Growing up with Captain Haddock
Notes Beyond the Bumbling:
Haddock’s trademark, apart from his incorrigible drinking, is his vast range of expletives which he never fails to deploy. His curses are inventive, and loaded with colour and emotion – how else can you describe classics such as “billions of blue blistering barnacles”, “bashi-bazouk” and “thundering typhoons”? The origins of his hilarious and esoteric vocabulary lie in the morally straight and narrow 1930s when he was introduced in the Tintin books – Herge realised that in order for this seasoned sailor to be realistic, he had to be a bit of a foulmouth. However, the kind of four letter words common among seafarers were inappropriate for a series of books essentially meant for children. Herge’s brainwave was to use “irrelevant insults” – words that were not offensive in themselves, but strange and curious enough to sound like insults when flung at a hapless soul with Haddock’s characteristic verve and brio.
In our current age, the Tintin comics have faced waves of criticism over their offensive portrayal of non white cultures and persons of colour, and Haddock is central to and particularly complicit in the kind of casual racism that litters the pages of these books. As a POC, I was discomfited by this even at the tender age of 8, especially during Tintin and Haddock’s sojourn to India in Tintin in Tibet. However, one memorable incident at the beginning of that book made me feel victorious. As white tourists go, Haddock is particularly offensive and callous, and on one occasion, aims his (by then standard) festooning of curses at an local labourer carrying a heavy load. What follows is truly wondrous. The overworked man, already irate at his thankless, back-breaking job, turns right back and lets loose at Haddock in Hindi. And for once, the captain who is never at a loss for words is cowed into stunned silence. Reading this as a brown child growing up in India was momentous and glorious. Haddock had finally met his match, and it was someone like me.