How does Farr (1991) justify Tintin’s appeal to adults?
Farr explains Tintin to originally be aimed and designed for
children, yet goes on to say how all ages can find enjoyment. With Tintin being
such a phenomenon, it is passed on from generation to generation, with the
children who religiously read Tintin, that then grow up and become parents
themselves and introduce it to their own children – it’s a never ending cycle of Tintin being read and re-read.
Children become fixated as it is a series of exciting adventures to follow but
the adults too enjoy the comic with obviously more of a developed and mature understanding.
The comedy, unravelling series of events, “…political satire and parody, puns
and prescience” (Farr, 1991) are all what entice the adult even past the stages
of reading to their children. The enjoyment not only lies in the first time
reading, but the multiple times in life, with each time finding something
different and new the reader has never noticed before – continually surprising
and engaging the reader no matter the age. To adults, it is also a sense of
memories that can be shared or reflected on, as well as the gradual change in
an individual’s understandings and knowledge to pick up the extra humour for
example, that you may have missed ten or twenty years ago. Farr justifies Tintin to also be an adult read as in a sense it 'never gets old', there is always something to be interested in even if you know what is going to happen, the way you analyse and reflect on it as an adult will always be changing and enticing.
I agree with you Jazz. I think it's really quite something else for a reader to initially read Tintin and then to re-read it again as we progress with age.
ReplyDeleteAs children, we simply view the story of Tintin as a straight forward comic about a young man fortunate enough to travel as he please and make friends with important people and beat the bad guys. At least, those were my thoughts of Tintin when I read it as a child.
But now as an adult, I think it's probably not that good to have children reading Tintin. I think Tintin is definitely something that really should be read by 'adults' (now in my adult point of view).
It's true that Tintin is a comic and the protagonist is a young man going on adventures which is something younger readers would be inclined to read. However, now that I have a deeper understanding of the themes in Tintin, it's probably better if these stories were read when children are a little more grown up and have better understanding. After all, Tintin comics were originally published in newspapers that parents would normally read.
But indeed, Herge gave us a different medium where we can see the social climate when Tintin was being made. The social and political commentary that Herge gave us will probably always be relevant and as adult readers, we'll continue to find new facets of the same snapshot with Tintin.