The Blue Lotus is pretty Manichean when it comes to who’s the good guy and who’s the bad guy, but this is really incidental to what makes it great…
The Blue Lotus is an unforgettably visualized, ideal portrayal of friendship and universality that eventually stretches across most of Herge’s oeuvre, informing it at its core.
Upon further thought, the manichean aspects of this and other Tintin stories are not incidental to what makes them great. Tintin is an ideal projection of a universalist, moral world view anchored in scoutism, which had been a formative influence upon Hergé in his youth.
Tintin is emphatically about the good in us, which is why Tintin — the embodiment of this ideal — fights villains of unambiguous moral turpitude. Hergé makes use of this archetypical conflict of good versus evil to promulgate an ethos of humanity, equality and brotherhood without ever becoming moralising.
Later in his career, he moved away from this approach, and it is telling that the first story to eschew the manichean is Tintin in Tibet, whose origins — both in terms of plot and theme — lay in The Blue Lotus.
Historical background of 'Tintin in The Blue Lotus' is in 1937 when Japan occupied Northeast China. At the time, many of the great Western powers were present in China, administering small pockets of territory called international settlements or concessions.
At one point during narrative, Tintin is bounced about between settlements as the corrupt chief of police Dawson kicks him out of the British sector, and he is transferred across Chinese territory into the Japanese-controlled zone.
The Blue Lotus is filled with a certain angst not found in other adventures of Tintin. At times it has a desolate quality, as Tintin finds himself alone in the vastness of China, the most populous country in the world.
The Secret of the Unicorn was the first of Tintin's adventures to be conceived as two separate episodes. This was apparent from the first appearance of the story as a series in a newspaper: just over a month separated the last strip of Unicorn (14 January 1943) from the first strip of Red Rackham's Treasure (19 February 1943).
While looking through an old sea-chest found in his attic, Captain Haddock chances upon the diaries of his ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock. This legendary sea dog achieved fame through his renowned run-in with the fearsome pirate Red Rackham.
So are the words of Sir Francis Haddock just another chronicle of life at sea? Certainly not! His journals speak of a fabulous hoard of jewels: for Tintin, Captain Haddock - and a gang of crooks - the treasure hunt is well and truly on. But as the search continues, the plot thickens...
Despite the picture on the book's cover showing a caravel at sea, The Secret of the Unicorn keeps both feet firmly on the ground. We only breathe sea air through the story of Sir Francis Haddock and Red Rackham.
In the sequel, Red Rackham's Treasure, there is a change of scene as we embark on a thrilling maritime adventure. But that's another story and another adventure to look at under the microscope.
Destination Moon gives a detailed account on the preparation and the launching of the expedition to the Moon for which Professor Calculus has chosen Syladavian soil.
First written in 1953, 15 years before the first real moon landing in 1969! I like these books because of their nostalgia value, good old-fashioned values of heroism, adventure good vs evil.
Tintin and Captain Haddock fly to the uranium-rich Balkan State of Syldavia, to work with Professor Calculus on his project to send a rocket to the moon, using the mountains of Syldavia as a base. You learn a lot about the fantasyland of Syldavia, and about the unusual perception of the world of his e an amazing concept when the book was first published, 16 years before the first real moon landing by Neil Armstrtime, by the author, Herge.
This work is amazing in its futuristic scope. The super-modern (for when it was written in1953) Sprodj Atomic Research Center, and the details of the rocket where quitong in 1969.
It is full of adventure, such as when Tintin is wounded while surprising villains at the ventilator grid in the picturesque Syldavian Mountains; and much humour such as escapades with Captain Haddock's pipe and Professor Calculus' hearing aid , and the famous scene of an enraged Professor Calculus 'acting the goat'.
It is a great adventure for all ages, a wonderful series to have. Destination Moon is part one of two and is a truly fantastic voyage. For those of us happy to leave the scientific specifics to the imagination this is a fun romp. This is Calculus,Tintin and the Captain in excellent form with the Thompson twins thrown in for good measure.
The Adventures of Tintin - Explorers on the Moon (1954) is the first story recounting a space voyage and the exploration of our satellite by Tintin and his companions, fifteen years before Commander Neil Armstrong ! A remarkably well documented science fiction story with an incredible visionary precision.
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