Tintin Forums

Hi All,

I actually love The Broken Ear – it's a fantastic adventure/chase Tintin story, which really paved the way for bigger and better adventures later!
Great slow start which draws you in for a classic thrilling tale which holds you all the way, some parts are pure farce, but it really shows you Hergé's ability to hold you with the plot. Save for the poor jungle illustration background!!

But I really don't understand the sequence in which Tintin is captured in the small hut by Alonso and Ramón, and is being forced to reveal the location of the real fetish.

There's a massive storm, then suddenly a huge bolt of lighting hits the hut (a possible ideas for Crystal Balls??) and Tintin is:
1. Knocked from his chair
2. His ropes are severed
3. Smashes perfectly through the small window pane of glass
4. Lands outside the hut at a considerable distance without any major injuries, save for some torn clothing??

I know we possibly have to suspend disbelief as there are some parts of 'Broken Ear' which are improbable - this is an early Hergé story whereby he was still fleshing out the character of Tintin with less research and accuracy as depicted in the later stories.

I'm just confused as to the lighting phenomenon? Does it hit you and tear your clothes to sheds but not actually harm you? In reality should a bolt of lighting burn you considerably? Is this sequence pure fantasy and there is no way Tintin or Alonso should have survived or been able to perform normal activities as shown in the story??

I would love to hear your feedback, preferably if you have some background in meteorology.
Still love the story, just think this was totally unbelievable that there was no way the characters could have feasibly been OK.

Opinions?

Hi Rodney,

I suspect your first instinct - "to suspend disbelief" - is the one Hergé would expect of his readers.
I know nothing about the phenomenon of ball lightning, but people who get too close to "regular" lightning are likely to suffer burns, etc., and often don't survive it.

Incidentally, just the other night we had an electrical storm pass through our town (Hamilton, New Zealand). A house not far from where I live has a ham radio antenna mast in its back garden, which received a direct hit. Of course, we saw the flash and heard the almighty bang!, and I'm glad I wasn't any closer, that's for sure! Nobody was injured.

Well, the problem was probably actually that Hergé was not sure how to get Tintin out of that mess, but I suppose that a lightning-bolt coming down into the fireplace might cause an explosion forceful enough to send Tintin through the window.
The other effect of this, was, of course, the vaporisation of Ramón and Alonso's outer clothing. Very peculiar lightning, that!

Seeing that this is my first Tintin book and my second favourite, here goes!


As cigars of the beeper wrote, maybe the lightning was powerful enough to launch him off the chair? Like in Seven Crystal Balls.


Being a ball of fire, as Demicius Phostle describes the meteorite in Shooting Star, the lightning-ball-thingy must have burnt the ropes.


He must have been launched off the chair backwards, and seeing that he doesn't usually get bruises or bleeds (apart from Blue Lotus), he would obviously smash through it perfectly.


Again, he doesn't get bruises or bleeds...unless the clothes saved him from bleeds?


The order should be:

1. Ropes burnt off
2. Launched from chair
3. Flies backwards as Ramon and Alonzo's clothes sizzle
4. Smashes through window
5. Thrown in the air for a distance and is saved from any nasty injuries by clothes

Apparently, the ball-lightning effect is a real thing. There is a thread on it somewhere in the forums.

On the alternative, one could always just watch how Ellipse-Nelvana did it...

The "beneficial" lightning also occurs in Herge's "Popol and Virginia": an enemy ties Popol to a tree; a storm begins, lighting strikes the tree, destroying it and sending Popol and his clothes over a wide area. Popol survives and sets off to deal with his enemy.

Also remember the famous ball of lighting in "Crystal Balls".

As you said he was fleshing out the character and just need to put something in the story to propel it forward. Later on he manager to make the books a little more real.