Tintin Forums

Tintinologist.org Forums / Hergé and Studio Hergé /

Hergé: Did he place enough emphasis on Tintin?

Page  Page 2 of 2:  « Previous  1  2 

Jeeves
Member
#11 · Posted: 11 Apr 2008 01:31
I think the point of Tintin is that he has little to no personality so he can appeal to any reader at any time in any place, the members of the supporting cast you can either like or dislike. I, like John Sewell prefer Tintins more sarchastic Picaros incarnation
Little Mijarka
Member
#12 · Posted: 17 May 2008 20:07
I think Hergé sort of tricked us. In the first few albums, Tintin is the main character.
Gradually, other characters interact with him, and it seems that after he meets Captain Haddock, adventure doesn't find him - he finds adventure, not necessarily a bad thing.
Towards the end, I think Hergé began to use Tintin as a way to bring attention to more global things, such as the corrupt military governments of South America in "Picaros" and the mania of New Age in "Alph-Art."
In "Picaros," Tintin didn't even want to go!
Was anyone else disturbed by that?
Jeeves
Member
#13 · Posted: 19 May 2008 03:23
Not realy, I just thought that it was a sign that Tintin was growing up, he was intellectualizeing it more than he previously had and I think he like any normal person who heard that thought that there was probably nothing he could do to change it, of course he's Tintin so he can, but the point remaines that he has become much more cynical
ZGDK
Member
#14 · Posted: 1 Oct 2008 20:14
I've always felt that Tintin's "bland" character is actually quite an interesting character. He really feels like someone that you'd meet on the street. I think the reason he's such a popular character is because he's just a regular person that goes on adventures.
Amilah
Member
#15 · Posted: 10 Jan 2009 22:01
The same syndrome can be seen with Spirou. When trying to build a universal "hero" with the most possible qualities and zero flaws, you tend to build a hero with little dimension or personality, and he gets eaten away by the secondary characters that you are free to flesh out with flaws and personality.
Franquin disliked Spirou a bit for the lack of creative freedom that such a flawless character gives: no mistakes, no anger bursts, no impertinence, etc.
There's a western series by Tibet and Duchateau, called Chick Bill, where the very clean hero has become completely secondary to his supporting characters, the hot-tempered Dog Bull and the mentally challenged Kid Ordinn, yet the albums are still called The Adventures of Chick Bill.
People relate and get attached easier to flawed and "real" characters, after the possible bait of a perfect - but much too abstract - one.
Especially as the readers grow up, cease to believe in heroism, and learn to distrust purity.

There's a reason why there's more comics about Donald Duck than Mickey Mouse, why Holmes is a drug-addicted sociopath, and why Star Wars is boring without Han Solo.
Colourful > pure.
Memorable Tintin quotes seldom came from Tintin himself - as well as memorable actions: Wolff's sacrifice, or Haddock's attempted suicide in Tibet (when his weight was about to pull Tintin down with him) impress me much more than "normal Tintin heroics", precisely because they come from flawed characters, and don't stem from a simple perfection premise.
They're heroic acts from people instead of heroic acts from an abstract ideal of a person.

So, to sum up: in my opinion, Tintin works well just because, around him, the world is extremely colourful - Tintin is merely the measure of it, the neutral "prototype metre", the auguste clown.
In other words, the success of Tintin comes from his world, not himself, even though he plays a huge role in putting this world in perspective.
Even more so towards the end, where Tintin's world ceases to be black and white, and thus Tintin painfully ceases to fit in it (the grey vs grey and the betrayal aspects of the Picaros plot - remember how Tintin can't believe Pablo's treason?
Tintin ceases to be a part of the story going on around him. He's just there as a spectator, or a metric scale.
His last active role needed him to travel to Tibet, far from people, to a world where he can face an abstract simplicity similar to the bad guys/good guys universe of his youth. That is, like in his past (and the naively imagined Congo, America, etc), far from the real world and the human ambiguities that an older Hergé doesn't manage to ignore or masquerade anymore.

So yes, I think that as Hergé grew older, he and his universe evolved towards more complexity and maturity, while the too "pure" Tintin character couldn't.
Hence a possible shift of attention and identification, from Tintin to his environment.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into that. :/

Page  Page 2 of 2:  « Previous  1  2 

Please be sure to familiarize yourself with the Forum Posting Guidelines.

Disclaimer: Tintinologist.org assumes no responsibility for any content you post to the forums/web site. Staff reserve the right to remove any submitted content which they deem in breach of Tintinologist.org's Terms of Use. If you spot anything on Tintinologist.org that you think is inappropriate, please alert the moderation team. Sometimes things slip through, but we will always act swiftly to remove unauthorised material.

Reply

 Forgot password
Please log in to post. No account? Create one!