Tintin Forums

In his recent book Tintin and the Secret of Literature, Tom McCarthy reportedly suggests that we too need to 'tune in' and decode if we want to properly understand Herge's work.
see http://www.lecturelist.org/content/view_lecture/3156

Please does he tell anything about the literature of secret, namely what is known in the UK under the name 'Menippeahs'?

Here are the characteristics of a Menippeah:
- Hidden (biased) narrator.
- Multiple plot contradictions.
- Inconsistency in the style.

There are three different plots within a Menippeah:
1.The plot of the narrated false story erroneously taken for the ultimate content.
2.The true story, which is to be reconstructed employing the contradictions and seemingly insignificant facts.
3.The main plot depicting the Narrator as the main character.

The object of a menippeah is satire, with the hidden narrator as the object of the satire. By comparing the three plots of a menippeah we, indirectly, discover the true character of the narrator.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menippeah
see also https://www.tintinologist.org/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=7&t opic=1300

I finally read this book about the Secret of Literature, but couldn't find in it any single mention of:

- the word 'Menippeah', nor of any technique used to put some veil of secrecy in a literary work, such as the very simple one used by George Sand*, or the 'S+7' rule employed by the Oulipo* adepts.

- a 'biased' narrator, despite the fact Herge clearly declared 'Tintin, Haddock and the others* are I'.

- 'multiple plot contradictions', despite the many spatiotemporal faults* found in the Tintin books.

- an 'inconsistency' in the style such as e.g. unexplained variations in coulour, shape and location of objects found in Tintin.

- an attempt to 'employ the contradictions and seemingly insignificant facts', such as the disappearance of a circumflex* accent in an original Tintin title.

- a difference between Tintin's Adventures, announced 4 Jan 1929, but replaced 6 days later by his avatars* (original Soviets 1st frame).

Actually, it seems all of this analysis proceeds with almost no reference to Herge's artwork, as mentioned by Cheryl Morgan in her recent article.
see Fake Literature, on http://www.emcit.com/emcpr132.php

Still we can learn something about other writers or scholars, mainly French ones.


* please search for related threads.

No offense, but your posts just gets weirder and more strange. What are you on about? Can't see your point. Guess it's about that odd tracking game and some book that didn't confirm your theory. Are we supposed to answer this thread or is some sort of monologue?

And for the umphtenth time, please use a more common wording. Some of us is not native in english and have serious problems understanding your posts. We shouldn't have to use a dictionary everytime we read one of your post.

In his recent book Tintin and the Secret of Literature, Tom McCarthy reportedly suggests that we too need to 'tune in' and decode if we want to properly understand Herge's work.

I haven't tuned anything, but I still say that I both understand and enjoy Tintin. Seems like a load of ****, but I have not read his book so maybe I shouldn't say.

I've stayed quiet about this for a long time; but I'm afraid I have to side with labrador road 26 on this one.
yamilah, you tend to alienate an awful lot of people with the style of your posts. You are obviously intelligent and have a very good knowledge of the books, but surely labrador and I aren't the only ones who find your thoughts and theories completely incomprehensible?
This is not an attack but once again, please word your posts in such a way so that that they can be understood by many of our members.

Thanks for your answers.

Do you mean the weird and strange and incomprehensible data that can be spotted in Tintin have more to see with Balzac, Barthes, & others, than with the definition of a Menippeah, namely fake literature?

Are you for real? No, we mean your texts is incomprehensible, wierd and strange. Tintin as far as I'm concerned is pretty straighforward. What has Balzac to to with this. Neither I nor Ranko mention him or the others at all.

Maybe you have difficulties understanding our posts, but we are not discussing Tintin, just your quite hard to understand posts.

If you won't use a more easily understood english, I will start to ignore your posts and maybe that is not your intention.

- an attempt to 'employ the contradictions and seemingly insignificant facts', such as the disappearance of a circumflex* accent in an original Tintin title.

I can't understand text like this, if you have something to say, and you obviously do, please make sure the intended readers understand it. Even if you want to discuss/disect the more unclear aspects of Tintin, you can use a easier english.

If you don't understand that some of us have serious problems grasping your texts, then I say you are the one who really has the problem.

Sorry if this sounds to harsh, but enough is enough. If the moderators think that my language is too strong, please adjust it. As I said before, english is not my native language and I might use the wrong nuances.

I couldn't agree more, labrador road 26. I think you got our point across well.

Do you mean the weird and strange and incomprehensible data that can be spotted in Tintin have more to see with Balzac, Barthes, & others, than with the definition of a Menippeah, namely fake literature?

yamilah, this is not a response to what labrador and I had posted... Do you honestly not understand what we have said or have you just chosen to ignore it?
I'm sorry, but good luck with your posts. I doubt whether I shall be responding in the future.

Thanks for your answers.
Sorry about all the misunderstandings; I assumed -wrongly- that you read:

- the book Tintin and the Secret of Literature, that tells more about Balzac, Barthes, etc, than about Tintin artwork.

- the posts that tell about the original Ile Noire* without a 'circumflex', namely The Black Island's last original version.

Maybe Tintin's officially totally unique world requires kind of a very special military* initiation with -among others- some knowledge or interest in secret writings?