"Little Nemo in Slumberland" dated August 02, 1908:
Transcript of Tweets by @LittleNemo1905 (OCTOBER 26, 1908):
Coming off of the brilliance of the #WalkingBed episode, this is one helluva disappointing strip. - 1/14
Regular panels in a regular grid (until panel 15, of course) the strip tells the story of Flip and Nemo's dip in a molasses lake and the event that ensue. - 2/14
As we've been enjoying #WalkingBedWeek for the past five days, the story reminders in the top tier were good for me; they jogged my memory about what was happening in the larger narrative. - 3/14
The breakout star of the strip is, of course, the goat in tier 2 who steals Nemo and Flip's clothing as they talking and dunk themselves in the background. - 4/14
From that point forward though, it's just uncomfortable. The entire gag of this strip is predicated on caricature and blackface. - 5/14
We've spent much time discussing these problematic racial issues that continuously appear in #LittleNemo, so I won't go in depth about it's appearance here other than to call it out as racist. - 6/14
For those unfamiliar with blackface minstrelsy, #EthnicNotions (1987) by Marlon Riggs is a great documentary. The link below is quite helpful, as well. - 7/14
Ultimately, whether the flour dumping is saying anything in particular, or it's just there to make the pair look silly (a staple of the Jim Crow blackface caricature popularized in Minstrelsy), I'm not sure… - 8/14
Either way though, it's a disappointing return to our regularly scheduled social media project. - 9/14
I'll end by wondering aloud whether or not Nemo actually has a young cousin, or not? One might expect that the mother would reaffirm her visit in the final panel if the visit was a real world thing, as well? - 10/14
But, I suppose, it doesn't have to be… there's nothing to say Nemo can't dream about his cousin from Boston visiting even if she isn't. - 11/14
The cousin, at least the one we meet in Nemo's dream, is a well-spoken young lady and quite different from any child her age that we've met so far. - 12/14
Is there some cultural comment here about Bostonians? Is the high-culture linguistic display meant to counterpoint the low-brow visual racism? I'm not sure. I'm interested to hear what others think. - 13/14
This is my reading of "Little Nemo in Slumberland" #147. What's yours? - 14/14