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When did the Siamese cat first appear?

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varun0883
Member
#1 · Posted: 6 Jul 2005 14:01
I would like to know when the Siamese cat make its debut?
I've seen at the beginning of the Ellipse-Nelavana Tintin videos where the cat and Snowy run around Nestor near the staircase in Marlinspike Hall. From which episode is this scene taken?
Also how did Snowy become a good friend of this Siamese cat?
edcharlesadams
Trivia Challenge Score Keeper
#2 · Posted: 6 Jul 2005 15:36
This scene is taken from The Seven Crystal Balls. Perhaps someone with the books to hand can confirm this, but I believe the cat was first seen in that story too (I don't recall seeing it in the Marlinspike scenes in The Secret of the Unicorn).

Incidentally, Hergé himself owned a near-identical cat called Thaïke, so that's what I call the Marlinspike cat as well.

Ed
yamilah
Member
#3 · Posted: 6 Jul 2005 16:10
I confirm the above...

Here the listing of this cat's appearances in the Hall, which he never leaves...

1st appearance in Crystal Balls, see Link to pirate site removed.

2nd in Destination Moon, see Link to pirate site removed.

3rd in Affair, see Link to pirate site removed.

does not show in Red Sea

4th in Emerald , where for an unseen reason he suddenly gets on quite well with Snowy, see Link to pirate site removed.

5th in Picaros, in Tintin's arms see Link to pirate site removed.

--
Moderator note:
Yamilah: The pages you linked to were obviously pirated editions of the books, and not even copied in a professional manner!
There is a difference between illustrating a point by linking to a single image, or even a couple of images, which would be covered by the concept for fair use for study, and finding a site which reproduces entire albums (albeit in B&W and in Chinese…!).
For the sake of legality, and to keep us squeaky clean, please do not make further links to the pirate site.
The Happy Tintinologist Team
varun0883
Member
#4 · Posted: 7 Jul 2005 14:30
I wanted to know where I can find the profile of Haddock's Siamese cat on tintinologist.org.
varun0883
Member
#5 · Posted: 8 Jul 2005 14:34
Ok I don't want pirated links: can Tintinologist give me authenticated links, and hey! I did not get any response regarding my query about Siamese cat in Tintinologist.org from Tintinologist.org.
jock123
Moderator
#6 · Posted: 8 Jul 2005 15:54
varun0883
Hey! I did not get any response regarding my query about Siamese cat

Maybe nobody has the answer you are looking for?
You got at least two replies - from Yamilah and Ed - so it is a little ungrateful of you to say that you got no response.

Yamilah has given you a list of the cat's appearances in the books, which would allow you to look up the answers yourself.
As to a "profile", well I don't imagine that anyone has written one - as Ed said, it doesn't even have a name (as far as we can tell) so there isn't a lot of information to be had.

As to how Snowy and the cat got to be friends, well, if it isn't in the books, we can only guess...
yamilah
Member
#7 · Posted: 8 Jul 2005 17:41
varun0883
how did snowy become a good friend of siamese cat?

Well, I'll try to answer this rather strange question... Let's us first sum up: this cat appears in five adventures (see above), but is unseen in the Unicorn & Rackham albums, as well as in the Red Sea Sharks...

This 'clearly delineated' cat is intriguing because it obviously has a 'double' behaviour, namely it is overacting during its first appearances, and calm during the last ones...

To start with, what happens in The Red Sea Sharks, where it's unseen?

(1) Abdullah teases Snowy (p.4, B3) & behaves like a big cat (p.4, D3), as if he were standing for one...
(2) Spatiotemporal faults* appear, among others:
- Abdullah offers Haddock a clock that is unfit for time & for the space of its box (p.5, C3-4 & D1)...
- Abdullah's companions appear untimely and such invaders are rather space-occupying (p.6, D2)...
- Calculus has speed problems (p.8, D3 & p.61, A3)...
- Wagg's friends' twenty cars appear too fast, magically within minutes, between p.61 (C4) and p.62 (C1)...

Thus the trouble in the Hall is much greater when the Siamese cat is absent, as if this provoking animal were 'standing for' something troublesome and unseen, and linked to the Hall...

During its two last appearances, this cat has calmed down, as if it didn't have to 'show' anything anymore, as if the unseen it long 'stood for' had at last magically 'joined' the Hall...

A clue to that unseen might be the scrolls'* data leading to the very same Hall + Calculus' duplication* + the two meridians (see Unicorn & Rackham books), that all hint the 'treasure' might be more than just the one in the chapel ('crypte' in the original version...), and be kind of an unseen 'jig-saw'...

*please search for related threads too, particularly The eagle's cross discovery...
Karaboudjan
Member
#8 · Posted: 10 Jul 2005 20:31
... and in The Castafiore Emerald, when everyone is beset by numerous bothers and gremlins (the broken step, bee-stings, the everlasting misdirected calls to Mr Cutts, the TV crew's car breaking down, the Prof's Super Calcucolor being a dismal failure)- everyone but La Castafiore, who seems immune- the cat is also calm, and only glimpsed idly hanging around with Snowy. After that we see Tintin fussing over him and Snowy hiding with him under the table in 'Picaros'.

Intriguing theory, Yamilah. But getting back to varun0883's question...

I think the cat's change in attitude in general and towards Snowy in particular is very much an animal thing. In his first appearance (Seven Crystal Balls), he is a new member of the household, and since Tintin had not yet moved into Marlinspike, Snowy was only a visitor. And since cats and dogs traditionally disagree and fight no end, Herge doubtless thought it would be amusing to include sequences to this effect. After all, Snowy's reactions to cats and other creatures have popped up throughout the other stories.

It must have been some time after Land of Black Gold that Tintin moved into Marlinspike, and of course the adventures immediately following this do not feature the house in any big way. Plus there's no real way of judging the timespan. It could be several months (after all, Tintin and co do have singularly action-packed lives), or it could be a couple of years. There must have been some time in between these adventures for Snowy to settle into Marlinspike and the cat to grow used to/accept him. We do know that by the end of The Calculus Affair, Snowy and the cat seem to have made friends.

(The thing I always found interesting is that while it's the Captain's cat, he never seems to fuss or spend any time with him)...
snafu
Member
#9 · Posted: 11 Jul 2005 04:46
Based on the last poster's reference to "The Castafiore Emerald" reference:

I think that the cat in "The Castafiore's Emerald" was sort of an outlet for Snowy too. Tintin doesn't always listen to Snowy...

As for the cat's absence in "Red Rackham's Treasure" and in "The Red Sea Sharks", I wouldn't be too surprised about that fact. In "Red Rackham's Treasure", there were no real inhabitants in Marlinspike Hall (the Bird Brothers treated it as a storehouse, not a residence) and probably no cats. And in "The Red Sea Sharks", Snowy spent relatively little time in Marlinspike Hall. It is also possible that the cat fled into some nook or cranny as a result of Abdullah's little visit : D
jock123
Moderator
#10 · Posted: 11 Jul 2005 07:36
Karaboudjan
it's the Captain's cat

Is there proof of that in the text? Given his penchant for the belle dame Castafiore, could such a refined, highly strung animal not belong to Cuthbert?

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