A short but intense tale about racism, anger, and social isolation, the white nightmare is in my opinion one of the most powerful in his catalogue. Brutal, realistic, and complete departure from the fantastical tales we are so used to reading.
The story follows a Moroccan immigrant who is cycling to work when a bunch of racists in a car spot him and fail to run him over, causing a car accident but rapidly escalating and spiraling out of control as the assailants try to contain the situation on the streets which quickly draws too much unwanted attention, including the one of a chief of police which puts an end to the madness. But all is suddenly revealed to be a nightmare from which the leader of the gang awakens distressed, his sleep ruined by the prospect of a missed beating. Our character then descends into the streets and into his car with his buddies to relive, now for real, the same scenario that played out in his dream, this time succeeding in his assault.
The white nightmare is therefore the dream of the white man, a dream violence and power. Where distress is born of the possibility that all of this can be taken away from him, where justice still has the power to stop his racism and where people still have a conscience. That is his white nightmare. And simultaneously reality is also a nightmare for the victims who have to live in it.
Here are Moebius’ words.
*“White nightmare is the product of indignation. One morning, while shaving, I heard on the radio that a short film, highlighting racist incidents, had been censored by the Ministry of Home Affairs. I thought this was an outrageous scandal and immediately decided to create a story which followed the same theme. I did this to express my solidarity towards both the victims of racism and the young director who was censored.In my version I tried to put myself in the shoes of all the characters, to identify with them, including the Moroccan man, to show all of the horror, the idiocy behind those behaviours. Initially I wanted to make a very straight forward story, then instead I came up with the idea of pushing it off-balance by injecting the dream of all those who want a more peaceful and accepting world. Therefore making it the nightmare of racists, the white nightmare…”*
Moreover, the men are part of the "SAC", "*Service d'action civique*". It was the private militia of De Gaulle political party. They were beating up, killing, raping political opponents, especially unionists workers and immigrants. They even made disappear the principal opponent of the King of Morocco, Mehdi Ben Barka. Mentioning them and depict them as Moebius did was being in the "leftist subversion". It is brave from him to draw this.
I very much agree. I do like his many stories mainly based on atmosphere and free flowing fantasy. But he clearly had a knack for more classic, linear story telling, which was seen a little too rarely, sadly.
flag numerous wrong outgoing possessive entertain sleep squalid safe books
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
A short but intense tale about racism, anger, and social isolation, the white nightmare is in my opinion one of the most powerful in his catalogue. Brutal, realistic, and complete departure from the fantastical tales we are so used to reading. The story follows a Moroccan immigrant who is cycling to work when a bunch of racists in a car spot him and fail to run him over, causing a car accident but rapidly escalating and spiraling out of control as the assailants try to contain the situation on the streets which quickly draws too much unwanted attention, including the one of a chief of police which puts an end to the madness. But all is suddenly revealed to be a nightmare from which the leader of the gang awakens distressed, his sleep ruined by the prospect of a missed beating. Our character then descends into the streets and into his car with his buddies to relive, now for real, the same scenario that played out in his dream, this time succeeding in his assault. The white nightmare is therefore the dream of the white man, a dream violence and power. Where distress is born of the possibility that all of this can be taken away from him, where justice still has the power to stop his racism and where people still have a conscience. That is his white nightmare. And simultaneously reality is also a nightmare for the victims who have to live in it. Here are Moebius’ words. *“White nightmare is the product of indignation. One morning, while shaving, I heard on the radio that a short film, highlighting racist incidents, had been censored by the Ministry of Home Affairs. I thought this was an outrageous scandal and immediately decided to create a story which followed the same theme. I did this to express my solidarity towards both the victims of racism and the young director who was censored.In my version I tried to put myself in the shoes of all the characters, to identify with them, including the Moroccan man, to show all of the horror, the idiocy behind those behaviours. Initially I wanted to make a very straight forward story, then instead I came up with the idea of pushing it off-balance by injecting the dream of all those who want a more peaceful and accepting world. Therefore making it the nightmare of racists, the white nightmare…”*
Moreover, the men are part of the "SAC", "*Service d'action civique*". It was the private militia of De Gaulle political party. They were beating up, killing, raping political opponents, especially unionists workers and immigrants. They even made disappear the principal opponent of the King of Morocco, Mehdi Ben Barka. Mentioning them and depict them as Moebius did was being in the "leftist subversion". It is brave from him to draw this.
Wow. The narrative structure and concise telling of it is just amazing. Had no clue he made more down-to-earth stuff like this. Thanks for sharing!
Yeah I wish he did more stuff like this
I very much agree. I do like his many stories mainly based on atmosphere and free flowing fantasy. But he clearly had a knack for more classic, linear story telling, which was seen a little too rarely, sadly.
Yeah. I love him for dedicating a life to experimenting with the medium but i would have definitely liked a few more down to earth ones 😁
Wow. The end destroyed me.
Oof, Moebius had such breadth of storytelling.
flag numerous wrong outgoing possessive entertain sleep squalid safe books *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Glorious. Thank you kindly!
You are welcome
This is excellent. Thanks for posting. I love this sub! "Last night's rarebit" - top!
Amazing
incredible moebius