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The Blue Lotus: about British military

yamilah
Member
#1 · Posted: 14 Sep 2006 16:06
In B&W Blue Lotus (p.23-C1), three sturdy British military are incited -by Dawson- to beat up Tintin before all three have to be admitted in hospital (p.24-C1).

Considering their determinants (garments, looks, names, etc), can one somehow or other say anything about their UK likely country or province of origin?

Thanks in advance.
Richard
UK Correspondent
#2 · Posted: 14 Sep 2006 18:01
Two of the names are a little indeterminate (John Smith and Jack Brown), but the third appears to be "Mac In..." - possibly he's from Scotland? Maybe he's called Mac Intosh? ;)
yamilah
Member
#3 · Posted: 16 Sep 2006 15:40
Thanks Richard for your answer.

Could we say this likely Scottish soldier is the one with the Glengary hat (p.23)?see http://www.ima-usa.com/images/BR2018-1.jpg

Could we also say the fair-haired British man (p.23) might have something to do with Gaelic, considering the European traditional tattoos are reportedly mainly Gaelic/Irish/Celtic?
see http://www.freetattoodesigns.org/irish-tattoos.html

Could we say this most sturdy soldier with the 'anchor' tatoo on his arm (p.23) might be the one with the capitalized name (p.24)?

Interestingly, Gaelic 'anchor' stands for English 'ill-treatment', which would match not only the scenario but somehow also English 'shanghaiing*' = kidnapping.
Both would kind of match the British military* rule* that prevailed in Shanghai at the time of The Blue Lotus.
yamilah
Member
#4 · Posted: 23 Oct 2006 21:43
Might be worth mentioning the three British soldiers seen in the B&W Blue Lotus turn into three Sikh-like ones* in the colour version; this provides one more connection between the British Isles* and Indians*, in Tintin.

[Similar connections are e.g. the British registrated* Carreidas 160, or L'Ile Noir*, in which Tintin crosses local language barriers weirdly liable to lead to the East Indies, as if the original title of The Black Island was a password to some other world.

More connections between those two archipelagos likely exist.]

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