Sunday, January 22, 2012

20. Tintin in Tibet (1960)



Tintin in Tibet (French: Tintin au Tibet) is one of The Adventures of Tintin.
Tintin in Tibet is the twentieth book in the series. It is said to have been Hergé's favourite of the Tintin series (previously The Secret of the Unicorn), and was written during a personally difficult time in his life, as he was divorcing with his first wife. The story is unlike any previous Tintin books, before or since: there are only a small number of characters and no enemies, villains, spies or gangters. This adventure revolves around a rescue mission.
It is also unusually emotional for a Tintin story: moments of strong emotion for the characters include Tintin's enduring belief in Chang's survival, the discovery of the teddy bear in the snow, Haddock's attempting to sacrifice himself to save Tintin, Tharkey's return, Tintin's discovery of Chang, and the yeti losing his only friend. Indeed Tintin is seen to cry when he believes Chang's fate, something he is only seen to do twice throughout the entire series (the other occurrence being in The Blue Lotus).
Whilst on holiday in a mountain resort with Captain Haddock and Professor Calculus, Tintin reads about a plane crash in the Gosain Than massif in the Himalayas. That evening at the hotel, Tintin dozes off while playing chess with the Captain, who is having trouble deciding on his next move. Tintin has a vivid dream that his young Chinese friend Chang Chong-Chen (see The Blue Lotus for back story) survived a plane crash, and awakes with a violent start, yelling "chang!" and throwing the whole recreation room into chaos. The next morning, he reads in the paper that it was Chang's plane that crashed in Tibet. Believing that his dream was a telepathic vision, Tintin travels to Kathmandu, followed by a skeptical Captain Haddock. They meet with a sherpa named Tharkey, and accompanied by some porters, they head to the crash site.
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