the state of me; also, Tintin
There are some difficult emotional things going on in my life right now. I'll still be around and talking about fandom, because fandom is a happiness and a comfort for me. But I may be a bit flaky for a while. Your patience is appreciated if I, for example, fail to answer your comment promptly (or at all). I don't plan on that, because I want to talk to you folks about enjoyable things, but it could happen. If it does, your comments are nevertheless read and appreciated.
And now, without further ado, more Tintin.
I've been re-reading the two moon comics as I work on my story (which is set then), and I've noticed that this is the only time, at least in the stories I've read so far, when we see Tintin and Haddock genuinely angry at each other. Tintin normally tolerates Haddock's bad behavior when he drinks, but after Haddock's little spacewalk he's furious, especially since Haddock isn't exactly grateful for being rescued and insists it's his own business if he wants to go home. Haddock looks as shocked as I was by Tintin's response [this and all translations here are by me]: "Be quiet! Your eccentricities almost cost all of us our lives! That's enough! You're going back on board immediately! And try to behave yourself! Understood? Come on, march! If you start drinking again, I'll have you clapped in irons for the rest of the trip!"
Interestingly, it's not Haddock's actions that have directly put other people's lives in danger; it's what Tintin does to rescue him. They could have just let him die in space (I kind of love Tournesol's unfazed reaction: well, we'd better let the astronomers know that this asteroid has a new moon called Haddock). But Tintin of course would never do that, and his response suggests that he thinks Haddock should damn well be aware of the fact that if he does something stupid, Tintin's inevitably going to try to save him whatever the cost.
Then of course Haddock's terribly ashamed (as much as Hergé plays Haddock's drinking for comedy, Haddock still cycles through the behavior of a certain kind of alcoholism, with the binging and the regret and the binging). And Tintin promptly forgives him, but I do feel that something about that moment lingers, perhaps even changes their relationship. Partly it's Tintin asserting himself in a way he usually doesn't (he takes charge all the time, but he's not usually vocal about it), partly, I think, it may be that this is the first time Haddock realizes that Tintin really will risk anything for him. Haddock then promptly steps up, much more than previously, into the role of Tintin's protector and (always unheeded) voice of reason. He starts trying to head off Tintin's more dangerously heroic impulses, as when Tintin goes into the lunar crevasse to save Milou.
That's not unconnected with the other moment of anger between them, which is about Tintin's insistence on not abandoning Jorgen and Wolff despite the shortage of oxygen. At first Haddock responds with just some arguments and a warning: "I predict that you're going to regret your handsome gesture. Remember that: you'll regret it." The argument resumes after Jorgen gets free, then really escalates when it seems Wolff has stolen the last oxygen cylinder. Haddock turns on Tintin and says, "You needed so badly to play the big-hearted hero!" That line's been haunting me, not because I think it's entirely true (Tintin's not playing at anything--he really is naturally the big-hearted hero) but because it does rather mercilessly reveal the problem with Tintin's "chivalrous" approach, which tends to leave the bad guys free to scheme another day unless fate, aka narrative contrivance, intervenes, as when Jorgen is accidentally shot dead while fighting with Wolff. (Incidentally, if the comic didn't make it so plain that Haddock is surprised at Wolff's heroic suicide, I'd suspect him of having made Wolff write the suicide note at gunpoint and then chucking him out the airlock.) Tintin has needlessly risked his own and his friends' lives, just as Haddock did earlier with his spacewalk. Haddock did it because he's an alcoholic who has terrible judgment when he's drinking; Tintin did it because he adheres to a "heroic" moral code that suits his generous nature. But the result is the same. And in fact, Tintin comes closer to actually killing everyone than Haddock does. Specifically, he nearly kills Haddock, whose heart, already stressed by Haddock's drinking, isn't up to coping with oxygen deprivation as well. Both Tintin's and Haddock's risk-taking behaviors click neatly together into a near-disaster.
It really is a lovely bit of storytelling.
Other great things include the fact that on the voyage out, Haddock has the top left bunk while Tintin has the bottom right bunk, but on the voyage back, Haddock has switched to the top right bunk. I'm convinced he did it to be on top of closer to Tintin. All the hurt/comfort stuff (Haddock staying by shot!Tintin's bedside, Haddock nearly carrying Tintin out of the cave, Tintin rushing frantically to Haddock's side at the end) was still gorgeous the second time around. And so, on a lighter note, was the Dupondt's moon ballet. Also their clinging together to save themselves from the mice. (I still think they're boyfriends. Yes, Haddock does occasionally refer to them as "the Siamese twins," but I think that's a joke rather than a reason to believe they're actually twins. They're just, um, nearly-identical boyfriends, like the comedy version of Gothic-novel doppelgangers, with the UST definitely and happily resolved offscreen.)
I also finished watching the 1961 French live-action TV movie Tintin et le mystère de la Toison d'Or (Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece; link goes to the first part of the complete film on YouTube). Alas, this is not subtitled, or I'd recommend that you all watch it immediately, because it's fairly adorable and has so much subtext OMG. Tintin and Haddock are pretty touchy-feely (seriously, it verges on Second Doctor-and-Jamie territory sometimes), and Tintin reads as gayer than Oscar Wilde kissing Bosie on a bed of lavender. Really. The actor's performance may have looked like boyish innocence in 1961, but to me it said "twinkiest twink who ever twinked, and who utterly adores his big bearded older boyfriend, and there might be porn any minute." At a couple of moments the show genuinely seemed on the verge of porn: once when Tintin takes his clothes off (to go scuba diving, okay, so it was TOTALLY JUSTIFIED by the plot), revealing a nicely muscled body in the process, and at the end when he helps Captain Haddock fasten his medal ribbon around his neck. (It's in part 7/7, almost at the very end, and I swear it made me think the creators were wondering how they could possibly write in a scene where Tintin would cling to Haddock with his arms round Haddock's neck, and this is what they came up with.)
Finally: I recently saw a little clip of the new Tintin movie and freaked out a bit, because Tintin looks like he's twelve in the thing. He's not that young in the comics, but it's going to ruin any chance of my seeing/enjoying Tintin/Haddock slash in the movie. Of course there are still the Dupondts Thom(p)sons, voiced by the always slashy Nick Frost and Simon Pegg.
Crossposted at Dreamwidth (
comments); you can comment here or there.
And now, without further ado, more Tintin.
I've been re-reading the two moon comics as I work on my story (which is set then), and I've noticed that this is the only time, at least in the stories I've read so far, when we see Tintin and Haddock genuinely angry at each other. Tintin normally tolerates Haddock's bad behavior when he drinks, but after Haddock's little spacewalk he's furious, especially since Haddock isn't exactly grateful for being rescued and insists it's his own business if he wants to go home. Haddock looks as shocked as I was by Tintin's response [this and all translations here are by me]: "Be quiet! Your eccentricities almost cost all of us our lives! That's enough! You're going back on board immediately! And try to behave yourself! Understood? Come on, march! If you start drinking again, I'll have you clapped in irons for the rest of the trip!"
Interestingly, it's not Haddock's actions that have directly put other people's lives in danger; it's what Tintin does to rescue him. They could have just let him die in space (I kind of love Tournesol's unfazed reaction: well, we'd better let the astronomers know that this asteroid has a new moon called Haddock). But Tintin of course would never do that, and his response suggests that he thinks Haddock should damn well be aware of the fact that if he does something stupid, Tintin's inevitably going to try to save him whatever the cost.
Then of course Haddock's terribly ashamed (as much as Hergé plays Haddock's drinking for comedy, Haddock still cycles through the behavior of a certain kind of alcoholism, with the binging and the regret and the binging). And Tintin promptly forgives him, but I do feel that something about that moment lingers, perhaps even changes their relationship. Partly it's Tintin asserting himself in a way he usually doesn't (he takes charge all the time, but he's not usually vocal about it), partly, I think, it may be that this is the first time Haddock realizes that Tintin really will risk anything for him. Haddock then promptly steps up, much more than previously, into the role of Tintin's protector and (always unheeded) voice of reason. He starts trying to head off Tintin's more dangerously heroic impulses, as when Tintin goes into the lunar crevasse to save Milou.
That's not unconnected with the other moment of anger between them, which is about Tintin's insistence on not abandoning Jorgen and Wolff despite the shortage of oxygen. At first Haddock responds with just some arguments and a warning: "I predict that you're going to regret your handsome gesture. Remember that: you'll regret it." The argument resumes after Jorgen gets free, then really escalates when it seems Wolff has stolen the last oxygen cylinder. Haddock turns on Tintin and says, "You needed so badly to play the big-hearted hero!" That line's been haunting me, not because I think it's entirely true (Tintin's not playing at anything--he really is naturally the big-hearted hero) but because it does rather mercilessly reveal the problem with Tintin's "chivalrous" approach, which tends to leave the bad guys free to scheme another day unless fate, aka narrative contrivance, intervenes, as when Jorgen is accidentally shot dead while fighting with Wolff. (Incidentally, if the comic didn't make it so plain that Haddock is surprised at Wolff's heroic suicide, I'd suspect him of having made Wolff write the suicide note at gunpoint and then chucking him out the airlock.) Tintin has needlessly risked his own and his friends' lives, just as Haddock did earlier with his spacewalk. Haddock did it because he's an alcoholic who has terrible judgment when he's drinking; Tintin did it because he adheres to a "heroic" moral code that suits his generous nature. But the result is the same. And in fact, Tintin comes closer to actually killing everyone than Haddock does. Specifically, he nearly kills Haddock, whose heart, already stressed by Haddock's drinking, isn't up to coping with oxygen deprivation as well. Both Tintin's and Haddock's risk-taking behaviors click neatly together into a near-disaster.
It really is a lovely bit of storytelling.
Other great things include the fact that on the voyage out, Haddock has the top left bunk while Tintin has the bottom right bunk, but on the voyage back, Haddock has switched to the top right bunk. I'm convinced he did it to be on top of closer to Tintin. All the hurt/comfort stuff (Haddock staying by shot!Tintin's bedside, Haddock nearly carrying Tintin out of the cave, Tintin rushing frantically to Haddock's side at the end) was still gorgeous the second time around. And so, on a lighter note, was the Dupondt's moon ballet. Also their clinging together to save themselves from the mice. (I still think they're boyfriends. Yes, Haddock does occasionally refer to them as "the Siamese twins," but I think that's a joke rather than a reason to believe they're actually twins. They're just, um, nearly-identical boyfriends, like the comedy version of Gothic-novel doppelgangers, with the UST definitely and happily resolved offscreen.)
I also finished watching the 1961 French live-action TV movie Tintin et le mystère de la Toison d'Or (Tintin and the Mystery of the Golden Fleece; link goes to the first part of the complete film on YouTube). Alas, this is not subtitled, or I'd recommend that you all watch it immediately, because it's fairly adorable and has so much subtext OMG. Tintin and Haddock are pretty touchy-feely (seriously, it verges on Second Doctor-and-Jamie territory sometimes), and Tintin reads as gayer than Oscar Wilde kissing Bosie on a bed of lavender. Really. The actor's performance may have looked like boyish innocence in 1961, but to me it said "twinkiest twink who ever twinked, and who utterly adores his big bearded older boyfriend, and there might be porn any minute." At a couple of moments the show genuinely seemed on the verge of porn: once when Tintin takes his clothes off (to go scuba diving, okay, so it was TOTALLY JUSTIFIED by the plot), revealing a nicely muscled body in the process, and at the end when he helps Captain Haddock fasten his medal ribbon around his neck. (It's in part 7/7, almost at the very end, and I swear it made me think the creators were wondering how they could possibly write in a scene where Tintin would cling to Haddock with his arms round Haddock's neck, and this is what they came up with.)
Finally: I recently saw a little clip of the new Tintin movie and freaked out a bit, because Tintin looks like he's twelve in the thing. He's not that young in the comics, but it's going to ruin any chance of my seeing/enjoying Tintin/Haddock slash in the movie. Of course there are still the Dupondts Thom(p)sons, voiced by the always slashy Nick Frost and Simon Pegg.
Crossposted at Dreamwidth (
comments); you can comment here or there.