Tintin in America

Reading Tintin with my kiddo has been a strange experience. I'd never read any Tintin before, but thought it sounded like a much-loved set of adventures that my six year old might like.

And he does love them! But it's been a bit bemusing, from an adult perspective. Firstly, the quality of the narrative swings wildly back and forth, but not so much that I can't enjoy the tale along with him. All part of the fun.

Sometimes we have to pause the reading while I embark on quite extravagant explanations, because some of the plot twists aren't explicitly spelled out to a six year old's comprehension, but that's fine. I like an excuse to chat while we read.

While I'm on the subject of age-appropriateness though, I should mention that all the tales are littered with explicit references to fairly adult themes. The tale's baddies are often gun runners or drug-smugglers. Tintin's investigations lead him to infiltrate heroin dens, at which patrons are depicted on thin floor mattresses with adjacent paraphernalia. Captain Haddock's alcoholism is a real problem, and sometimes Snowy the dog gets a taste for the whisky too, with tragi-comic consequences. People (including Tintin) shoot guns at each other, which trembles my delicate English sensibilities. But while this is often without result, it isn't gratuitous - at one point Tintin ends up hospitalized as a result.

However, it's probably these forays into strange and exciting topics that gives it half its thrill, so we're going to continue with it - although I'm sure some others would choose not to.

Meanwhile, there are so many tales that, together with the other volumes, Tintin will last us literally dozens of weeks of bedtime reading - the sort of long-term exposure that no doubt resulted in the golden nostalgia with which adults of today regard Tintin.