Tintin Forums

In my Little, Brown edition of The Black Island on page 23, panel 4 I am a little confused about what is happening.

Tintin is in a bed at the hospital, and he is getting up because he isn't badly injured. The doctor is looking at him shocked, and says, "You're not getting out of bed?" to which Tintin replies, "Of course. I feel absolutely all right."

The doctor should either say "You're getting out of bed?" or "You're not getting out of bed," or " You're not getting out of bed, are you?" The doctor is either questioning Tintin's decision to get out of bed, or ordering him to stay in his bed. The way it actually is doesn't make sense.

Tintin's reply to, "You're getting out of bed?" very well could be what he actually says, but if the doctor says "You're not getting out of bed," then Tintin should say "Of course I am," because if he just said, "Of course," it would be unclear whether he was obeying the doctors orders or restating that he is getting out of bed. If the doctor said "You're not getting out of bed, are you?" then Tintin's reply makes sense, but it could be cleared up if he said "Of course I am," instead of "Of course."

From the fact that you've got a Little, Brown edition, I'm assuming that you're in the US. So maybe the dialogue you describe reads badly or unclearly in American English. In British English, however, I think it reads OK.

To a British reader, the doctor's line, ""You're not getting out of bed?" simply reads as a perfectly normal colloquial shortening of "You're not getting out of bed, are you?" The question mark is enough to imply the full sense of the missing "are you".

Your alternative suggestion, "You're getting out of bed?" would also work OK, but the "not" of the published version makes it extra clear that the doctor is both surprised and disapproving of Tintin's decision. He means, "Surely you're not getting out of bed." (though that version would be an interrogative statement, I think, rather than a question, so wouldn't carry a question mark.)

Again to a British reader, Tintin's reply, "Of course ..." simply reads as a normal colloquial shortening of "Of course I am ..."

From memory, I think the dialogue you describe is the same in the UK edition, so it sounds like this dialogue was simply carried over into the US edition from the original Engish translation. (Maybe the US publishers based their translations on the UK editions. I'm not sure.) But if you're saying that the syntax of this dialogue sounds all wrong to an American reader, it seems surprising that the US publishers didn't tweak it for their edition.

All that's assuming I'm right to assume that you're American, of course.

I think that the US translations do not actually differ from the British translations, because I have mostly US editions, and they all still speak very British. I think that the only difference is where they are published. Anyway, if they were going to change the doctor's quote for the American edition, it could be something like: "You ain't getting out of bed?", which would make more sense to most Americans. For me anyway, though, I've always understood that little conversation. Perhaps that is because I have known several British people.

I am American, and I always understood that conversation perfectly.

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