,
D ewey a nd Lou ie i n un ison . And Donald i s at a
loss for words: "er . . . um . . . let's see now . , .
u h -h . . . "
So the ch il d's "natura l disposit ion" evidently
serves D isney only insofar as i t lends in nocence
to the adu lt world, and se rves the myth of chi ldh
ood . Meanwhile, it h as been str ipped of the true
quali ties of ch i l d ren : their u nbou n ded, open ( and
therefo re man ipula ble ) trustfu l ness, their creative
s pontaneity ( as Piaget has shown ) , the i r i n c
red ible capacity for u n rese rved, uncond itional
10 v e, and t h eir i magi nation which overfl ows
aro u nd a nd thro ugh a nd with i n the objects wh i ch
su rrou nd them. Beneath all the charm of the
sweet little creatures of D isney, on the o ther
h and, l u rks the law of the ju ngl e : envy, ruthlessness,
cruelty, terror, black mai l , explo i tation of
the wea k . Lacking veh icles fo r the i r natura l affect
ion, ch i l d re n learn th ro ugh D isney fear and
h atred .
It is not D isney's cr it ics, bu t D isney h i mse l f
w h o is to b e accused of d isrupting the h ome ; i t
is D isney who i s th e wo rst enemy o f fam i l y
h armo n y .
Eve ry D i sn ey characte r stan ds e i ther on o n e
s i d e or th e oth er of t h e power demarcation l i ne.
Al l th ose below are bound to obed ien ce, subm
issio n , disc i p l i n e, hu m il ity . Those above are
free to employ consta nt coercion : threats, moral
a n d p h y s i c a l r e p r e ss i o n , a n d e c o n o m i c
dom i n ation ( i .e . contro l over the means o f subsi
stence ) . The re lati o nship of powerfu l to powerless
is al so ex pressed in a less aggressive , more
paternal istic way , th o ugh g i fts to th e vassals. I t
is a wo ri d 0 f permanen t profit a n d bon us. I t i s
o n ly n atural that t h e D uckbu rg Women 's Clubs
are always engaged in go.od works : the disp·ossessed
eagerly accept wh atever charity can be
h ad fo r the beggi ng.
The world of D isney is a nine teenth cen tury
orphanage. With this di ffe rence : there is no outsidp.,
a nd the orphans h ave nowhe re to flee to . In
spite of all tt,eir global travell ing, and their crazy
a n d feverish mobil ity, the characters remain
trapped with in, and doomed to return, to the
same power structure. The elasticity of physical
space conceals the true rigidity of the relationships
within which the characters are i m prisoned.
The mere fact of being older · or richer or more
beautiful in this world corifers authority . The less
fortunate regard their su bjection as natural . They
spend all day complain ing about the sl avemaster,
but they would rather obey his craziest order
than challenge h im.
This orphanage is fu rther conditioned by the
genesis of its in mates : not having been born,
they cannot grow up. That is to say, they can
never leave the institution through individual,
b i o l og i ca l e vo l u ti on . Th i s a l s o facilitates
unlimited man ipulation and controi of the population;
the addition - and, if necessary, subtraction
- of characters. Newcomers, whether a
single figure or a pair of distant cousins, do not
h ave to be the creation of an ex isting character.
It is enough for the story writer to think him up,
t o i n v e nt h im. The uncle-nephew structure
pe r m i ts the writer, who stands outside the
magazine, to establish his mind as the only
creative force, and the fount of al l energy (just
li ke the brainwaves and l ight bulbs issuing from
every duck's head ) . Rejecting bodies as sources
of ex istence, Disney i nfl icts upon his heroes the
punishment that Origenes infl icted upon himself.
He emasculates them, and deprives them of thei r
true organs o f relation to the universe : perception
and generation. By means of this unco
nscious stratagem, the oomics systematical ly
and artfu lly reduce real people to abstractions.
Disney is left in unrestricted control over his
world of eunuch heroes, who are incapable of
physical generation and who are forced to imitate
their creator and spiritual father. Once again,
the adu lt invades the comic, this time under the
ma ntle of benevolent artistic gen ius. (We have
noth ing against artistic genius, by the way ) .
There can be n o rebel l ion against the establ
ished order; the emasculated slave is condemned
to subjection to others, as he is con demned
to D isney .
Careful now. This world is inflexible, but may
not show it. The h ierarchical structure may not
readily betray itself. But, should the system of
im pl icit authoritarian is m exceed itself or should
its arbitrary character, based on the strength of
wi l l on one side and passivity on the other,
beco me explicit and blatant, rebell ion become
38
mandatory. No matter that there be a king, as
long as he governs while hiding his steel hand in
a velvet glove. Should the metal show through,
h is overthrow becomes a necessity. For the
smooth p reservation of order, power should not
be exaggerated beyond certain tacitly agreed
l imits. If these limits are transgressed reveal ing
the arbitrary character of the arrangement, the
balance has been disturbed, and must be restored.
Invariably, those who step in are the
you ngsters. They act, however, neither to turn
tyranny into spontaneity and freedom, nor to
b r i ng their creative imagination to bear on
power, but in order to perpetuate the same order
of adult domination. When the grownup misbehaves,
the child takes over his sceptre. As long
as the system works, no doubts are raised about
it. But once it has failed, the child rebels demanding
restoration of the betrayed values and
th e old h ierarchy of domination. With their prudent
takeover, their mature criticism, the youngsters
uphold the same value system. Once again,
real differences between father and child are
passed over: the futu re is the same as the prese
nt, and the present the same as the past.
Since the child identifies with his counterpart
in the magazine, he contributes to his own
colonization. The rebell ion of the l ittle fol k i n
the comi cs i s sensed as a model for the chi ld's
o w n real rebell ion against injustice; but by
rebell ing in the name of adult values, the readers
are in fact internal izing them.
As we shall see, the obsessive persistence of
the l ittle creatures - astute, bright, oompeten t,
dil igent and responsible - against the oversized
an imals - d u ll , incompetent, thoughtless, lyi ng
and weak - lead s to a frequent, if only temporary
, inversion. For example; Little Wolf is
always locking up his father Big Bad Wolf, the
ch ipmu nks outwit the bear and the fox, the mice
Gus and Jaq defeat the cat and the inevitable
th ief, the l i ttle bear Bongo braves the terrible
"Quijada" (Jawbone), and th e foal Gilbert becomes
h is uncle Goofy's teacher. Even the smart
M ickey gets criticized by his nephews. These are
but · a few examples among many.
Thus, the only possible way of changing status
is by having the representative of the adults
(domi n ator) be transformed into the representative
of the ch ildren (dominated) . This happens
whenever an adult commits the same errors he
criticizes in ch ildren when they disturb the adult
o rder. Simil arly, the only change permitted to
the child (dominated) is to turn himself into an
adult (dominator) . Once having created the myth
of childish perfection, the adult then uses it as a
substitute for h is own " virtue" and " knowledge. "
But it is on ly h imself he is admiring.
Let us consider a typical example (F 169) :
t h e duality in Donald Duck himself (he is
illustrated as having a duplicate head three times .
duri ng the course of the episode). Donald has
reneged on a promise to take his nephews on
holiday . When they remind h im, he tries to slap
them, and ends up deceiving them. But justice
intervenes when Donald mistal<enly starts beating
up " Little Bean," a baby elephant, instead of his
nephews. The judge condemns Donald to "serve
his sentence in the open air," in the custody of
h is nephews, who are granted the full authority
of the law to this effect. This is a perfect
example of how the representative of childish
submission is a su bstitute for the representative
of paternal power. But, how did this substitution
come about? Wasn't it Donald who first broke
the l aw by cheating on his nephews, and they
who responded with great restraint'! First, they
demanded Donald keep h is promise, then they
si lently watched a situation develop in which he
deluded h i mself. Without h aving to l ie, they only
began actively to hoax h im when all previous
tactics had failed . Donald's error was first to
mistake a ch ild's toy rubber elephant fo r a real
one, then treat the real one as if it was a toy.
Life for him is full of delusions, caused by h is
ethical error, h is in capacity for mo ral judgement,
and h is deviation from paternal standards. As he
forfeits authority and power, h e also loses his
sensory objectivity (mistak ing a ru bber elephant
for a real one, and vice-ve rsa) . Without ever
recognizing his errors, he is replaced by his
nephews who, for their part, correct the proble�
and behave in exemplary adu lt fashion. By
teaching their uncle a lesson, they reinforce the
old code. They do not attempt to inval idate their
su bordinate status, but only demand that it be
justly admi n istered. The ex isting standards are
equated to truth , goodness , authority and power.
Donald is a dual figure here b�cause he retains
the obl igations of the adult on the one hand,
whi le behaving l ike a ch ild on the other. This
extreme case where he is punished by a judge
(generally it is a universal mo ral destiny) indicates
h is commitment to recover h is original ,
single face, lest a generatio nal struggle be u nleashed
which would reflect real change i n the
existing Duckburg values.
The nephews, moreover , hold the key fo r
37
entry into the adult world, and they make good
use of it : the Junior Woodchuck ( Boy Scout)
Handbook . . It is a Golden Treasu ry of oonventional
wisdom. It has an answer to every
situation, every period, every date, every action,
every techn ical problem. Just follow the ins
t r u ct i ons on the can, to get out of any
d i fficulty. It represents th e accumulation of
conventions permitting the child to CQntrol the
future and trap it, so that it will not vary from
the past, so that all will repeat itself. All courses
of action have been pretested and approved by
authority of the manual, which is the tribu nal of
history , the eternal law, sponsored and sanctified
by those who will inherit the world. Th�re can
be no su rprises here, for it has shaped the world
in advance and forever. It's all written down
there, in that rigid catech ism, just put it into
practice and carry on reading. Even the adverfary
is possessed of objective and just standards. The
H a n d book is one of the rare one-hundredpercent-perfect
gimmicks in the complex world
of D isney : out of fo rty-five instances in which it
is used, it never fails once, beating in infall ibil ity
even the almost perfect Mickey.
But is there noth ing which escapes this i ncessant
transposition between adult and chi ld,
and vice-versa? Is there no way of stepping aside
from this struggle for vertical su bordination and
the obsessive p ropagation of the system?
Indeed th ere is. There is horizontal movement,
and it is always present. It operates among
creatures of the same status and power level,
who , among themselves, cannot be permanently
domin ated or domin ators. All that is left to them
- since so lidarity among equals is prohibited - is
to compete. Beat the other guy to it. Why beat
h im? To rise above him, momentarily, enter the
dominators clu b, and advance a rung ( like a
Disneyland Clu b oorporal or sergeant) on the
ladder of mercantile value. Here the only permitted
h orizontal becomes the finishing-l ine of
the race.
There is one sector of D isney society which is
beyond the reach of criticism, and is never
ousted by lesser creatu res : the female. As in the
m a l e se c tor , the lineage also tends to be
avuncu lar (for ex ample, Daisy, her nieces and
Aun t Tizzy, D 383, DO 7/67), except that the
woman has no chance of switching roles in the
dominator-dominated relationship. Indeed, she is
never challenged because she plays her role to
perfection , whether it be h umble servant or constan
tly courted beauty queen ; i n either case, sub-
ANDARE AU.1l+E BOYS
IW'D,( TO LOOK out FOR
SOME lNTEltESi1NG
GIFTS R>R1lIeiR
LADIES?
ord inate to the male. Her only power is the traditional
one of seductress, which she exercises in
the form of coquetry . She is denied any fu rther
ro le which might transcend her passive, domestic
natu re. There are women who contravene the
"feminine code," but they are all ied with the
powers of dark ness. The witch , Magica de Spell is
a typical antagonist, but not even she abandons
aspirations proper to her "femin ine" nature.
Women are left with only two alternatives (which
are not really alternatives at all ) : to be Snow
White or the Witch, the l ittle girl housekeeper or
the wicked stepmother. Her brew is of two
k in ds: the homely stew and the d readfu l magic
poison . And since she is always cook ing for the
male, her aim in l ife is to catch him by one brew
or the other.
If you are no witch, don't wo rry ma'am : you
can always keep busy with IIfeminine" occuptions;
dressmaker, secretary , interior decorator,
n u rse, florist, cosmetician, or ai r hostess. And if
work is not your sty le, you can always become
president of the local ch arity cl ub. I n all events,
you can always fall back upon eternal coquetry
- this is your com mon denominator, even with
Grandma Duck (see D 347) and Madame Mim.
In his graph ic visuali zation of this bunch of
coquettes Disney resorts constantly to the Holl ywo
0 d a ctress stereotype. Al though they are
sometimes heavily sati rized, they remain a single
archetype with their physical existence limited to
the escape-h atch of amorous struggle (D isney
re in forces the stereoty pe in his famous films for
lithe you ng" as for example, the fairies in PinocchiD
and Peter Pan ). Disney's moral stand as to
the natu re of this struggle is clearly stated, for
example, in the scene where Daisy em bodies inf
a n t i le , Doris Day-sty le qual ities agai nst the
Italianate vampiress Silvia.
Man is afraid of this kind of woman (who
wouldn't be? ) . He p.tp. rnally and fru itif!ssly courts
her, takes her out, competes for her, wants to
rescue h er, showers her with gifts. Just as the
troubadours of courtly love were not permitted
carnal contact w i th the women of th e i r lords, so
these eunuch s live in an eternal foreplay with
their impossible virgins. Since they can never
fu lIy possess them, they are i n constant fear of
losing them. It i s the compulsion of eternal frustr
ation , of pleasu re postponed for better dominatio
n . Woman's on ly retreat in a world where
physical adventu re, criticism and even motherhood
has been denied h er, is i n to her own ste r i l e
se xual i ty . She can not even enjoy the humbl e
domestic pleasures permitted to real-l i fe women ,
a s enslaved a s they are - looking after a home
and ch ildren . She is perpetually and uselessly
waiting around , or ru n n ing after some mascu l i ne
idol, dazzled by the h ope of findi ng at last .a true
man . Her only raison d'etre is to become a
sexual object, i n fi n itely sol icited and postponed.
She is fro zen on the threshhold of satisfaction
and repress ion amo ng impote nt people . She is
den ied pleasu re , love, chi l d ren, communication.
She lives in a cen tr i peta l , introverted, egol atro us
worl d ; a parody of the islan d-i ndividua l . Her con·
d ition is solitude, which she can never recognize
as such. The mo ment she questions her role, she
w i l l be struck from the cast of characters.
How hypocritical it i s fo r D isney co mics to
announce : "We refuse to accept advertise ments
for products harmfu l to the moral and material
health of ch ild re n , such as cigarettes, alcohol ic
beverages, or gambling . . . Our inte ntion has
always been to serve as a veh icle of heal thy recreation
and e n tertai n ment, amidst a l l the problems
besetting us. " All protestatio ns to the con trary
, Disney does p resent a n i m pl icit model o f
se xual education. By su ppressi n g true sexual con t
a ct , co i tu s, possession a n d orgasm, D isney
betrays how demo n ical and terr i b le he conce ives
· Editorial in EI Mercurio (Santiago ) , 28 September
971 .
39
them to be. He h as created another aberration :
an asexual sexuated world. The sexual i nnuendo
is more evident in the d rawing, than in the dial
ogue i tself.
I n th i s c a r e fu l l y p r e s e r v ed reservation,
coquettes - male and female, young and old try
i mpotently to conceal the apparatus of sexual
sed uction under the u n i form of the Salvatio n
Army . Disney a n d the other l i bidinous defen de rs
of childhood, clamor o n the alters of you th ful
i n n oce n ce , c r y i ng out against scandal , i mmo
rality, pornography, prostitution, i n decency,
and incitation to "precocious sensua l i ty" , when
another youth magazine dares to launch a poster
with a back v iew of a romantic and ethere a'i
couple, n ude. Listen to the sermo n of Walt's
creole i mi tators :
" I t must be recogni zed that i n Chi l e we have
reached i ncredi ble e xtremes in the matter of
erotic pro paganda, perversion and vice. I t .is
'
m an ifest in those groups preachi n g i n div
idual moral escapism , and a break with
all mo ral standards.
"We hear m uch tal k of the new man and
the new society, but these conce pts are
often accom pan ied by fi Ithy attitudes, indecent
exhibitionism, and indu lgence in
se xual perversion.
"One does not h ave to be a Puri tan to
pronounce strong censure u pon th is moral
li centiousness, sin ce i t is wel l known that
no hea lthy people an d n o last i ng h isto rical
wor k can be based u pon the mo ral disorder
which threatens our youth with mo rtal
poison. What i deals and what sacrifices can
be asked of young people i n i t i ated i n to the
vice of drugs and c o rru pted by a berrant
practices or precocious sensu al i ty ? And if
youth becomes i n capa ble o f acce pti ng any
ideal or sacr i f i ce, how can o n e e x pect the
co untry to r eso lve i ts p ro blems o f developmen
t and l i beration , all o f wh i ch pre·
su ppose great effo rt, and even a dose of
hero ism?
lilt i s u n fortunate, i ndeed, t h a t i mmora l i ty
i s bei ng fostere d by gove r n men t -con tro l led
pu bl ications. A few days ago a sca n da l o u s
street poster a n noun ced the appea rance o f
a youth magaz i ne publ ished on t h e off i c i a l
presses . . . _ W i thou t sto u t-hearte d y o u t h
there i s no rea l youth, but o n l y premat u re
and corru pt ma tu ri ty . And without y o u th,
the cou n try h as n o futu r e. " *
40
But why this unhealthy phobia of Disney's? the same values. Later we will examine how
Why has motherhood been · expelted<: from his without a mother to intervene, there is no ob--
Eden? We shall have occasion to retum to,:tf1ese stac.le to showing the adult world as perverse and
questions . later - a�: �i��Qut recou�!: ,:�� �� "::::
cluri.1�y.,:: !hU$ prePil�rlg us for this replacement by
usual biograPhiCal qOr: :r:lYCt\OlnalytiC: ::;(�im.n,:-' { (H :rt.'� IJtt''';OOes wh() hi!"' alro�adv implicitIy pledged
explanations. '{�, ::; (: .::,:,;:i::i::::: \,:i:<:� : < ,f
'
:; ,:
:
' '�I��;�nc8:' �O: �th! : aduJt:: �.8g. .
> .,
It is enough at this -rpoirit ' to' no.: 'tfiit:"..1i.\;;'!,!,!j,:!::,' ,,:::::;' :>:,;,:':i'�t, t(;r; use the e)(a�iJNOrds of Little Wolf (0
paucity Of women;'....th�ir<$Ua)Ordinatio� and:
:
:1Ji'1r;:;; : ,<:: ' '21ClJ:
mutilation, ..facilitatf!s ' ,h, roundabour of : uf\d��':: :
nephews, adults 8nd d1Mdrfln, and: " tt.eir ��.. , , ( "Gulp' ' Sad ,thinQs , always come in , big
stantly interchangeable roles which alwaYs as�r.t" ::::,> packagesl".
"Gu l"
The Abominable Snow Man
(TR 1 1 3, US 6-8/56)
Disney rel ies upon the acceptabil ity of his
world as natural, that is to say, as at once
normal, ordinary and true to the nature of the
ch ild. His depiction of women and chi ldren is
p r e d i cated u p on i ts supposed objectivity,
although, as we h�e seen, he relentlessly twists
the nature of every creature he approaches.
It is not by chanO! that the Disney world is
p o p u l ated with animals. Nature appears to
pervade and determine the whole complex of
social relations, while the animal-Iike traits prov
ide the characters with a facade of innocence. It
is, of course, true that children tend to identify
with the playful, instinctive nature of animals. As
they grow older, they begin to understand that
the mature animal shares Some of his own physical
evolutionary traits. They were once, in some
way , l ike this animal, going on all fours, unable
to speak, etc. Thus the animal is considered as
· OisneY does not hesitate to expJoit this relationship
of biological superiority in order to miUtarit.e. and
'egi ment animal life under the approvira� rule of
children (cf. the transference of the Boy . SCout ideal
onto animals in all his comics, as for example in TR
1 19).
being the only l iv ing being in the universe inferior
to the child,* one which the child has
overtaken and is able to manipulate. The animal
world is one of the areas where the creative
imagination of the child can freely roam; and it
is indisputable that many animal fBms have great
pedagogic value, which educate a child's sensibility
and senses.
The use of an imals is not in itself either good
or bad; it is the use to which they are put, it is
the kind of being they incarnate that should be
scrutinized. D isney uses animals to trap children,
not to l iberate them. The language he employs is
nothing less than a form of manipulation. He
invites children into a world which appears to
offer freedom of movement and creation, into
which they enter fearlessly, iden tifying with
creatures as affectionate, trustful , and i'rresponsible
as themselves, of whom no betrayal is
to be expected, and with whom they can safely
play and mingle. Then, once the little readers are
caught within the pages of th� comic, the doors
c l ose beh i nd t h e m . The a n i mals become
transformed, under tile same zoological form and
the same smiling mask, into monstrous human
beings.
But this perversion of the true nature of
animals and the superficial use of their physical
appearance (a device also used to distort the
n a t u r e of women and chi ldren ) is not al l.
D i s n e y 's o bs e s s i o n with "nature" and his
compulsion to exonerate a world he conceives as
profoundly perverse and gui lty, leads h i m to extraord
inary exaggerations.
All the characters yearn for a return to
n a t u re. Some l ive in the fields and woods
( G r a nd m a D u ck , the chi pmunks, the l ittle
wolves ) , but the majority live in cities, from
which they set off on incessant jaunts to nature :
Island, desert, sea, forest, mountain, lake, skies,
and stratosphere, covering all conti nents (Asia,
America, Africa, and Oceania), and very occasionally
some non-urban corner of Europe.
While a substantial proportion of the episodes
take place i n the city or in closed environments,
they only serve to emphasize the absurd and
catastrophic character of urban l i fe. There are
" to ries devoted to smog, traffic jams, noise
pollution, and social tensions (includi ng some
very funny fights between neighbors)' as wel l as
to the omnipresence of bureaucracy and po licemen.
The city is actually portrayed as an inferno,
where man loses contro l over his own personal
life. In one episode after another, the characters
become embroiled with objects. On one occasion,
Donald gets stuck on a roller skate du ring a
c;hopping expedition (DO 9/66). He embarks
\ I pon a crazy solitary coli ision course through the
city, experiencing all the miseries of contemporary
living: trash barrels, jammed thoroughf
a re s , r o a d rep a i rs , l oose dogs, terrorized
mailmen, crowded parks (where , incidentally, a
mother scolds her offspring: "Sit quietly,
Junio r, so you won't scare the pigeons ''') , police,
t raffic controls, obstructions of all kinds ( in
k nocking over the tables of an outdoor cafe,
Donald wonders helplessly "if my charge card
w i l l st i l l be honored there ''') , car crashes,
teeming shops, delivery trucks, and drains: chaos
42
everywhere.
This is not a unique episode, there are other
snares which trap people in that great urban
whirligig of misfortune : candies (0 1 85 ) , a lost
ticket (0 393), or Scamp's uncontrollable motorcyc
I e (0 439). In this kind of suffrenture
(suffering coated with adventure ), Frankenstein,
the legendary robot who escaped from his inventor,
rears h is ugly head. The city-as-monster
reaches its nerve-wracking peak when Donald, in
order to get some sleep at night in the face of
h e avy t r affic and the hooti ng, roaring and
screaming of brakes, closes off the road in front
of his house (0 1 65). He is fined by the pol ice.
He protests : " I don't have any written authorization,
but I do have the right to some peaceful
sleep." "You're wrong!" interrupts the pol iceman.
So Donald embarks on a crazy hunt for the
necessary authorization: from the pol ice station
to the home of the police chief, and then to the
town hal l to speak to the mayor, who, however,
can only sign "orders approved by the city
council." (note the h ierarchical inflexibility of
this bureaucratic world full of prohibitions and
p rocrastinations). Donald has to bring to the
council a petition signed by all the residents of
h i s bl ock . H e sets o u t t o e x pl o r e h i s
neighborhood jungle. Never does he find anyone
to support him, to help him, to understand that
his struggle for peace is a communal one. He is
driven off with kicks, blows, and pistol shots: he
is made to pay for scratching a car (fifty dollars),
has to go to Miami for a single sign ature, "and
h aving fainted when he hears that the neighbor
he was seek ing has just returned home to Duckburg,
he is revived by the hotel manager : "Sir, I
must inform you that the rate for sleeping on
the carpet is thirty dollars a night. " Another
neighbor won't sign unti l he has consulted his
attorney (another twenty dollars out of Donald's
pocket) . He is bitten by a dog while a dear l ittle
I HOPE YOU WILL INVITE METO A PIC NIC,
'F I . . . HEM . . . MAkE THE FIRE FOR YOU.
old lady is sign ing. H e has to buy spectacl es for
the next person who signs (three hundred dollars,
because the person chose to have them with
pure gold frames) , and finally, he has to pu rsue
h im to a waterfa l l where he perfo rms acrobat ic
feats. He falls into the water, and the ink on h i s
petition i s washed out. He reconstructs the l i st
("so me sleep at night is worth al l the pai ns I
have suffe red") , only to be i n formed that the
city council cannot pronounce on the matter for
twenty years. I n desperation, Donald buys another
house. But even here he i s out of l uck : the
council has d ecided, in view of h is d ifficu l ties, to
move the road from h is old street - to his new
one. Moral : d on't try to change anyth i ng ' Put up
with what you have, o r chances are you will end
up with worse .
We shall return later to th is ty pe of com i c,
which demostrates the use lessness of persisti ng i n
the face o f destiny, and D isney 's brand o f social
criticism. But i t was necessary to stress the nightmarish
a nd degraded character of the c i ty , fo r
th is motivates, i n part, the return to nature. The
metropolis is conceived as a mechanical dormitory
or safe deposi t box. A base of operati ons
from which one has to escape. An uncontrol lable
tech no logica l · disaster, which i f endured, would
make ex is tence a bsu rd.
On the other han d, the "peace and quiet of
the cou ntrysi de" is such that only wi l l fu l i nterferen
ce can d istu rb it. For exam pl e, G u s Goose,
in order to persuade the rustic G randma D uck to
spend a few day s in the city, has artificial ly to
i nduce su ccessive plagues of mosqu itoes , mice
and bees ; a fi re; and a cow trampl i ng over her
garden. She is glad fo r what has happened , for
the day of plagues has prepared her to "put up
with the i n co nven iences of modern city l ife. "
Urban man can only reach the cou n trys ide
once he h as left behi n d hi m all the curses of
tech nology : shi ps are wrecked, a irpl anes crash ,
rockets are stolen. One h as to pass th rough Purgatory
in order to attain Pa rad ise. Any con temporary
gadget one brings to the countryside wi l l
only cause pro blems, and wreak its revenge by
complicating and contami nat i ng one's l i fe . I n an
episode titled "The I nfernal Bucket" (note the
rel igious association ) , Donal d has his vacation
ru ined by th is si mple object. Another time (0
433) , when the d uck ling scouts try to change the
cou rse of natu re by asking Gyro Gearloose to
invent someth ing to sto p a rainstorm, the only
l ittle clear ing i n the forest which remains dry
soon becomes crowded, l ike a repfi ca of a city ,
43
bringing a l l th e corres pond i ng u rban confl icts. " I
th i n k that one sh ouldn 't force natu re," says pne.
Adds the other : " I n the lo ng ru n , i t j ust doesn't
p ay."
Superficia l l y considered, what we have here is
si mply escapism, the co mmon mass cu lture safety
valve necessary fo r a socie ty in need of recreation
and fan tasy to mainta i n i ts mental and
physical health. It is the Su nday afternoon wal k
i n the Park , the weekend i n the country, a n d the
nostalg ia for the past an nual vacation. Not surprisingly
, th ose who consider the ch ild as l iving a
perpetual hol iday , also seek a spat ial equ ivalent
to th is carefree existence : the peace of the
countryside.
This th esis m ight appear exh austive, were it
not fo r the fact th at the places where a re heroes
ven ture are far fro m being abandoned and uni
n habited. I f the adve n tu res took pl ace in pu re
unco n tami n ated natu re, the rel ationsh ip wou ld
be only between man a nd inorganic matte r. Were
th ere no natives, there would be no h u m an rel
ations oth er than those which we analyzed i n
th e previous chapter. But th is is not the case. A
s i mple statistic : out of the tota l of one h u n d red
magazines we studi ed, very nearly half - 47
p ercent - sh owed the heroes confro nting bei ngs
from oth er co ntinents and races . If one incl udes
co mics dea l i n g with creatures fro m other pl anets,
the proportion r ises wel l over 50 percent . Our
sam ple i ncl udes stories cover i ng the re motest
corn ers of the globe. *
*To start with ou r American hemisphere : Peru (I ncaBlinca
in TB 1 04 , the Andes in 0 457) ; Ecuador (0
434) ; Mexico (Aztecland, Azatl�n and Sou thern I x tiki in
o 432, 0 455 and TB 1 0 7 respectively ) ; an island off
Mex ico (0 451 ) ; Brazil ( F 1 55) ; the Ch ilean and
Bol ivian plateau x (Antofagasta is mentioned in TB 1 06) ;
and the Caribbean (TB 87) .
North America : I ndia ns in the United States ( 0 430
and TB 62) ; savages of t he Grand Canyon ( 0 43 7 ) ;
Canadian Ind ians ( 0 379 and TR 1 1 7 ) ; Eskimoes of the
Arctic (TR 1 1 0) , Indians in old Cal iforn ia (0 357 ) .
A frica and the Near East : Egypt (Sph in xonia in 0
422 and TR 1 09) ; some corner of the black con ti nent
(0 43 1 , 0 382, 0 364, F 1 7 0, F 1 06) ; Arab cou ntries
( A r i d ia, archipelago of F rigi-F rigi, the other three
nameless - TR 1 1 1 and 1 23, two ep isodes 0 453 and F
1 55 ) .
Asia : Faroff istan ( Hong Kong? 0 455 ) ; F ranistan (a
b i zzarre mi xtu re of Afghanistan and Tibet ) ; Outer
Congotia ( Mongolia? 0 433) ; Unsteadysta n (V ietnam,
TR 99 l .
Oceania : islands inh ibited by savages (0 376, F 68,
TR 1 06, 0 377 ) ; unin habited isla nds (0 439, 0 2 1 0, T B
99, T R 1 1 9) : t o which o ne may add a multitude of
islands visited by Mickey and Goo fy, but of lesser
i nterest and therefore o mitted f rom this l ist.
In these lands, far from the Duckburg metrop
olis, casual landing grounds for adventurers
greedy for treasure and anxious to break their
habitual boredom with a pure and healthy form
of recreation, there await inhabitants with most
u nusual characteristics.
No globe-trotter could fail to thrill to these
coun tries and the idea of taking home with him
a real live savage. So here, on behalf of all you
eager trippers, is our brochure to tell you exactly
what is on the bill of fare (extracted from "How
to Travel and Get . Rich", as you might find it in
Reader's Digest as condensed from the Nationa/
Geographic) :
1 . I D ENT ITY. Primitive. Two groups: one
quite barbaric (Stone �qe), habitat Africa,
Polynesia, o utlying parts of Brazil , Ecuador or
U.S.A.; the other group much more evolved but
degenerating, if not actually in course of extinction.
Sometimes, the latter group is the repository
of an ancient civil ization with many
monuments and local dishes. Neither of these
two groups has reached the age of technology.
2. OW E L L I NGS. The first group has no
urban centers at all , some huts at the most.
The second group has towns, but in a ruined or
useless state. You are advised to bring lots of
fil m, because everyth ing, absolutely everythi ng, is
jam-packed with fo lklore and the exotica.
3. RACE. All races, except the white. Color
fil m is indispensable, because the natives come in
all shades, from the darkest black to yellow via
Translator'S Note : The following list, culled from
Michael Barrier's Barks bibliography will further illuminate
the preoccupation of the Ducks with peoples of
the Third World (Indians living in the U.S. are not
included). Note that this list covers only one writer's
Duck stories, and excludes all Mickey Mou. adventures,
which are also often set in foreign lands. There may be
some duplication with the Chilean edition list.
CansdB and AIBSka: Alaska (Point Marrow, D O 1 /45;
Mines in, DO 1 2/49; US 9-1 1 /5S; US 9/65). Canada:
North West (Kikmiquick I ndians DO 2/60) ; Eskimoes
CS S/63; Labrador DO 7-8/52; Peeweegah Pygmy
Indians US 6-S/57 ; Gold mines in, US 9-1 1 /61 .
.
Central America: CS 5/61 ; Aztecland DO 9/65;
Y u catan ( Ma yan ruins, US S/63) ; Hondorica DO
3-4/56; West Indies DO 7/47; Caribbean Islands CS
4/60; Cuba 4/64.
South America : War in, US 3-6/59; Emerald in, US
9-1 1 /60; Amazon jungle DO 7-8/57, US 1 2-2/61 ;
British Guiana DO 9-1 0/52; Andes (lncan ruinl DO
4/49; Incan mines US 6-8/59); Chiliburgeria DO 1 /51 ;
Cura de Coco Indians ("Tutor Corps" in, US 9-1 1 /62) ;
V o l ca novia (Donald .111 warplanes to , DO 5/47);
B r utopia US 3-5/57 (Bearded communists in, CS
1 1 /63; Spies from, US 5/65).
44
cafe-au-Iait, ochre and that lovely light orange
peculiar to the Redskins .
4. STATU RE . Bring close-up and wide-angle
lenses. The natives are generally enormous, gigantic,
gross, tough, pure raw matter, and pure muscle;
but sometimes, they can be mere pygmies. Please
don't step on them; they are harmless.
5. C LOTH ING. Loincloths, unless they dress
like their most distant ancestor of royal blood.
Our friend Disney, creater of the "Living Desert,"
would no doubt have coined the fel icitous term
"Living Museum."
6. SEXUAL CUSTOMS. By some strange
freak of nature, these countries have only males.
We were unable to find any trace of the female.
Even in Polynesia, the famous tamun�
dance is reserved to the stronger sex. We did discover,
however, in Franestan, a princess, but
were unable to see her because no male is
allowed near her. It is not yet sufficiently u nder·
s t ood how these savages reproduce. We do,
however, hope to come up with an answer in our
n e xt issue, since the I nternational Monetary
Fund is financing an investigation of the Third
World demographic explosion, with a view to
determi ning the nature of whatever (exceedingly
efficient) contraceptive device is in use.
7. M O R A L Q U A L I T I E S . They are like
children. Friendly, carefree, naive, trustful
and happy. They throw temper tantrums when
they are upset. But it is ever so easy to placate
them and even, how shall we say, deceive them.
Africa: CS 4/62; Gold mine in, US 1/66; Egypt DO
9/43, US 3-5/59; Pygmy Arabs US 6-8/61 ; Red Sea
Village (King Solomon's mines US 9-1 1 /57) ; Bantu US
9-1 1 /60; Congo (Kachoonga US 3-5/64) ; Oasis of
Noissa DO 9/50; Kooko Coco (Wigs in, US 9/64) ; Foola
Zoola DO 8/49; South Africa US 9-1 1 /56, US 3-5/59.
Asia : Arabia US 2/65; Persia (Ancient city of Itsa
Faka DO 5/50; Oil in, US 3-5/62) ; Baghdad US 7/64;
Sagbad (Capital of Fatcatstan US 10/67); India (Jumbostan
US 1 2/64; Maharajah of 8ackdore CS 4/49,
Maharajah of Swingingdore US 3-5/55, Rajah of Footsore,
Maharajah of Howduyustan CS 3/52); Himalayas
(Unicorn in, DO 2150; Moneyless paradise of Tralla La
US 6-8/54; Abominable Snowman in Hindu Kush
mountains, US 6-8156).
South.st Asia : Farbakishan ("Brain Corps" in, .GG
1 1 -2/82) ; Siambodia (Civil War in, CS 6/65); Gung Ho
river (�ncient city of Tangkor Wat, US 12-2/58) ;
Unsteadystan (Civil War in, US 7/66) ; South Miserystan
US 7/67.
Others: Australia (Aborigines) DO 5/47, CS
9-1 1 /55, US 3/66; South Sea Islands US 3/63, CS
1 2/64, CS 9166; Hawaiian Islands 1 2-1 154; Jungle of
Fa ce l ess People US 3/64; Aeolian Mountains GG
3-8/60.
The prudent tourist will bring a few trin kets
which he can readily exchange for quantities of
native jewelry . The savages are extraordinarily receptive;
they accept any kind of g ift, whether it
be some artifact of civil ization, or money, and
they will even, in the last resort, accept the
return of their own treasures, as long as it is in
the form of a gift. They are disinterested and
very generous. Cle rgy who are tired of dealing
with spoiled juveniie delinquents, can relax with
some good o ld-fash ioned missionary work among
pri mitives untouched by Christianity. Yet they
a re wi I I i n g to give up everything material.
EVE RYTHI NG. EVE RYTHI NG. So they are an
inexhaustible font of riches and treasures which
they cannot use. They are superstitious and imaginative.
Without pretensions to erudition, we
may describe them as the typical noble savage
referred to by Christopher Columbus, JeanJacques
Rousseau , Marco Polo, Richard Nixon,
Wil l iam Shakespeare and Queen Victoria.
S. AM U S E M E N TS. T h e prim itives sing,
dance, and someti mes for a change, have
revolutions. They tend to use any mechanical object
you might bring with you (telephone, watch,
guns) as a toy.
9. LANGUAG E . No need for an interpreter
or phrase book. Almost a l l of them speak
fluent Duckburgish. And if you have a small
child with you, don't worry, he wil l get on fine
with those other little natives whose language
tends to the babyish kind, with a preference for
gutturals.
1 0. ECONOM IC BASE. Subsistence economy.
Sheep, fish, and fruit. Someti mes, they sell
th ings. When the occasion arises they manufacture
objects for the tourist trade: don't buy
them, for you can get them, and more, for free,
by tricking them. They show an extraordinary attachment
to the earth, wh ich renders them
even more natural. Abundance reigns. They do
not need to produce. They are model consumers.
Perhaps their happiness is due to the fact that
they don't work.
1 1 . PO LITICAL ST R UCTU R E. The tourist
will find th is very much to his taste. In the
paleolithic, barbaric group of peoples, there is a
natural democracy. All are equal, except the king
who is more equal than the others. This renders
civil liberties nugatory : executive, legislative and
judical powers are fused into one. Nor is there
any necessity for voti ng or newspapers. Everything
is shared, as in a Disney land club, if we
may be permitted the comparison; and the king
46
does not have any real authority or rights,
beyond h is title, any more than a general in a
D isneyland clu b, if we may be permitted another
comparison. It is this democracy which distinquishes
the paleolith ic gro up from the second
g ro u p, with its ancient, degenerate cultures,
where the king holds unli mited power, but also
l ives u nder the constant fear of overthrow. Fortunately,
however, h is native subjects suffer from
a rather curious weakness: always wanti ng to reinstitute
the monarchy.
12. R E LIG I ON. None, because they l ive in a
Paradise Lost, or a true Garden of Eden before
the Fal l.
1 3. NATIONAL EMBLEM. The mollusk, of
the invertebrate family.
1 4. NATIONAL COLO R.
1 5. NATIONA L ANI MAL.
as it is not lost or black.
I mmaculate white.
The sheep, as long
1 6. MAG ICAL P ROPE RTI ES. Those who
have not had the great good fortune to
have been there, may find this perhaps the most
important and most difficult aspect of all , but it
represents the very essence of the noble savage
and the reason why he has been left by preference
in a relatively backward state, free from
t h e conflicts besetting contemporary society.
Being in close communion with the natural environment,
the savage is able to radiate natural
goodness, and absolute eth ical purity. Unknown
to himself, he constitutes a source of permanent
or constantly renewable sanctity. Just as there
exist reserves of Indians and of wilderness, why
shou ld there not be reserves of moral ity and innocence?
Somehow, this morality and innocence
wil l succeed, without changing the technologized
soc i et i es, in saving humanity. They are redemption
itself.
1 7. F UN E RAL R ITES. They never die.
Our obse rvant reader will have noticed the
simi l arities between the noble savage and
those other savages called children. Have we at
I ast encountered the true child in D isney's
comics, in the guise of the innocent barbarian? Is
t h ere a parallel between the socially underdeveloped
peoples who live in these vast islands
and plateaux of ignorance, and the children who
are underdeveloped because of their young age?
Do they not both share magical practices, innocence,
naivete, that natural disposition of a
lost, chastened, benevolent humanity? Are not
both equally defense less before adult force and
guile?
The comics, elaborated by and for the narcissistic
parent, adopt a view of the chi ldreader
which is the same as their view of the
Inferior Third World adult. If this be so, our
noble savage differs from the other children i n
that h e i s not a carbon copy aggregate of
paternal, ad u lt valu es. Lacl.<ing In the intelligence,
cun n ing, d iscipline, encyclopedic knowledge, and
technological skills possessed by the l ittle city
folk (and the chipmunks, Little Wolf, Bongo, and
o t h e r de n i ze n s of Duckburg's metropolitan
wilderness), the primitive assumes the qualities of
c h i l d ho od as conceived by the comics (innocence,
ignorance, etc.) without h aving access
to the gateways and ladders leading to the adult
world.
Here the goi ng becomes heavy, the fog descends.
In the whirl of this fancy dress ball,
perceptio n is blu rred as to who is who; when and
where the ch ild is adult, and the adult, a chi ld.
If we accept that the savage is the true chi ld,
then what do the l ittle folk of Duckburg
represent? What are the differences and similarities
between them?
The city k ids are only child ren in appearance.
The-y possess the physical shape and stature of
children, their i n itial dependency, their supposed
good fa ith, their schoolroom obligations, and
someti mes, their toys. But as we have seen, they
really represent the force wh ich judges and corrects
adult errors with adult rationales. I n thi rtyeight
out of the fo rty -two episodes in which
Don a ld quarrels with his nephews, it is the latter
who are in the right. Only in four, on the other
hand (e.g . in the "Tricksters Tricked") is it the
little ones who transgress the laws of adult be·
havior, and are properly punished for having
acted l i ke childre n . Little Wolf, in thirty episodes,
can do no wrong, in view of the fact' that
his father is big and bad, black and ugly : he
al ways teaches h is father a lesson whenever the
latter falls i nstinctively into the path of weakness
and crime. This p hysical father, the only true
male parent in the comics, confirms our thesis
once more : he is the vagabond whose power, not
bei ng legitimated by D isney's "proper" adult
* This pattern is repeated in Disney films with
juven ile actors (e.g. those starring Hayley Mills).
* * For an interpretation free of the formal ism of
Vladimir Propp's structural analysis (Morphologie du
Conte , Seui l, Paris, 1970), see, among others, the discoveries
of Marc Soriano, . Les Contes de Perrault:
culture sa vante et tradit/ons populaires, Gallimard, Paris,
1 968, and "Table Ronde sur les contes de Perrault"
A nnales (Paris) ' mai-j u in 1970.
46
values, wil l always be mocked. Equally significant
is the name of Scamp's natu ral father : Tramp.
But, the true father of Scamp is his human
owner. I n eighteen out of twenty adventures, we
find the chipmu nks Chip and Dale making fun of
the blunders and frauds of all the adults (Donald,
Big Bad Wolf, B rer Bear, Brer Fox, and Brer
Ass) . In the other two, where they misbehave,
they get a d rubbing. Gus and Jaq, Bongo, Peter
Pan : one hund red percent in the right. Goofy is
the eternal and foremost target of adu It lessons i n
chil dish mo uths: h e is a lways wrong, because he
lacks adult intellectual matu rity. But it is in
Mickey Mouse, Disney's premier creation, that
ch ildish and mature traits are best reconciled. It
is th is perfect min iature adult - this childd
e tective, this paladin of law and decency,
o rdered in h is judgements and disordered in his
personal habits (remember Ji miny Cricket, the
awkward keeper of Pinocch io's conscience) who
exemplifies the synthesis and symbiosis
which Disney hoped, u nconsciously, to transmit.
But as other characters appeared the synthesis
split apart, giving rise to the circu lar pattern of
'su bstitution of the child tak ing over from the
adult. *
Disney did not invent this structure: it is
rooted i n the so-called popular tales and legends,
in which researchers have detected a central
cycl ical symmetry between father and son . The
youngest in the fami ly, fo r instance, or the little
wizard or woodcutter, is subject to paternal
authority, but possesses powers of reta liation and
regulation , which are invariably linked to his
ability to generate ideas, that is, his cunning. See
Perrault, Andersen, G ri mm. * *
Now that we have seen the adult role of the
child, we are in a better position to understand
the presence of the savages within th is world .
The ir permanent role is to fill the gap left by
the sma l l ch ild-shaped urbans, just as the latter
are required to fill the gap left by the adults
h aped urbans when they cease to act responsi
bly.
So there are two types of children. Wh ile the
city-folk are intelligent, calcu lating, crafty, and
superior; the Thi rd Worldl ings are cand id, fool ish ,
i r r a t i o n a l , d i s o rg a n i zed a n d gu l l i ble ( l ike
Cowboys and I ndians) . The first are spirit, and
move in the sphere of ideas; the second are
body , inert matter, mass. The former represent the
future, the l atter the past.
Now we understand why the urban kids are
constantly on the move, overthrowing the grown-
ups every time they show signs of infanti le relapse.
The replacement is legitimate and necessary,
because th is ensures that there be no real
ch a n ge . E ve ry thing continues as before. It
doesn't matter if one part be in the right and the
other in
'
the wrong, as long as the rules stay the
same. This can only happen in the self-contained
land of Duckburg.
The iron unity of these city people, children
and adults alike with respect to the ideals of civil
i zation ; the maturity and technical ski l l with
which each time they confront the world of
n�ture is proof anew of the pre-eminence of
adult values in Duckburg. The child-savages have
no chance to criticize, and thus replace the
monolithic bloc of strangers from the city. The
former can only accept the generosity of the
latter and give them the wealth of their lands.
These prehumans are destined to remain in their
islands, arrested in an eternal state of pu re
infancy, ch ildren who are not like the nephewducks,
a pretext for the projection of adult
value$. Their n atural virtue, wh ich is uniform and
fixed, represents the beginning and end of ti me,
the pre-Fal l and post-judgement Parad ise, the
font of goodness, patience, joy and in nocence.
The ex istence of the noble savage constitutes a
guarantee that there will always be children, and
that the nephews will h ave someone to replace
them as they grow up (even if th e new chi l d re n
have to be born by non-sexual mean s ) .
In their assimilation o f "su perio r" values, the
urban youngsters auto matically lose many of the
qualities which adults most admire in children.
Intelligence and cunning threaten the traditional
image of the immu ne and trusting child who
transforms adult n ightmares into purified and
perfumed dreams. The chHdren's tricks, although
they are dismissed as pran ks, also darken the
image of original perfection, of a world (and
ultimately a salvation) beyond the ta i nt of sex
and money . The father wants the ch ild to be his
own reflection, to be made in his own image.
While he tries to achieve immortal ity through
offspring who never contradict him ( an d are
monopolized by h im, just as D isney mon opo l izes
his "monos") *, he simu ltaneously wants them to
·"monos" = monkeys, or cartoon characters (Trans.)
47
be creatu res who co rrespond to his ideal ized
image of open and submissive childhood; which
he th e n can immobilize and freeze into a
photograph on the mantlepi ece. The adult wants
a child who when he/she grows up, will faithfully
reproduce and depend upon the past.
Thus the child-reader has two alternatives
before him/her, two models of behavior: either
fol low the duckling and similar wily creatures,
c h o o s i ng adult cunning to defeat the competition,
coming out on top, getting rewards,
going up; or else, follow the chi l d n oble savage ,
who just stays put and never wins anything. The
only way out of childhood is one previously
marked out by the adult, and camoufl aged with
in nocence and instinct. I t's the only way to go,
son .
This d ivision is n ot g rounded i n mysticism o r
metaphysics. The yearn ing for purity does not
arise fro m any need fo r a salvatio n one might
term rel igious. It is as if th e father did not w ish
to con tinue domi n ating h is own flesh, h is own
heirs. Sensing that h is son is none but h imself,
the father perceives h imself si mu ltaneously as
domi n ato r and d omi n ated, in a man ifestation of
h is own u nrelenti ng i nte rnal repression. I n his
attempt to break th e infernal circle , to flee fro m
h i ms elf, he searches fo r a nother being to domi
nate - so meone with whom he can enjoy a
guilt-free po larization of feeli n g, and a cl ear
defin itio n of who is th e dom i n ate d and who is
the dominato r. , Whi le the son safe ly grows u p
and adopts h is father's valu es, he contin ues to
repress th e oth er ch ild wh o never ch anges and
never protests : the noble savage. In order to
escape fro� the sado-masoch istic confl ict with
h is own son and h is own bei ng , he establishes a
purely sad istic relati o nsh ip with th at other bei ng,
the "harmless ," "in nocent" "noble" savage. He
bequeathes to h is son a satisfacto rily im mutable
world : h is own values and wel l -behaved savages
who will accept them with out com pla i n i ng.
But it is ti me, lest our own a nalysis fa l l victi m
to circu larity , to look beyond th e confines of the
family structu re . Does there n ot l u rk perhaps
someth ing else beh ind th is fath er-noble savage
re lationsh ip?
Donald (talking to a witch doctor in Africa) :
" I see you're a n up to date nation '
Have you got telephones?"
Witch doctor : "Have we gottee telephones I
. . . All colors, all shapes . . . only
trouble is only one has wires. It's a
hot I ine to the world loan bank."
(TR 1 06, US 9/64)
Where is Aztecland? Where is Inca-Bl inca?
Where is Unsteadystan?
There can be no doubt that Aztecland is
Mexico, embracing as it does all the prototypes
of the picture-postcard Mexico: mules,
s i e st as , volcanoes, cactuses, huge sombreros,
ponchos, serenades, machismo, and I ndians from
ancient civil izations. The country is defined primarily
in terms of this grotesque folklorism.
Petrified in an archetypical embryo, exploited for
all the superficial and stereotyped prejudices
wh i ch s u rrou n d it, "Aztecland," under its
pseudo-i maginary name becomes that much easier
to Disnify. This is Mexico recognizable by its
commonplace exotic identity labels, not the real
Mexico with all its problems.
Walt took virgin territories of the U.S. and
built upon them his Disneyland palaces, h is
magic kingdoms. His view of the world at large is
framed by the same perspective; it is a world
already colonized, with phantom inhabitants who
have to conform to Disney's notions of it. Each
foreign country is used as a kind of model within
the process of invasion by Disney-nature. And
even if some foreign country l ike Cuba or
Vietnam should dare to enter into open conflict
wi th the United States, the Disney Comics
brand-mark is immediately stamped upon it, in
order to make the revolutionary struggle appear
banal. While the Marines make revolutionaries
run the gauntlet of bullets, Disney makes them
run a gauntlet of magazines. There are two forms
of killing: by machine guns and saccharine.
D i sney d i d n o t , of course, invent the
inhabitants of these lands; he merely forced them
into the proper mold. Casting them as stars in
his hit-parade, he made them into decals and
puppets for his fantasy palaces, good and inoffensive
savages u nto eternity.
According to Disney, underdeveloped peoples
are like children, to be treated as such, and if
they don't accept this definition of themselves,
they should have their pants taken down and be
given a good spanking. That'll teach them! When
someth ing is said about the child/noble savage, it
is really the Third World one is thinking about.
The hegemony which we have detected between
I'lL POi ON A SHOW OF
POWER...WAiCH,
STOP!
the ch ild-adults who arrive with their civil iiation
and technology, a n d the chi ld-noble savages who
accept this alien authority and surrender their
riches, stands revealed as an exact repl ica of the
relations between metropolis and satell ite, between
empire and colony, between master and
slave. Thus we fin d the metropolitans not only
searching fo r treasures, but a lso sel l i ng the native
comics ( li ke those of D isney ) , to teach them the
role assigned to them by the domin ant urban
press . Under the suggestive title "Better Guile
Than Force," Donald departs for a Pacific atol l
in order to try to survive fo r a month, and
ret u r n s loaded with doll a rs, li ke a modern
business tycoon. The entrepreneu r can do better
than the missionary or the army . The world of
the Disney comic is self-publicizing, ensuring a
process of enthusiastic buy ing and se lling even
within its very pages.
Enough of general ities. Examples and proofs.
Among all the chi ld-noble savages, none is
more exaggerated in his infantil ism than Gu, the
Abomi n able Snow Man (TR 1 1 3, US 6-8/56,
"The Lost Crown of Gengh is Khan") : a brainless
feeble-m inded Mongol ian type (living by a strang�
coincidence, i n the H imalayan H indu Kush mountai
ns among yellow peoples). He is treated l i ke a
chil d. He is an "abominable housekeeper," l iving
in a messy cave, "the worst of taste, " l ittered
with IIcheap trinkets and waste." H ats etc., lyi ng
around which he h as n o use for. V ulgar, unciv ilized,
he speaks in a babble of in articu late babynoises
: "Gu." But he is also w itless, having stolen
the golden jewelled crown of Genghis Khan
(which belongs to Scrooge by virtue of certai n
secret operations o f h is agen ts ) , without hav in g
any idea o f its value. He has tossed the crown in
* For the theme o f physical superdevelopment . with
the connotation of sexual threat, see Eldridge Cleaver,
Soul on Ice, 1 968.
a corner l ik e a coal bucket, and prefers Uncle
Scrooge's watch : val ue, one dol lar (U It is his
favorite toy"). Never mind, for "h is stupidity
makes it easy fo r us to get away !" Uncle Scrooge
does indeed manage, magical ly , to exchange the
cheap artifact of civil i zation which goes ticktock,
for the crown. Obstacles are overcome once
Gu (in nocent ch ild-monstruous an imal - u nderdevel
oped Thi rd Worldl ing ) real izes that they only
want to take something that is of n o use to him
and that i n excha nge he wil l be given a fantasti�
and mysterious p iece of technology (a watch )
wh ich he can use as a plaything. What is extracted
is gold , a raw material; he who sur�enders
it is mentally underdeveloped and physIcally
overdeveloped . The gigantic physique of
Gu, and of all the other marginal savages, is the
model of a physical strength su ited only for
physical l abor.*
Such an episode reflects the barter rel ationship
established with the natives by the f i rst conq
u i st a d o r s a n d colon izers ( i n Africa, Asia,
America and Oceania) : some trin ket, the product
of technological su perio rity ( European or North
American) is exchanged for gold (spices, ivory ,
tea, etc.) . The native is relieved of someth i ng he
would never have thought of using for h imself
or as a means of exchange. This is an extreme
and almost anecdotic example. The common
stuff of other types of comi c book (e.g. in the
internationally famous Tintin in Tibet by the
Belg ian Herg�) l eaves the abomi n able creatu re in
h is bestia l cond ition, and thus unable to enter
i nto any kind of e conomy .
B ut th is particular victim of i n fantile regression
stands at the borderl i ne of D isney's
noble savage cl iche. Beyond it l ies the foetussavage,
which fo r reasons of sex ual prudery
Disney cannot use.
Lest the reader feel that we are spinning too
fine a th read in establish ing a parallel between
someone who carries off gold in exchange for a
mechan ical trinket, and imperialism extracting
raw material fro m a mono-productive country, or
between typical domin ators and dominated, let
us now adduce a mor� e)(plici.t example of
Disney's strategy in respect to the countries he .
caricatu res as "backward" (needless to say, he
never hints at the causes of their backwardness).
The following dialogue (taken from the same
comic which provided the quotation at the beginn
ing of this chapter) is a typical example of
Disney's colonia l attitudes, in this case directed
against the African independence movements.
D onald has parachuted into a country in the
African j ungle. "Where am I ," he cries. A witch
d octor (with spectacles perched over his gigantic
primitive mask ) replies: " I n the new nation of
Kooko Coco, fly boy. This is our capital city." It
consists of three straw huts and some moving
h ay s t a c ks. When Donald enquires after this
strange phenomenon, the witch doctor explains :
"Wigsl This be h airy idea our ambassador bring
back f rom United Nations. " When a pig pu rsuing
Don ald lands a nd has the wigs removed disclosing
t h e w h e r e a bouts of the enemy ducks, the
, set: YOU'RE AA UP
TO DATE NATlC»J !
HAVE YOU GOT
TELEPHONES?
HAVE WE
GolTeE
1ElEPHONf ?
60
foll owing d ialogue ensues:
Pig: "Hear yel hear yel I'll pay you kooks
some hairy prices for your wigsI Sell me all you
have!"
Native : "Whee l Rich trader buyee our old
head h angers '"
Another native: " He payee me six trading
stamps for my beehive h airdo!"
Thi rd native (overjoyed) : "He payee me two
Chicago streetcar tokens for my Beatie job."
To effect his escape, the pig decides to scatter
a few coins as a decoy. The natives are happy to
stop, crouch and cravenly gather up the money.
Elsewhere, when the Beagle Boys dress up as
Polynesian natives to deceive Donald, they mimic
the same kind of behavior: "You save our lives
. . . We be your servants for ever." And as they
prostrate themselves, Donald observes: "They are
n atives too. But a l ittle more civil ized."
Another example (Special Number D 423) :
Donald leaves for "Outer Congolia," because
Scrooge's business there has been doing badly.
The reason is that "the King ordered his subjects
not to give Christmas presents this year. He
wants everyone to hand over this money to
h im. " Donald comments: "What selfishness '"
And so to work. Donald makes himself king,
ONLY TROUBLE IS ONLY ONE HAS wr �ES!
r,-s A HOT UN e TO VVORLO LOAN BAN t< .
be ing taken for a great magician who fl ies
through the sk ies. The old monarch is dethroned
beca u se "he is not a wise man like you
[Donald] . He does not permit us to buy presents."
Donald accepts the crown, intending to
decamp as soon as the stock is sold out : "My first
command as king is . . . buy presents for your
families and don't give your king a rent l" The
old king h ad wanted the money to leave the
country and eat what he fancied, instead of the
fish heads which were traditionally his sole diet.
R ep e n t a n t , he promises that given another
chance, he wil l govern better, "and I wil l find a
way somehow to avoid eating that l ghastly stew."
Donald (to the people ) : I I And I assure you
that I leave the th rone in good hands. Your o ld
king is a good king . . . and wiser than before. "
The people : "Hurray l Long Live the King!"
The king has learned that he must ally himself
with foreigners if he wishes to stay in power, and
that he cannot even impose taxes on the people,
because this wealth must pass wholly out of the
co u n try to Duckburg through the agent of
M c D u c k . F urthermore, the strangers find a
solution to the problem of the k ing's boredom.
To alleviate his sense of alienation within his
own country , and h is consequent desire to travel
to the metropol is, they arrange for the massive
importation of consumer goods : "Don't worry
about that food," says Donald, " I wil l send you
some sauces which wil l make even fish heads
palatable." The king stamps gleefu l ly up and
down.
The same fo rmula is repeated over and over
again. Scrooge exchanges with the Canadian
Indians gates of rustless steel for gates of pure
gold (TR 1 1 7) . Moby Duck and Donald (0 453),
captured by the Aridians (Arabs), start to blow
so a p bu b b l e s , wi th which the natives are
enchanted. "Ha, ha. They break when you catch
them. Hee, hee." AI i-Sen-Goli, the chief says
"it's real magic. My people are laughing l ike
ch ildren. They cannot imagine how it wo rks."
" It's only a secret passed from generation to
generation," says Moby, "I wi l l reveal it if you
give us our freedom. " (Civilization is presented as
something incomprehensible, to be administered
by foreigners) . The chief, in amazement, exclaims
" Freedom? That's not all I 'll give you. Gold,
Jewels. My treasure is yours, if you reveal the
secret." The Arabs consent to thei r own despoliation.
''We have jewels, but they are of no
use to us. They don't make you laugh I ike magic
bubbles." While Donald sneers "poor simpleton,"
61
REAL MAGIC ! MY PEO PLE
ARE. LAUGHING LI KE CHILDREN .
( WILL
REVEAL lr
I F YOU GIVE
US OUR
F�EEDOM.
Moby hands over the Flip F lop detergent. "You
are right, my friend. Whenever you want a little
pleasure, just pour out some magic powder and
recite the magic words. " The story ends on the
note that it is not necessary for Donald to
e x cavate the Pyramids (or earth) personal ly,
because, as Donald says, "What do we need a
pyramid fo r, having AI i- Ben-Goli?"
Each ti me th is si tuation recu rs, the natives'
joy increases. As each object of thei r own
manufactu re is taken away from them, their
s a t i sfac t i o n g r o ws . A s each arti fact from
civil ization is given to them, and interpreted by
them as a manifestation of magic rather then
tech nology , they are fil led with del ight. Even our
fiercest enemies could hardly justify the i nequ ity
of such an exch ange; how can a fistfu l of jewels
be regarded as equ ivalent to a box of soap, or a
go lden crown equal to a cheap watch? Some wil l
object that th is k ind o f barter i s al l i maginary,
but it is unfortun ate that these laws of the
imagination are tilted unilaterally in favo r of
those who come from outside, and those who
write and publ ish the magazines.
But how can this fl agrant despol iation pass
unperceived, or in other words, how can this
inequity be disg� ised as equity? Why is it that
i m perial ist plu nder and colonial subjection, to
call them by thei r proper names, do not appear as
such ?
"We have jewels, but they are of no use to
us."
There they are in thei r desert tents, their
caves, their once flourishing cities, their lonely islands,
their forbidden fortresses, and they can
never leave them. Congealed in their past-historic,
thei r needs defined in function of this past, these
underdeveloped peoples are denied the right to
bu ild their own future. Their crowns, their raw
m aterials, their soil, their energy, their jade
elephants, their fru it, but above all, their gold,
can never be turned to any use. F or them the
progress which comes from abroad in the form
of mu ltiplicity of tech nological artifacts, is a
mere toy. It will never penetrate the crystal l ized
defense of the noble savage, who is forbidden to
become civil ized. He will nev�r be able to join
the Clu b of the Producers, because he does not
even understand that these objects have been
p roduced. He sees them as magic elements,
arising from the fo reigner's mind, from his word,
h is magic wand.
Since the noble savag� is denied the prospect
of future development, plu nder never appears as
such, for it only eli minates that which is trifling,
superfluous, and dispensable. Unbridled capitalist
d e s po l iation is programmed with smiles and
coquetry . Poor n ative. How na'ive they are. And
since they cannot use their gold, it is better to
remo ve it. It can be used elsewhere.
Scrooge McDuck gets hold of a twenty-four
carat moon in which "the gold is so pure that it
can be molded li ke butter." (TR 48, US
1 2-2/59) . But the legitimate owner appears, a
Venusian called M uchkale, who is prepared to
sell it to Scrooge for a fistful of earth. "Man l
That's the biggest bargain I ever heard of in all
62
history," cries the miser as he closes the deal.
But Muchkale, who is a "good native," magically
transforms' the fistfu l of earth into a planet, with
continents, oceans, trees, and a whole
environment of nature, "Yessi rl I was quite impoverished
here, with only atoms of gold to
work with ! " he says. Exiled from his state of
primitive innocence, longing for some rain and
volcanoes, M uchkale rejects his gold in order to
return to the lan d of his origin and content
himself with life at subsistence level . "Skunk
Cabbage ! [h is favorite dish on Venus] I live agai n
, . ,' Now I ,have a world of my own, with food and
drink and life!" Far from robbing hi m, Scrooge
has done Muchkal e a favor by removing al l that
corrupt metal and facil itating his return to primitive
innocence. ' "He got the dirt he wanted,
and I got this fabulous twenty-four carat moon.
Five hundred miles thick' Of solid gold! But doggoned
if I don't th ink he got the best of the
bargain ! " Poor, but happy, the Venusi an is left
devoting h imself to the celebration of the si mple
life. It's the old aphorism, the poor have no
worries, it is the rich who have all the problems.
So let's have no qualms about plundering the
poor and u nderdeveloped.
Con quest has been purged. Foreigners do no
harm, they are building the futu re, on the basis
of a society which cannot and will not leave the
past.
B ut there is another way of infantil izing
others and exonerating one's own larcenous behavior.
Imperia lism likes to promote an image of
itself as being the impartial judge of the interests
of the people , and their li berating angel .
The only thing which can not be taken from
the noble savage is his subsistence living, because
losing th is would destroy his natu ral economy,
forcing him to abandon Paradise for Ma,mmon
and a production economy.
MANY THANKS
SUPER--SEt::lOR I
Donald travels to the "Plateau of Abandon"
to look for a silver goat, which his Problem
Solving Agency has contracted to find for a rich
customer. He finds the goat, but breaks it while
trying to ride it, and then discovers that this
animal - and nothing else - stands between l ife
and death by starvation (forbidden word) for the
primitive people who l ive near the plateau. What
had brought this to pass? Some time ago, an
earthquake cut off the people and their flocks
from their ancient pasturelands. "We would have
died of hunger in this patch o� earth if a
generous white man had not arrived here in that
mysterious bird over . there [Le. an aircraft] . . .
and made a white goat with the metal from ou r
mine." It is this mechanical goat which leads the
flocks of sheep through the dangerous ravine to
pasture in the outlying pla ins, and without it, the
sheep get lost. The natives admire the way
Donald & Co. decide to venture back through
perilous precipices "which only you and the
sheep have the courage to cross. Our people have
never had a head for heights." Once through the
ravine, Don ald and nephews mend the goat and
bring the sheep safely back to their owners.
Enter at this point the villains: the rich M r
Leech a n d hi s spoiled son who had contracted
and sent Donald off in search of the goat. "You
si gned the contract and must hand over the
goods." But the evil party is defeated and the
ducks reveal themselves as disinterested friends of
the natives. Trusting the ducks as they did their
Duckburg predecessor, the natives enter into an
alliance with the good foreigners against the bad
foreigners. The moral Manichaeism serves to
affirm fo reign sovereignty in its authoritarian and
paternalist role. Big Stick and Charity. * The
good foreigners, u nder their ethical cloak, win
with the native's confidence, the right to decide
the proper distribution of wealth in the land.
The villains; course, vulgar, repulsive, out-and-out
th ieves, are there purely and simply to reveal the
ducks as defenders of justice, law, and food for
the hungry, and to serve as a whitewash for any
further action. Defending the only thing that the
noble savage can use (their food), the lack of
which would
'
result in their death (or rebellion,
either of which would violate their i mage of
infanti le innocence) , the big city fol k establish
themselves as the spokesman of these submerged
·Origina l : Garrote y Caritas. Caritas is an international
organ ization under the auspices of a sector of
the North American .and European Catholic Church
(Trans. )
53
and voiceless peoples.
The , ethical division between the two classes
o f pre dators, the would-be robbers working
openly, and the actual ones working 'surreptitiously,
is constantly repeated. In one episode
(TB 62), Mickey and company search for a silver
mine and unmask two crooks. The crooks, di sguised
as Spanish conquistadors, who had originally
stolen the mineral, are terrorizing the
Indians, and are now making great profits from
tourists by sell ing them " I ndian ornaments." The
constant characteristic of the natives - irrational
fear and panic when faced with any phenomenon
wh ich d isrupts their natural rhythm of life serves
to emphasize their cowardice (rather l ike
ch ildren afraid of the dark ) , and to justify the
necessity that some superior being come to their
rescue and bring daylight. As reward for
catching the crooks, the heroes are given ranks
within the tribe : Minnie, princess; M ickey and
Goofy, wa�riors ; and Pluto gets a feather. And,
of course, Duckburg gets the "I ndian orname
n ts . " The I nd ians have been given the
"freedom to sell their goods on the foreign
market. " It is only direct and open robbery
without offering a share in the profits, which is
to be co n d e m n ed. Mickey's i m perial ist despoliation
is a foil fo r that of the Spaniards and
those who, in the past, undeniably robbed and
enslaved the natives more openly.
Th i n gs a r e d i ff e r ent nowadays. To rob
without payment is ro bbery undisguised. Taking
with payment is no robbery, but a favor. Thus
the conditions for the sale of the ornaments and
their i m portation into Duckburg are never i n
question, for they are based on the supposition
of equality between the two negotiating partners.
An isolated tribe of I nd ians find themselves in
a simi lar situation (D 430, DO 3/66, I I Ambush at
Thunder Mou ntain") ' They "have declared war
on all Ducks" on the basis of a Previous historical
experience. Buck Duck, fifty years before
(and n othing has changed since then) gypped
them doubly : first stealing the natives ' land, and
then, sel ling it back to them in a useless condition.
So it is a matter of convincing them that
not all ducks (wh ite men) are evil, that the
frauds of the past can be made good. Any
h istory book - even Hollywood, even television
- admits that the native were violated. The
h istory of fraud and exploitation of the past is
public knowledge and cannot be buried any
longer, and so it appears over and done with. But
the present is another matter.
WELL,THE GIZMO 15 YOAH'S IF YO 'LL
TEACH OUH PEOPLE SOME7HIN'ro
IMPROVE nlelR GOOD SPII'JITS.
In order to assure the redemptive powers of
present-day imperialism, it is only necessary to
measure it against old-style colonial ism and robbery
. Example : Enter a pair of crooks determined
to cheat the natives of their natu ral gas
resourses. They are unmasked by the ducks, who
are henceforth regarded as friends.
" Let's bury the hatchet, let's collaborate, the
races can get along together. " What a fine message
! It couldn't have been said better by the
Ban k of America, who, in sponsoring the minicity
of Disneyland in Californ ia, cal ls it a world
of peace where all peoples can get along to­
gether.
But what happens to the lands?
I I
A big gas company will do all the work, and
pay your tribe well for it. " This is the most
shameless imperialist politics. Facing the relatively
crude crooks of the past and present (handicapped,
mo reover, by their primitive techniques),
stands the sophisticated G reat Uncle Company,
which wil l resolve a ll problems equitably. The
guy who comes in from the o utside is not necessarily
a bad 'un, only if he fails to pay the "fair
and proper price." The Company, by contrast, is
benevolence incarnate.
Th i s fo rm of exploitation is not all. A
Wigwam Motel' and a souvenir shop are "opened,
and excursions are arranged. The Indians are immobilized
against their national background and
served up for tourist consumption.
The last two examples suggest certain differences
from the classic politics of bare faced
colonial ism. The benevolent coll aboration figuring
in the Disney comics suggests a form of neocolonialism
which rejects the naked pillage of the
past, and permits the native a minimal participation
in h is own exploitation.
Perhaps the clearest m anifestation of this phenome
non is a comic (0 432, DO 9/65, "Treasure
of Aztecland") written at the height of the AI-
64
liance for Progress program about'the Indians' of
Aztecland who at the time of the Conquest had
h idden their treasure in the ju ngle. Now they are
saved by the Ducks from the new conquistadors,
the Beagle Boys. "This is absurd I Conquistadors
don't exist any morel" The pillage of the past
was a crime. As the past is �rimrnal ized, and the
present purified, its real traces are effaced from
memory . There is no need to keep the treasure
hidden : the Duckburgers (who have already demonstrated
their kindness of heart by charitably
caring for a stray lamb) will be able to defend
t h e Mexicans. Geography becomes a pictu re
postcard, and i� sold as such. The days of yore
cannot advance or change, ,because this would
d a ma g e the tourist trade. "Visit Aztecland.
Entrance : One Dollar." The vacations of the big
ci ty people are transformed into a modern
vehicle of supremacy, and we shall see later how
the natural and physical virtues of the noble
savage are preserved intact. A holiday in these
places is like a loan, or a blank check on purification
and regeneration through oommunion
with nature.
All these examples are based upon common
international stereotypes. Who can deny that the
Peruvian (in Inca-Btinea, TB 104) is somnolent,
sells pottery, sits on his haunches, eats hot
peppers, has a thousand-year-o ld culture - all the
dislocated prejudices proclaimed by the tourist
posters tlJemselves? Disney does not invent these
caricatures, he o nly exploits them to the utmost.
By forcing all peoples of the world into a vision
of the dominant (national and international )
classes, he gives this vision ooherency and justifies
the social system on which it is based. These
cliches are also used by the mass culture media
to dilute the realities common to these people.
The only means that the Mexican has of knowing
Peru is through caricature, which also impl ies
that Peru is incapable of being anythi ng else, and
is u nable to rise above this prototypical situation ,
i mprisoned as it is made to seem, within its own
exoticism. For Mex ican and Peruvian alike, these
stereotypes of Latin American peoples become a
channel of distorted self-knowledge, a form of
self-consumption, and finally, self-mockery. By
selecting the most superficial and , singular traits
of each p'eople in order to differentiate them,
and using folklore as a means to "divide and
conquer" nations occupying the same dependent
position, the comic, like all mass media, exploits
t h e pri n c i ple of sensationalism. That is, it
conceals reality by means of novelty, which not
• See the Introdudion by David Kunzle.
incidentally, also serves to promote sales. Our
Latin American countries become trash cans
being constantly repainted for the voyeuristic
and org i astic pleasures of the metropolitan
nations. Every day, this very minute, television,
radio, magazines, newspapers, cartoons, newscasts,
fil ms, clothing, and records, from the
dignjfied gab of history textbooks to the trivia of
daily conversation, all contribute to weakening
the international solidarity of the oppressed. We
Latin Americans are separated from each other by
the vision we have acquired of each other via the
comics and the other mass culture media. This
vision is nothing less than our own reduced and
distorted image.
This great tacit pool overflowing with the
riches of stereotype is based upon common
cliches, so that no one needs to go directly to
sources of information gathered from real ity
itself. Each of us carries within a Boy Scout
H a nd book pack e d w i th the commonpl ace
wisdom of Everyman.
Contradictions flourish, however, and this is
fortunate. When they become so blatant as to
constitute, in spite of metropolitan press, news,
it is impossible to maintain the same old unruffled
storyline. The open confl ict can no longer
be concealed by the same formulas as the situation
which, although inherently conflictive, is not
yet explosive enough to be considered news­
worthy.
THERE.'S A1111RSTY
LOOKING GROUP !
HEY, PEOPLE ,THROW OOWN
YOUR BANNERCS AN D
14AVE FREE LEMONADES ! .
55
The diseases of the system are manifest on
many levels. The artist who shatters the habits of
vision imposed by the mass media, wh.o attacks
the spectator and undermines his stabil ity, is
dismissed as a mere eccentric, who happens to
cast colors or words in the wind. The genius is
isolated from real l ife, and all his attempts to
reconcile reality with its aesthetic representation,
are neutralized. He is caricatu red in Gbofy, who ·
wins the first prize in the "pop" art contest, by
sliding crazily through a parking lot overturning
pa int cans and creating chaos (TB 99, D D
1 1 /67 ). Amidst the artistic trash that h e has
ge n e rate d, Goofy cries : "Me [the winner1 !
Gawrsh l I wasn't even trying!" And art loses its
offensive character: "This sure is easy work. At
last I can earn money and have fun at the same
ti me, and no one gets mad at me." The public
h a s no reason to be disconcerted by these
"masterpieces": they bear no relation to their
l ives, only the weak and stupid devote themselves
to tbat. kind of sport. The same thing happens
� i th the "h i p p i es ," "love-ins," and peace
marches. In one episode (TR 40, US 1 2/63) a
gang of irate people (observe the way they are
lumped together) march fanatically by, only to
be decoyed by Donald towards his lemonade
stand, with the shout ''There's a thirsty-looking
group. Hey people, throw down your banners
and have free lemonades !" Setting peace aside,
they descend upOn Donald like a herd of buffa-
, 'LL HAVE ONE HERE
AND ON E FORIl-i E ROAD !
loes, snatching his money, and slurping noisily.
Moral : see what hypocrites these rioters are; they
sel l their ideals for a glass of lemonade.
In contrast, there stands another group also
d ri nking lemo nade, but in orderly fashion - l ittle
cadets, d isciplined, obedient, dean, goodlooking,
and truly pacific; no dirty, anarchic "rebels" they.
This strategy, by which protest is converted
into impostu re, is called dilution : banalize an
unusual phenomenon of the social body and
symptom of a cancer, in such a way that it
appears as an isolated incident removed from its
social context, so that it then can be autom
atically rejected by "public opinion" as a
passing itch. Just give yourself a scratch, and be
done with it. Disney di d not, of course, get this
little light bulb a ll on h is own. It is part of the
metabol ism of the system, which reacts to the
facts of a situation by trying to absorb and eliminate
them. It is part of a strategy, consciously
or unconsciously orchestrated.
For example , the adoption by the fashion
industry of the primitive dynamite of the h ippie
i s d e s i g n ed to neutralize its power of de-'
nunciation. Or, the attempts of advertising, in
the U.S., to liquify the concept of the women's
li beration movements. " Liberate" yourself by
buying a new mixer or dishwasher. This is the
real revolution : new styles, low prices. Airplane
hijacking (T R 1 1 3) is emptied of its socialpolitical
sign ificance and is presented as the work
of crazy bandits, "From what we read in the
papers, hijacking has become very fash ionable. "
Thus, the media min imize the matter and its
i mplications, and reassure the public that nothing
is really going on.
But all these phenomena are merely potentially
subversive, mere straws in the wind. Should
there eme rge any phenome non tru ly flouting the
D i s n e y I a w s of creation which govern the
exemplary and submi ssive behavior of the noble
s a v a g e , this cannot remain concealed. It is
brought out garn ished, prettified, and rei nterpreted
for the reader, who being young, must be
p rotected. This second strategy is called recupera
tion : the utilization of a potentially
dangerous phen�menon of the social body in
such a way that it serves to justify the continued
need of the social system and its values, and very
often justifies the viole nce and repression which
are part of that system.
Such is the case of the Vietnam War, where
protest was ma nipulated to justify the vitality
and val ues of the system which produced the
war, not to end the injustice and violence of the
war itself. The "ending". of the war was only a
problem of "pu bl ic opin ion ."
The realm of Disney is not o ne of fantasy, for
it does react to world events. Its vision of Tibet
is not identical to its vision of Indochina. Fifteen
years ago the Caribbean was a sea of pirates.
Disney has had to adjust to the fact of Cu ba and
the invasion of the Dominican Republic. The
buccaneer now cries "Viva the Revolutio n," and
has to be defeated. It wi ll be Ch ile's tu rn yet.
Searching for a jade elephant, Scrooge and his
family arrive in Unsteadystan, "where every thug
wants to be ruler," and "where there is always
someone shooti ng at someone else." (T R 99, US
7/66, "Treasu re of Marco Polo" ) . A state
.
of civi l
war is immediately tu rned into an incom prehensi
ble game of someone-or-other against
someone-or-other, a stu pid fratricide lacking in
any ethical direction or socio-economic raison
d'etre. The war in Vietnam becomes a mere
interchange of unconnected and senseless bullets,
and a truce becomes a siesta. "Wahn Beeg Rhat,
yes, Duckburg, no ! " cries a guerilla in support of
an ambitious (communist) dictator, as he dynamites
the Duck-burg embassy. Noticing that his
watch is not working properly, the Vietcong (no
l es s ) mutters "Shows you can't trust these
watc hes from the 'worker's paradise.' " The
struggle for power is purely personal, the eccentricity
of ambition: "Hail to Wahn Seeg Rhat,
dictator of all the happy people," goes the cry
and satto voce "happy or not." Defending his
conquest, the dictator gives orders to kill. "Shoot
him, don't let him spoil my revolution. " The
savior in this chaotic situation is Prince Char
Ming, also known [in the Spanish version] as
Yho Soy ["1 am" - the English is Soy Sheen] ,
names expressive of his magical egocentricity. He
comes to reunify the country and "pacify" the
REBEL DEBBIL ,YOU'RE
FIGHTING IN SIESTA l1Mf!
ITS FIVE MINUTESAFTE� ONt.
PRINCE mlfGETTO ME! SHOOT
HIM ,MAT BAAlS! DOH'T
LeT ttiM SPOIL MY
ru:VOLUTI
-"'-";'';'':''---'
57
people. He is destined to triumph, because the
soldiers refuse to obey the orders of a leader
who has lost his charisma, who is not "Char
Ming." So one guerrilla wonders why they "keep
these �illy revolutions going forever." Another
denounces them, demanding a return to the
K ing, "Ii ke in the good old days."
In order to dose the circuit and the al liance
betwe e n D u ck b u rg and Prince Char Ming,
Scrooge McDuck presents to Unsteadystan the
treasure and the jade elephant which once had
belonged to the people of that country. One of
the nephews observes: "They will be of use to
WHAN 6EEG �HAT SI �
DVCI<6URG NO !
SHOWS YOU CAN 'T TRUST
iHESE WAltHES FROM I
1ltE "WORKERS' PARAD' SE ! '
NO! WE SUPDENLY l'HINJ( IT
Be N lc.e FO� UNSTEADYSTA�
Tt> HAVE A I<JH6 AGAJ N LIKE
JN �E
GOOIJ OLb bAYS! __
' he poor." And finally, Scrooge, in his haste to
let out of this parody of ' Vietnam, promises
'When I retum to Ouckburg, I will do even more
fo r you. I will return the million dollar tail of
! he jade elephant."
But we can bet that Scrooge wil l forget his
promises as soon as he gets back. ·As proof we
f i n d i n a n other comic book (0 445) the
following dialogue which takes place in Duckburg
:
Nephew: "They got the asiatic flu as well."
Donald: " I 've always said that nothing good
could come out of Asia."
I HArE J-fIM FOR WASTIN&
. CltEWMEN WHEN WE'RE
SHOR�HANDEO ! GRAB THAT
COAL SHOVEL AND G�T
TO WORK i . . .
THEV'lL BE SCOUTING
WITH PlANES 1 DOUSE
ALL LIGHTS l WE'LL
GIVE 'EM TWE SLIP
IN T�E /JARK 1
THERE'S NOPE · FOR
US , UNCA DONALD l
WE HEAR A NAYY
PLANE LOOKING FO�
Tt-IE WRAITN NOW.
. GOOD OLD NlVV 1
SYMBOL OF lAW.
AND fJADER .
IF IT CAN ON!yS
SPOT US ON 1 "1
DARK OCEAN 1
68
A similar reduction of a historical situation
takes place in the Republic of San Bananador,
obviously in the Caribbean or Central America
(0 364, CS 4/64, "Captain Blight's Mystery
Ship"). Waiting in a port, Donald makes fun of
the children playing at being shanghaied: These
things just don't happen any more; shanghai-ing,
weevly beans, walking the plank, pirate-invested
seas - these are all th ings of the past. But it
tums out that there are places where such
horrors still survive, and the nephew's game is
·soon interrupted by a man trying to escape from
a ship carry ing a dangerous cargo and commanded
by a captain who is a living menace.
Terror reigns on board. When the man is forcibly
brought back to the ship, he invokes the name of
li berty ("I'm a free man l Let me go !"), while his
k i dn a p pers treat him as a slave. Although
Donald, typically, makes light of the incident
("probably only a little rhubarb about wages," or
"actors making a fil m" ) , he and his nephews are
also captured. Life on board is a nightmare; the
food is weevly beans, even the rats are prevented
from leaving the ship, and there is forced labor,
with slaves, slaves, and more slaves. All is subject
to the unjust, arbitrary and crazy rule of Captain
Blight and his bearded followers.
Surely these must be pirates from olden days.
Absolutely not. They are revolutionaries (Cuban,
no less) fighting agail")st the government of San
Bananador, and pursued by the navy for trying
to s upply rebels with a shi pment of arms.
' 'They'li be scouting with planes! Douse all
lightsl We'll give 'em the sl ip in the dark!" And
the radio operator, fist raised on high, shouts:
"Viva the Revolution '" The only hope, according
to Donald, is "the good old navy, symbol of law
and order." The rebel opposition is thus autom
a t i c a l l y cast i n the r o l e of t y r a n n y ,
dictatorship, totalitarianism. The slave society
reigning on board ship is the replica of the
society which they propose to install in place of
the legitimately established regime. Apparently,
in modern times it is the champions of popular
insurgency who wil l bring back human slavery.
The political drift of Disney is blatant in these
few comics where he is impelled to reveal his intentions
openly. It is also inescapable in the bulk
of them, where he uses animal symbolism, infantilism,
and "noble savagery" to cover over the
network of interests arising from a concrete and
historically determined social system: U.S. im­
perialism.
The problem is not only Disney's equation of
the ch ild with the noble savage, and the noble
savage with the u nderdeveloped peoples. It is also
- and here is the crux of the matter - that what
is said, referred to, revealed and disguised about
all of them, has, in fact, only one true object:
the working class.
The imaginative world of the child has
become the political utopia of a social class. In
the Disney comics, one n ever meets a member of
the working or proletarian classes, and nothing is
the product of an industrial process. But this
does not mea n that the worker is absent. On the
contrary : he is present under two masks, that of
the noble savage and that of the criminal-Iumpen.
Both groups serve to destroy the worker as a
class rea lity. and preserve certain myths which
the bourgeoisie have from the very beginni ng
been fabricating and adding to in . order to conceal
and domesticate the enemy , impede h is sol idarity,
and make h im function smoothly within
the system and cooperate in his own ideological
ens lavement.
In order to rationalize their dominance and
justify their privileged position, the bourgeoisie
divided the world of the dominated as fol lows:
fi r st, the peasant sector, which is harmless,
n a t u r a l , t r u th f u l , i n ge n u o us, spontaneous,
infantile, and static; second, the urban sector,
which is threatening, teeming, dirty, suspicious,
calculating, embittered, vicious, and essential ly
mobile. The peasant acquires in this process of
mythification the exclusive property of being
"popular," and becomes i nstal led as a folkguardian
of everything produced and preserved
by the people. Far from the i nfluence of the
steaming urban centers, he is purified through a
cyclical return to the primitive virtues of the
earth . The myth of the people as noble savage the
people as a child who must be protected for
its own good - arose in order to justify the
domination of a class. The peasants were the
only ones capable of becoming incontrovertible
veh icles fo r the permanent validity of bourgeois
ideals. Juven He l iterature fed on these " popular"
m y t h s a n d served as a constant allegorical
testimony to what the people were supposed to
be.
Each great urban civ il ization (Alexandria for
Theocritus, Rome for Virgil , the modern era for
Sannazaro, Montemayor, Shakespeare, Cervantes,
d'Urfe) created its pastoral myth : an extra-social
Ed e n ch a ste and pure. Together with this
eVangelical bucol ism, there emerged a picturesque
l i te ra tu re teeming with ruffians, vagabonds,
59
gamblers, gluttons, etc., who reveal the true
n at u r e of u r ba n m a n; mobile, degenerate,
irredeemable. The world was divided between the
lay heaven of the shepherds, and the terrestrial
inferno of the u nemployed. At the same time, a
uto p i a n l iteratu re flourished (Thomas More,
Tommaso Campanella), projecting into the futu re
on the basis of an optimism fostered by technol
ogy , a n d a pes s i mism resulting from the
breakdown of medieval unity, the ecstatic realm
of social perfection. The rising bourgeoisie, which
gave the necessary momentum to the voyages of
d i s c o ve ry , fo u n d innumerable peoples who
t h e o r e t i c a l l y c o r r e s p o n d e d t o t h e i r
pastoral-utopian schemata; their ideal of universal
Christian reason proclaimed by E rasmian humani
s m . Th u s t h e d i v i s i o n be tween positivep
o p u I a r -rustic and negative-popul a r-proletarian
was overwhel mingly reinforced. The new conti
nents vvere colonized i n the name of this
division ; to prove that removed from original sin
and mercantil ist taint, these continents might be
t h e s i te for t h e i d e a l history which the
bourgeoisie had once imagined for themselves at
home. An idea l history which was ruined and
threatened by the constant opposition of the
idle, filthy, teemi ng, promiscuous, and extortionary
proletarians.
In spite of the failu re in Latin America, in
sp ite of the fail u re in Africa, Oceania and in
Asia, the myth never lost its vital ity. On the contrary,
it served as a constant spur in the only
country which was able to develop it still further.
By open ing the frontier further and fu rther, the
United States elaborated the myth and eventually
gave birth to a "Way of Life," and ideology
shared by the infernal Disney. A man, who in
try ing to open and close the frontier of the
child's imagination, based himself precisely on
those now-antiquated myths which gave rise to
h is own country.
The h istorical nostalgia of the bourgeoisie, so
much the product of its objective contrad ictions
- its conflicts with the proletariat, the difficulties
arising from the industrial revolution , as
the myth was always bel ied and always renewed
- this nostalgia took u pon itself a twofold disguise
, one geographical : the lost paradise which it
could not enjoy, a nd the other bio logical : the
child who would serve to legitimize its plans for
h uman emancipation. There was no other pl ace
to flee, u nless it was to that other natu re, tech­
nology.
The yearning of a McLuhan, the prophet of
the technological era, to use mass communications
as a means of return ing to the "planetary
village" (modelled upon the "primitive tribal
commu nism" of the underdeveloped worl d), is
nothing but a utopia of the futu re which revives
a nostalgia of the past. Although the bourgeoisie
we r e u n a b l e, during the centuries of their
existence, to realize their imaginary historical
design, they kept it n ice and warm in every one
of their expeditions and justifications. Disney
characters are afraid of technology and its social
80
implications; they never fully accept it; they
prefer the past. Mc Luhan is more farsighted: he
understands that to interpret technology as a
return to the values of the pan is the solution
which i mperialism must offer in the next stage of
its strategy.
But our next stage is to ask a question which
Me Luhan never poses: if the proletariat is
eliminated, who is producing all that gold, all
those riches?
"If I were able to produce money with my
black magic, I wou ldn't be in the m iddle of
the desert looking fo r gold, would I ?"
Magica de Spell (TR 1 1 1 )
What are these adventurers escaping from thei r
claustrophobic cities really after? What i s the
t r ue motive of their flight from the urban
center? Blu ntly stated : in mo re than seventy-five
percent of our sam pl ing they are looking fo r
go ld, in the remain ing twenty-five percent they
are competing for fortune - in the form of
money or fame - in the city.
Why should gold, criticized ever sinCe the
beginning of a moneta ry economy as a contami
nation of h uman relations and the corruption
of human nature, mi ngle here with the innocence
of the noble savage (ch ild and people ) ?
Why should gold, the fruit o f urban commerce
and industry , flow so freely from these rustic
and natural environments?
The answer to these questions l ies in the
manner in which our earthly paradise generates
all this raw wealth.
It comes, above all, in the form of hidden
treasure. It is to be found in the Third World,
and is magically pointed out by some ancient
map, a parchment, an inheritance, an arrow, or a
clue i n a p icture. After great adventures and obstacles,
and after defeating some th ief trying to
g e t t h e re first (disqual ified from th e prize
because it wasn 't h is idea, but filched from someone
else's map) , the good Duckburgers appropriate
the idols, figurines, jewels, crowns, pearls,
n e e k laces, ru bies, emeralds, precious daggers,
golden helmets etc.
F i rst of all, we are struck by the antiquity of
the coveted object. It has lain buried for thousands
of years: within caverns, ru ins, pyramids,
coffers, su nken sh ips, vik ing tombs etc. - that is,
any place with vestiges of c ivil ized l ife in the
past . Time separates the treasure from its origin al
owners, who have bequeathed th is unique heritage
to the future . Furthermore, this wealth is
left without heirs; despite their total poverty, the
n o bl e savages take no interest in the go ld
abound ing so near them (in the sea, in the mou ntains,
beneath the tree etc. ). These ancient c ivilizati
ons are envisioned, by Disney, to have come
to a somewhat catastroph ic end. Whole fam i l ies
extermi nated, armies in constant defeat, people
forever hiding their treasu re, for . . . for whom?
Disney conveniently exploits the supposed total
destructio n of past civilizatio ns in order to carve
an a by s s between the innocent present-day
inhabitants and the previous, but non-ancestral
WE'VE TRIED T�E5E WILD
WEST FORTUNE HUNTS
BEI='ORE, UNCA DONALD,
AND HAVEN'T MADE
A PROFIT YET !
THAT'S BECAOSE
WE NEVER GOT
FAil ENOUGH
INTO THE WILDS!
82
inhabita nts. The innocents are not heirs to the
past, because that past is not father to the
present. It is, at best, the u ncle. There is an
e m p ty g a p . W hoever arrives first with the
brilliant idea and the excavating shovel has the
right to take the booty back home. The noble
savages have no history, and they have forgotten
their past, which wa:» never theirs to begin with.
By depriving them of their past, Disney destroys
.
their histo rical memory, in the same way he
deprives a child of h is parenthood and genealogy,
with the same result: the destruction of their
ability to see themselves as a product of history.
It would appear, moreover, that these forgotten
peoples never actual ly produced this treasure.
They are consistently described as warriors,
conquerors and explorers, as if they had seized it
fro m someone else. In any event, there is no
reference at any time - how could there be,
with something that happened so l ong ago? - to
the rna king of these objects, although they must
have been handcrafted. The actual origin of the
treasure is a mystery which is never even mentioned.
The only legitimate owner of the treasure
is the person who had the brilliant idea of
tracking it down; he creates it the moment he
thinks of setting off in search of it. It never
r eally existed before, anywhere. The ancient
civilization is the uncle of the object, and the
father is the man who gets to keep it. Having
d iscovered it, he rescued it from the oblivion of
ti me . . , .
But even then the object remains In some
slight contact with the ancient civilization; it is
the last vestige of vanishing faces. So the finder
of the treasu re has one more step to take. In the
vast coffers of Scrooge there is never the sli'ghtest
trace of the handcrafted object, in spite of the
fact that, as we have seen, he brings treasure
home from so many expeditions. Only banknotes
and coins remain. As soon as the treasure leaves
its country of o rigin for Duckburg, it loses shape,
and is swallowed up by Scrooge's dollars. It is
stripped of the l ast vestige of that crafted form
which might l ink it to persons, places and time.
It turns into gold without the odor of fatherland
or history. Uncle Scrooge can bathe, cavort, and
plunge in his coins and banknotes (in Disney
these are no mere metaphors) more comfortably
than in spiky idols and jewelled crowns. Everyth
ing is transmuted mechanically (but without
mach ines) into a single monetary mold in which
the last breath of human life is extinguished.
And fin ally, the adventu re which led to the rel ic
fades away, together with the relic itself. As treasure
buried i n the earth , it pointed to a past ,
however remote it may be, and even as treasure
in Duckburg (were it to survive in its original
form) it vvould point to the adventure experienced,
however remote that may be. Just as
the historical memory of the original civilization
is blotted out, so is Scrooge's personal memory
of his experience. Either way, history is melted
down in the crucitlle of �he dollar. The falsity of
all the Disney publicity regarding the educational
and aesthetic value of these comics, which are
touted as journeys through time and space and
aids to the learning of history and geography
etc., stands revealed. For Disney, history exists in
order to be demolished, in order to be tu rned
into the dollar which gave it birth and lays it to
rest. Disney even kill s archeology, the science of
artifacts.
Disnification is Dollarfication : all objects (and,
as we shall see, actions as well ) are transformed
into gold. Once th is conversion is completed the
adventure is over: one cannot go further, for
gold, ingot or dollar bill, cannot be reduced to a
more symbolic level. The only prospect is to go
hu nting for more of the same, since once it is invested
it becomes active, and it will start taking
sides and enter contemporary history. Better
I'M BUYI NG DINOSAU!t BONES! ANVBODY FIN
ANY DINOSAUR BONES ? • • A THOUSAND .
DOLLARS FOR BONES LI KE T1415 ONE l
cross it out and start afresh. Add more adventures,
which accumulate in aimless and sterile
fashion:
So it is 110t surprising that the hoarder desires
to skip these productive phases, and go off in
search of pure gold.
But even in the treasure hunt the productive
process is lacking. On your marks, ready, go,
collect; l ike fruit picked from a tree. The problem
lies not in the actual extraction of the
treasure, but in discovering its geographical location.
Once one has got there, the gold - always
in n ice fat nuggets - is already in the bag,
without · having raised a single callous on the
hand which carries it off. Mining is like abundant
agriculture, once one has had the genius to spot
the mine. And agriculture is conceived like
picking flowers in an infinite garden. There is no
effort in the extraction, it is foreign to the
material of which the object is made : bland, soft,
and unresistant. The mineral only plays hide and
seek. One only needs cunning to l ift it from its
sanctuary, not physical labor to shape its content
and give it form, changing it from its natural
physical-mineral state into something useful to
human society. In the absence of this process of
transformation, wealth is made to appear as if
society creates it by means of the spirit, the idea,
the l ittle light bulbs flashing over the characters'
heads. Nature apparently delivers the material
ready-to-use, as in primitive life, without the
intervention of workman and tool. The Duckburgers
have airplanes, submarines, radar, helicopters,
rockets; but not so much as a stick to
open up the earth. "Mother Earth" is prodigal,
and taking in the gold is as innocent as breathing
in fresh air. Nature feeds gold to these creatures :
it is the only sustenance these aurivores desire.
Now we understand why it is that the gold is
found yonder in the world of the noble savage.
It cannot appear in the city, because the normal
63
order of life is that of production (although we
shall see later how Disney eliminates even this
factor in the cities). The origin of this wealth has
to appear natural and innocent. Let us place the
Duckburgers in the great uterus of history : all
• comes from nature, nothing is produced by man.
The child must be taught (and along the way,
the adult convince h imself) that the objects have
no h istory; they arise by enchantment, and are
untouched by human hand. The stork brought
the gold. It is the immaculate conception of
wealth.
The production process in Disney's world is
natural, not social. And it is magical. Al l objects
arrive on parachutes, are conjured out of hats,
are presented as gifts in a non-stop birthday
party, and are spread out like mushrooms. Mother
earth -gives a l l : pick her fruits, and be rid of
guilt. No one is getting hurt.
Gold is produced by some i nexplicable, miraculous
natural phenomenon. Like rain, wind,
snow, waves, an avalanche, a volcano, or like another
planet.
"What is that fall ing from the sky?"
"Hardened raindrops . . . Ouch ! Or molten
metal."
li lt can't be. It's gold coins. Gold ! "
"Hurray ! A ra in of gold! Just look at that
rainbow."
"We must be having visions, Uncle Scrooge. It
can't be true."
But it is.
Like bananas, l ike copper, like tin, like cattle.
One sucks the mi lk of gold from the earth. Gold
is claimed from the breast of nature without the
mediation of work. The claimants have clearly
acquired the rights of ownership thanks to their
native genius, or else, thanks to their accumulated
suffering (an abstracted form of work,
as we explain below).
It is not superhuman magic, like that of the
�-------,
LOOK. UNCA DONALD. AT THE
ST1iANGE FISH WE CAUGHT
IN THE BAY!
STRANGE J=ISH ! • • MONEY! • • . �.! ,·�
THE AQUARIUM BUYS . /":�h"'>�"
.
.•. .. . .
STRANGE FISHL /1� : .:.·;Y
..,0/...
.
':'>/.
.
. .'
w i tch Magica de Spell, for example, which
creates the gold. This k ind of · magic, distilled
from the demon of technology, is merely a
parasite u pon nature. Man cannot counterfeit the
wealth . He has to get it through some other
charmed source, the natu.ral one, in which he .
does not have to interVene, but only deserve.
Example. Donald and nephews, followed by
Magica (T R 1 1 1 , DO 1 /66), search for the
rainbow's end, behind which, accordi ng to the
legend, is hidden a golden pot, the direct fruit of
n ature (TR 1 1 1 , US 38, 6-8/62). Our heroes do
n ot exactly find the myth ical treasure, but return
with another kind of "pot of gold": fat commercial
profits. How did this happen? Uncle
Scrooge's airplane, loaded with �emon seeds, accidently
inseminated the North African desert,
and when Magica de Spell provoked a rainstorm,
w i t h i n m i n utes the whole area becaine a",
orchard of lemon trees. The seeds ( i.e. .ideas)
come from abroad , magic or accident sows them,
and the useless, u nderdeveloped ·desert soil makes
them grow. "Come on, boys '" cries Donald,
"let's start picking lemons. And take them to the
town to selL" Work is minimal and a pleasure;
the profit is tremendous.
This does not happen only in distant places,
but also in Duckburg, on its beaches, woods, and
mountains. Donald and Gladstone, for example
(D 381 , CS 5/59), go on a beachcombing expedition,
to see who comes up with the most
valuable find to give to Daisy and win her
company for lunch. The sea washes up successively,
huge seashells, a giant snail, a "very valuable"
ancient Indian seashell necklace, rubber
boats (one each for Gladstone and Donald), a
r u b be r elephant loaded with tropical fruits,
: papayas and mangoes, an Alaskan kayak, a
mirror, and an ornamental comb. The sea is a
cornucopia; generous nature showers abundance
upon man, and in the Third World, nature does
so in a particularly exotic form. In and beyond
Duckburg, it is always nature that mediates
between man and wealth.
It is surely u ndeniable nowadays that all
man's real and concrete achievements derive from
h is effort and h is work. Although nature provides
the raw materials, man must struggle to make a
l iving from them. If this were not so, we would
still be in Eden.
In the world of Disney, no one has to work in
order to produce. There is a constant round of
buying, selling and consuming, . but to all appearances,
none of the products involved has re-
64
quired any effort whatsoever to make. Nature is
the great labor force, producing objects of
human and social utility as if they were natural.
The human origin of the product - be it
table, house, car, clothing, gold, coffee, wheat, or
maize (which, according to TR 96, comes from
granaries, direct from warehouses, rather than
from the fields) - has been suppressed. The process
of production has been eliminated, as has all
reference to its genesis; the actors, the objects,
the circumstances of the process never existed.
What, in fact, has been erased is the paternity of
the object, and the possibility to link it to the
process of production.
This brings us back to the curious Disney
family structure with the absence of natural
pate rn i ty . Th e simultaneous lack of direct
bio;ogical production and direct economic production
, is not coincidental. They both coincide
and reinforce a dominant ideological structure
whi"ch also seeks to eli minate the working class,
the true producer of objects. And with it, the
class struggle.
Disney exorcises h istory, magically expell ing
the social ly (and biologically) reproductive
element, leaving amorphous, r�otless, and inoffensive
products - without sweat, without
blood, without effort, and without the misery
which they inevitably sow in the life of the
working class. The object produced is truly
fantastic; it is purged of unpleasant associations
which are relegated to an i nvisible background of
dreary, sordid sluml and l iving. Disney uses the
i magination of the child to eradicate all reference
to the real world. The products of history which
"people" and pervade the w6rld of Disney are inces
s antly bought and sold. But D isney has
appropriated these products and the work which
brought them into being, just as the bourgeoisie
has appropriated the products and labor of the
working class. The situation is an ideal one for
the bourgeoisie: they get the product without
the workers. Even to the point when on the rare
occasion a factory does appear (e.g. a brewery in
TR 1 20) there is never more than one workman
who seems to be acting as caretaker. His role
a p pe a rs to be little more than that of a
policeman protecting the autonomous and automated
factory of his boss. This is the world the
bourgeoisie have always dreamed of. One in
which a man can amass great wealth, without
facing its producer and product: the worker.
Objects are cleansed of guilt. It is a world of
pure surplus without the slightest suspicion of a
wo r ker dema nding the sl ightest reward. The
pro leta riat, born out of the contrad ictions of the
bourgeo is regi me, se l l their labor "freely" to the
h ighest bidder, who transfo rms the labor into
wea lth fo r h is own socia l class. I n the D isney
wo rld, the pro leta ri at are expel led from the
society they created , thus e nding all antagonisms,
confl icts, cl ass struggle and in deed, the very concept
of social class . Disney's is a worl d of bou rgeois
i nterests with the cracks in the structu re repeatedly
papered over. I n the i maginary rea l m of
Disney, the rosy publ icity fantasy of the bourgeo
is ie is rea l i zed to perfection: wealth without
wages , deodoran t without sweat. Gold becom es a
toy , and the characters who play with it are
amusing ch ildre n ; after all, the way the world
goes, they aren't doing any harm to anyone . . .
within that worl d. But i n this wo rld there is
harm in dreami ng and real izing the dream of a
particular cl ass, as if it were the dream of the
whole of h u ma n ity.
The re is a term which wou ld be l ike dynamite
to . Disney , l i ke a scapulary to a vampire, l i ke
electric ity co nvu lsing a frog : social cl ass . That is
w h y Dis ney must publ icize his creations as
u niversal , beyond frontiers; they reach all homes,
they reach a l l countries. 0 i m mortal Disney, int
e r n a t i o n a l patrimo ny, reaching a l l ch i ldren
everywhere, everywhere, everywhere .
Marx had a word - fetis h ism - for the process
which separates the product (accumul ated
work) fro m its origin and expresses it as gold,
abstracting i t from the actu al circu mstances of
product ion . It was Marx who discovered that be h
i nd his gold and si lver, the capital ist concea ls
th e whole process of accumu latio n wh ich he
ach ieves at the worker's ex pense (surpl us value ) .
The words "precious metals" "go ld," and
"si lver" a re used to h ide from the worker the
fact that he is bein g robbed, and that the capital i�t
i s no mere accu mulato r of wealth , but the appro
priato r of the product of social production.
The transformatio n of the wo rker's labor i nto
gold, fools h i m i nto bel iev ing that it is gold
wh ich is the true generator of wea lth and source
of production .
Gol d, i n su m, i s a fetish, the su preme fetish,
and in order for the true o rigin of weal th to
remain concealed, al l socia l rel atio ns, al l people
are fetishized.
Since gol d is the actor, di rector and producer
i. of this fil m, h uman ity is reduced to the level of
j a thing. Objects possess a l ife of their own, and
� humanity controls neither its products nor its
I: Own destiny. The D isney universe is proof of the
�,
i�
65
i n ternal cohere nce of th e wo rld ruled by gold,
and an ex act reflect i o n of the pol itical design it
reproduces.
Natu re , by taking over human production,
m a kes it ev aporate . But the products rema in.
What for? To be consu med. Of the capita list proc
e s s w h i c h go e s fro m production to consumption,
Disney k nows o n ly the seco n<;t stage.
Th is is consumption rid of the original sin of
prod uctio n , just as the son is rid of the origi nal
sin of se x re presented by h is father, and just as
history is rid of the original si n of class and confl
i ct.
Let us l ook at the soci al structu re in the
Di sney comi c. For exampl e, the professions. I n
Duc k burg, everyone seems to belong t o the tertiary
sector, that is, th ose who sel l their serv
i c e s : h a i r d r e s s e r s , real estate and tou rist
age ncies, salespeople of all k inds (especially shop
assista nts se l l ing su m ptu ary o bjects, and vendors
go i ng from door-to -door ) , n ightwatchmen ,
waiters, del ivery boys, and . people attached to
the entertain ment busi ness . Th ese fi l l the world
with objects and mo re objects, which are never
prod uced , but al ways purchased . There is a constant
repetition of th e act of buying. B ut this mer·
cantile re lationsh ip is not l i m ited to the level of
o bje cts. Con tractu al language permeates the most
commonplace forms of human intercou rse . People
see themselves as buying each other's serv ices, or
sel l ing themselves . It i s as if the on ly security
were to be fo u nd i n the language of money. Al l
h u man interchange is a fo rm of com merce ;
people a re l i ke a p u rse, an object in a shop wi ndow,
o r co ins constantly changing hands.
" It's a dea l , " " 'What the eye doesn 't see . . .
you can take for free' - I should pate nt that
say ing." " You must h ave spent a fortu ne o n this
party , Donald ." These are ex plicit examples, it is
gen era l ly i m pl ic it that all a ctivity revolves aro und
mo nay , status or the status-giv ing object, a nd the
"THIS W I LL COST ME A
PRO� ITA6LE �I<IEND6H I P",..
IT' LL COST YOt./ 'YOUR
JOB" DAI SY !
competition for them.
The wor ld of Walt, in which every word advertises
someth ing or somebody, is under an intense
compu lsion to consume. The Disney vision
can ha rdly transcend consumerism when it is
fixated upon selling itself, along with other merchandise
. Sales of the comic are fostered by the
so-called "Disneyland Clubs," wh ich a re heavily
advertised in the comi cs, and are financed by
comme rcial firms who offer cut prices to members.
The absurd ascent from corporal to general,
right u p to chief-of-staff, is achieved exclusively
thro ugh the pu rchase of Disneyland comics, and
sending in the coupons. It offers no benefits,
except the incentive to contin ue buying the
magazine. The solidarity which it appears to promote
a mong readers simply traps them in the
buy ing habit.
Surely it is not good for children to be surr
e p titiously i njected with a perma nent compu
lsion to buy objects they don't need. Thi s is
Disney's sole ethical code : consumption for
consumption's sake . Buy to keep the system
going, th row the things away (rarely a re objects
shown being enjoyed, even i n the comic), and
buy the sa me thing, only slightly different, the
next day . Let money change hands, a nd if it
ends up fatte ning the pockets of D isney and h is
class, so be it.
Disney creatures are engaged in a frantic chase
for money. As we are in an amusement world,
a l l ow us to describe the land of Disney as a carrousel
of consumerism. Money is the goal everyone
strives for, because it manages to embody all
the qual ities of thei r world. To start with the
o bvious, its powers of acquisition are unlimited,
encompassing the affection of others, secu rity,
i nfl uence, a uthority, prestige, travel , vacation,
le isure, and to temper the boredom of living, entertainment.
The only access to these things is
through money, which comes to symbolize the
good things of life, all of which can be bought.
But who decides the d istri bution of wealth in
the worl d of D isney ? By what criteria is one
placed at the top 0 r the bottom of the pile?
Let u s examine some of the mechanisms invo
lved. Geographical distance separates the potential
owner, who ta kes the i nitiative, from the
ready-to-use gold which passively awaits h im. But
this distance in itself is insufficient to create obstacles
and suspense along the way. So a thief
after the same treasure, appears on the scene.
Chief of the cri mi nal gangs are the Beagle Boys,
but there are innumerable other professional
66
crooks, luckless buccaneers, and decrepit eagles,
along with the inevitable Black Pete. To these we
may add Magica de Spell, Big Bad Wol f, and
some lesser thieves of the forest, like Brer bear
a nd Brer Fox .
They are all oversize, dark, ugly, i l l-educated,
unshaven, stupid (they never have a good idea),
clumsy, d i ssolute, greedy, conceited (always
toadying each other) , and unscrupulous. They are
,
lu mped together in groups and are i ndividually
indistinguishable . The professional crooks, l ike
the Beagle Boys, are conspicuous for their prison
identification number and burgla r's mask. Their
crimi nal ity is i n nate : "Shut up," says a cop
seizing a Beagle Boy, "y ou weren't born to be a
guard. You r vocation i s jail bird." ( F 57 ) .
Cri me i s the only work they know; otherwise,
they are slothful unto eternity. Big Bad Wolf (0
281 ) reads a book all about disguises (printed by
Confusion Publishers) :
II
At last I have found the
perfect disguise : no one wil l believe that Big Bad
Wol f is capable of work ing." So he disguises
himself as a worker . With his moustache, hat,
overalls, barrow, and pick a nd shovel, he sees
himself as quite the southern convict on a road
gang.
As if their criminal record were not sufficient
to impress upon us the illegitimacy of their am·
bitions, they are constantly pu rsuing the 'treasure
already amassed or p re-empted by others. The
Beagle Boys versus Scrooge M cDuck are the best
example, the others being mere variations on
.
this
central theme . In a world so rich in maps and
badly kept secrets, it is a statistical i mprobabil ity
and seems unfa ir that the villains should not occasionally,
at least, get hold of a parchment first.
Thei r i nability to deserve this good fortune is an·
other indication that there is no question of
them changing their status. Their fate is fruitless
robbery or intent to rob, constant arrest or consta
nt escape from jail (perhaps there are so many
of them that jail can never hold them all?) . They
are a constant threat to those who had the idea
of hunting for gold.
The only obstacle to the adventurer's getting
his treasure , is not a very realistic one. The
sole purpose of the presence of the vi llain is
to legitimatize the right of the other to apptopriate
the treasure. Occasional ly the adventurer is
faced with a moral dilemma : his gold o r someone
else's life. He always chooses in favor of the l i fe,
although he so mehow never has to sacrifice the
gold (the choice was not very real, the d ice were
loaded) . But he can at least confront evil tempta-
tions, whereas the villains, with a few exceptions,
neve r have a chance to search their conscience,
and to rise above their condition.
Disney can conceive of no other th reat to
we a l t h t h a n t h e ft . H is obsessive n eed to
crimi naJize any person who infringes the laws of
private property, invites us to loo k at these villains
mo re closely. The darkness of their ski n ,
thei r ugl iness, the d isorder of their d ress, their
stature, their reduction to numerical catagories,
thei r mo b-l ike character, and the fact that they
are "condemn ed" in perpetu ity, al l add up to a
stereotypical stigmati zation of the bosses' real
enemy, the one who truly threatens his property.
But the real l i fe enemy of the wealthy is not
the th ief. Were there only thieves a bout h i m, the
man of property could co nvert history into a
struggle between l egitimate owners a nd criminals,
who are to be judged according to the property
laws he, the owner, has established. But reality is
different. The e lement which truly challenges the
legitimacy and necessity of the mo nopoly of
wealth, and is capable of destroyi ng it, is the
working class, whose only means of l i beration is
to Iiquidate the economic base of the bourgeoisie
and abolish private property. Since the moment
the bourgeoisie began expl o iting the p roletariat,
the former has tried to reduce the resistance of
the l atter, and indeed , the c lass struggle i tself, to
a battle between good and ev il, as M arx showed
i n h is analysis of Eugene Sue's serial novels. * The
moral label is designed to conceal th e root of the
conflict, wh i ch is economic, and at the same
ti me to censure the a ctions of the class enemy.
In D isney , the wo rking class has therefo re
been spl it into two groups : criminals in the city,
and noble savages i n the countrysi de. Since the
Disney worldview ema sculates v io lence and social
confl icts, even the urban rogues are conceived as
naughty chil dren ("boys") . As the a nti-model,
they are always losi ng, bei ng span ked, and celebrating
their stu pid ideas by dancin g in ci rcles,
hand in hand. They are expressions of the bourgeois
desire to portray workers' orga nizations as
a motley mo b of crazies.
Thus, when Scrooge is confro nted by the
possibil ity that Donald has taken to thieving (F
1 78), h e says "My nephew, a robber? Before my
own eyes? I must cal l the police and the l u natic
asylum. He must h ave gone ma d." This statement
*Karl Marx The Holy Family (1 845) , d. Marcelin
Pleynet, "A pr�pos d'une analyse des Mvsteres de Paris,
Par Marx dans La Sainte Famille," in La Nouvelle
Critique, Paris, num6ro sp6cial, 1 968.
67
,
,
You WICKED
MAN � you
SHOULDN'T
BE HERE ON
MOltlERS·
��
reflects the reduction of criminal activity i n to a
psychopathic disease , rather than the result of
socia l conditioning. The bourgeoisie convert the
defects of the working class which are the outcome
of their explo itation, i n to moral ble mishes,
and objects of derision a nd censu re, so as to
weaken them a nd to conceal that ex ploitation .
The bourgeoisie even impose thei r own val ues
u pon the a mbitio ns of the enemy, who, incapable
of originality , steal in order to become
m i l lionaires themselves and j o in the ex ploiting
cl ass . Never are they depicted as try ing to improve
society . Th is caricature of workers, which
twists every characteristic capable o f lendin g
them d ignity a n d respect, a n d the reby, identity
as a socia l class, tu rns them into a spectacle of
mockery and contempt. ( And parenth etica l ly, in
the modern technological era, the daily mass culture
diet of the bou rgeoisie sti l l consi sts of the
sa me mythic caricatures which arose during the
late n ineteenth century machine age ) .
The criterion f o r di v iding good from bad is
honesty, that is, the respect for private property.
Thus i n " Honesty Rewarded" (0 393, CS 1 2/45) ,
the nephews find a ten dol lar b i l l and fight for
i t, cal l i ng each other "th ief," "crook," an d "vi l lain."
But Don a l d intervenes : such a su m, fou nd
i n the city, must h ave a legal owner, who must
be traced. This is a titanic task, for a l l the big,
ugly , v iolent, d ark-skinned people try to steal the
money fo r themselves. The wo rst is one who
wants to steal the note in orde r to " buy a pisto l
to rob the orphanage ." Peace fin a l ly returns (sign
ificantly , Donald was reading War and Peace i n
the fi rst scene) , when the true own er of the
money appears. She is a poor l ittle girl , fam ished
and ragged, the only case of social misery i n our
entire sa mple. "This is all my mom had left, and
we haven't eaten all day long. "
Just as the "good" foreigners defended the
simple natives of the Thi rd Worl d, now they pro-
OH,THANK YOU.THIS
WASALLTHAt MUMMY
HADLEFf. AND WE
HAVEN'T eEew ABL8
TO E�T �LL r>A'( .
LONG .
tect another little native, the underprivileged
mite of the big city. The nephews have behaved
l ike saints (they actually wear haloes in the last
pictu re), because they have recognized the right
of each and all to possess the money they already
own. There is no question of an unjust distribution
of \N8alth: if everyone were like the
honest ducklings rather than the ugly cheats, ·the
system would function perfectly. The l ittle girl's
problem is not her poverty, it is having lost the
only mo ney her fami ly had (which presumably
will last forever, or else they will starve and the
whole house of Disney will come tumbling
down) . To avoid war and preserve social peace,
everyone should deliver unto others what is already
theirs. The ducklings decline the monetary
reward offered by Donald: "We already have our
reward . Knowing that we have helped make
someone happy." But the act of charity underlines
the mo ral superiority of the givers and
justifies the mansion to which they retu rn after
their "good works" in the slums. If they hadn't
returned the banknote, they would have descended
to the level of the Beagle Boys, and
would n ot be worthy enough to win the treasure
hunt. The path to wealth lies through charity
which is a good moral investment. The number
of lost children, injured lambs, old ladies needing
help to cross the street, is an index of the requirements
for entry into the "good guys club"
_ after one has been already nominated by another
"good guy." In the absence of active
virtue, Good Works are the proof of moral su-
periority.
Prophetically, Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in
his Democracy in America, "By this means, a
kind of virtuous materialism may ultimately be established
in the world, which would not corrupt,
but enervate the soul, and noiselessly unbend its
springs of action." It is a pity that the Frenchman
who wrote this in the mid-nineteenth century
did not live to visit the land of Disney,
where his words have been burlesqued in a great
idealistic cock-a-doodle-doo.
Thus the winners are announced in advance.
I n this race for money where all the contestants
are apparently in the same position, what is the
factor which decides this one wins and the other
one loses? If goodness-and-truth are on the side
of the "legitimate" owner, how does someone
else take ownership of the property?
Nothing could be more simple and more revealing:
they can't. The bad guys (who remember
behave like children) are bigger, stronger, faster
and armed; the good guys have the advantage of
superior intelligence, and use it mercilessly. The
bad guys rack their brains desperately for ideas
(in D 446, "1 have a terrific plan in my head,"
says one, scratching it· like a half-wit, "Are you
sure you have a head, 1 76-71 6?") . Their brainlessness
is invariably what leads to their downfall.
They are caught in a double bind: if they use
only their legs, they won't get there; if they use
their heads as well, they won't get there either.
Non-intellectuals by definition, their ideas can
never prosper. Thinking won't do you bad guys
any good, better rely on those arms and legs, eh?
The I ittle adventurers will always have a better
and mo re brill iant idea, so there's no point in
competing with them. They hold a monopoly on
thought, brains, words, and for that matter, on
the meaning of the world at large. It's their
world, they have to know it better than you bad
guys, right?
There can be only one conclusion: behind
good and evil are hidden not only the social
antagonists, but also a definition of them in
terms of soul versus body, spirit versus matter,
bra i n ve r s us muscle, and intellectual versus
manual work. A division of labor which cannot
be questioned. The good guys have "cornered the
knowledge market" in their competition against
AND.. u IS IT ANY WONDER T�AT T�E
RA,. T�AP COMPANY \ S PAYIt\JG
ME A MI LLION DOLLARS FOR
--r--__-� "�15 INVENi(ONI
PLUTO ?
the muscle-bound brutes.
But there is more. Since the laboring classes
are reduced to legs running for a goa l they will
never reach, the bearers of ideas are left
'
as the
legitimate owners of the treasure. They won in a
fair fight. And not only that, it was the power of
their ideas 'which created the vvealth to begin
with, and inspired the search, and proved, once
again, the superiority of min d over matter. Exploitation
has been justified, the profits of the
past have been legitimized, and ownershi p is
found to confer exclusive rights on the retention
'fA CLOW� - WHY
DI DN'T 'fA READ THE
NEWSPAPER ARilCLE
MORE CAJ<E�ULLY?
:I CAN'TREAD.'
1. \JUST HEARD iJ4E
NEWSBOY YELLIN'
iHE J4EAOLINES !
and increase of wealth. If the bourgeoisie now
control the capital and the means of production,
it is not because they exploited anyone or accumulated
wealth unfairly .
Disney, throughout his comics, i m plies that
capita l ist wealth origin ated u nder the same circumstances
as he ma kes it appear in h is comics.
It was always the i deas of the bourgeoisie which
gave them the advantage in the race for success,
and nothing else .
And their i deas shall rise u p to defend them.
li lt's a 10b where there is nothing to do.
Just take a tu rn around the museum from
ti me to time to check that nothi ng is
happen ing."
Donald (D 436)
" I am rich because always engineer my
stro kes of luck."
Scrooge (TR 40)
At this point, perhaps our reader is eager to
brandish the figure of Donald himself, who, at
fi rst sight appears to run counter to ou r thesis
that Disney's is a world without work and without
wo rkers. Everyone knows that this fellow
spends his l i fe looking for work and moaning
bitterly a bout the overwhelming burdens which
he must carry.
Why does Donald look fo r work? In order to
get money for his summer vacation, to pay the
final instal lment on h is television set (which he
apparently does a thousand times, fo r he has to
do it afresh in each new episode), or to buy a
present (generally for Daisy or Scrooge) . In al l
this, there is never any question of need on
Donald's part. He never has any problems whith
the rent, the electricity bil l, food, or clothing.
On the contrary, without so much as a dollar to
h is name, he is always buying. The ducks live
surrounded by a world of magical abundance,
whi le the bad guys do not have ten cents for a
cup of coffee. But sudden ly, in the next picture
zap - the ducks have bui lt themselves a rocket
out of noth ing. The bad guys spend much more
money robbing Scrooge than they will ever get
from him.
There is no problem about the means of subsistence
in this luxurious and prodigal society.
Hunger, l i ke some plague from ancient times, has
been conquered. When the youngsters tell Mickey
that they are hungry; "Doesn 't one have the
right to be hungry?" (D 401 ) , Mickey repl ies
"You chi ldren don't know what hunger is ' Sit
down a n d I ' l l tell you." I mmediately the
nephews begin to make fun of him, saying "How
long is this hunger busi ness, how long is al l this
nonsense going to last?" But there's no need to
worry, kids. Mickey is not thin king how hunger
today is kil l i ng m il l ions of people around the
world , and causing other mil lions irreparable
mental and physical damage. Mickey recounts
a prehis�oric adventure about Goofy a nd himself,
with a typica l contemporary Duckburg plot, to
i l lustrate the problem of hunger. Apparently,
for Mickey, nowadays such problems as hunger
do not exist - people live in a fantasy world
perfection.
50 Donald doesn't really need to work, an d
the proof is that any money he does manage to
m a k e a l wa y s go es to wa r d s b u y i ng t h e
s u pe r f l uous. Thus, when Uncle Scrooge deceitfully
promises to wi l l his fortune to h i m, the
first thought that occurs to Donald is "At last I
can spend a l l I want." (T R 1 1 6) . So he orders
the l atest model of automobile, an eight-berth
cruiser, and a color TV set with fifteen channels
and remote-control switch. E lsewhere (0 423) he
deci des "I must get some temporary work somewhere
to raise enough money for this gift. " Or,
he hopes to go on a n expensive trip, but "all I
have is this half doll ar." (F 1 1 7).
As need is superfl uous, so is the work. Jobs
are usually (as we have observed) those which
provide services, protection , or transportation to
con s u m e r s . E v e n Scrooge McDuck has no
workers; when he is brought a list of his person
nel, they are all called "employees. "
Al l employment is a means of consumption
r a t h e r than production. Without needing to
wo r k , D o n a l d is constantly obsessed with
searchi ng for it. So it is not su rprising that the
kind of job he prefers shou ld be easy, and u nd
e m a n ding of mental or physical effort. A
pastime while he waits for some piece of l uck ( or
piece of ma p) to fal l u pon him from who knows
w h e re . I n s h o r t , he wants wages without
sweating. It is moreover no pro blem for Donald
(or anyone else) to find a job, because jobs
abound . "Wow, that loo ks l i ke pleasant work !
'Pastry cook wanted, good wages, free pastries,
short hours.' That's for me ! " (F 82). The Real
drama on ly beings to unfo ld when, once hav ing
got the job, Don ald becomes terrified of losi ng
it. This terror of being left in the street is qu ite
inexpl icable, given that the job was hardly indispensable
to h i m.
And si nce Donald is by defin ition clu msy and
careless, he is always getting the boot. " There are
jo bs and jobs i n the world, but Donald never
seems to find one that he can do. " "You're
fired, Duck. That's the thi rd time you've gone to
sleep i n the dough mixer ! " "You're fired, Duck !
You do too m uch fiddling around ! " "You're
fired Duck! Where did you learn barbering from
an I ndian warchief?" (C5 1 2/59) . So wo rk
becomes for Donal d an o bsession with not losi ng
work, and not suffering the catastrophes which
pursue him wherever he goes. He becomes unemployed
th rough his incompetence, in a world
where jobs a bound. Getting a jo b is no problem
since the supply of them is far in excess of de-
71
NO! I'M MOANING BECAUSE
I'M BANKRUPT
AN D I NEEbTQ BUY
A PRESENT.
Ll HAVE TO GET SOME TEM PO RARY
JOB SOM EWHER E, So AS TO
EARN ENOUGH TO GETtHAr PRE­
SENT.
mand, just, as i n Disney, consumption exceeds
production. The fact that Donald, l i ke Big Bad
WOlf, the Beagle Boys and a host of others, is an
i nveterate slacker, proves that their u nem ployment
is the result of their free wil l and incompetence.
To the reader, Donald re presents the une
m p i oyed . Not the real unemployed caused
historically by the structural contradictions of
capitalism, but the D isney-style u nem ployment
based on the personal ity of the employee. The
s o c i o -ec o n o m i c ba s i s of unemployment is
shunted aside i n favor of i ndividual psychological
explanations , which assume that the causes an d
co nsequences of any social phenomenon are
rooted i n the a bno rma l e lements i n individual
human behavior. Once economic pressu re has
been converted into pressu re to consume, and
jo bs are readily available everywhere, Donald's
wo rld becomes one in which "true" freedom
reigns : the freedom to be out of work.
I ndustrial entrepreneurs i n the present world
pu s h the "freedom of l abor" slogan: every
citizen is free to se l l his labor, choose whom he
sel l s it to, and quit if it doesn 't suit him . This
false "freedom of labor" (in the Disney fantasy
world) ceases to be ,a myth, becomes a real ity
and takes on the fo rm of the "freedom" of bei ng
lffMIf£ �IAX
MU�tt��
OH M E ! I 'M A FA/Lt/RE! EVE�,( JoB
I FI N D IS TOOHItRf) ORTOO
SCI ENl1 FlC OR SOM ING.
\ \
r--
-_ .... . .
unemployed.
But despite all Donald's good intentions, employment
slips through his fingers. He has hardly
crossed the employment threshold before he
becomes the victim of crazy and chaotic comm
ot ion. These absurd paroxysms of activity
generally end in the hero's rest and reward.
Often, however, the hero cannot escape from
these apocalyptic gyrations, because the gods do
not wish to release him from his eternal suff�rings.
This means that the reward and punishment
do not depend on Donald, and the result
of all this activity is unforeseeable. This increases
the reader's feel ing of dramatic tension. The
passivity and sterility of Donald's work point up
his lack of positive merit, other than his accumulated
suffering. All respite is conferred upon him
from above and beyond, despite all his efforts to
master his destiny. Fate, in making Donald his
favorite plaything, becomes the sole dynamic factor,
provoking catastrophes, and bestowing joys.
Fate is like a bottomless bucket in which water
is constantly churning. It is Donald's job to fill
* E.Q . Cervantes' Trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda.
YOu'RE RRED, DVCK I
1l-4AT'S �E "..\RD
.
T1ME YOU'VE GON E
TO SLEEP 'N 1HE
DoUGH MIXER.
WAX
MUSEUM
•
NIGHTWATCH MAN
WANlED
EASY WORK
Q
this bucket. As long as no one comes along and
benevolently puts back the bottom, Donald will
fail, and be doomed to stoop and pour forever.
This type of work, which takes place in the
city, is simi lar to other forms of nervous suffering
which occurs outside the city on foreign
adventures. As soon as they leave home, the
Duckburgers suffer all kinds of accidents: sh ipwrecks,
collisions, and perils - obstacles and misfortunes
galore. It is this torture at the hands of
fate which separates them from the treasu re they
a re searching. The exertions of their labors
appear null because they are a chain of contingencies.
Their "labors" become a response to
crises. First, bad l uck scatters danger and pain in
their path; then, at the end, good luck rewards
them with gold. This gold is not easily attained.
One has first to suffer deconcretized work: work
in the form of adventure. In a similar way, the
first Spanish novels of adventure were called
"labors." * In th is form of novel, the intermediary
between the hero and wealth is the process
of accumulating misfortune. This process
symbolizes work, without actually being work. It
is a passi vely consu med form of toi l , rather than
one which is actively creative and p roductive.
Just as money is an abstract form of the object,
so adventure is an abstract form of labor. The
treasure is attained by a process of adventu ring,
not producing. Yet another means - as if more
were needed - to mask the o rigin of wealth. But
the substance of the adventu re is also fraught
with mo ral consequences. In v iew of the fact
that the hero does not propel h imself, but i s propel
led by destiny, he learns the necessity of
obey ing its designs. ,I n this way, by accepting the
sl i ngs of mi sfortune, he puts fate in his debt, and
eventually extracts a few doll ars therefrom. The
diabol ical rhythm of the world - its menacing
sadism, its crazy and perilous twists and turns,
and its vex ations and dis ruptions - cannot be
denied, because everything answers to providence.
It is a un iverse of terror , a lways on the
point of col lapse , and to survive in it requi res a
phi losophy of resi gnation. Ma n deserves n othing
and if he gets a nyth ing, it is due to his humble
humanity and h is acceptance of h is own i m po­
tence.
Desp ite a l l the masks, Donald is sensed as the
true representative of the contempora ry worker.
But the wages essentia l to the latter are superfluous
to Donal d. Wh at the rea l l ife worker
searches desperately , Donald has no trouble find ing.
Wh ile the worker produces and su ffers from
the material cond itions of l i fe and the exploitation
to which he is su bjected, Donald su ffers
only the illusion of work, its passive and abstract
weight, in the fo rm of adventure.
Don ald moves in a world of pu re su perstructure
wi th a close fo rma l resemblance, however,
to its infrastructure, and the stages of its development.
He gives th e i mpression of I iv ing at the
concrete base of real l ife , but he is only a mimic
floati ng i n the a ir above. Adventu re i s l ike work
in the real m of quicksands which bel ieve themselves
to be u pwa rds-sucking clouds. When th e
critical mo ment of payday a rrives, the g reat
mystification occu rs. The wo rkman of the rea l
world is cheated a n d takes home only a fraction
of what he has produced : the boss steals the rest.
Donald, on the other hand, hav ing demostrated
his uselessness on the jo b, is i pso-facto overpaid .
In D isney , n ot hav ing contri buted to wealth , the
worker has no right to dema nd a share in it.
Anyth ing this "parasite" may be given is a favor
granted from outside, fo r wh ich he should be
gratefu l, and ask no mo re. Only providence can
dispense the grace of survival to one who has not
73
deserved it. How can one go on strike, how can
one dema n d h igher wages, if it is al l left to providence
, and there are no norms governing worki
ng conditions? Donald is the bastard representative
of all workers. They are su pposed to be as
su bmi ssive as Donald becau se they are supposed
to have contri buted as l ittle as he h as to the
bu ildi n g of th is material world. Duckbu rg is no
fantasy , but the fantasmagoria Marx spoke of :
Donald's "work" is des igned to screen off the
contrad icti ons in the bosses' mythology of l a bor,
and hide the difference between the value of
l abor, and the value which labor creates; that is,
su rplus value. Labor geared to production does
not ex ist for Donal d . I n his fantasmago rical
r h y t h m o f s u f f e r i n g a n d reward, Donald
represents the domi nated (mystified ) at the same
ti me as he paradoxically l ives the l i fe of the
domi nator (mystifier) .
D i s n e y f a n t a s i z e s c o n t e m p o r a ry social
conflicts into the form of adventu re. But even as
he revea ls these sufferings in nocently, he neutral
i zes them with the im pl icit assurance that al l is
for the best. Everyth ing will be rewa rded, and
wil l lead to the im provement of the human condition
and the parad ise of leisure and repose. The
i maginative realm of ch il dhood is schemati zed by
Disney in such a way that it appropriates the real
l ife co-o rd in ates and anguish of contemporary
man, but strips them of their power to deno u nce
th em, ex pose their contradictions, and overcome
them.
Wo r k , disgu ised in Duckburg as i n nocent
suffe ring, is al ways defi ned in function of its
contrary , leisure. Ty pica l ly, an episode opens at a
WHAT NICER WAY COULD ONE SPEND
A R A I NY DAY THAN CURLED UP
W I T� A GOOD BOOK �
' noment emphasizing the boredom and peace in
'''Jh ich the heroes are immersed. The nephews
,/awn : "we are bored to death with everything
. . even television." (0 43).
The opening situation is stressed as normal :
" How can so s imple a thing as a bouncing ball
l ead our friends to treasures in Aztecland?" (0
1 32, DO 9/65) . " Is there ' anything so restful as
IV ing stretched out over one's money, listening to
! he gentle tic-toc of a clock? One feels so
'�ecure." (TR 1 1 3). "Who would have imagined
; hat a mere invitation to a family reunion would
I'nd like this?" Donald asks himself after an adventure
(0 448) which "all started innocently
I me morn ing . . . " " It is dawn in Duckburg,
normally so qu iet a town." (0 448) . They are
, ! lways resting; on a bed, on a couch, on a lawn,
qr i n a hammock. "Mickey takes a well-earned
, est as a guest of the Seven Dwarfs in the Enchanted
Forest. " ( 0 424) . The repetition and
�MAN . W�AT A DAY ! WHAT A PERF ECT )DAV FOR J= I SHI NG , BOATING , DATI N�G, "
OR PIC.N IC K I NG - ONLY I CAN'T 00
ANY 01= THOSE TJ.I ING5 !
-- ��===�
T�E 8�EAD OF L/�E, 80'15 1 AS USUAL , I'M
�KE, AN D IT'S EONS TILL PAVDAY !
----
YOU COULD TAKE A WAL
UNCA DONALD - GO
BIRD WATC� I NG !
74
restful sense of these phrases sets the tone for
l ife in Duckburg. Our hero leaves his habitual
everyday existence, which is that of leisure, interrupted
by any one of the harmless attributes of
that leisure (l ike a bouncing ball ) , which leads
him to adventure, suffering and gold. Readers are
e n cou r a ged to identify with the character
because they too are resting while reading the
co m i c , a n d be c o m e easily trapped in the
confined-excitement of the race. Once baited,
they find themselves accompanying him for the
rest of the fantastic episode.
The adventure usually ends in the recompense
of a vacation, and a return to rest, now well
deserved after the weight of so much deconcretized
labor. Formally, one may observe in the
f i rst a n d l as t d r awi n g s t he principles of
i mmobi l ity and symmetry of balanced forces. A
pictorial device of renaissance classicism is used
to soothe the reader before and after the
adventu re. For its duration, on the other hand,
the figures are drawn in constant agitation. They
rush, as . a ru le, from left to right, impelling the
eye to follow the heroes' legs flying over the
ground. Outstretched fingers point the dIrection,
u nti l peace is restored and the circle closed.
"Hal Our adventure ends with a tropical
vacation." (0 432) . After working for Scrooge,
Donald is rewarded by his u ncle "With a real
vacation in Atlantic City. " (F 1 09) . "Ha, ha l I
have been d reaming for so long of spending the
summer in Acapulco. Thanks to my accident insurance,
at last I can choose that marvel lous
place." ( F 1 74). This episode proves clearly how
pain provokes good fortune: "H urray, hurray. I
broke my l eg." Having been loaned his uncle's
property for a month, Donald decides "fi rst of
all, I won't work any more. I wil l forget all my
worries and devote myself to leisure." (TR 53) .
And what were those worries? "You can't imagine
how difficult it is, with the cost of living,
making it to the end of the month on my wages.
It's a nightmare ' " What is the great problem?
, " It's hard to get a decent night's sleep when one
knows that the next install ment on the TV is
due the following day, and one hasn't a cent."
The apparent opposition between work and
leisu re is nothing but a subterfuge to the advantage
of the latter. Leisu re invades and i mposes its
laws upon the whole real m of work . I n the
" Hard-Working Leisure- Lovers Cl ub" (the descri pt
i o n of femin ine activity, D 1 85), work is
n ugatory, a leisu re activity, a veh icle of consumerism,
and a means of kill ing time.
Let us take the most extreme example: Big
Bad Wolf and his eternal hunt for the three little
pigs. He appears to want to eat them. But hu nger
is not his rea l motive: h is need is rea l ly to embell
ish his life with some simulacrum of activity.
Chase the piglets, let them elude him by a trick,
so that he can teturn again, etc. . . . Like the
consume r society itself, which by consuming,
consu mates the adventure of consumption. Seize
the object to have it disappear, to have it immediate
ly replaced by the same object in a new
gu ise. This situation is epitomi zed in D 329,
where Practical Pig persuades Big Bad Wolf to let
them all go: "What fun can you have, now that
you have caught us? You'll have noth ing to do,
except sit aro und growing old before your time. "
Eating them would be to exceed his definition as
a character, * beyond which l ies the banal or a
void. The character becomes self�orrective if
ever the constants of his natu re are threatened.
75
He cannot, nor does he wish to, face a shortage
of pigs, or the invention of some other chaseable
object. He feeds upon his own recreation as the
manner of h is work : "th is is more fun than anythi
ng e lse." Practical Pig has convinced him with
Madiso n Ave nue persuasiveness: "BUY TO CONT
I N U E WO R K I NG; BUY TO SECU R E YOU R
FUTU R E ; B UY TODAY TO K EEP SOM EO N E
I N WO R K TOMO R ROW. MAYB E YO U." * * The
fictitious point of departure is need , which then
becomes artificialized, and forgotten. For the
wolf, the piglets a re "in." Desi re is stimulated in
order to continue "producing." (the su perfl u ous).
G iven this pretext that work is i ndespensible,
it enters h istory in the form of a "repetitious
a bnorma lity." Work is regarded as an u nusual and
eccentric phenomenon, and is emptied of its
meaning, which is precisely that it is commonplace,
habitual, routine and normal. Within the
* See Umberto Eco, Apocalittici e Integrati,
Bompiani, Milano, 1 964 (Apocalipt;cos e In tegrados
ante la cultura de masas, Edito rial Lumen, Barcelona,
1 968) ,
* *Quo tation from Vance Pac kard, The Hidden Persuaders,
New York , 1 957 . Cf. the advertisement beloW,
from General Motors, for a 1 974 variation on this theme:
Cars,Jobs and Progress
Economic progress i!'- like a wheel. \\1lt'1l it In'-C5 speed
it wobbl.a>s, and when it stops it {ails. Kerphmk.
To keep our economy rolling. Americans must not be
afraid to buy whal lhey want and need. Demand means produc·
tion; more production means more jobs, stronger bu:;ines;:'t::>.
and more revenues for our towns and cities. our states and the
nation. It adds up to prosperity, and everybody gains.
The automobile is basic to America's economy. It ac·
counts for one-sixth of our Gross National Product. Thirteen
million jobs-one in every six-and 800.000 businesses. from
steel companies to the comer service statiun, depend on the
automobile_
Right now is the time to buy a new car. Used car
values are high. Operating costs on our 1975 cars are reduced,
and less scheduled maintenance is required. ;\ew ca.rs are a
god b�y - �nd buybg k.ee�s the ·.,:h�! rl progr�5 rc!h��.
R C Gt'rsrtnbt-rg
Ch;]Jr.nJn
Grn" fJI ''',tors C"rpnr.lrinn
General Motors
production process, the stage i nvariably selected
fo r depiction are those which loosen the bonds
of labor. Banal and repetitive work is transforme
d into free-flowing fantasy, accident and
co m m o t i o n . Labor, in spite of its present
coercive character, no longer appears as the daily
grind it is, separating all human beings from
m isery. I n a word, dai iy life beComes sensationalized.
For Donald, Goofy, Mickey, the chipmu
nks, the strange and rare are commonplace.
Donald, for example, working as a hairdresser (0
329) , becomes the genial artist-scientist at the
job: "seven inches to the epicranial aponeurosis;
n ine i nches to the spJenius capitis; seven inches
to the pointus of the proboscis." Routine is refined
i nto a variety of wonders attained "with
specially invented tools."
This concept of work is a stratagem for transformi
ng daily l ife, and all the hard work which is
necessa ry for surviving in it, into a permanent
spectacle. Just as a Disney character leaves his
normal surroundings to undertake fantasy
adventures free of the usual time-space l imitations
of Duckburg, or undergo the most absurb
extravaganzas i n the most innocent of urban
o c c u ptions, so it is si milarly proposed that
chi l dren transcend the concrete reality of their
l ife, and surrender to the "magic" and "adventure"
of the magazines. The segregation of
the child's world between the everyday and the
en chanted begins i n the comics themselves, which
take the first step in teaching children, from
their tenderest years, to separate work from
leisure, a nd h umdru m reality from the play of
t h e i r i magination. Apparently, their habitual
world is that of u n i maginative work, whereas the
world of the comic is that of fantasy-filled
leisure. Chi l d ren are once again split between
matter and spirit, a nd encouraged to el iminate
the i maginary from the real su rrounding world.
To defend this type of comic on the grounds
that it feed,,: the "overflowing imagination" of
the child who tends, supposedly, by h is very
nature to reject his i mmediate su rroundings, is
reall y to i nject into children the escapist needs of
contemporary society. A society so imprisoned in .
its own oppressive, dead-end world , that it is cons
t r a i ned to dream up perversely "innocent"
utopias. The adu lt's self-protective escapist dreams
i m pel the chi l d to a bandon its integrated
c h i l d h o o d e x i stence. Later, adults use this
"natural" fantasy trait of ch ildhood to lessen
thei r own anxiety and alienation from their daily
work.
76
This wo rld of projection and segregation is
based upon the role and concept of entertainment
as it has developed in capitalist society.
The manner in which Donald lives out his leisure,
t r a n sformed into fantastic multicolor, multimovement
and mu ltivision adventure, is identical
to the ma nner in which the twentieth century
(fox) consumer I ives out his boredom, rei ieved
by the spiritual food of the mass cultu re. Mickey
is entertained by mystery and adventure. The
reader is entertained by Mickey entertaining
h i mself.
The Disney world could be revamped and
e ve n d i sa p pear altogether, without anything
changing. Beyond the children's comic lies the
whole concept of contemporary mass culture,
which is based on the principle that only entertainment
can liberate humankind from the social
anxiety and confl ict in which it is submerged.
Just as the bourgeoisie conceive social problems
as a marginal residue of technological problems,
so they also bel ieve that by developing the mass
culture industries, they wil l solve the problem of
peo p l e 's alienation . This cultural technology
reaches from mass commu nications and its products,
to the hucksterism of the organized tour.
Entertainment, as it is understood by the capital
ist mass culture, tries to reconcile everything work
with leisure, the commonplace with the
i maginary, the social with the extrasocial, body
with soul, production with consu mption, city
with countryside - while veil ing the contradictions
arising from their interrelationsh ips. Al l
the conflicts of the real world, the nerve centers
of bo u r geo i s soc i e ty , are purified in the
imagination in order to be absorbed and co-opted
into the worl d of enterta inment. Simply to call
Disney a liar is to miss the target. Lies are easily
exposed. The laundering process in Disney, as in
all the mass media, is much more complex.
Disney's social cl ass has molded the world in a
certain clearly defined and functional way which
co rres po n d s to its n eed s . T h e bou rgeois
i magi nation does not ignore this reality, but
seizes it, and returns it veneered with innocence,
to the consumer. Once it is interpreted as a
magical, marvellous paradigm of his own common
experience, the reader then can consume his
own contradictions in whitewashed form. This
permits h im to continue v iewing and living these
confl icts with the innocence and helplessness of a
c h i l d . He enters the future without having
resolved or even understood the problems of the
present.
To put Humpty Dumpty together again, the
bourgeoisie have supplied him with the realm of
freedom without having h i m pass through the
realm of necessity. Their fantasy paradise i n vites
participation, not through concretization, but
abstraction, of needs a n d problems. This is not
to imply that people should be prevented from
dreaming a bout their futu re. On the contrary,
their real n eed to ach ieve a better future is a
fundamenta l eth ical motivation i n their stuggle
for l i beration. But Disney has appropriated th is
urge and diluted it with symbols uproo ted from
r e a l i ty . It is the fun wo rld of the Pepsigeneration
: all fizz and bubbles .
This conception o f redemption b y neutrali zing
contradictions surely h as its supreme e mbod iment
in the D isney comic. And i n o ne character in
particular we fi nd its ultimate expression. It is,
of course - did you guess? - Gladstone Gander.
"When I decide to find the best shell on the
beach , I don't have to look for it. I'm j ust
lucky." (0 381 ). He wal ks around "and never
falls i n to traps. Lucky as alwa ys." (F 1 55) ,
Gladstone gets all he wan ts - as long as it is
m a t e r ial things - without working, without
s uffering, and therefo re, without deserving a
reward . He wins every contest (the dynamo of a l l
D u c k b urg activity) i n advance, a n d from a
position of magical repose. He is the only one
who is not groun d in the mill of adventu re and
suffering. "Nothing bad ever happens to h i m. "
Donal d , by contrast, appears as real and deserving,
for at feast he preten ds to work . Gladstone
flouts all the principles of puritanical
mo rali ty. Time and space conspire in his favor,
fortune spoils h im. H is prosperity fl ows l i k e a
pu re force of n atu re. H i s freedom is not camouflaged
in the i l lusions of necessi ty. He is Donald
without the suffering. One may aspire to h im,
but one cannot fo llow h im, for there is no path.
The re a d e r , s i m u l ta n e o u s l y r ejecting and
fascinated by Gladstone, l earns to respect the
necessity of work wh ich gives the r ight to leisure
(as embodied in Donald), and to despise the
work-shy "hi ppie" who is given everything for
nothing a nd is not even grateful.
But wh at happens when he confronts the
D isney gods, those of Gen i u s and I ntellect, the
supreme idea. "Good l uck means so much more
than a good brain ." observes Gladstone, pick ing
up a banknote that Gyro had overlooked (T R
1 1 5). Gyro replies, "Pure co incidence. I sti l l
mainta in that brains a re more important than
luck." After an exhausting day of competition,
77
they end in a tie, with a s li ght advan tage to i n tell
igen ce .
All the other characters n ot possessi ng this
ti meless inexhausti ble luck have to earn it with
p a t i e n ce, s u fferi n g, or i nte l l igence. We' have
al ready seen what models of cleverness the l itt le
ones are, always ready for their rise to success.
The i r inte l l i gence is broad , and quick to detect
and repress rebel! ion. They are v irtuous Boy
Scouts who , s ubord i nate though they are, play
the game of decept ion a nd adu lt su bstitution.
When th i s Boy Scout grows u p and has no
one in comma nd over h im, he wi l l tu rn i n to
Mickey Mouse, the only creature not involved in
the hunt fo r gol d in and of itself. He is the only
one who always appears a s the helper of others
i n the i r diff iculties, a nd he a lways helps so meone
else get the reward. And if he occasiona l ly
pockets a few dollars, wel l , h e can hardly be
blamed when there i s so much mo ney a round. I n
Mickey, i ntell i gence serves to u nvei l a mystery,
and to bri n g si mpl icity back to a wo rld d isordered
by evi l men inten t .on ro bbing at wil l .
The real l ife ch ild also confronts a strange world
wh ich he too has to explo re, with his mind and
his body. We could call M ickey's man ner of approach
ing the world akin to that of a detective,
who finds k eys and so lves puzzles invented by
others. And the concl usio n is a lways the same :
u nrest i n this world is d ue to the existe n ce of a
moral div is ion. Happiness (and holidays) may
reign aga i n o nce the v i l l a ins have been ja iled, and
order returns. M i c key is a non·off ic ial pacifie r,
a n d r e c e i v e s n o o t he r re w a r d t h an the
consc iousness of h i s own v irtue. He is l aw, justice
and peace beyond th e rea l m o f sel f ish ness and
co m p e t i t i on , open-handed with goodies and
favors. M ickey's al t ru ism serves to ra ise h i m
a bove the rat-race, in whose rewards h e has no
share . H is altru ism lends prestige to his office as
guardia n of order , pu bli c ad mi n is tratio n, and
s o c i a l se r v ice, all of which are supposedly
umblemished by the inevitable defects of the
mercantil e world. One can trust in Mickey as one
does in an "impartial" judge or po l icem an , who
stands above "part isan hatreds."
The su perio r power in Duckbu rg is always one
of inte l l igence. The power e l i te is divided i n to
the civ i l service caste, supposedl y above considerations
of personal pro fit, and the economic
c a s t e , w h i c h u s e s i t s i n t e l l i g e n ce i n
money-grubbi ng. The arch-represen tative of the
l atter, who has become the acknowledged butt of
rad ical criticism today , is Uncle Scrooge. H is ou t-
"H istory? don't have the faintest notion
of it."
D o n a l d , in t h e h i s to ry
section of a l ibrary (0 455)
''Wel l, th is is real democracy .* A b i l lionaire
and a pauper goi ng around in the same
circle."
D o nald to Uncle Scrooge,
caught u p in the same whirlpool
(T R 1 06, US 9/64)
If there is no path where you walk, you make
it as you go, wrote Antonio Machado. B ut in the
Disney yersi o n : if there are nothi ng but paths
where you wal k , stay were you are.
For the great wizard, the world is a desert of
readymade tracks, beaten by robots in animal
form.
How come ? Aren't these com ics feverishly
pulsating, always at boi l i ng point? That charming
effervescence, that spar k of life, the Sil ly Sympathies,
that electric energy of action, are they
not the very soul o f Disney?
True, the rhythm never falters. We are projected
into a kaleidoscope of constantly shifting
patterns. The b reathless activity of the characters
* In the English original, "sociable." (Trans.)
is even reflected i n the colors. For instance, the
same kitchen changes in successive frames from
blue to green, then yellow and red (0 445) . The
nephews' bedroom (0 1 85) is fil med in even
m o re dazzling techn icolor effects; pale bl ue,
yel low, pink, violet, red and blue. Simi larly, the
police chief's office (T B 1 03) is light blue, green,
yellow, pink and red in rapid succession. This
sudden switching of colored surfaces reaches its
cli ma x with the nephews' caps (0 432). The
nephew jumping over the gril l has a light blue
cap; when he drops over the other side it becomes
red , and finally, when he is caught, he is
left with a green o ne. The cap remains thus for
the rest of the story, as if it were a pathetic
remi nder of h is need to be rescued, until the
three nephews are reu nited and the color changes
begin al l over again .
This change of externals over identical and
r igid content, the application of a fresh coat of
paint from one picture to the next, is the correlate
of technological "innovation ." Al l is in
motion, but nothing changes.
L i k e c l ot h i n g , t r ansportation inside and
outside Duckburg is subject to variations on a
standard theme. The Duckburgers wil l take anythi
ng which wi l l get them moving : a rol ler skate
or a jet plane, a space rocket or an infernal
bicycle. The perpetu al refu rbish i ng of objects
offers a veneer of novelty. Each cha racter's i deas
machine uses th e most extravagant form s of
scientific invention in order to get what he
wants. In a worl d where everyone is dressed in
the man ner of ch ildre n at the begin n i ng of this
cen tu ry or in the fash ion of a smal l post·frontier
town , the thirst for the new, different and
strange is all the more strik i ng. The ease with
wh i ch these gadgets a ppear and disappear is
a mazi ng. The presentat ion of novelty and "gad·
gets" in the Disney comic provides a model for
the readers during the i r childhood experience,
wh ich later in life is ampl i fied by the mass
cu lture i n dustries i nto a princi ple of real ity. What
IS new today is old tomorrow. The products of
science, the inventions of Gyro Gearl oose, and
the latest gen ial idea on the market are objects
o f i m m e d i a te c o n s u m p t i o n ; pe r i s h a b l e ,
obso lescent, and replaceable .
Science becomes a fo rm o f sensation al ism and
technolog ical gimmickry. It is a bra nch of the
patent office opened in the l u natic asyl um. I t
performs dazzl i n g qu ick-change acts. A vehicle
for novelty·h unti n g intercontinental tourists, and
for novelty·h u nti ng comic boo k script·wr i ters.
There is not even any progress : these gadgets are
o n l y u s e d for t r a n s p o r t a t ion or external
variation, and in the next numbe r they have
already been fo rgotte n. For there to be progress,
there must be memory , an interre l ated chain of
i nherited k nowledge. In Disney, the object serves
only the mo ment, and that moment alone. Thi s
isolation of the object i s the power o f control
over its production, which in the last analysis,
renders it ste rile a nd meaningless. The cl i max is
r e a ch e d in "Use less M achine" (TR 1 09), a
mach ine wh ich is mass produced because it serves
no purpose except ente rta in ment, as if to parody
the Disney com ic itself. "Who can res ist useless,
costly and n oisy th ings? J ust look at the success
of transi sto r rad ios, moto rbikes and tel evision
sets ." Th is is incitement to the consumption of
artificial a bundance, which in turn , stimulates the
sale of ancill ary and other useless products. "The
consu mption of h igh grade gaso l i n e by the 'Useless
Machines' ma kes it mo re expensive to ru n
than jet planes," the secretary informs proprietor
McDuck . "They are ru n all day long, and cause
lines at every gas station. And they are a l l m i ne,"
* The television channel belo nging to the Catholic
University and co ntrol led by the Christian Democratic
Party, who in 1 971 expel led, most democrat ically, al l
their opponen ts. The Su nday afternoon Disney show has
an aud ience rat ing of 87%.
81
chuckles the u nscru pulous mi l l i o naire. The gadgets
wh ich a ppea r on the scene only to be immed
iate ly abandoned and rep laced , are usu a l l y in
t h e f ie l d of com mu n icatio ns. E i ther touristtransport
(airpla nes, su bma rines, sh ips, launches,
a nd the who le co ngeries o f ma rvel l o us stu pidit ies
concocted by G yro) , or cu ltural (television sets,
radios a nd reco rds) . The dual tactic of the
D isney industry i s rein forced through the self·
publ icizing consumption wi thin the m agazines,
which pro mo te the mass med ia and the tou rist
trade . See the D isney landia show on Santiago de
Ch i le's channel 1 3. * V i sit D isney land and Walt
Disney World, capitals of the ch ildren's worl d in
the U.S.A.
Technology , iso lated once mo re from the productive
p rocess, passing fro m the head of the i n ventor
t o t h e ma nufactu red state without the
in terme diary of manual labor, is used as a su bterfuge
to conceal the abse nce of real change.
Conce ived as a fo rm of fashion , it gives a false
i mpressio n of mutabil ity. The fi rst ci rcle cl oses
i n .
Just a s the objects are pain ted over with a
fresh color without changing i n fu nction, so they
are refurbished by technology without alte r i ng
the natu re and thrust of the heroes' activity.
Technology is the maid dressed u p to look l i ke a
fash ion model .
The desti n y of tech nology-as-acto r is no different
fro m th at of the h uman a ni mal -as-actor :
n o matter h o w ma ny bubbles they put i n to the
soda-pop fantasy wo rl d, the taste is al ways the
sa me , unbeata ble . Sc ience is pu l l ed out of the
toy closet, pl ayed with for a while, and put back
aga i n . Si m i l arl y. the hero of the comic is pu l l ed
out of h is ro uti ne, k nocks around i n an absurd ist
dramati zation of h is daily l i fe, goes off l i ke a
firecracker, and then retu rns to h is wel l -earned
rest (his norma l condition, and the start i n g point
fo r the next boring adventu re ) . Thus the beg inn
i ng and end are the same, and move m ent becomes
circu lar. One passes fro m one comic to
the next, and the passive ach ieveme nt of rest
be comes the background and spr ing-board for
sti l l another adventure. Even the adven tu re i tsel f
is a n exaggerated repetition o f the same old
material.
The action in each se parate adventu re is essenti
ally i den tical to i ts predecesso r, and the predecessor
to its a n tecedent, and d u m-t itty-du m titty-dum
, chorus, repeat . The l east deta i l describes
the major c i rcum ference to the epicenter ep
isode itself. They are the variously colored
concentric circles on the archery target: same
shapes, but different colors. The hero turns
around in the adventu re, the adventure turns
between identical beginning and end of the episode,
the episode revolves within the copy-cat
dance of the comi cs as a whole, the comics
revolve within the orbit of reading which induces
bo r e dom, boredom induces the purchase of
a n o t h e r c o m i c , r e a d i n g i n du ce s m o r e
boredom-titty-dum-titty-dum. ,Thus any overflow
of fantasy, o r movement which might appear eccen
tric and break the rigid chain, is nothing but
a serpent biting its tail, Donald Duck marking
ti me within the closed frame of the same Order.
The forma I breakdown of the Disney world into
fragme nts (a mechanism characteristic of capitalist
I ife i n genera l ) , into "different" comic strips,
serves to deceive the reader, who is but another
l i ttle wheel i n the great grinding mil l of consumption
.
Boredom and fear of change is held at bay by
the physical mobility of the characters. But not
only in their epileptic daily activity , in their
pe rpetual travelling, and in their constant decamping
from their homes. They also a re allowed
to cross over from their pre-assigned sector to
meet other members of the Disney reality, like
the figures dressed as Disney characters who
p a t r o l the streets of D isney land, Cal ifornia,
l e n d i n g co hesion to the crowd of visitors.
Madame Mi m and Goofy visit Scrooge. Big Bad
Wol f converses with the duckli ng. Mickey helps
out Grandma Duck, In th is fake tower of Babel,
where all speak the same language of the establ
ished repressive order, the ingred ients are
always th rown together to concoct the same old
mental potion : cu riosity. How wil l Snow White
react towards Mickey? Famil iarity is preserved
t h r o u gh the maintanance of the traditional
character traits. The reader, who is attracted by
the adven tu re, does n ot notice that beneath the
SAV 1 THERE'S SOME KIND
OF CONTEST RIDE
STARTING U P OVER
THERE !
82
novelty of the encounter, the characters are conti
nually repeating themselves.
The characters are over active and appear
flexible ; the magic wand sends off a lot of
sparks, but despite all the magic they still remain
straight and rigid. There is an unholy terror of
change. Trapped in the strict li mitations of the
personality drawn for h i m - a catalogue assortm
e n t w i t h v e ry few entries - anytime a
character tries to a rticulate h imself differently,
he is doomed to stupendous failure. Donald is
under constant attack for his forgetfulness, but
as soon as Gyro transplants the memory of an
elephant into his brain, the world around him
begins to break up (DO 7/67). Almost i mmediately
, everyone -' and Donald especially demands
that he be retu rned to his original state,
the good old Donald we all love. The same
happens when Uncle Scrooge uses a magic in k to
shame his nephew i nto paying a debt. Not only
does it work on Donald, but on Scrooge as wel l ,
s o that h e feels ashamed of himself and heaps
costly gifts on Donald. Better not change another
person's habitual psychological mechanisms; it is
better to be satisfied with the way one is. G reat
danger lu rks behind very sudden changes. Al though
usually provoked by some microbe or
m a g i c al device, changes such as revolutions,
which pose external threats to a personal ity
structure, and i ndividual psychological disturbances,
which threaten a character's escape from
his past and present stereotype, also pose a
threat. Disney subjects h is characters to a relentless
slimming cou rse : they pedal away on fixed
bicycles, shed a pound, gain a pound, but the
same old skelton remains under the New You. If
this remedy seems directed only to the privileged
classes who can indulge in such sport, it is
equally mandatory for the savages, both good
and bad.
I n any individual hero, it is the tentacles of
c o m p e t i t i o n wh i ch provo ke these formal
paroxysms . In n inety percent of our sample, the
explicit theme is a race to get to some place or
object in the shortest possible (and therefore,
most frantic) ti me. In this (always public) contest,
this obstacle race and test of athletic
prowess, the goal is usually money ("Time is
Money" as the title of one story tell s us) . But
not always: sometimes it is a hankering for
prestige, and to stand out from the com mon
herd. Not only because th is automatically means
doll ars, and women to admi re and cater to the
win ner , but also because it represents the happy
conclusion to the suffering, the "work" leading
to the h al ls of fame.
IT'S. SO TVPICAL Of='
UNCA SCROOGE
• • •ALWAYS HAVING
·FUN W)T� �(S
MONEY !
Fame is being able to enjoy, i n leisure, all the
benefits of productive work. The i mage radiati ng
from the celebrity assures h is l ivel ihood; he can
sel l himself forever. It is l i ke having found the
gold of personal ity. Converti ng fame itself into a
source of income, it i s the busi ness of sel l ing
one's own su per-se lf.
But the pre-requisite to all this is to have become
a news item , broadcast by the mass media,
and recognized by "public opin ion." To the
Disney hero, the adventu re in and of itself is not
sufficie nt reward. Without an audience it makes
no sense , for the hero must play to the gallery.
The i m portance of the exploit is measu red by
the degree to which others know that he has
su rpassed them. Th us, from the te levision, rad i o
and newspaper he is a ble t o i mpress other people
of h is i m portance and domi nate them. A powerful
figure may be able to hel p them become
famous themselves. On one occasion (0 443, CS
2/61 ) , Don ald is worried because he seems to be
one of those people "just born to be nobodies,"
and wants to do something about it. He asks an
actor how he started on the road to fame.
Reply : "I was playing golf and made a hole-i nane
. . . a rich producer saw me do it, and he
was so i mpressed he made me a star.'" Donald
tries the same, but fails because the telev ision
cameras were aime d at someone else. "I would
hit a hole-in-one as everybody tu rned to watch
Brigitte van Doren walking by." A politico tel l s
Donald how he found the way t o make people
notice him So Donald twice cl imbs a fl agpole,
LISTEN, KIDS • • • I WAS iHERE I AND IT WASN'T
MUCH FUN A SECOND LAiER WHEN lHE
ROPE BROl<E l .
but fal ls down each ti me without getting his
photograph taken . Finally, h e succeeds by accident.
"Success did not come easily, but it
came," he says to the d uckl i ngs, "with this start,
Unca Donald, you can become a movie star o r a
Senator . . . or even President ! " But the newsp
a per ( Tripe) m isspel ls the name under the
photograph : Ronald D unk . F i nal and total de­
feat.
It is not truth, but appearance, that matters.
The hero's reputation rests enti rely upon the
gossi p col u mn. When h is party is a flop (also D
443) Donal d says " 1 can on ly hope that no
reporter gets to hear about th is. An article on
that party wo uld finish me for good. " But
naturall y there was a repo rter there , and the
owner and soci al editor (of the Evening Ta ttler)
as wel l .
With t h i s obsession fo r the successful propagation
of one's own image, it is not surprisi ng
that a com mon trick fo r getti ng an episode goi ng
is by means of a photograph al bum. I f there is
no evidence, it never happened. Every adventure
is v iewed by its protagonist as a photog raph i n
a n album, i n a k ind o f self- tourism. The camera
is only a means to can and preserve the past.
When the photo fails to come out (D 440) , it is
a disaster, for the guarantee of sel f-reproduction
(in the mass media) has been lost , the bridge of
memory has been broken. I m mortal ity has been
forfeited; indeed, h istory itself has been m islaid.
But there is so meth ing even better than a
photograph : a statue. I f a character can get a
s ta t u e made of himself, i mmortal ity is his.
. . .1tIE DEACTIVATED R080rS ARE NO
USE. WE CAN PVr ONE ON7J.I��NER
OF EVERY CITY8L.OCK. QUACK.QU\OC'
Statue, Statute, Status, Static. Time and time
again, someone is rewarded with the prize of a
statue standing in a public place or museum.
"The secret ambition of Donald : to be the local
hero, with a right to a statue in the park." (0
44 1 , DO 7/68) . This he achieves by defeating the
Martians (sic) : "We are thinking of hiring a
famous sculptor, so that your l ikeness may stand
amo ng the other HGreats" in the city park! "
Every corner a record o f the cli matic moment of
personal past h istories. Time, far from being a
curse, as in the Bible, is stopped , turned to stone
and made immortal. But the fami ly photograph
and the statue are not only "souvenirs" brought
back from a "tour" of the past. They also val idate
the past and present importance of one's ancestors,
and guarantee their future importance. King
Michael the First, "except for the moustache" (0
433), is just like Mickey. The fame of the
multitude of uncle ducks can only be proven
through tHe image which they leave behind. Fear
of t ime and competition come to an end when a
c o n se n s u s i s r e a ch e d o v er an individual's
reputation: " I am leaving before they have time
to change their opi.n ion of me," explains Goofy
. (TB 99) .
Fame and prize-winning tu rn an individual
into a product - that is, in the etymological
sense of the word, a finished object, cut
off from any other productive process, ready to
be consumed or consummated.
Once again, change leads to i mmobi l ity.
In the first chapter, we have seen that the
s a m e stat i c re l a t i o n s h i ps occu rred in the
supposed confl ict between adults and youngsters.
There , the poles were apparently in opposition,
divided and mobile. But in reality (whether ex-
84
p ress e d negatively or positively) , they were
turn ing around the same central standard, and
constantly switching roles; two masks over the
same face. In fusing father and son with the
same ideals, the adult projects into his offspring
the perpetuation of his own values, so that he
can pass the baton to h imself. The movement
generated from the confrontation between the
two people or strata, was tautological and illusory.
The antagonism d isappeared as soon as the
tvvo agreed on the rules which put one on top
and the other below. Each was himself and his
dou ble.
This false dialogue, which is the monologue of
the dominant class and its taped playback, is
repeated a' all levels of the socially stratified cast
of characters. Here the age-old concept of twins
enters the pictu re. This folk-motif, which also
f i g u r e s p r o m i n e ntly in elite literature (for
example, in the wo rk of Poe, Dostoievsky, Cortfizar),
is often used to express the contradiction
people suffer inside their own personality , that is
to say, against the rebellious and demonical layer
of their being; as in that ambiguous part of them
which threatens established order, saving their
souls and destroying their lives. The cultural
monopolists have flattened and exploited this
dual ity in which one is both commended and
condemned, and served it up in sim plified form
as the collective vision to all the people.
In the two· levels in Disney - the dominators,
most of the little denizens of Duckburg; and in
the do m i n a ted, the noble savages and the
del inquents - this duality is present on both
si des, but is conveyed in a most symbolic
manner. In folklore, as we all know, one twin is
g o o d a n d the other bad, with nothing in
between. Similarly, among the dominated of Disney
there are those who happily accept their innocent
and subject condition (good guys) , and
those who attack their bosses' property (bad
guys). The sharpness of the division, and the lack
of mobility from one side to the other is
absolute. The bad guys run around crazil y within
the prison of their stereotype, with no chance of
ever escaping into the realm of the good guys.
To such an extent that in one episode, when disguised
as (neutral and passive) natives, the bad
guys are still punished by having to pick up
U n cle Scrooge's money for him. The noble
savages, for their part, have to stay quietly in
situ, so as not to risk bei ng cheated in the city.
Each stratum of the dominated is frozen in its
goodness or wickedness, for apparently in the
plains of the people there a re no communication
channels between the two. There is no way to be
both good and attack property. There is no way
to bel bad if you obey t he rules. "Become what
you are" goes an old popular say ing, coined by
the bourgeoisie. Change is ·proh ibited i n these '
sectors. The noble savage cannot become a
criminal, and the criminal cannot become i nnocent.
So whether they be actively wicked or
passively virtuous, the role of the dom inated is
fixed, and h istory, it seems, is made somewhere
else.
Contrast this with the dynamism of the dominant
classes, where mobil ity reigns and anything
is possible. There are rich and poor within
the same family. Among friends, one is lucky,
the other not. Among the rich, there are good
and bad, a nd intell i gent a nd stupid. The capitivating
and craggy land of the dominant tolerates
discordance and dilemma. There are no one-hund
re d-percenters, that is, completely polarized
characters. Donald tends to lose, but he wins
twenty percen t of the time. Uncle Scrooge is
often defeated. Even Mickey occasionally behaves
l ike a coward (in D 401 the chi ldren frighten
him and supplant h im. Says Minnie: "You real ly
are sometimes worse than the children. I don't
know what to do with you. The chi ld ren are
right." And M ickey replies: "Those doggone kids
always get the best of it .") . Gladstone Gander is
not always the win ner, and the Boy Scout ducklings
sometime sl ip up. Only the prodigy Little
Wolf escapes this rule, but he needs to, with such
a rotten, stupidly wicked father. The realm of
the domi nant Duckburgers is one of refi ned
nuances, and ma rked by small contradictions.
Over the mass su nk in its collective determinism
(that's the way it is, whether you l ike it or not,
you get scre�d), rises the dominant personal i ty
who can "freely" choose and determine his
course in l ife .
His l i berty lies in having a personality, in
flourishing through statu ary, i n holding a monopoly
over the voice of history.
Once the adversary is disqual ified in advance
(and that disqual ification is systematic), he is
then beaten i n a race that he cannot even ru n.
History acquires the face that the dominant class
chooses to give i t.
Need we stress fu rther how closed· and suffocating
this world of D isney really is?
Just as the su bject classes are deprived of
voice and face, and the possi bil ity to open the
prison door (notice how easy it is to e l iminate
85
EEP IT. AFTER ALL
E BEAGLE BOYS
HAD STOLEN IT.
them when production is performed magically,
and they are not needed), so the past is deprived
of its real charcter and is made to appear the
same as the present. Past h istory i n its entirety is
colonized by the an xieties and values of the
present moment. H istorical experience is a huge
treasure chest ful l of hal lowed moral tags and
reci pes, of the same old standards and �octrines,
all defending the same old thesis of domination.
D onald is supicious of U ncle Scrooge's preo
c c u patio n with money, but the miser can
always demdnstrate that his fortune was justly
acquired, since it is l iable sudden ly to disappear,
and is subject to potential disasters. For which a
h i s to r i cal precedent from ancient Greece is
adduced (F 1 74) : King Dionysus spins h is servant
Damocles the same yarn.
This analogy u nderlines the repetitive characte
r of h istory in D isney . A h istory in which any
earlier epoch is seen as the pioneer of presentaciy
morality. To see the wor ld as a ceaseless
prefiguration
·
of D isney you just look back. I t
may not be true, but at least chronology is
protected.
In real ity, the past is known through (and in)
the present, and as such it ex ists as a function of
the present, as a support fo r prevailing ideas.
Disney's mutilation of the relationsh i p between
the past and present accou nts fo r his schematization
and moralization of Thi rd World h istory.
M a ny years ago the conqu istadors ( l i ke the
Beagle Boys) tried to take away the property of
the Aztec n atives ( ducks) who h id it. H istory is
portrayed as a self-repeati ng, constantly
renascent adventure, in wh ich the bad guys
tryI unsuccessful ly, to steal from the good
guys (0 432, DO 9/65). The pattern is repeated
in many other episodes in which the struggles of
contemporary Duckburg are projected onto the
history of past cultures. F rom ti me to time the
heroes are transported, by a dream, hypnosis or
ti me machine, into another era. Old Californ ia (
'
D
357) is the scene of the vvell-worn formula; the
s e a rch for gold with hardship, the struggle
between cops and robbers, and then the return
to leisure and order. The same thing happens in
their journeys to ancient Rome, Babylon and
prehistory . There are also micro-ducks who come
fro m outer space (TR 96, US 9/66), with
traumatic adventures identical to those of our
heroes. It's a sure bet that the "future time and
infinite space" market will be cornered and
colonialized by Disney.
By invading the past (and the future) with the
structures of the present, Disney takes possession
of the whole of human history. In Egypt there is
a sphinx with the face of Uncle Scrooge (D 422,
DD 3/64) : "When he discovered the Sphinx,
some years back, it didn't have a face, so he put
h is on it." It is only proper that the face of
McDuck should be transposa�le everywhere. It is
the trademark of U.S. history. It fits everywhere.
At the end of the above story, he adds his
likeness to the giant sculptures of Washington,
Lincoln, etc. on Mount Rushmore - now called
M o u n t D uc k more . Thus Scrooge joins the
Founding Fathers. His statue is even in outer
space (TR 48).
Since the bourgeoisie conceive their epoch to
be the conclusion and perfection of humanity,
the culmi nation of culture and civilization, they
arrogate to themselves the exclusive right to re'
in�erpret, from their particular viewpoint, the
history of their own rise to power. Anything
which denies the u niversality and immortality of
the bourgeoisie is considered a trivial and ecc
e n t r i c , deviation. Any contradictions are a
86
matter of mi nor, subjective interpersonal disp
u tes. Disney, the bourgeoisie's eulogist and
flattering mirror, has distorted history so that
the domi nant class sees its rise as a natur�l, n�t
social, phenomenon. The bourgeoisie have taken
possession of an apartment which they pre-leased
from the moment humanity appeared on earth.
The comic-as-history turns the unforeseeable
into a foregone conclusion. It translates the
painful course of time into eternal and premature
old age. The causes of the present are not to be
sought in the past; just consult Donald Duck,
tro u bl e -sh ooting ambassador-at-Iarge. What a
shame Socrates could not buy his comics. Surely
he wouldn't have drunk the heml ock.
This fusing of the past with the mires and
wastes of the present at least injects an illusion
of the dynamism of time. While the major differences
are obliterated in the cycle, there persists
a certain discrepancy, betrayed by the
whimpering nostalgia for an irrecoverable excite­
ment.
But there is another means of anodizing and
paralysing history. Time is apprehended as a consumable
entity. Ancient lands and peoples are
the alibi of h istory. Inca-Blinca, Unsteadystan,
the Egypt of the Pharaohs, the Scandinavia of
the Vikings, the piratical Caribbean, and the
North America of the Indians (Chief Minimiyo,
King of the Buffaloes (D 446), cultivating his
pre-reservation lands) , all march off under the
Disney antiquarian wand to the supermarket of
the dead statues. Buy your slice of history now,
at cut-rate prices. The notion that time produces
something is naturally eliminated; after all , it
could be active and cause decay of those Pepsodent-white
teeth.
The visa of the past for entry into the future
through Disneyland Customs and I mmigration
(and I nterpol) is stamped with exoticism and
folklore. History becomes a marketplace where
ancient civilizations pass by the plebiscite of
pu rchase . The only difference among past
civil izations lies in the extent of their value
today as entertainment and sensation. Unless, of
course, it is reduced to the Incan floormat upon
wh i ch the bourgeoisie admiringly wipe their
shoes. Says Daisy, "I made a bargain, I bought
this authentic old fry pan for only thirty dollars."
Quacks Donald, "But new ones only cost
twol" lIyou don't understand. New ones aren't
worth anything. Antique iron is very much the
thing nowadays." (F 1 78). A double irony. The
age of the dead statues, where time is suspended
or compressed, is like a su perma rket-museum.
Like Disneyland, Californ ia, U .S.A., it is an
amusement park, where you can get the bargain
of the day, your favorite civil ization: "Today
a n d e v e ry T u e s d a y , Ch i l e -w i th- Indians in
Araucanian sauce ."
Just as Donald & Co. need a photograph or a
statue to guarantee their survival and memory,
ancient cultures have to be Disn ified in photograph
or drawing in order to come back to
"life." You. have to be buried alive to order to
su rvive.
Disney approaches an individual existence in
the same spirit as he does a foreign civilization,
and both compete for success and the propagation
of their petrified i mage. This is suggested
in a story where Donald is the n ightwatchman in
a wax museum (0 436, -CS 1 i/59) . One night ,
while he is at work, a costume ball takes place in
t h e house opposite the museum. The same
h istorical figures (with the same clothes, faces
and expressions, etc.) are present at the bal l as
are petrified in the wax museum I nevitably,
Donald falls asleep, and u pon awakening mistakes
the moving I ive figures for the wax ones. He concludes
that while he was asleep a "revolution"
took place. Apparently, there can be no other
87
explanation fo r th is mo vement of history. (A
similar attitude towards the movement of hi story
emerges fro m the story cited earl ie r about Unsteadystan
, when the big city folk snuff out a
revolution and bring Prince Char Ming (a pl astic
imitation of the millenary dynasty) back into
power. Donald cannot accept any movement of
h istory, real or i maginary) . When he awakes he
desperately tries to contro l the real figures with
rope and stop the "revolution," yel l i ng that
"Queen Elizabeth, Joan of Arc, Attil a the Hun ,
the whole museum i s walk ing around i n the
street." All th is happened because the guests at
the costume ball had used as models the same
historical figures as are in the museum, tu rning
the past into an oasis of entertain ment and
tourism. Although it was not his fau lt, the
episode makes Donald a celebrity, and he is rewarded
for h is wo rk as guardian of the past. He
seems to prefer the profess ion of guardian of the
past in the i nterests of the iron-hard present.
" M o n t h s have passed, and Unca Donald is
making so much money he doesn't need to work
any more ," say the youngsters. "Yes, he's a
famous character now . . . so famous that he gets
paid just for allowing his wax dummy to be
exhibited at the museum . . . Our own Unca
wow! 'THERE'S YACArla¥LANO� FOLKS . . . AND IT SEEMS T�AT �AC;IC MI�ROR WAS RIGHT...
'THERE'S VACA110N FUN FOR EVERYONE ALL PACKED IN T�15 NICE LITTLE AREA !
)onald has caused the greatest commotion in the
.vhole h istory of Duckburg r "
Donald has realized his dreams : easy, well
,.laid and undema nding work. Any civil ization,
I ncient or modern, can model itself on h i m. Just
Nrite Wal t D isney Productions.
The Great Duck did nothin
'
g to deserve all
: h is. I ntelligence may further success and win
')u bl'icity, but entry to the winter pastures of the
iead statues can only be won through a stroke
)f luck. The movie producer can reconstruct and
>erpetuate the scene, or can cut it right out. The
)wners of the mass voice guarantee that the
,. I e"n izens of the cemetery behave themselves
lccording to the rules. If they do not, they wil l
not get a seat on the carrousel of h istory, they
w i l l not be "discovered."
According to D isney, each person, each civili),ation,
in i ts solitude, i m itates and anticipates
t he vicissitudes of h istory. History is conceived as
being a h uge personal organization with each
person bearing within h imself all the laws which
govern change. Therefore, individual norms are
valid o n both socia l and individual levels.
Just as disembodied l ight bulbs are sufficient
1 0 send characters off to the discovery of some
material or moral treasu re, so the su per-duper
hrill iant brain-waves of the magical ly charged
l u minaries of h istory are sufficient to light the
paths of progress (0 364). Every creature has h is
�hare of genius, deposited in an i dea-ban k, and in
moments of panic he cashes himself in without
knowing how much he has on account. But,
vvhere do these ideas come from? They come out
of n othing, or the previous idea. Disney history
I S i mpelled by ideas wh ich do not originate in
concrete circumstances or h uman labor, but are
:, howered on people inexpl icably from above.
They use u p ideas, and pay for them with bodily
suffering, but never produce them. The pain of
t he body is the passive, the play of the soul the
active factor. I deas cannot be invested, because
t he ban k does not receive deposits from humans.
One can on ly draw on the cash benevolently
poured by a Supreme Be i ng into one's mental
bucket. Peo ple are the fuel of the ideas-machine,
but n ot the controls. Every idea is a very special
seed, bearing marvellous but seedless fru it. I t is
g o v e r n e d by t h e sterile power of idealist
t h in king. Sin ce it does not issue from materiality,
from a� individual's real existence, the idea
serves once and once on ly. It is a one way street
with only one way out: i nto another one way
street. Since they cannot be stored, perceptions
88
are exotic th ings which are used up at one go
and then cast into the trash can, in expectation
of another idea to meet the next contigency . . . .
The h istoric process is "ideated" as a series of
u nrelated, compartimentalized ideas parading past
in single mi l itary file. In not acknowledging the
o rigin of ideas in the materiality of humanity, it
is as if all our heads were huddled together in a
ba g , wa i t i ng, and trying to overhear some
whispered command from the l i ps of the owner.
Since the owner of the bag is placed outside any
concrete social situation (I ike a superhuman, or
softhearted money lender) , ideas are conceived as
products of a natural fo rce. By mak ing ideas
appear beyond the control of the passive recipients
and extrinsic to them, it takes the motors
of h istory out of history into the realm of pure
nature. This is called inversion. I n real ity, it is
people who make their h istory, in accordance
with concrete conditions, and who, in reci procal
interaction with social forces produce ideas. I n
D isney t h e i deas appear to generate this real life
process without hav ing any social o r material
origi n, l ike a aoy Scout manual written in .the
clouds.
But is this Natu re-Computer arbitrary in the
distribution of is benefits, as some contemporary
l iteratu re would suggest? Or is it governed by
so m e l a w? Su re I y , f o r t h e D i s ney legal
departme nt has al l the deeds in order : brains are
d istributed in a pre-stratified world and the wise
and foolish, good and bad, stand there wa iting
f o r th e m . D i s t r i b u tion serves to reinforce
damnation or salvation of the predestined, and
the values they represent. Apa rt from the ethical
division, people are also d ifferentiated by their
talent, so that when Donald puts on Gyro's
magic cap (designed "fo r the mentally deficient,"
TR 53, GG 4/63 ), he immediately becomes a
gen ius: " Daniel McDuck founded Duckbu rg in
1 862 . . . Boris Waddle discovered the Wadd1e
Isles in 1 609 . . . Hurray ! I am a genius in
history ! " (Note in passi ng, how the founder is an
ancestor of Scrooge, and how the discoverer of
the islands attaches his name to them. You are
right, Donald, you hC've learned your lesson
well . ) He wants to uti l i ze his invention in order
to affirm his gentle su premacy: " Huey, Dewey
an d Louie th ink they are so bright. I 'l l show
them that their u ncle is brighter than they are."
The cap is blown off his head and lands "on that
crude looking indiv idual." He knows what to do
with new ideas : "Wow! Suddenly I know how to
rob Scrooge McDuck." And Gyro laments, "Oh
nol My Beanie-Brain is aiding h is criminal min d ! "
As soon a s an idea is set i n motion towards its
h a pp y g o a I , a n 0 t h e r facto r e n t e rs : t he
i mponderable . Talent is not enough, for if it
were, the world would be forever predeterm ined.
Chance, fate, and arbitrary forces act beyond the
reach of wil l or talent, and introduce social
mobil ity into the world. It permits i n dividuals to
aspire and enjoy a Iittle success from time to
time , despite the l i mitations of their personal ity.
Thus, Donald, defined as a failure, is capable of
beating the brill iant McDuck, because he was
lucky: the idea he got was, fo r once, superior to
h is uncle's. Gyro Gearloose, i ndisputably a gen ius
l ike Ludwig von Drake, attracts an i ncredible
amount of bad luck. The nephews as a rule
combin e good luck with intell igence, but if luck
lets them down, they will lose.
The mobi l ity between good and bad luck is,
however, avai lable only to the dom inant sector,
that is, the "good guys" from the city who are
permitted moral choices, and are always allowed to
redeem themselves. For the inferior, cri m inal class,
luck is always terrible and there is not even the
gli mmer of a good i dea. If ever a good idea does
appear, it wi l l generally lead the owners to defeat
and capture. Thi n king is the surest route back to
jai l . That's fate. Only the class representing order
may be governed by chaos, that is, by the law of
89
disorder. The anarchy in the comic action makes
it possi ble to appear to go beyond determinism
(in a world which is socially predetermined anyway),
and offers the necessary factors of surprise
and variety in each episode. An appearance of
anarchy in the action endows each character with
credibi l ity a nd suspense, and gives a means of
vicarious identification to readers living every day
in a constant state of anxiety.
Here is the difference between Disney and
other types of comics where a superman operates
in a world of order governed by the law of
order. Tarzan and Batman cannot deviate from
the norm; they are irreducibly good, and represent
the physical an d mental quintessence of
the whole divine law of order. They can have no
con flict with the establ ished world or with
themselves. Their crusade for moral rectitude
against thieves restores the i mmaculate harmony
of the world. As evil is expel led, the world is left
nice and clean, and they can take a ho l iday. The
only tension which may arise in th is boring and
repetitive world derives from the search for the
hero's weakness, his Achil les' heel . The reader
identifies with th is hero because he shares with
h im h is dual personal ity, the one commonpl ace,
timid and incapable; and the other su preme and
omnipotent. The dual personal ity (Cl ark Kent/
Superman ) is a means for moving from the
-rHERE ARETHE
REVOLU110NARI
ES.
FOLLO W /HEM .
MAYBE WE CAN
SAVE THE KI N G
THE N. . . .
(�veryday to the supernatural and back ; there can
be no movement with in the everyday world
itself.
Here l ies the novelty of D isney (a product of
his hist-o rical period), which rejects the clumsy,
overd rawn schematism of the adventure strips
arising in the same era. The · ideological background
may be si milar, but si nce he d�s not
reveal the repressive forces open ly, Disney is
much more dangerous. To create a Batman out
of Bruce Wayne is to project the i magination
beyond the everyday world in order to redeem
it. D isney colonizes real ity and its problems with
the anagelsic of the child's i magination.
The "magic world of Disney" consists of
variations within a circular repressive order. I t
g i ve s t o e ach character and h i s ideas, the
i m pression of an autonomous personal ity, and
the freedom of choice. If this freedom were also
available to the "lower" strata, and there was no
mo ral predestination at this level , we would be
I iv ing in another society. The wal l separating
d o m i n a t o r s fro m d o m i n a te d wo u ld have _
cru m bled, the whole superstructure of repression
would have exploded, and th is would end up in
revolution. Instead of the false dialectic within
a closed circ u it which we now have in Disney (i.e.
the fl uid substitution among the "good guys",
wh ich we h ave analysed earl ier ), there would be
THE REVOLUTI ONARI ES
HAVE BEEN CAPTURE D,
YOUR MAJESTY.
90
a true dialectic, in which those "below" would
h ave the . chance to become both rebell ious and
good. The only course now open to the "submissive"
peoples, if they leave thei r state , is
revo l ution , the wrong kind of change, a
constant Unsteadystlf/n of cri me and recri mination.
Better be good�· And if one is unlucky
enough to lack talent, sit -tight. Perhaps someday
the wheel of fortune will cast some prestige and
money your way, so that you can go up, up, up.
Chance is thus a mechanism through which
the authoritarian and charitable laws of the
universe operata. These laws impose certain rigid
catagories of virtue and talent, but, due to an
unfathomable will, rewards are afterwards distr
i b u ted democratically, irrespective of prior
classifications. It is a bankrupt welfare state
doling out happiness. Luck levels al l.
So the readers love these characters, which
share all their own degradation and al ienation,
while remain ing innocent little animals. Unable
to control their own l ives, or even the objects
a round them, the characters are perfectly closed
around the nucleus of their imperfection. The
egoism of the l ittle animals, the defense of thei r
i n d i v iduality, their embroil ment with private
interests, provides a sense of distance between
the characters and their creators , who are projecti
ng their view of the world onto the animals.
HA,HAI, WHEN DONALDS
ATWORK,YOU'o BETTER
WATCH OUT, BANDITS !
The reader as consumer of the lives of the
anima ls reprod uces the sense of di stance by
feel i ng �u perio r to and pity for the l i ttle animals.
Thus the very act of consumpt i on gives the
reader a feeli ng o! "superiority" over the a nimals
and p rovides the basis fo r his acceptance of their
values.
Only occasional ly is a character able to break
loose from h is egocentric private problems and
h abits, and i dentify h imself with a struggle other
than the race for success. Wh ile most of the
c h a racters have no regular access to divi ne,
messianic power, they have its plen ipotentiary i n
Mickey Mouse. A cha racter who dedicates h i s l i fe
to the struggle against ev i l without demanding
recompense. He i s n ot a super-anythi ng, but a
pacific prophet without jud icial or oth er coercive
powers. He does not seek prizes o r advantages
for h imself, and h is virtue, when he triumphs, is
i ts own reward. The good luck M ickey merits
a n d cu ltivates, he u ses o n behalf of h is fel lows. I t
i s h i� d is i n te rest which guarantees success. I t
raises h im above others and their pettiness, and
allows h im to partake of d iv i n e power. He is
material , but seems to deny the real , material
world . This may help expla in his past success in
the United States and Eu rope. He is the tri bal
ch ief, and the providential leader who heads the
public parades in D isneyl and. And h e represents
YOU HAVE HELPED US
STDP TH E REVOLUTION ,
AND I WI LL ALWAYS BE
GAATERJLTD YOU . HOW
CAN I REPAY YO�U ?___, ___
91
Wal t himsel f. I n Latin America, on the other
h and, Donal d i s mo re popula r, and is the chosen
propagandist for the magazines, although the
televis i o n programs syndicated fro m the mother
cou ntry are cal led th e Mickey Hour o r the
M ickey Club. We Latin Americans tend to
i denti fy more read ily with the i mperfect D onald,
at the mercy of fate o r a s u perior authority, than
wi th M ic key, the boss i n this world, and D i sney 's
personal u ndercover agent.
Through the figure of M ickey , the power of
repression d issolves i n to a dail y fact of l ife . He i s
at o nce l aw a nd b ig stick, chu rch lottery, and
inte l l igence agency. H is ch ivalrous generosity , h i s
sense of fair play which d istinguishes so acute ly
between black and white (a nd the resplendence
of h is p ro boscis with its l uminous tip lends a
reassuringly ma tter-o f-fact air to h is gifts of
prescience , and guarantees their pro per, com mon sense
application) . H e never misuses h i s power.
M ickey , sta nding at a legal bou ndary which
others can not cross w ithout losi n g caste or bei ng
punished , promotes the mess ia n ic spirit at the
l evel of the ro utine. He makes the spir i t the
commo n stu ff of life. He tu rns the unusu a l ,
abnorma l , arbitrariness o f externa l power, i nto 1)
commo nplace phenomenon wh ich partakes of the
natu ral order. His extraord inary occu lt powers
appear o rd i n ary, and therefore, natu ral and eterna l .
I HOPE THEY
AS K FOR A
LOiOF MONEY.
\ TO UNMASK HIM, ALL I HAVE
TO DO I S FOLLOW IN
HIS FOOTSTEPS.
In the D isney world, M ickey is the first and
,'1St i mage of permanence, he is the all enornpassing,
self-conta ined law. But the daily l ife
I f Mickey is a false d aily l ife, because it is based
in the e xtraordinary. Likewise, h is permanence is
I false permanence because it, too, is based on
he extraordinary. I n a certain sense, Mickey's
alse permanence is a symbol for a false mother.
Perhaps th is aspect of M ickey wil l help us
mderstand the absence of woman as mother in
) isney .
The only female in the Disney deck is the
' Clptive and ultimately frivolous woman, who,
u bject to courtsh ip and adulation, retains only a
raction of her so-called "feminine nature." Being
rapped in this superficial aspect of her bei ng,
vornan relinqu ishes that other element which,
rom ti me immemo rial, has made her a symbol
)f permanence. A permanence based on a real,
)hysical relationsh ip to existence. One which has
nade her an integ ral part of the universe, and part
)f the natu ral cycle of life itsel f. To incorporate
n to the world of Disney this kind of real pernanence
and mother i mage would be to inject an
lIlti-body, a reality which wou ld threaten the
eturn to concrete daily l ife. The ex istence of a
: eal mother wou ld exclude the need for the false
' nother Mickey.
Another turn of the screw, another circle
:Ioses.
But is there not a short circuit, a break in the
:entripetal movement, when Disney criticizes the
lefects of contemporary society ? Does he not:
stigmatize bureaucracy;
ridicu le North American tourists (in I nca-
81inca a nd the Mato Grosso, for example );
attack atmospheric pollution and ecological
destruction;
d e n o u n c e the s l a ughte rs committed by
I nhuman technology;
d e n o u n ce the sol itude of people in the
92
modern city;
a ttack the unbridled greed of those who
exploit th e consumer's weakness by sell ing him
useless objects;
d e n o u n ce th e excessive concentration of
wealth?
and, isn't the character of Scrooge McDuck a
great social satire on the rich; and . . . .?
Wou ldn't this vision of Disney's be justified as
the best way of teaching children about the evils
of today's world and the necessity of overcoming
them?
Let us take two examples of Disney's brand
of "criticism" and see whether in fact they do
a l l e v i ate the suffocating atmosphere of the
comics. In the Black Forest (T R 1 1 9, H D L 7/70 )
"al l days
.
are happy ones for the Junior Woodchucks."
There they l ive in intimate harmony
with nature, and even the wildest animals, the
bear and the eagle, are affectionate. "Fresh air,"
"quiet," "health," "goodness" are however soon
to be scared off by the true wild beast, the barbarous
technology of Uncle Scrooge. An army of
b u l l do ze r s , t r u ck s , p l a n es and monstrous
machines, advances upon the idyll ic spot. "Get
out, you're holding up progress." Instead of
trees, a "model city" and "the city of the
fu t u re" will be built : "Ten thousand brick
houses, with ch imneys . . . two mill ion inhabitants,
with shops, factories, parking lots and refi
n e r i e s . . ." In reply to the Woodchucks'
petition to prevent the construction, comes the
infuriating response: "deers, bears, and birds
don't pay taxes or buy refrigerators." Technological
development is judged to be a harmful
natural force, which establishes an authoritarian
relationship between itself and those who use it.
But there has to be a happy ending. The forces
of nature react, at first passively, then with
cautious aggressivity, and finally win over the
m i l l i o n aire developer by demonstrating their
utility. The forest cures him of his colds, his
anxieties, and neuroses; he is rejuvenated. Beneath
the veneer of attachment to sterile urban
progress, there lies a natural moral feel ing and
simple goodness, the unforgotten child, which
permits people to be regenerated from one day
to the next. Faced with the curse of contemporary
l iving, one can only flee, turn inward,
reconcile social enemies, and regress to the world
of nature, where those guilty of provoking such
d isasters may be redeemed. The conquistador is
convinced, and integrates back into nature. Thus
the earth, from every flower and tree, regulates
and rescues society, and is to be fou nd within
the depths of every person. So when McDuck
tries to put pure air into cans in order to sel l it,
the win d d rives away the smog and ruins his
busi n ess (TR 1 1 0) . Such "criticism " is d esigned
to validate the syste m, a nd does not criticize
a n y t h i n g . It only proves that it is always
possi b le, in fantasy, to make the magic j ump
from one type of h uman bei ng into another one
more reconciled with the lost paradise. ( It was
"the B lack Forest, the on ly one left from the
great forests of olden times," wh ich Scrooge
wanted to cut down ) . Moral : one can conti n ue
l iving i n the city as long as there remains an
u ltimate refuge in the country; and as long as
th ere surv ives the reali ty and idea of a noble
s av a g e . S i n ce a meek people is meek by
defin ition and wil l never disappear, humanity is
saved. The tech nological revolution is primed by
th e periodic retu rn to the tri be, as long as it
keeps its figleaf or lo incloth on. This is cultu ral
regression at its worst. The old natural forces of
nature win out against the false natural forces of
science .
D isney-style criticism is launched from the
viewpoint of the ingenuous ch i ld - noble savage
third worldl i ng, who is ignorant of the causes
of tech nological excess. It cannot be inte rpreted
as an attack on the system itself, for it does not
treat the cau ses of technological excess.
Once again , science is isolated as a historical
factor, and so much so that Gyro Gearl oose is
always made ridiculous (except when he is able
to take on an evil adversary, in which case he
instantly becomes a success ) : liThe world today
is not ready to appreciate me But I have to l i ve
in i t and must try to adapt myself. " (0 439),
Since there are no productive forces , poor Gyro,
"the mad scientist " often has to work with
prim itive, manual methods which testify to his
uselessness . I n these comics not even scientific
rational ism can become su bversive.
D i s n e y h o pe s that by incorporating the
weaknesses of the system as wel l as its strengths,
his magazines wi ll acqu ire an appearance of
im partial ity. They embody pluralis m of motifs
and .criteria, and l i berty of expression, and while
promoting sales, c reative freedom for writers and
a rtists. Of course, Disney's challenge to the
system is stereotyped and socially acceptable.
Supposedly, it is composed of conventions shared
by all ; rich and poor, intell igent and ignorant, big
and sma l l . It repeats the com mon coin of casual
st r e e t corner and after dinner conversati on:
93
deplo ring i n flation (forgetti ng that it is always
the poor who are h ardest h it ) , the decl i n e in
social sta ndards (imposed by the bou rgeoisi e ) ,
atmospheric poll u tion ( produced b y an i r rational
system beyond public control ) , and drug abuse
(but not its true causes). Th is is the facade of
democratic debate , which whi le it appears to
open up the problems defi ned by the bourgeoisie
as "socia lly relevant," real ly conceals the subtle
ce n s o rs h i p t h ey i m p o se. This "democrati c
debate" prevents the u m masking o f the fall acy of
"free" thought and expression (just consi der the
treatment i n the med ia of the Vietnam war, the
Cu ban invasion, th e tri u m phs of the socia l ist republics,
the peace mo vement, women's l i beration,
etc.).
But Disney also denounces the mass medi a
themselves. He i ndulges i n the most commonplace
and stereotyp€d cr iticisms of television : it is
th e new head of the family, a threat to the
h a r m o n y of th e home, spreading l ies and
fooli shness etc. Television even corrupts Donald's
o wn nephews , who in o ne ep isode (0 437, CS
3/61 ) l ose their affection and respect for hi m
because he can not measu re up to a certain
boastfu l television hero called Capta in Gadabou t.
At th is mo ment Donald is in the position of the
typ ical head of the fami ly faced with the comics,
D isneyland, and the whole mass cultu re, as rivals
to h is authority.
Captain G ad about has asse rted that there are
preh istoric savages liv ing i n a re mote and exotic
corner of th e Grand Can yon. Donald refuses to
bel ieve th e sto ry , denouncing the Captai n as a
"two bit fraud! A pern icious prevaricato r ! A
pri n ce of h okum, and h igh hi pster of hogwash !"
and accuses him of brai nwashing h i s nephews.
He sets out fo r the Grand Canyon (not in the
spirit of a search fo r truth , but out of res
e ntme nt and envy ), and discovers that the
preh istoric savages ex ist in real ity (just as the
Abo min able Snow Man did, whose ex istence he
h ad a lso ch al lenged ) . Do nal d com pounds h is
erro r by getting trapped by the savages, having to
swap clothes with them , and then having to be
saved from abandon ment (their plane meanwhi le
h as been flown off by the savages) by the arrival
of Capta in Gadabout h i mself. Donald, so to
speak , is saved by the media ; but he i s also
pun ished by them. Gadabout fi l ms the rescue, so
th at i t is Donald & Co. ( "civ i l i zed ducks ! ") who
act the part of th e savages (who, in the meanwhile,
have i mmediate ly become civil i zed) i n his
adventure series, or face bein g abandoned i n the
01-1 .. CAPTAI N ,
GADABOUT .
YOU' RE T�E
MOSTl
ONLY CAPTAI N GADABO
BRINGS US SUC� THRILLS
AS ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN
ALIVE AND MENACING
ON TV !
Can yon. Later, while watching the television
program which broadcasts their humiliation to
t he world, Don ald & Co. ruefu lly reflect liThe
irony of itt We not only can't expose Captain
G adabout for the faker he is, we have to sit and
watch ourselves be the fakes!"
Television is the bible of contemporary living.
The nephews carry a set u mbilically around with
them to the Can yon. I t is used to give the
savages an instant crash course i n civil ization,
teach ing them to cook (du ck) , to practice sport,
and even p ilot a plane. Fol lowing a TV i nstruct
ion session, the savages depart fo r civilization,
watched by the d istraught d ucks. "They're going
lip toward the canyon rim l" "To civilization where
we wanted to gol" "They made it!"
"They landed up there, all safe and sound than
ks to ou r portable telly vee ! " Only the mass
commu nications media can brin g people - and
94
ch ildren -. out of that desert, that primitive
( ba'Ck wa r d , u n de r d e ve l o ped ) plateau, that
i l l iterate ch ildhood.
The whole world of the ducks is a television
play, whether they l ike it or not, there is no
escaping it. We all live in an enormous Disney
comic, we have bravely to accept the fantasy,
and not poison ourselves with the rhetoric of an
urgent return to reality. Better to accept the
fantasy, even if we secretly know it to be fraudu
lent, because supposedly it offers plenty of
information; healthy amusement, and salvation.
Be sa t i sf i e d with the role of spectator;
otherwise you'll end up as a suffering extra in
the great movie of l ife. Donald, the would-be
critic, is vindictively exposed by the media. He is
on screen , he is part of the show too. His
rebell ion led to the most terrible humiliation,
and he made h imself all the more ridiculous for
having attempted to write h is own scenario. The
mass med ia, once again , have revealed themselves
as messia n ic, invincible and irrevocable .
Criticism has been incorporated in order to
provide a veneer of plu ralism and enlighten ment.
Contradictions in the system are used to feign
movement wh ich does n ot lead anywhere, and to
suggest a future which will never come.
The last circle closes in to strangle critical
analysis, ours or any other. When the cu rtain
opens on the h istorical drama of the world of
Disney, the only character on stage is a Cement
Curtain .
Nephews : " We ' re saved, Unca Dona l d !
The gunboat stopped firing 1 "
Donald:
I I
And I stamped out al l the
fuses. "
( 0 364, CS 4/64)
Attacking Disney is no novelty ; he has ofte n
been exposed as the travel l i ng salesman of th e
i magination , the propagandist of the I
I
American
Way of Life " , and a spokesman of "unreal ity , "
But true a s i t is, such criticism misses the true
i mpulse beh ind the man ufact u re of the Disney
characters, and the true danger they represent to
dependent cou ntries l i ke Ch ile. The th reat derives
not so m uch from thei r embodi ment of the
" American Way of Life", as that of the I I American
Dream of Life". It is the manner i n which
the U.S. dreams and redeems itself, and then
imposes that dream u pon others fo r its own salvation,
which poses the danger fo r the dependent
countries. It forces us Latin Americans to see
ourselves as they see us .
Any socia l real i ty may be defined as the incessant
dialectical interaction between a mate ri a l
base a n d the su perstructu re which reflects i t and
anticipates i t in the human mi n d. Values, ideas,
Weltanschauung, and the accompanyi ng dai ly
attitudes and conduct down to the sl ightest
gesture, are art icul ated in a concrete social form
which people develop to establish contro l over
natu re, and render it productive. I t is necessary
to have a coheren t and fl uid mental picture of
this materia l base, and the emotional and intell
ectual responses it engen ders, so that society can
su rvive a nd develop. F rom the moment people
fi n d the mselves involved in a certain social
system - th at is, from conception and bi rth - it
is i m possi ble fo r thei r consciousness to develop
without being based on concrete mate rial cond
itions. I n a society where one cl ass controls the
means of economic production , that class also
contro ls the means of inte l lectual production ;
ideas, fee l i ngs, intu itions, in short - the very
meaning of l ife . The bou rgeoisie have, in fact,
tried to i nvert the true re lationship between the
material base and the superstructure. They conceive
of ideas as productive of riches by mea ns
of the on ly unta in ted matte r they know - grey
matter - an d the h isto ry of human i ty becomes
the h isto ry of ideas.
To capture the true message of D isney , we
m ust reflect u pon these two components in h is
fantasy wo rld to u ndersta nd precisely in what
way he represents reality, and how his fantasy
may relate to concrete social existence, .that is,
the i m mediate h isto rical conditions. The way
Disney conceives the relationship between base
find superstructure is comparable to the way the
bou rgeoisie conceive this relationship in the real
l ife of the dependent countries (as well as their
own ) . Once we have analysed the structural
differences and similarities, we wil l be better able
to judge the effects of Disney"type magazines on
the condition of underdevelopment.·
It is, by now, amply proven that the Disney
world is one in which all materiality has been
pu rged. Al l forms of production (the material,
se xu al, historical ) have been eliminated, and
confl ict has never a social base, but is conceived
in terms of good versus bad , lucky versus
unlucky, and intell igent versus stupid. So D isney
characters can dispense with the material base
u nderpin ning every action in a concrete everyday
world . But they are certainly not ethereal angels
fly ing around in outer space. Continually we
have seen how purposefully their lives reflect his
view of the everyday world. Since Disney has
purged himse lf of the secondary economic sector
( i n d u st r i a l p r o d u ction, which gave rise to
co n te m p o ra ry soc i e ty a n d p ower to the
bourgeoisie and imperialism ), there is only one
infrastructure left to give body to his fantasies
a nd supply material for his ideas. It is the one
which automatically represents the econom ic l ife
of his characters: the tertiary sector. The service
sector, which arose in the serv ice of industry and
rema ins dependent upon it.
As we have observed, all the relationships in
the Disney world are compulsively consumerist;
com modities in the marketplace of objects and
ideas. The magazine is part of this situation. The
Disney industria l empire itself arose to service a
society demanding entertainment; it is part of an
en terta in ment network whose business it is to
feed leisure with more leisure disguised as fantasy.
The cu ltural industry is the sole remaining
machine which has purged its contents of society's
industrial confl icts, and therefore is the
on ly means of escape inte;> a future which otherwise
is i mplacably blocked by reality. It is a
playgro und to which all children (and adults) can
come, and which very few can leave.
So there can be no conflict in D isney between
s u pe rs t r u c t u re and infrastructure. The only
material base left (the tertiary, service sector) is
at once defined as a superstructure. The characters
move about in the realm of leisure, where
human be ings are no longer beset by material
concerns. Their first and last thought is to fill up
spare time, that is, to seek entertainment. F rom
96
this entertainment emerges an autonomous world
so rigid and confined, it eliminates all traces of a
productive, pre-leisure type of infrastructure. Al l
material activity has been removed, the mere
presence of which might expose the fa lsity of
D i sney's fusion of entertainment and "real"
worlds, and his marriage of fantasy and l ife.
Matter has become mi nd, history has become
pasti me , work has become adventu re, and everyday
l ife has become a sensational news item.
Disney's ideas are thus truly material P RODUCTI
ONS of a society which has reached a
certain stage of material development. They represent
a superstructure of values, ideas and
c r i t e r i a , wh i ch make up the self-i mage of
a dvanced capitalist society, and facil itate innocent
consumption of its own traumatic past.
The industrial bourgeoisie impose their self-v ision
upon all the attitudes and aspirations of the
other social sectors, at home and abroad . The
utopic ideology of the tertiary sector is used as an
emotional projection, and is posed as the only
possible futu re. Their historic supremacy as a
class is transposed to, and reflected in, the hierarchy
established within the Disney universe; be
it in the operations of the industrial empire
wh ich sells the comics, or in the relations between
the characters created in the comics.
The only relation the center (adult-city fo lk
bourgeoisie) manages to establ ish with the periphery
(ch i ld-noble savage- worker) is touristic and
sensational ist. The primary resources sector (the
Third World) becomes a source of playthings;
gold, or the picturesque experiences with which
one holds boredom at bay. The innocence of this
marginal sector is what guarantees the Duckburger
his tou ristic salvation, his i maginative
animal-ness, and his chi ldish rejuvenation . The
primitive infrastructu re offered by the Thi rd
World countries (and what they represent biologically
and social ly) become the nostalgic echo of
a lost primitivism, a world of purity (and raw
materials) reduced to a picture postcard to be
enjoyed by a service-oriented world. Just as a
Disney character flees degenerate city life in
search of recreation and in order to justify his
wealth through an adventure in paradise, so the
reader flees his historic confl icts in search of
recreation in t he innocent Eden of Donald & Co.
This seizure of marginal peoples and their transformation
into ' a lost purity, which cannot be
u nderstood apart from the historic contradictions
arising from an advanced capitalist society, are
i d e o l o g i ca l man i festations of its economic-
c u l t u r a l system. For these peoples ex ist i n
reality, both in the dependent countries and as
racial m inorities ("Nature's" bottomless reservoi r )
with in the U.S. itself.
A d v anced capitalist society is reali zing in
D isney the long cherished dream of the bourgeoisie
for a return to nature . It the course of
the bourgeoisie's evolution thi s dream has been
expressed i n a multitude of historic variations in
the fiel ds of philosophy, l iterature, art and social
c u st o m . R e c e n t l y , from the mid-twentieth
cen t u ry , t he mass media have assisted the
dominant class in trying to recover Paradise, and
a t ta i n s i n - free production. The tribal (now
planetary) vil lage of leisure without the conflicts
of work, and of earth without poll ution, al l rest
on the consumer goods derived fro m industrial iz
a t i o n . T h e i m a g i native world of chi l dren
cleanses the entire D isney cosmos in the waters
of innocence. Once th is innocence is processed
by th e entertainment media, it fosters the
development of a class po l i tical utopia. Yet,
despite the development of advanced capital ist
society, it is the historic experience of the
marginal peoples which is i dentified as the center
of i nnocence within this purified world.
The bourgeois concept of entertainment, and
the specific manner in which it i s expounded in
t h e wo rld of Disney, is the superstructu ral
manifestation of the dislocations and tensions of
an advanced capitalist historical base . In its enterta
i n m e n t, i t automatical l y generates certai n
myths functional to the system. It is altogether
normal for readers experiencing the confl icts of
their age from within the perspective of the i mperial
ist system, to see their own daily l ife, and
projected future, reflected in the D isney system.
J u st as the Chi lean bourgeoisie , in their
*Cf. Michele Mattelart, "Apuntes sabre 10 moderno :
una manera de leer el magazi ne," in Cuadernos de la
Rea/idad Nacional (Santiago) , No. 9, September 1 97 1 .
THEJ<E T�EY A�e, MEN j
J10LD vou� FIRe !
m a ga z i n e s , p h o t o g r a p h t h e l a te s t hypers
o p h i s t i c a ted models in rustic su rroundings,
putting mi ni- and maxi-skirts, hot pants and
shiny boots into the "natural envi ronme nt" of
some i m poverished rural province (Colchagua,
Ch iloe) or - this is the l imit, why n ot leave
them in peace, extermi nators - amo ng tbe Al acal
u fe I ndians; so the comics born in the United
States, reflect thei r o bsession for a retu rn to a
form of social organization which has been destroyed
by u rban civil ization . * Disney is the conquistador
constantly purifyi ng h i mself by justifyi
ng h is past and future conquests.
But how can the cu ltural superstructure of the
dominant classes, which represents the interests
of the metropolis and is so much the product of
contradictions in the development of its productive
forces, exert such influence and acqu ire
such popularity in the u nderdeveloped countries?
Just why is Disney such a th reat?
The primary reason is that his prod ucts, necessitated
and faci l itated by a h uge industrial capital
ist empire are i m ported together with so many
o t h e r co nsu mer objects i nto the dependent
cou ntry, which is dependent precisely because it
depends on commodities arisi ng economically
and i ntel l ectually in the power center's totally
alien (fore ign) conditions. Our countries are exporters
of raw materials, and i mporters of superstructural
and cul tural goods. To service our
" monoproduct" economies and provide urban
paraphernalia, we send copper, and they send
machines to extract copper, and, of course, Coca
Col a. Beh ind the Coca Col a stands a whole
structu re of expectations and models of behavior,
and with it, a particu lar kin d of present and
futu re society, and an i nterpretation of the past.
As we i mpo rt the i ndustrial product conceived,
packaged and labeiled abroad, and sold to the
profit of the rich foreign uncle, at the same time
we also i m po rt the foreign cultural forms of that
society, but without their con text: the advanced
capitalist social conditions upon which they are
based. It is historically proven that the dependent
countries have been maintained in dependency
by the continued international division of
labor which restricts any development capable of
leading to economic i'ndependence.
It is this discrepancy' between the socialeconomic
base of the life of the individual
reader, and the character of the collective vision
concerning this base which poses the problem. It
gives Disney effective power of penetration
into the dependent countries because he offers
i ndividual goals at the expense of the collective
needs . This dependency has also meant that our
i ntellectuals, from the ��n ning, have had to use
a l i en forms to present t�eir vision, i n order to
express, in a warped but very often revealing and
accu rate manner, the real ity they are submerged
in, which consists of the superimposition of
various historical phases. It is a bizarre kind of
a m b i gu i ty ( c a l l e d " barroquismo" in Latin
A m e r ican culture) , which manages to reveal
real ity at the same time as it conceals it. But the
great majority of the people have passively to
accept this d iscrepancy in their daily subsistence.
The housewife in the slums is i ncited to buy the
l atest refrigerator or washing machine; the impo
verished i ndustrial worker lives bombarded
with i mages of the Fiat 1 26; the smal l landholder,
lacking even a tractor, til ls the soil near a
modern airport; and the homeless are dazzled by
the chance of getting a hole in the apartment
block where the bourgeoisie has decided to coop
them u p. I mmense economic u nderdevelopment
lies side-by-side with m i nute- mental super­
development.
S i n ce t h e D i s n e y u topia eliminates the
secondary (productive) sector, retaining only the
p r imary (raw material ) and tertiary (service)
s e c t o r s , it creates a parody of the underdeveloped
peoples. As we have seen, it al,so
segregates spirit and matter, town and couJrtryside,
city fol k and noble savages, monopoflsts of
menta l power and mo no-su fferers of physical
power, the mo rally flexible and the morally
i m mo bile, father and son, authority and submission,
and well-deserved riches and equally
wel l-deserved poverty. .. Underdeveloped peoples
take the comics, at second hand, as instruction in
the way they are supposed to live and relate to
t h e foreign power center. There is nothing
strange in this. In the same way Disney expels
the productive and historical forces from his
98
comics, i m perialism thwarts real production and
historical evol ution in the underdeveloped world.
The Disney dream is cast in the same mold
which the capitalist system has created for the
real world.
Povver to Donald Duck means the promotion
of underdevelopment. The daily agony of Third
World peoples is served u p as a spectacle for
permanent enjoyment in the utopia of bourgeois
l i berty. The non-stop buffet of recreation and
redemption offers all the wholesome exotica of
u n d e rd e ve l op m ent: a balanced diet of the
u nbalanced world. The misery of the Third
World is packaged and canned to l iberate the
masters who produce it and consume it. Then, it
is thrown-up to the poor as the only food they
know. Reading Disney is like having one's own
exploited condition rammed with honey down
one's throat.
" Man cannot retu rn to his childhood without
becoming childish," wrote Marx, noting that the
s ocial conditions which gave rise to ancient
Greek art in the early days of civi lization, could
n e ver be revived. Disney thinks exactly the
opposite, and what Marx regretfu lly affirms, Walt
institutes as a cardinal rule of his fantasy world.
He does not rejoice in the in nocence of the
ch i I d , a n d he does not attempt, from his
"higher" level, to truthfully reflect the chi ld's
nature. The chi ldish innocence, and the return to
a historic infancy which Disney, as monarch of
his creation , elevates, is , a defiance of evolution. It
is like a dirty , puerile, old man clutching his bag
of tricks and traps, as he crawls on towards the
lost paradise of purity. •
And why, readers may ask, do we rail against
this deshelved senil ity, which for worse or worser
has peopled the infancy of us al l, irrespective of
our social class, ideology or country? Let us
repeat once more : the Disney cosmos is no mere
refuge in the area of occasional entertainment; it
is our everyday stuff of social oppression. Putting
the Duck on the carpet is to question the various
forms of authoritarian and paternal ist culture
pervadi ng the relationship of the bourgeoisie
among themselves, with others, and with nature.
It is to challenge the role of individuals and thei r
class in the process of historic development, and
the fabrication of a mass cu ltu re built on the
backs of the masses. More intimately, it is also to
scrutinize the social relations which a father
establishes with his son; a father wishing to transcend
mere biological determinants wil l better
u n derstand and censure the underhanded mani-
pulation and repression he practices with his own
reflection. Obv iously, th is is equal ly the case for
mothers and daughters as well.
This book did not emanate from the crazied
min d of i vory tower ind ividuals� but arises from
a struggle to defeat the class enemy on his and
our common terrain . Our criticism has nothing
anarchic about it. These are no cannon shots in
the air, as Huey, Dewey and Louie would have
it. It is but another means of fu rthering the
whole process of the potential Chi lean and Latin
American Revolution by recognizing the necessity
of deepening the cultural transformation. Let
us find out just how much of Donald Duck
remains at all levels of Chilean society. As long
as he strolls with his smiling countenance so
innocently about the streets of our country , as
long as Donald is power and our collective re-
99
presentative, the bou rgeoisie and imperialism can
sleep in peace. Someday, that fantastic laugh and
its echoes wil l fade away, leaving a mere gri mace
in its stead. But only when the formulae of da ily
life imposed u pon us by our enemy ceases, and
the culture mediu m which now shapes our social
praxis is reshaped.
To t h e accusation that this is mere ly a
destructive study which fails to propose an alternative
to the defeated Disney, we can only reply
that no orie is able to "propose" h is in dividual
solution to these problems . There can be no elite
of experts i n the reformation of cultu re. What
happens after Disney wil l be decided by the
social practice of the peoples seeking emancip
ation . It is for the vanguard organ ized in
pol itical parties ' to p ick up this experience and
a llow it to fi nd its full human expression.
...-_---- IT's MUCH SElTERIO BE THE OWNER OF
ALLiHE SAl'S AND BALLS lHAN 10 PLAY WITH WEM.
WHY SHOULD
WE EVEN
TALK?
COURAGE, BOYS ! NOr
tVEN A LrTTLE WITCH
CAN PLAY BA LL FOR
EVER . . . ONE DAY SHE
W\LL HAVETO RE1tJR�
HOME AND CONFRONT
J CAN INVENT ALL1l4E RULES O F THE <;I\ME AN D PRACneE
ALL"THE Wm:HCAAfT I COULD DE$\RE. .----
END
HER AUNT MAGICA DE
SPaL.