Tintin Forums

Tintinologist.org Forums / Official Tintin books /

The Blue Lotus: general discussion

Page  Page 3 of 4:  « Previous  1  2  3  4  Next » 

tintinuk
Moderator Emeritus
#21 · Posted: 29 Mar 2005 14:36
I must admit, also, that I was barely able to notice the differences until they were pointed out to me ! It does seem odd to me, though, that printing alone could change a single frame so much ...
yamilah
Member
#22 · Posted: 4 Apr 2005 20:35
Please could someone transcribe here the English version of the two Morse messages intercepted by Tintin in the 'Blue Lotus'?...
I mean the plain text, before any decoding...
Thanks in advance for your help.
marsbar
Moderator
#23 · Posted: 9 Apr 2005 12:13
yamilah wrote: Please could someone transcribe here the English version of the two Morse messages intercepted by Tintin in the 'Blue Lotus'?...

The first message:
RRCQ 15.30 - direct special - attention charles - yokohama urgently - going oddly slow - istanbul ten nasty - gas in saturday - means tibetan - medicine easily - changes west - ekombe

The second message:
blizzard - ueda - location - tuesday - storm - entraps - top nine - ghurkas - T
tintinuk
Moderator Emeritus
#24 · Posted: 9 Apr 2005 12:41
Incidently, they're exactly the same for the Ellipse-Nelvana series, except the first message is not present, as Tintin doesn't have any radio equipment in the series ! :p
yamilah
Member
#25 · Posted: 11 Apr 2005 12:11
Thanks marsbar for your help.

The two messages have no dots in French, here they are:

1st one: RRCQ 15.30 Entre voie Yokohama ns maison r Charles Andre dimanche seul aligner ecran ou tentures serpent marchera inevitablement e proche occident halte intrus e

2nd one: Cercle solaire irlandais direct x hemisphere uranus est long tube s blanc eugene

Does by any chance some sequence among these words evoke to you something different from the album's decoded message?
marsbar
Moderator
#26 · Posted: 11 Apr 2005 23:44
My pleasure, yamilah. Sorry for the confusion, the dashes (-) are separators and are not part of the original messages.
Adoraxis
Member
#27 · Posted: 12 Apr 2005 09:11
I didn't know that people think that way about Chinese. Whoever said women wear tiny shoes? Where did that come from? But i like the plot. Tintin captures opium smugglers. Who made the idea of an opium den anyway? By the way, what does opium do anyway?
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#28 · Posted: 12 Apr 2005 10:08
Hello Adoraxis,

Whoever said women wear tiny shoes? Where did that come from?

Although Hergé was keen to dispel it as a myth in The Blue Lotus it was a very real (and painful!) practice which was performed in China for centuries. You might like to do an internet search for “chinese foot binding” to find out more.

Who made the idea of an opium den anyway?

I'm not sure anybody “made” the idea, rather it was something that just evolved. Essentially an opium den is a place in which to buy and/or smoke opium.

By the way, what does opium do anyway?

Like most drugs, opium will induce a dream-like state or “high” although the effects will differ from person to person. It would also depend on the amount of opium taken, the user's drug history, the manner in which the drug is taken, the psychological and emotional stability of the person taking the drug, etc.

It's worth bearing in mind that opium is a highly dangerous and addictive drug and longterm use will lead to many physical (and emotional) problems which could eventually be fatal.
snafu
Member
#29 · Posted: 12 Apr 2005 14:30
I'm not sure anybody “made” the idea, rather it was something that just evolved. Essentially an opium den is a place in which to buy and/or smoke opium.


Actually, being Chinese-American, I reluctantly acknowledge the prevalence of opium in China. During the 19th Century, the West, desperately trying to undo its trade deficit with China at that time (like today, eh?), somehow found that opium would sell well in China. And it did; at one point it is estimated that 1 Chinese in 10 people was addicted. China tried to dump the opium, and Britain went to war with China. As a consequence of the resulting Opium War, China was forced to hand over Hong Kong (actually, in the long run, I feel that this was a good thing, as people fleeing the Communists found refuge there. Things actually deteriorated after the 1997 handover...that's what I heard from credible sources).

Now, I am not sure if opium remained an issue in China at the time of "The Blue Lotus", but I do like the theme of Tintin rounding up drug-smugglers, so I'm ultimately fine about the possibly anachronistic use of an opium den.
accordselux
Member
#30 · Posted: 27 Apr 2005 22:02
During the Meiji restoration, Japan began outlawing opium, lowering the number of addicts yearly within Japan. However, as an Imperial nation, it was keenly aware of the opium problem in China and took advantage of a lack of market after the Opium wars; Japanese controlled areas in Korea and Manchuria harvested opium and sold it in Manchuria and China to help fuel the same industries and military arms that would later be used to invade China. So while Japan outlawed opium within its own borders, it used opium to exploit the weaknesses of China.

If anyone is interested in learning more about the historical connections of the Blue Lotus, please view the paper I wrote on my thread comparing the real invasion of Manchuria to that portrayed in "The Blue Lotus", it's very detailed in some aspects that many Tintinologists may be unaware of.

Page  Page 3 of 4:  « Previous  1  2  3  4  Next » 

Please be sure to familiarize yourself with the Forum Posting Guidelines.

Disclaimer: Tintinologist.org assumes no responsibility for any content you post to the forums/web site. Staff reserve the right to remove any submitted content which they deem in breach of Tintinologist.org's Terms of Use. If you spot anything on Tintinologist.org that you think is inappropriate, please alert the moderation team. Sometimes things slip through, but we will always act swiftly to remove unauthorised material.

Reply

 Forgot password
Please log in to post. No account? Create one!