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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>At the moment of the creation of Scrooge in the
time there was in America a lot of movies relating the lives of rich people (the
most famous is certainly Citizen Kane, i think at this scene in the excellent
story 'The trail of the Unicorn' where we see at the beginning his big mansion
isolated in the country like a second Xanadu), but i don't think Scrooge is
necessary an american character (i thought for a long time that he was an
european and particularly an italian creation!); the world of Scrooge seems to
me a world of the past, nowadays the money has become an abstract thing, in the
world of Scrooge this is still a concrete thing and materialized by coins which
inhabits in big quantity his huge bin; in France thirty years ago, the salaries
were still paid in cash, then, the banks were developped on a larger scale, and
now the salary is a cheque or a bank transfert, that is no longer concrete
money, this is electronic money, this is an abstract thing; in the world of
Scrooge the wealth is still a concrete thing materialized by the coins, and that
is a fantasy of the past; he doesn't spend his fortune in an extravagant way,
for him money is just a question of idolatry, and maybe this is why there isn't
some social protest against him; Duckburg is a quiet place, this is not a
social world, politic has nothing to do with it (except for some old italian
stories which critics the totalitarism (Picsou annexé par la Ruinitanie Mickey
Parade 899 bis -year 1969-); the actions of Scrooge, Donald and the kids, Gyro
and so forth...are often private, people of Duckburg don't pay a great attention
about that, except for when these actions have some exterior repercussions on
the population (Picsou et la publicité tapageuse -i don't remember what mickey
parade); in the overall picture i think in the most part of the stories, Scrooge
has good public relations with the authorities (even if sometimes in the Barks
and the italian stories some judgments for mayhem costs him a lot of money); in
Duckburg, i think the danger is not a social or politic protest, even in the old
italian stories, i think the danger comes from an other
place.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>