Page 46 - Studio Internatinal - October 1974

substituted for any other, the universal
DAVID my example showed. There, we had a candid from the context.
Babel where funny faces and mimicry
thingamajig whose meaning becomes clear
compensated for the imperfection of it all. Too
AND perfect diction is often resented, if you speak wears his hair in a topknot like a baby, has no
Belgian heroes are small. Take Tintin: he
too well, then you should look somewhat
feeble, or naive, or incompetent, so that no-one beard, is clad in plus-fours like a kid in the
GOLIATH will take offence. 1930s. He is the size of an adolescent, but all
Drawn by Hergé, the Belgian comic strip
his mental attitudes are those of a very gifted
hero Tintin is the best known outside his own boy of twelve. In fact, he has none of the
country. He has a bosom friend, Captain problems of adolescence: he neither drinks nor
Haddock, the insult specialist, who whenever smokes, and has no thoughts for women. There
he loses his temper, lets fly a volley of oaths is no room for women in his adventures, apart
made up of snatches of phrases in which from Castafiore, the whirlwind prima donna,
oriental market exoticism mingles with history who has very little sex appeal. Psychologists
and caboose vocabulary. The resulting effect is consider that the adult age of childhood is
that of an endless verbal bric-a-brac. The two twelve. That is about as far as Tintin has gone:
police detectives Dupond and Dupont are past he is a good, intelligent lad, capable of courage,
masters at the art of spoonerism and
and endowed with a deductive mind. Victory
awaits him at the end of every adventure, with
practically no help from anyone. His more
colourful allies, hovering around him, are rather
in his way and only provide a picturesque
setting. In fact, Tintin's most helpful friend is
his dog, Milou. The Schtroumpfs are gnomes,
not unlike mice, and one of their fiercest
enemies is a cat belonging to Gargamel the
Warlock; animal characters are rife in Belgian
comic strips and not very original but their
cartoon animals have one striking feature: they
are co-operative creatures. Spirou gets a great
deal of help from his squirrel Spip and from his
fabulous marsupilami; and they deserve our
sympathy, as would unappreciated human
beings. The Belgians tend to feel compassionate
towards animals, maybe because they find it so
hard to assert themselves; they look on them
as brothers who lack a means of expression
even more cruelly than they. Another very
popular personage, Gaston Lagaffe (his name
means blunder), instead of sticking to his
regular job of incoming mail clerk, engages in
all sorts of activities in the office: he keeps
blackbirds, raises pigeons, hedgehogs and
The comic strip in Belgium, just as in any other redundancy. Repeating each other's words, lobsters. He is a shaggy, cumbersome, unkempt
country, is an image of daily life. Anyone which they echo back at their speaker like but harmless figure, the image of animals as
trying to understand daily life in Belgium would parrots, they use orotund and empty sentences, viewed by the Belgians — cute and messy. The
do well to bear in mind that it is a small, conveying the clear impression that any most successful animal creation of the Belgian
bilingual country, and that the two languages attempt at decorous diction is automatically comic strip is the marsupilami. Franquin
have radically different origins. Flemish is a branded as parrot-like. For Belgians readily conjured him up to accompany Spirou on his
Germanic language, French is Romance. The acknowledge their crossbred culture and look adventures. It is a delightful teddy-bear-sized
differences are not only linguistic, but also down upon any gravitation toward linguistic leopard with a huge tail, by means of which
ethnic: one type is strong and sanguine, while accomplishment. Another personage of Hergé's this otherwise sweet and harmless animal can
the other has a smaller body frame but greater cast is Tournesol, the absent-minded, stone-deaf cope with the most redoubtable adversaries. He
dignity. Brussels is where the twain meet in the but highly sociable professor; every conversation uses it to swing in the trees, as fishing tackle or
most confused manner, and the large influx of with him is one long misunderstanding. as a coiled spring to bounce on, and also as a
foreign immigrants since the end of World War Castafiore also may be ranked among the major truncheon. By contrast, and this is important,
Two currently gives rise to situations like the characters: she is a monstrous prima-donna useful though it is, the tail is liable to get into
one in the food store with a Greek owner; a who sings so loudly that she scares her listeners the most intricate tangle. This unsuspected
Flemish customer with broken French fails to away with her ear-shattering voice. weapon of the seemingly weak, this source of
communicate with the Greek whose own Interest in language jokes is not limited to inextricable snarls, is an excuse for
vocabulary is limited, so an African woman has Herge's small world. Another popular cartoonist, inventiveness. The comic strip hero's chief
to step in and muster up a dozen words of Peyo, is the father of a small people of blue- preoccupations are how to get out of a fix, how
Flemish to help patch things up. Against this skinned gnomes, the Schtroumpfs, whose main to defend himself against gangs, how to evade
background the Belgian comic strip artist is originality is to speak Schtroumpf. The word the rules of society or simply to escape from the
particularly fond of intricate linguistic schtroumpf is a convenient all-purpose part of drudgery of seriousness. Tintin is a case in
performances and elaborate situation plots. speech. It can be an adjective, a verb or even an point; he fights without hatred or violence. He
Imagery plays a major role in Belgian jokes, as adverb. It is a practical word that can be aims to put things straight and at the same time
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