Alright, I've finally finished up the Adventures of Tintin series by Hergé. I think I actually completed it once before back before 2014, when records were less consistency kept. Having re-read it and filing it away nicely is a good thing to have, since I am somewhat adamant in getting my reading record right.
It's not because I'm obsessive, but more of having my small wins of the day to keep all that positivity going.
Tintin shares a similar genre as Modesty Blaise in the sense of being an adventure-type series, but differ largely in their presentation---the former was always meant to be a graphic novel and thus consumed as a whole, while the latter had three-panel strip syndication as its primary form, with later work being done to combine them into a convenient volume. Due to this difference in presentation, the cadence and flow of the stories are necessarily different---Tintin does not hesitate to use elaborate false documents and longer speech to present background information with action likely spread over longer runs of panels as compared to Modesty Blaise where the three-panel format necessitated a much choppier and action-oriented style of story-telling.
Between the two, Tintin definitely reads in a more comfortable fashion due to the better pacing, but Modesty Blaise does have better character design due to the need for clearly identifying characters within a monochrome context. Art in Tintin can sometimes be a little too ``busy'' in comparison---Asterix has a similar issue, but its comparatively more cartoon art-style makes it easier to generate stronger caricatures of the characters involved, making their identification within a complex scene that much easier. In that sense, the quasi-realistic style of Tintin does make the dozen or so repeating characters (both pro-/deuter-agonists and villains) tricky to catch up with when things start to get chaotic.
Has Tintin aged well from its 1950s modern world into the 2020s post-modern world? For an old geezer like me who has been alive on the cusp between the analogue and digital, it's definitely relatable, but I can see younger readers born more recently shake their head at the dated references to telegrams, and the general lack of ``instantaneous communication'' that the current world relies on heavily. It's not that big a deal though, since the adventure parts are still as gritty and relatable as before, and slow communication wasn't something that was relied upon heavily as a plot point.
It is always a joy to re-read such masterpieces from back in the day. Makes one appreciate the better things in life.
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In other news, I have a serious bone to pick. First, some context. Back in the day this QR-code ``parking zone'' for shared bicycles thing was launched. There was a boom of ``shared bicycle'' companies that would have digital-lock enabled bicycles and an associated mobile phone app with which subscribers of the service can scan the lock on the bicycle with their app to unlock it, ride the bicycle to wherever they need to go, and then scan it again to lock up the bicycle at its destination to be ready for the next rider. The digital locks were also physical locks that would make it hard to operate the bicycle if it weren't unlocked through the app.
Like all good things, it became a scourge when bloody idiots would leave the damn bicycles in the most awkward of places, which end up obstructing pedestrains and basically become public nuisances.
And so, some brilliant planner decided to draw these yellow ``parking zones'' for the shared bicycles, and set up associated QR-codes there to ensure that the bicycles are actually corralled into an official ``parking zone''. The linked article should provide a good enough of the background before I start bitching about things.
Notice that I keep on using the phrase ``shared bicycle''. ``Shared bicycle'' is a very important term to remember, because here comes my serious bone to pick: idiots have decided to ``park'' their own bicycles in such ``parking zones''. It's just left there, without even locking it to anything (there are often no fixtures to lock the bicycle to in these ``parking zone'' boxes). I don't get it at all.
It's like, SIN city has gotten so safe that basic protective instincts for one's personal safety have been completely left out, from stupidity like leaving one's belongings in a café while heading off somewhere else for a quick meal to unofficially reserve a spot to taking unnecessary risks like walking in the dead of the night along the darkest corners of the street. It's utterly insane.
No wonder SIN-ners always get bullied by those who are more street-smart. ``But mah government will protect me...''---that's an attitude that is getting us bullied/killed now. In places where the government is useless at best and corrupt at worst, the people are more street-smart, and are willing to stand up for themselves against what is going against them; they have some form of survival instinct, and a type of determination that allows them to prevail no matter how much the odds are against them.
For SIN-ners? Cue the ``请有关当局……'' spiel, or the snivelling bystander nonsense of meekly filming an injustice happening before denouncing it with bravado behind the pseudonymity that is the online platform.
``Hey MT, isn't that what you are doing now?'' No, that's not what I am doing now. I do give them what-for if it crosses my path. Fighting back doesn't mean fighting every wrong that is available---that's stupid because it suggests that lashing out at every wrong is the right thing to do when it isn't. It means that when it is a time to stand up for oneself, one should not hesitate to do so. I have learnt my lesson a long time ago when I was less likely to fight back.
SIN-ners are generally spineless when it comes to confrontation. It isn't about the whole ``harmonious society'' propaganda that drives this spinelessness. It is about being under so many explicit and implicit rules and regulations that they have lost sense of the fine line between standing up for oneself and being abusive/disruptive. So many ``rules'' that have been passed through hearsay have made SIN-ners cowardly---the fear of being excommunicated due to offending someone has made them less likely to stand up for themselves under the misguided idea that somehow, standing up for oneself was ``rocking the boat'', or ``being a troublemaker'', or even ``ungrateful''.
Two generations of gaslighting has given us who we are now. Will SIN-ners continue to be cowardly and be bullied? Only time will tell.
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