I’ve never really appreciated Tintin too much. Perhaps I haven’t spent enough time in Belgium to get it but I just don’t have any real affection for the character, unlike for example Barbarpapa who I adore. Maybe it’s a gender thing.
Anyway there is a small piece in The Irish Times today about a new Spanish book which Herge’s estated have persuaded the publishers to withdraw as apparently it was creating a new racier older version of Tintin – more tabloid hack than intrepid fresh faced investigator. I can’t really see what all the fuss is about! It reminds me of that recent issues that David and Achuka both picked up on about children’s books writers been offered contracts which penalise them if their personal lives damage their book sales. It’s that age old debate about whether you can separate art from artist and perhaps when I’m a ripe old age I’ll be able to figure that one out!
Q102 considering doing a related piece about 5.15pm on Wednesday – Listen in, you might hear a certain caterpillar……
August 18, 2008 at 5:16 pm |
I was raised on Tintin, and have been following the bit about the new contract clauses (I have LOTS to say on the subject but much of it doesn’t belong on a family site!)
So I’ll be listening, and thanks for the heads up–good luck!
August 18, 2008 at 7:55 pm |
To speak for the otherside of the gender wall – I never quite managed to get Tintin either…
(I was going to make a joke about ripe old age too, but on second thoughts I think it is safer not to
)
August 19, 2008 at 5:01 am |
[...] very clever and sometimes hungry Caterpillar will be on Dublin’s Q102 radio tomorrow to talk about the great Tintin debacle – the one [...]
August 29, 2008 at 12:35 am |
Quite on the other end of the gender and taste wall (I was raised on franco-belgian BD, which means Tintin, Spirou and all “clear line” characters) I fully understand not appreciating something, comic hero or otherwise. Taste is no matter for discussion, as they say. The question in debate is to be, or not, admissible to pervert a characters essence, as depicted by its author, even as a parody and were should boundaries lie. Somehow I feel the Spanish author has stretched his work a bit to far but that’s just me.
You can read a bit more on the same news, including a Guardian link, at
http://my.opera.com/macieira_law/blog/show.dml/2509292