Philosophical Musings of a Book Nerd

I believe that I have an older version of this particular album, namely because when Tintin is on the train, it is an old steam train as opposed to the electric train depicted in the Black Island. Also, I have noticed that not only are there some continuity errors (Captain Haddock never actually met General Alcazar until this album, but it is suggested that they have met and there is also reference to an adventure on the Red Sea, which does not occur until [book:he Red Sea Sharks]), which oddly enough I also noticed when I was a kid, but the story seems to clearly be moving over to England (with the Thompson twins screaming things like Great Scotland Yard), or at least the English translators are Anglicising the work.

This is the first of a two-part story which concludes in Prisoners of the Sun. A archaeological expedition has just returned from Peru with an ancient mummy, and suddenly all of the expedition members are landing up in a coma. It appears that somebody is throwing crystal balls into their rooms which releases a gas that knocks them unconscious. Further, twice a day, for a period of about ten minutes, they all simultaneously wake up and begin screaming in unison.

There are a lot of references to the Tutankhamen expedition in this book, where Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered (and robbed) by a group of British archaeologists who then, one by one, met with a mysterious death (though a couple did survive). There was mass hysteria over this, believing that there was a curse placed on the tomb to defend it against anybody who would dare rob it. However, this is technically nothing unique to Tutankhamen as I suspect most of the Pharaoh's tombs were also placed under a curse (the Egyptians were an incredibly spiritual people, and the practice of magic was quite widespread: Egyptian sorcerers are even mentioned in the bible).

It appears that Herge is somewhat returning to commentary here. Okay, the book was written in 1944 (so Goodreads suggests) and it appears that by this time Belgium had been liberated. However the commentary does not relate to the war or anything like that, but sort of questions whether we have the right to loot another country's national treasures. This is a debate that has been raging for quite a while, and anybody who goes for a walk through the British Museum can see for themselves the number of items that have been removed from Egypt, Greece, and other countries around the world.

Personally, I do not believe that we have the right to do such things. The national treasures of another country belong to that country, but also they belong to the human race as a means of being able to understand and interpret our past. While I have nothing against archaeology, being sort of one myself, I do not believe that the study of an ancient culture requires the removal of such objects from the country where this culture was once located. Further, it is not just the British who are guilty, once again, all one has to do is go for a walk through the Vatican Museum and wonder whether the church holds to the commandment 'thou shalt not steal'.