The Elegant Variation: TINTIN AND THE SECRET OF LITERATURE

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July 02, 2007

TINTIN AND THE SECRET OF LITERATURE

People often ask me why I started and maintain this blog. It's not for the cash, the glory or the chicks. (Mrs. TEV sees to that.) Nor is it, contrary to some wags, about free books. The best part about this blog has been the people it's connected me with, other smart, literary folks. And now the part that's better than best is that I've been able to do something useful because of those connections.

The first of these smart, literary folks who has a role in this tale is Matt Weiland. He's now gone over to The Paris Review but last November he was still working with Granta, which had just published Tom McCarthy's Tintin and the Secret of Literature. Regular TEV readers know I'm Tintin obsessed, and Matt helped arrange a copy of the book for me, with which I was immediately and deeply taken. When I inquired as to its American publication date, he advised me it had not yet found an American publisher. Too European, he suspected.

This news sent me off and running to the second of the smart, literary folks who has a role in this story, Soft Skull Press's publisher Richard Nash. We've become regular correspondents over the years, and I dropped him a line to alert him to the existence of the book, urging him to check it out, complaining that the lack of a US publisher was criminal.

Well, Richard was off to the races and this past weekend, he officially acquired the American rights for Tintin and the Secret of Literature. I don't overstate my role in all this - this fine book would surely have found a home here before long. But of everything I've done through this blog, this is the thing I'm proudest of - being part of actually bringing a book to you.

I conducted a brief Q&A with Richard on the occasion of the acquisition:

TEV: Were you a Tintin reader as a child?

Richard Nash: Big confession! No. I only read dumb British comics (Dandy, Beano) and went up-market by reading Asterix and Obelix. But Tintin - well, he was just out there in the world, like Elvis. I never really listened to Elvis, watched Elvis movies, but you just know Elvis. He had hips, Tintin had the hair.

TEV: What about Tom's book made you decide to acquire it?

RN: One of the things that drives me as a publisher is my curiosity about the world. I publishe in order to discover. Tom, from the first page, engendered in me a desire to discover what he had to say about Tintin. To me, this is a world-in-a-grain-of-sand book. Like the Salt book, or that book about the history of barbed wire, or God: A Biography. Also: The utter commitment. Tom commits to the premise of the book like a paratrooper off a helicopter.

TEV: Chris Ware has suggested that Tintin's essential sexlessness is one of the reasons he's not bigger stateside. Why do you think Tintin isn't better known in the US?

RN: Well, I’m at sea there. Unfortunately, I guess, asking an Irishman why a Belgian’s books aren’t better-known in the US is probably a waste of time. But, the process of publishing this book, that will help me find out the answer to your questions. In fact, if you wouldn’t mind, could we re-do this interview in 18 months? That would be very interesting for me at least, to see what I’ve learned, about Tintin, about Tintin in relation to American culture and politics...?

TEV: Deal! Until then who do you think the ideal reader of Tom's book is? And what reason would you give a non-Tintin reader for taking a look?

RN: Oh wow. I think Tom creates an ideal reader through the writing of the book. In effect, the book is about reading, a kind of reading of the world. So I suppose the ideal reader is a person willing to submit to Tom’s readings, but also a person will to read a reading. A mixture of humility and arrogance then, but with unbounded curiosity soaking the whole shebang. And, by implication, I think I’m hinting at the reasons. I’d suggest reading it because, in subtle ways, you’ll read EVERYTHING a little bit differently after you read this book. Another title for this book could have been READING DEGREE ZERO.

TEV: Despite your Tintin neophyte status, do you have a favorite Tintin adventure? Character?

RN: Based exclusively on Tom’s book: The Castafiore Emerald and...Herge himself!

TEV: When can Americans look forward to Soft Skull's edition of Tintin and the Secret of Literature?

RN: May 2008.

As you can probably imagine, I think it's a title well worth waiting for. Until then, you can read an excerpt of it here.

Posted at 12:08 AM in Worthy Titles | Permalink

Comments

Hi Mark,

One of the great pleasures, for me, of having set up ReadySteadyBook.com has been personally to get to know some of the writers I've featured on the site. Tom McCarthy is one of those who has become a friend of mine. He is a seriously clever gentleman: engaging, energetic and very smart -- just like his writing.

Posted by: Mark Thwaite | July 02, 2007 at 01:30 AM

Looking forward to this book!

Posted by: Kristen | July 02, 2007 at 08:09 AM

Nice work. Can't wait to read the book. Cheers, A

Posted by: Antoine Wilson | July 02, 2007 at 09:51 AM

If not for TinTin, we wouldn't have had Stephen TinTin Duffy of "Kiss Me" fame nor the Thompson Twins, which I think would have made the New Wave world a bid sadder and my years between 13-15 a lot more cool. "Hold Me Now" has always sounded vaguely criminal to me.

But hey: if you liked McCarthy's writing, I urge you to pick up Remainder. Great stuff.

Posted by: tod goldberg | July 02, 2007 at 09:42 PM

Hi Mark - just for your Canadian readers - The Granta edition of TINTIN AND THE SECRET OF LITERATURE is available from Raincoast Books north of the border. We also have the Alma editions of Tom's debut novel REMAINDER (which is awesome by the way!) and his new novel MEN IN SPACE (published in September).

I'd also like to second Mark Thwaite here - I met Tom at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto last October and he's a great guy.

Posted by: Dan | July 03, 2007 at 12:23 PM

Love Tintin (whom my husband and I discovered many years ago on our honeymoon in Hong Kong) and love Richard Nash (who remains one of my hopes for the publishing industry). Good work, Mark. Can't wait to see the book.

Posted by: Laura Strachan | July 03, 2007 at 05:03 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

July 02, 2007

TINTIN AND THE SECRET OF LITERATURE

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

July 02, 2007

TINTIN AND THE SECRET OF LITERATURE

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism