Tintin Forums

But some of the visuals couldn't be done with Tintin placing a camera, good example is the end Yeti shot in Tintin in Tibet where we see Yeti looking at them in the distance.

He's not likely to take his camera, set up the shot, walk five miles and then walk back to collect it again

Rik

jockosjungle
He's not likely to take his camera, set up the shot, walk five miles and then walk back to collect it again

Look at the rewards for as little effort as a ten-mile round trip! And don’t forget Calculus’s rocket-powered roller-skates!

Boy the things you guy's read into.

Here are the few lines about the astronomical position of the Inca's temple, taken from the book Mais où est donc le temple du soleil ? Enquête scientifique au pays d'Hergé (by Roland Lehoucq & Robert Mochlovitch, [Flamarion, 2003]):

"To start with, let us research whether a total solar eclipse really took place in Peru before 1949, date of the album's issue, but after 1930, in order to comply with what seems to be the time of the story.
According to the astronomical tables, there were two of them.
The first one appeared on the 8th of June 1937, the second one on the 25th of January 1944. In 1937, the eclipse took place by the end of the afternoon, a little before sunset: it's obviously not the one that could be of interest.
The second one, however, deserves more attention: the shadow of the moon crossed Peru betwen 9.10 and 9.20 am, certainly too early when related to the execution's time Tintin wished.
After crossing Peru, the shadow went on its way. Where was it on the 25th of January 1944, at 11 am? At the Temple's site, of course! According to the calculations, it lies 770 km south of Manaus, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazonia at 8°53'0"S (latitude) 57°36'0"W (longitude), near Rio Teles Pires."

Once again, it can be useful to check it on a map, but you have to be zoomed out a lot to appreciate that the Inca's temple is actually not in Peru, but between Manaus and Brasilia, about 1000 miles east from the nearest Peruvian border...
Considering Hergé is officially said to be obsessional about respecting the slightest details in his work, aren't we facing here some distortion of the reality, or one more... duplication?

Here is the conclusion of Lehoucq & Mochlovitch's book's first chapter (p30):

"With only a few details picked up from the album, it is possible to date the final eclipse scene and to localize the Inca's temple. Its place should normally be kept secret, Tintin and Haddock swear never to reveal it, but Hergé, probably unaware of the fact, gave us the keys to it..."

Another conclusion could be that Tintin actually misled us in order not to break his promise towards the Inca, but still, via explicit but somehow 'invisible' data related to space (Peru, total solar eclipse) and time (11 am) leads us to find out the 'true' temple site...

Case solved ...imho ;)

PS: the 2nd chapter of this fascinating book is about The Shooting Star, then you have 4 chapters about the Moon adventures.

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[Post edited by Moderator. Combined two posts.]

It sort of doesn't matter where the Temple is. However accurately the Tintin books overall seem to reflect the real world, they are still a product of our imagination. Tintin is in many ways an ideal person without serious character flaws, and few, if any, people ever get to see the world the way Tintin does. There is no need to actually pinpoint the location of the temple, and it really doesn't help to forward the plot. In my view, all of the pictures in the Tintin stories helps push the overall story forward, and talking about the precise location of the stories does not advance anything, so it is not included. The same holds true for so many other locations in the Tintin stories. Herge never really tells us the exact locations of Syldavia, Borduria, Khemed, Gaipajama, or the island in "Flight 714" . Indeed, readers can still be satisfied without knowing the exact position of these locations, even though it is still fun to speculate about possible candidate spots.

snafu
It sort of doesn't matter where the Temple is.

Of course it doesn't! :-)
But we are playing a game here - we are using the information given in the books (and Yamilah sometimes seeks more esoteric material ;-)) to try and test the story, to see if it rings "true"; there isn't any question of whether or not it forwards the plot one iota.
As yamilah's post shows, there is a surprising amount of data available to make a guess at a possible date for the adventure, and the fact that there are then further questions raised makes the speculation fun (I'm somewhat surprised that the question I raised intially has already given rise to a chapter in a book!)

I think you really need to read the thread more carefully to guage the spirit in which it is being done.
For example, I no more believe that Tintin utilizes rocket-powered roller-skates to zip about taking photos of himself to make up the adventures, than I think that the world is flat; but I threw it into the mix, because it is utilizing information available through the books.

snafu
It sort of doesn't matter where the Temple is.

Of course it doesn't, because this lost place has nothing to do with the Adventures, and thus can't start 'inscribing a story in the story'...

jock123
Y. sometimes seeks more esoteric material

Thanks for your comment, jock123.
Still I doubt the astrophysicists who wrote this book would agree they dealt with any 'esoteric material': there is no 'occultism' in scientific research, but in this eclipse's case a 'light occultation' that could be unraveled through an 'autopsy', a neutral assessment via external data being applied to internal data... Nothing much to see with the human sciences either...

I wonder what Tintin and Haddock said to the police after they returned home? Surely the police would want some sort of explanation? I suppose they would respect the oath of silence but they would want something for their report, wouldn't they?

I'm pretty sure Tintin keeps his mouth shut about certain things in his adventures. He's probably committed more crimes during them than most of the villains themselves! (especially in the earlier books)

Perhaps Tintin and Haddock told the police certain things, but had to explain about their oath of silence, so they couldn't tell the full story, and the police would respect that.