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Flight 714: Did Hergé take aliens seriously?

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mct16
Member
#1 · Posted: 25 Nov 2011 17:15
Many people consider the aliens and their intervention as the weakest point in the book - if not the weakest of the latter part of the series - but I was wondering what Hergé himself thought of the subject?

We know that he and his wife Fanny were interested in ESP and telepathy, which features a lot in Tibet as well as the mythical Yeti, and UFOs were quite a craze at the time.

I also find it a bit odd that we only see Kanrokitoff talking in the saucer and no scene of the Chief Pilot he keeps referring to. We'll never know if it is a humanoid with a pointed head or a green blob of goo or what.

Is there any reference work that actually dwells on Hergé's views about aliens?
GSC
Member
#2 · Posted: 26 Nov 2011 18:22
mct16:
I also find it a bit odd that we only see Kanrokitoff talking in the saucer and no scene of the Chief Pilot
Maybe Hergé did make a scene with the Chief Pilot in the deleted two pages, if they exist (see Flight 714: Are there two missing pages?).

mct16:
Is there any reference work that actually dwells on Hergé's views about aliens?
I don't know of a work about Hergé's views about aliens, but there are some books (the best ones are by Michael Farr) that give very up-close history about all the Tintin books, including Flight 714.
Maybe one of these talks about Hergé's views about aliens?
Moderator Note: Hi, GSC! Thanks for your enthusiasm, but a couple of very small points, which may be of assistance.
You need to watch when quoting from other messages that you make what you have taken from elsewhere stands out from what you are commenting. If you don't it can be hard to follow what's going on.
To do this easily, just highlight the relevant part of the post you want to reference, and then click on the "Quote" command at the top of that post. The quoted text then appears in your message box, all formatted to show the original poster's name, and the text you chose.
There's no need to quote more than a small portion of the original message, just enough to show what you are referring to. Try it, it's easy!
Secondly, watch your spelling: as you write the message, if a word is underlined in red dots, it's probably incorrectly spelled. It's not a perfect system, as some words don't appear in the dictionary (annoyingly neither "Tintin" or "Hergé"* are in there), and there is some variation between how English words are spelled around the globe, but it's a good idea just to take a second look if the dots appear.
(* A little tip: if you find typing "Hergé" is hard to do because of the accute accent on the "e", just copy and paste it from somewhere else - you'll find it next to the copyright symbol at the bottom of the page... ;-))
The Happy Tintinologist Team
Tintinrulz
Member
#3 · Posted: 13 Dec 2011 08:13
Hmm... Hergé and Fanny definitely believed in forces beyond the physical but I don't know if that included aliens.

They may have just interested him, as they interested many people around the time the book Chariots of the Gods took the world by storm.
calculite
Member
#4 · Posted: 21 Dec 2011 23:07
Maybe, maybe not... there is no proof that I know of that suggests an answer.
GSC
Member
#5 · Posted: 13 Sep 2013 02:56
13 Sep 2013 10:14 - Merged topic:
Fligh 714 To Sydney - Did Hergé believe in aliens?
Well, the title is pretty much self-explanatory: Did Hergé believe in aliens? Flight 714, as you know, has the extraterrestrials play a pretty important role in Tintin and Co's escape. Hergé also seems to put in allot of detail about some of the views on aliens that come from the public.
Does Hergé share those views?
mct16
Member
#6 · Posted: 13 Sep 2013 04:16
I have not found anything that specifically states that Hergé believed in aliens, though it seems that he did have an interest in such matters as dowsing (Calculus) and telepathy (which features in "Tibet").

The idea that aliens had visited Earth and had influenced early civilisations was a popular one at the time, and led to the publication of books like Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Däniken.

It's not impossible that Hergé believed that it had some basis.
GSC
Member
#7 · Posted: 13 Sep 2013 04:21
mct16:
I have not found anything that specifically states that Hergé believed in aliens, though it seems that he did have an interest in such matters as dowsing (Calculus) and telepathy (which features in "Tibet").
So, like the other subjects you mentioned previously, can't it be possible that Hergé had an interest in aliens too?
You also said that many famous books on aliens were published shortly before 714.
That probably grabbed his interest.
jock123
Moderator
#8 · Posted: 13 Sep 2013 11:26
GSC:
can't it be possible that Hergé had an interest in aliens too?
Of course the answer has to be "yes".
If we can't say "No, he didn't believe in aliens", it stands to reason that we can't say "Yes, he did believe in aliens" - but we can say that either position is possible, as indeed would be the one where he didn't have an opinion one way or the other, and just used aliens as a tool that was available to end the story.
But this is not really a productive topic of discussion, as, unless some new data turns up, it's just empty speculation.
If you read around the threads about Flight 714 you'll also find more on Von Däniken and his ilk (here for example).
BlackIsland
Member
#9 · Posted: 29 Oct 2013 18:15
Tintin was a realist and was very into practicality so it's a little hard to say.
Tintinrulz
Member
#10 · Posted: 30 Oct 2013 05:30
A realist? Really? He was into Eastern-Mysticism from the 1950's onwards.

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