Tintin Forums

From page 57 to page 60 of the Calculus affair, Tintin and co. attempt to escape from borduria with Calculus and use a tank to do it. However, I've always found it a mystery that the mines didn't blow up, or that the cannon didn't work. Does anyone have any proof or evidence to back up why these things happened.

Mr Trickler from The Broken Ear was recently spotted on page 47 of The Calculus Affair; perhaps he's still in the arms trade with Bazarov, working a different racket in Borduria?

What a great point! I'd noticed Trickler before but would never have thought about that. That seems like one of the best explanations unless someone else manages to somehow come up with a better idea.

A more general explanation might be that it's simply an example of how badly Borduria is equipped and run. Borduria is portrayed by Hergé as a rather crumby Eastern-bloc state, where things like the telephone system don't work properly. So in spite of all the military power on show, the actual military hardware is unreliable. Maybe the mines were badly built, or maybe the real explosives had been nicked and flogged off by someone corrupt in the army's supply depot. That's how I always read it anyway - a satirical jibe at the crappiness of the dictatorship's equipment and forces, which serves as a useful plot device in this escape scene.

That's not to contradict the specific Trickler theory, mind. Just to expand more generally. I'd never spotted Trickler in this book, so thanks for that interesting titbit, Richard. I'll go and look the page up.

My copy of the Calculus Affair is not available at the moment. could someone describe the scene in which Trickler features? Cheers.

Trickler is standing in the foreground when Tintin and Haddock first enter the hotel (either Zsnorr or Cornavin, I can't remember which).

As for the mines, maybe while Tintin and Haddock were in the fort in disguise, they sabotaged all of the weapons?

Well, I don't think that Tintin and Haddock got time to sabotage all their weapons.

But certainly the Trickler thing mentioned by Richard is an interesting observation...

As much as I love The Calculus Affair, I thought both of those incidents were pretty weak plot devices. But Balthazar makes a good point...