November 24, 2003
Tintin & Me
Watching my current all-time favorite and one of the most unique, clever and entertaining television shows ever, The Simpsons last night, something Lisa said stuck with me. In a chance encounter with the real guest star of the episode (Tony who?) J.K. Rowling, she repeated what I had heard before many times in that Rawling was responsible for an entire new generation of kids to read again.
For me (and my generation of Iranian kids), our J.K. Rawling was Georges Rémi "Herge" and instead of Harry Potter, we had Tintin & Milou. Although an adult, Tintin looked young enough to be the hero to many kids between 5 and 15, and the cast of characters, including his buddy Captain Haddock the old drunk sailor, detectives Dupont and Dupond, Madam Castafiore or Professor Tournesol were all so multifaceted and real, it was easy to build a relationship with each and find the ones you liked or disliked.
Through the adventures of this boy/man character, we all traveled to Tibet and South America, flew to the moon and explored the deep seas, and met a barrage of other interesting characters at every turn. It wasn't clear always as why was Tintin doing all this stuff, he was officially a reporter, but got involved ion some unusual adventures. I read somewhere that Herge may have been an intelligence officer himself at some point and Tintin was personification of his own life and endeavors. I suppose there'll always be a conspiracy theory about everything.
I was the lucky kid in the entire block that owned the complete set originally published by Universal Publishing in Tehran. The set may still be sitting at some storage box someplace and what wouldn't I give to get my hand on it again?
There are a few Iranian sites on Tintin, but this is the most comprehensive. Maybe one day somebody will get the urge to put more of our memories on the web. And there's Zartosht Soltani's brilliant parody that still brings a smile to my face, every time I come across it.
Posted by Pedram at November 24, 2003 10:18 PMAh, ca alors!
Je dirais meme plus, Ah, ca alors!
I never could imagine that Tintin would be famous in Iran, too. I wasn't prepared for this. i came across a site recently, only I don't have the info at hand right now, by a 12-year old girl somewhere up in Canada, which I found rather good. I'll come back later and give you her URL.
As I remember, the only problem was she does not like La Castafiore very much, who happens to be one of my favorite characters. I never get ready for a party without bursting into song in front of the mirror, at the final check-up, "Ah, je ris, de me voir si belle, en ce miroir..."
I have to admit, I have not grown out of Tintin and Milou yet.
Thanks a lot.
Posted by: nobbog at November 24, 2003 10:32 PMas a child, i grew up with tintin too and i absolutely adored it. i'm upset that i didn't bring my books with me when i left iran.
i'm of the opinion that those comic books were terrific for children because they taught a kid a lot about the history of the 20th century in a really fun way. tintin went to all the major hotspots in world. congo, the arab world, china, the soviet union, the moon, and a place which eerily resembled castro's cuba.
BUT.....the thing i've noticed since i've grown up is that tintin books are, in a lot of ways, quite racist. if you look at the way africans, native-americans, or arabs are portrayed in those comic books, the images and characters are derived from european colonial discourse of the early 20th century.
k.s.
Posted by: kaveh at November 25, 2003 03:21 AMTinTin was were probably my most-loved book collection in Iran. I still have a big group of friends who are all TinTin fans like me, and they still use TinTin phrases in different occasions. This reminds me of a very important fact: TinTin's Persian translation was excellent (the original series published by Universal). Hergé's comic strip drawings were also exceptionally good.
I don't really agree with Kaveh's point about Hergé being very racist. He simply portraited Africans, Arabs, and American Indians from a European point of view, and in many cases, he showed the greedy face or european/American characters as well (remember Alan? or Rastapopoulous?)
Anyway, guess where my next holiday destination is? Yes! It's the "Black Isle" in north of Scotland, where one of TinTin's early adventures took place! Yuppie :-)
Posted by: Ali at November 25, 2003 07:59 AMI like the Tintin series, too. And I was always impatient when my mother wanted to buy me one from a bookstore in "Gisha (Kooye Nasr)". I had to get 20 in my examinations for having one of the Tintins'.
Posted by: Amir at November 25, 2003 07:59 AMYou had the complete set ? I am so jealous, I had maybe half of them and my dad hated each and everyone, imagin his suprise when we moved to belgium and he found out that it was the home of TinTin. I've thought about buying the full set in english but it just wouldn't be the same as the hardcover farsi ones.
Posted by: asad at November 25, 2003 08:22 AMtintin is not just for your generation, my father is one of the biggest fan,even now,in his 70. sometimes in a party, he find one of tintin's in the host bookshelf and start reading in silence. that make my mom furious..........
Posted by: negar at November 26, 2003 05:43 AMoh boy, does this bring up a lot of memories. when i was young back home, one of my greatest thrills, was going to the different bazaars and old used book stores looking for the missing tin tin in my collection. one of the worst things about leaving Iran for me (at 12) was having to sell my complete set of Tin Tin books. sigh...c'est la vie.
Posted by: shahriar at November 26, 2003 11:53 PMLOL! ... in the UK the detectives were Thompson and Thomson... distinguishable only by their moustaches.
I am not sure if the Tintin books are racist or just make great use caricatures... the two detectives were hardly great advertisements for the Brits, but I still loved the books!
Posted by: emma at November 27, 2003 04:45 PMAnyone ever get into Asterix?
Posted by: Reza at November 28, 2003 10:47 PM