Tintin Forums

In Red Rackham's Teasure, it doesn't work, but in the rest, it does. Is it possible that Calculus discovered that his didn't work and bought a new one? Perhaps he has two pendulums?

In Red Rackams treasure Calculus is looking for the Unicorn, but instead it points to the treasure. I think that's what that was all about.

miloumuttmitt
In Red Rackham's Treasure, [the pendulum] doesn't work, but in the rest, it does. Is it possible that Calculus discovered that his didn't work and bought a new one? Perhaps he has two pendulums?
According to Calculus himself, his pendulum is never mistaken! (see below)

What could be said about that weird object, in the light of Tintin's 'unique world'?

1 in Red Rackham Treasure (p.39 on), it indicates 'more to the West'* most likely because the meridian mentioned on the scrolls can be duplicated and lead to a Mexican Indian 'Castillo' pyramid*, as well as to the Unicorn's wreck.

2 in The Seven Crystal Balls (p.39-40), it leads Calculus to a bracelet belonging to the mummy of Inca king Rascar Capac, an Indian.

3 in The Seven Crystal Balls (p.53), in Marlinspike, a duplicated Calculus & pendulum appear to a drunken Haddock, who is told 'more to the West'; there seems to be some connection between castles, the West and drink abuse, for later, in The Picaros, the 'Hotuatabotl' pyramid (a rendering of the 'Castillo' Indian one mentioned above) stands 'more to the West' in a region overwhelmed by cases of Loch Lomond whisky, drunken Picaros and wasted Arumbayas.

4 in Prisoners of the Sun (p.62, A2), Calculus reports his pendulum informed him about the proximity of the Incan (Indian) gold treasure, and is never mistaken.

5 in The Castafiore Emerald (p.46-47), it points at the SE-located Romany* camp (Rom* originate from NW India) and at a spatiotemporal fault* too: the Gipsies had gone several hours earlier according to police (p.47, D2), but already on the day before, according to the news (p.49, D2).

6 in Flight 714 (p.28), i.e. in the East Indies to be precise, it reacts most fastly just after the Sondonesian ('Indian') guard was tied up after an unseen attack scene in an invisible passage* (p.27, B1+B2), and the heroes were freed.

7 in Flight 714 (p.44), in the East Indies, it reacts after Calculus took notice of Mik's 'fan-tas-tic' (not to say syllabic*) thought transmission* ability and stepped across an 'extraterrestrial temple' (with 3 plus 5 'PAW's, i.e. the noise made by Calculus' steps in the original version, p.45, C2), a 'spatial temple' that calls up the 'spacious temple'* seen in Tibet.

8 in Flight 714 (p.61), still in the East Indies, it reacts violently over the 'extraterrestrial' metal rod, that even becomes crooked in Calculus hand. Maybe Calculus' powerful 'Indian' pendulum foreshadows or stands for the alien 'dowsing rod' designed by 'another world of science*' (p.45)?

If the pendulum doesn't seem to lead Calculus to any Merovingian tomb in The Seven Cristall Balls (p.3), it's likely because the kings of France don't have much to see with Indians! To sum it up, Calculus' pendulum seems good at nothing but reacting to Indians, or Indian*-related weird phenomena!


* please search for related threads.

Dear Yamilah, what it is about indians that make you so obsessed? Everything you talk about is connected to this indien/indian and most of it doesn't make any sense at all. Hergé was from Belgium not India so if you made some points about Marolles-influence I could understand it, but the whole India affair seem strange.

labrador road 26
Everything you talk about is connected to this indien/indian and most of it doesn't make any sense at all.

As explained on another thread, the 'tracking game'* can't be read directly, i.e. can't make sense without further researches, for it echoes a polyglott* syllabic writing and mirrors a polymorph drawn writing that both together amplify* what is 'most likely' an Indian* source.
To put it simply, the tracking game is only the 'visible part of an iceberg' which is unappropriate for on-line reading.
Maybe there are some good reasons to say Tintin is a 'totally unique world'?


Herge was from Belgium not India so if you made some points about Marolles-influence I could understand it, but the whole India affair seem strange.

What seems much stranger to me is that actually marollien** stands for an 'Indian' language!
see https://www.tintinologist.org/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=8&t opic=990


* please search for related threads.
** a dialect from Brussels, a place connected with Herge's mediocre* childhood.

What seems much stranger to me is that actually marollien** stands for an 'Indian' language!
see https://www.tintinologist.org/forums/index.php?action=vthread&forum=8&t opic=990

I couldn't find anything about Marollien being indian/indien at the thread you referred, so I still don't see what the whole thing is about.

Are you sure you know what the word mediocre means?
Text copied from Merriam-Webster dictionary online:

Main Entry: me·di·o·cre
Pronunciation: "mE-dE-'O-k&r
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin mediocris, from medius middle + Old Latin ocris stony mountain; akin to Latin acer sharp -- more at EDGE
: of moderate or low quality, value, ability, or performance : ORDINARY, SO-SO

So I would say that mediocre in sense of Hergés youth means uneventful, maybe even a bit boring. Perhaps the reason for inventing the adventures of Tintin as a sort of escape into a more exciting world.

labrador road 26
I couldn't find anything about Marollien being indian/indien at the thread you referred, so I still don't see what the whole thing is about.

Actually, I wrote marollien** actually stands for an 'Indian' language!: it's not a real one, but the Arumbayas are 'Indians' who speak a distorted marollien in the original Brocken Ear and Picaros, as explained in 'Ketje' book!
see http://bd.casterman.com/isbn/2-203-01716-3/?r=castherg&s=castlat&a=
and https://www.tintinologist.org/forums/index.php?action=search&loc=1&foru m=1&topic=136&page=6179

So I would say that mediocre in sense of Herge's youth means uneventful, maybe even a bit boring.

I agree partly with this, for the precise trauma* likely undergone might have been boring & tedious, and not so much uneventful...

What a fascinating discussion.

You didn't write Holy Blood, Holy Grail by any chance did you Yamilah?

This thread's far too complicated for me!

In the Tintinverse dowsing seems to be a serious science accepted by respectable scientists such as Professor Calculus. However the pendulum has to be interpteted correctly.
Hence when the Thom(p)sons tried it in Prisoners of the Sun they were given accurate information but misinterpreted it, e.g. going down a mine when Captain Haddock's spirits were low.

Professor Calculus nearly always interpreted his pendulum correctly, but erred in Red Rackham's Treasure when, as has been already said, he mistook the treasure for The Unicorn.

David Halliwell

Hence when the Thom(p)sons tried it in "Prisoners of the Sun" they were given accurate information but misinterpreted it
The Thom(p)sons assert their pendulum is liable to help 'tracking' (p.51) Tintin, Haddock etc., i.e. the heroes who stand for Hergé, so their trip might have a totally different meaning in Tintin's 'unique world'.

Maybe the successive drawings (Eiffel Tower, coal mine, Egypt's pyramids, etc) 'tell a story in the story', just like the 4 hieroglyphic names in cartouches*, the 4 Syldavian army banners, the 4 Bordurian military symbols, the 4 book spine colours, etc, and belong to the 'tracking game'*?
If they are echoing the polyglott* syllabic writing and mirroring the rebus' polymorph sequence of a drawn writing, they certainly can't be read directly, but require further personal researches.
Professor Calculus nearly always interpreted his pendulum correctly, but erred in Red Rackham's Treasure
Maybe Calculus asserts his pendulum is never mistaken to convince the sceptical ones about his 'tracking game', just as he does later in Flight 714 (p.44) with Tintin & Haddock, who at first just ignored his fan-tas-tic discovery? (p.28).
What do you think about Tintin being officially a 'totally unique world', and about Herge 'believing' Tintin could be read via 'another means' that differed from the usual ones?
* please search for related threads.