Tintin Forums

When Calculus is about to leave to Geneva, he tells Tintin and Haddock he is going to Geneva for a nuclear physics conference. However, Topolino says that Calculus came to talk to him about Calculus's new machine. So did Calculus lie to Tintin and Haddock?

I think "lie" is rather a strong term. "Evade from the truth" would be a better description.

I’d need to go back and look at the book, but would the two things be mutually exclusive? Perhaps he’s just killing two birds with one stone, and saving himself an un-necessary duplication of travel – while going to attend the conference, he can also make a trip to Nyon to visit Topolino…

So I don’t think you’d need to say it was a lie, or even an evasion. The primary purpose of the trip was the conference, as Calculus said; the side trip to Topolino, which was incidental to the Professor’s plans, just gained more prominence when the other events unfolded. Had things gone to schedule, Calculus would simply have said farewell to Topolino, and returned to Geneva to attend the conference.

While I've tended to agree that Calculus' plan was to be attend the conference and meet with Topolino, there is the scene when he is leaving Marlinspike and Haddock says "you never told me [about the conference]".

That would imply that Calculus usually tells his friends where he's going. That would make sense if you consider the mystery and frustration that Tintin and Haddock faced in the journey to the Centre in "Destination Moon".

So it's as if he thought to himself: "I must talk to Topolino but cannot let Haddock or Tintin know. That conference which I originally decided not to attend. It will be the perfect cover." Funny how he lacks trust in his own friends.

It might imply it, but we can’t tell for certain if it does; it’s only necessary for the Professor not to have told Haddock that he was going to this specific conference for the Captain’s statement to be true. It isn’t possible for the reason to be established, or to say if this is in any way uusual.

Haddock might actually be thinking: “How many times do I have to remind you to tell us where you are going, you old goat, you are always wandering off hither and yon without a by-your-leave, or remembering to tell Nestor not to make your breakfast…”

Likewise the Professor might have told the Captain, and he’d simply forgotten…

Given that the Professor is often shown to be vague on detail, and not particularly practical in day-to-day livingl I’d say that the statement could just as easily be taken at face value, and that he hasn’t told Haddock, without implying subterfuge…

Well, with Calculus preoccupied with his works at laboratory for days, I think this could simply be the problem. He simply forgot to tell captain about the conference.

I don't think Calculus intentionally cover up the truth to his friends. Besides, if Calculus' is indeed covering up the truth, he'll only meet Topolino in Nyon, (which means he wouldn't need to stay in Geneva, no? Just go straight away to Nyon and stay there, in case he need to for a day or two).

I think he did not want to involve the rest of the gang in trouble. As a matter of fact, he did not even realize that he was in mortal danger. May be that's why he did not tell Tintin and the Captain about the project he dealt with in the 'Calculus Affair'

Calculus does tend to be secretive about his work whether it is a potential weapon of mass destruction or more harmless gimmicks. Take for instance the scene when he comes to breakfast on roller skates in "Red Sea Sharks" and insists that he cannot explain the reason why for the moment; or when in "Picaros" he reveals the existence of his anti-alcohol pills to Haddock and Tintin in the middle of the jungle - when he must have tricked Haddock into taking them before the story began (about two weeks before the scene in the Picaros camp).

It therefore makes sense that he did not tell them about his ultrasonic machine, especially since he was having second thoughts about actually making it public at all. What I find odd is that he seems to be using the conference as a cover for a more important meeting - in fact I don't think any of the scenes in Geneva indicate that there is a physicist conference going on, so maybe he is being deceptive in more ways than one.