Die Literaturzeitschrift Paris Review weist auf das Buch The Little Blue Book: A Critical and Political Analysis of the Smurf Society von Antoine Buéno hin, in welchem er die Gesellschaft der Schlümpfe folgendermaßen beschreibt:
Smurfs, charming blue imps or horrible Stalinists, racists, and antisemites? … In complete autocracy, the smurf society is collectivist and directed by a single and omnipotent leader, the great Smurf. They are ridiculous puritans … Racism is obvious in the black Smurf album where purity of blood becomes vital … Or in that of The Smurfette, where the blond Aryan is idealized. Their sworn enemy, Gargamel, has a profile reminiscent of an antisemitic caricature and his cat is named Azraël.Nachtrag (via Boing Boing): Im Interview mit dem Guardian sagte Buéno noch dies:
People think I‘m moralising, which isn‘t my approach at all, (Buéno says). I analyse fairly, I have fun … I do not want to disenchant. One can keep one’s childhood approach and impose on top an analytical approach which smiles to itself.“He believes the emotional nature of the responses stems from the Smurfs‘ place in fans‘ childhoods. „It’s linked to childhood – it’s ‚don‘t touch my Smurfs! Don‘t touch my Proust’s madeleine!‘,“ he said. Le Petit Livre Bleu is a „true monograph, the first ever done on the Smurfs“, says Buéno, and is „rigorous and thorough and documented“, based on intuitions expressed long before his book, including the „Cold War paranoia“ that Smurf stood for „Small Men Under Red Force“, and exploring his belief that „popular works, however innocent they seem, have much to say about our society“.
But despite its serious purpose, the book „does not take itself seriously“, he said. „My approach is schoolboy, somewhat in the spirit of Monty Python (my heroes) … Of course it’s funny to talk about totalitarianism, Stalinism and nazism for small animals as friendly, innocent and popular as the Smurfs,“ he said. „It’s so obvious that I didn‘t think I would have to spell it out…“
Buéno added that he does not believe the Smurfs‘ creator Peyo, a pen name for the late Belgian artist Pierre Culliford, added the racist overtones to the Smurfs deliberately. „Peyo was not at all politicised; all this was unconscious,“ he said.
