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Your least favourite Tintin book, and why?

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Shivam302001
Member
#41 · Posted: 3 Apr 2019 16:04
mct16

Since there is not a single instance of Tintin helping out the Congolese people without any external reason of doing so, I don't really think it is of any material use to just conjecture what he would have done if there weren't those external conditions, like being the King or himself being initially at fault.

In the colour version, Tintin volunteers to help the Congolese students because there weren't any other Fathers available and the Father saved his life from crocodiles. It is natural that Tintin should offer to help the Father and hence the students, because he saved his life.

I have thus gauged Tintin's actions as they have been recorded in the Tintin in the Congo album and come to the conclusion that Tintin hasn't been particularly kind to the Congolese. And if I may be allowed to have a personal opinion, which I don't think is wrong, then I would say he has been treating the natives badly in some specific instances which I highlighted in my previous post.
mct16
Member
#42 · Posted: 3 Apr 2019 21:36
Shivam302001:
It is natural that Tintin should offer to help the Father and hence the students, because he saved his life.

It is not unusual to find substitute teachers to fill in when the regular teacher is unavailable. Do Tintin's motives really have to questioned to the point that he should not have given the lesson and leave the pupils to their own devices rather than help improve their knowledge? (In passing I admit that the b&w version in which Tintin tells them about "their country" Belgium is disgraceful from a modern point of view.)

Are you saying that rather than cure the man's fever, Tintin should have just left him to suffer? That if he had not been the local "king" he would not have bothered? There are other instances when Tintin helps local people out of selfless consideration such as when he rescues Chang from drowning in "Lotus" or defends Zorrino from the local town brutes in "Prisoners of the Sun".

Once, when I was walking through London at about 5am (I was on the night shift at work), I saw a man being hit by a car which just sped away. I went over and helped the man to the pavement and called for help. Was I supposed to leave him there in the middle of the road in agony?

I recall once at school in England in the early 1980s, a teacher told us about how he once taught in an African school. He even showed us slides of him, a white man, checking the work of his black pupils in much the same way as Tintin. I remember asking him why he was doing it rather than a local teacher and he explained that he was offered the job because it involved teaching chemistry of which there was a shortage in that part of the world.

Does that make it alright or should the pupils have missed out on weeks of chemistry lessons until a local could be found?

It appears that you cannot help people these days unless you have pure uncontroversial motives which may not be good enough either. The reasons do not justify the ends.
Shivam302001
Member
#43 · Posted: 4 Apr 2019 05:25
You are taking my argument out of context. I am just talking about Tintin in the Congo book and not any other album or real life. Selflessly helping the needy is a basic theme of Tintin's adventures and I do not question it. It would even go against my own moral.

I never said that Tintin would ignore the Congolese people if they were in danger and if he was on hand to help them. It's just that there was not an instance of Tintin helping out the Congolese that went out of the cause-and-effect chain. Like Tintin crashed their train and so helped them reach the station, he was the King so he helped his subjects, he was saved by the Father so in a grateful act Tintin offered to help the students. I would never question the morality of Tintin in any of the books, its that in Tintin in the Congo he didn't quite go out of his depth to selflessly help the Congolese like in case of Chang or Zorrino or in your case, the accident victim.

I agree with you that Tintin would have helped the Congolese selflessly in any case. It's just that there isn't such a case in Tintin in the Congo.

In one of my previous posts, I had said that Tintin would not have helped the Congolese if he wasn't their king or if there wasn't lack of Fathers in the missionary. Tell me, would Tintin have been able to help the Congolese if he wasn't their king? Being a king enabled Tintin to come in touch with the day-to-day problems of his subjects and help them. Similarly, if the Father had not saved his life, he wouldn't even be in the missionary to help the students.
Furienna
Member
#44 · Posted: 4 Apr 2019 13:31
Shivam302001:
In one of my previous posts, I had said that Tintin would not have helped the Congolese if he wasn't their king or if there wasn't lack of Fathers in the missionary. Tell me, would Tintin have been able to help the Congolese if he wasn't their king? Being a king enabled Tintin to come in touch with the day-to-day problems of his subjects and help them. Similarly, if the Father had not saved his life, he wouldn't even be in the missionary to help the students.

But even so, Tintin was there and did some helpful stuff for the natives (stopping a needless war, curing a sick man's fever, solving disputes, teaching in that school). And that is the most important thing to remember in this discussion, even though I agree that some incidents in the story (like for example how Tintin infamously refered to Belgium as the native children's country, even if that was changed already when the story was colorized in the 1940s) might seem dubious from our modern point of view. But back in the 1930s, Tintin would have come across as very benevolent.
Shivam302001
Member
#45 · Posted: 4 Apr 2019 14:38
Yes, in the end, Tintin did help the natives whatever may be the motive and that is the most important thing I guess.

I accept that the natives weren't treated that badly to accept scrutiny, I guess. What I had said in my previous post was a purely personal opinion but anyway, I find the train incident somewhat of a bad behaviour from Tintin.
Furienna
Member
#46 · Posted: 4 Apr 2019 15:01
Shivam302001:
Yes, in the end, Tintin did help the natives whatever may be the motive and that is the most important thing I guess.

I accept that the natives weren't treated that badly to accept scrutiny, I guess. What I had said in my previous post was a purely personal opinion but anyway, I find the train incident somewhat of a bad behaviour from Tintin.

Well, it was only the second story about Tintin. And at this point, he had still not become as perfect as he would become later on.
Shivam302001
Member
#47 · Posted: 4 Apr 2019 16:21
Exactly. That is what I was trying to say.
mynameisunkown
Member
#48 · Posted: 11 Aug 2023 01:59
For starters, I wont be talking about Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, Tintin in the Congo & Alph-art because I have never read them.

I'd say my least favorite book is Flight 714.

I don't really like the whole alien & UFO idea. It's not satisfying when Tintin & the others escape. It makes the book seem...disappointing.

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