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Amazon.co.uk has listed a book titled Tintin and the Secret of Literature by Tom McCarthy, to be released on July 3rd.

The synopsis is as follows:

"Herge's Tintin cartoon adventures have been translated into more than fifty languages and read by tens of millions of children aged, as their publishers like to say, 'from 7 to 77.' Arguing that their characters are as strong and their plots as complex as any dreamt up by the great novelists, Tom McCarthy asks a simple question: is Tintin literature? McCarthy takes a cue from Tintin himself, who spends much of his time tracking down illicit radio signals, entering crypts and decoding puzzles and suggests that we too need to 'tune in' and decode if we want to capture what's going on in Herge's work. What emerges is a remarkable story of hushed-up royal descent, in both Herge's work and his own family history. McCarthy shows how the themes this story generates - expulsion from home, violation of the sacred, the host-guest relationship turned sour, and anxieties around questions of forgery and fakeness - are the same that have fuelled and troubled writers from the classical era to the present day. His startling conclusion is that Tintin's ultimate 'secret' is that of literature itself. Appearing on the eve of both Herge's centenary (2007) and the release of a major Steven Spielberg Tintin film, "Tintin and the Secret of Literature" should be avidly devoured by not only Tintin lovers but also by anyone with an interest in literature, philosophy or art."

It appears to me that this will be an extended essay, like Alain Bernard Marchand's Tintin in the Land of Fervour, though over a more sizeable 240 pages and in hardback. More details will surely follow...

Ed

Interesting... So there's still going to be a Tintin movie it seems.

So there's still going to be a Tintin movie it seems.

So it seems, but I doubt that the author of this blurb has more information than us on the film; it's probably just a sales pitch to market the book in anticipation of the Spielberg project.

Ed

Thanks for passing the info on Ed. It doesn't sound, from the blurb, the kind of thing that “should be avidly devoured by (...) Tintin lovers”. The words “expulsion”, “violation” and “anxieties” have left me a little cold for a start. I'll have to reserve full judgement until I've actually read it.

Amazon.co.uk have now provided the front cover design, which seems to be an interpretation of the cover to The Castafiore Emerald.

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/1862078319.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Ed

Nice cover. It looks to be done by the artist Jochen Gerner who did the book Tnt en Amérique, which was basically Tintin in America transformed into symbols.

edcharlesadams
McCarthy takes a cue from Tintin himself, who spends much of his time tracking down illicit radio signals, entering crypts and decoding puzzles and suggests that we too need to 'tune in' and decode if we want to capture what's going on in Herge's work. What emerges is a remarkable story of hushed-up royal descent, in both Herge's work and his own family history.

Tintin's 'decoding' by human sciences & Herge's 'remarkable story of hushed-up royal descent' are explained in a book by a psychoanalyst (Le Secret d'Herge, 1993):
see cover on http://www.objectiftintin.com/visu/big/Tintin-Secret-Herge.jpg

see comments on http://www.objectiftintin.com/ouvrages_thumbs.lasso?-Token.T-Recid=294 0
and https://www.tintinologist.org/forums/index.php?action=search&loc=1&foru m=8&topic=756&page=7025

buy e.g. from http://univers.bdnet.com/9782258037533/alb.htm

this looks very interesting!

Harrock n roll
It looks to be done by the artist Jochen Gerner who did the book Tnt en Amérique[

At a slight tangent, I see that there is to be an exhibition of Jochen Gerner’s work in Paris, starting in April.

So is the book palatable to all, or only yamilah? (lol)