Tintin and the Secret of Literature

By Tom McCarthy

Book Overview

Arguing that the Tintin books' characters are as strong and their plots as complex as any dreamed up by the great novelists, Tom McCarthy asks a simple question: Is Tintin literature? Taking a cue from Tintin himself -- who spends much of his time tracking down illicit radio signals, entering crypts, and decoding puzzles -- McCarthy suggests that we too need to "tune in" and decode if we want to capture what's going on in Herg 's extraordinarily popular work. What emerges from McCarthy's examination of Tintin is a remarkable story of illegitimacy and deceit, in both Herg 's work and his own family history. McCarthy's irresistibly clever, tightly constructed book shows how the themes Tintin generates -- expulsion from home, violation of the sacred, the host-guest relationship turned sour, and anxieties around questions of forgery and fakes -- are the same that have fueled and troubled writers from the classical era to the present day.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582434050
• ISBN13: 9781582434056
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Our Gang

This interestingly written catalog of things Tintin for his grownup fans sticks to the strips (including the tightly packed panels you lingered over, or not) with excursions historical, heretical and philosophical. You won't drown in Derrida and Bataille, just get your feet wet. The interpretations build on the familiar adventures they visit and revisit and on themselves as well, all in a style that's as clear, fast-moving and full of surprises as Tintin's. It's an easy read even for those of us who think la Théorie belabors the agnosticism of language (as of any human belief system) with its metaphors like money, which has no absolute backing but works contingently, perfectly, until trust panics and collapses. It's hardly news that naïve realists think words come with guarantees--refer self-evidently to objects in a real world--and are disappointed, that is, ils font tintin. Again, this is for adults. Its vocabulary level, intricacy and adult themes are not for children.