Tom McCarthy (1) (1969–)

A very intriguing work, to say the least. For anyone who spent years studying the humanities, attempting to draw links from the most intangible evidence in film and literature, this book will instantly appeal to their cheeky side. A lot of it is clearly based on the old scholar's mantra of "choose a position first, find the evidence later", and I'm sure that if you took any author's oeuvre of an equivalent size, you'd be able to find a similar number of connections.

However, I honestly don't mean to sound negative - there's a lot to enjoy here. Any fan of Herge's series will have to take a little away from this at the least, with McCarthy drawing intriguing parallels between various modes of literary analysis and philosophy, and the 24 albums in the "Tintin" canon. The "Castafiore's Clit" section is perhaps the most convincing, while his in-depth probing into the Haddock family history is inspired.

I wasn't convinced by a great deal of this book, and there were sections I thought were absolute balderdash, but surely that is true of any academic study of literature. Here's to McCarthy for writing this intriguing work. (And if nothing else, perhaps THAT is the "secret of literature": that we can make any answer out of it that we will?)

(One final thought: I heartily agree with McCarthy that "The Castafiore Emerald" may be the - pardon the pun - jewel in Herge's crown. The most surprising thing was to read reviews of McCarthy's book which denounced his opinions, on the basis that "Emerald" is a cosmic bore. Really!?)… (mere)

This literary analysis book attempts to answer the question of whether Tintin is really literature or not. Except that it never quite gets there. It instead relies on the bawdy and controversial - things like a chapter called "Castafiore's clit", or questioning whether Hergé was a Nazi - to entice readers in. It gets wild with conjectures later on, too.

To be sure, there's a lot of interesting stuff in there. It talks about Hergé's heritage - that he might be descended from an illegitimate son of a noble - and compares this to Sir Francis Haddock, implied to be the son of Louis XIV in the French edition. It's not an original idea, but I think this is the first I've heard of it.

I've read other books that are about the background to Tintin, but they've always been implicitly or explicitly "on Hergé's side", like defending him against accusations of fascism. This book comes from an analytical angle, not defending or attacking him.

Despite never coming down on one side or the other of the central question, the book draws a lot of comparisons between Tintin and French literature, so I found it interesting. Just a bit crazy in parts.… (mere)