Tintin In Thailand

Jack Dikian

November 2011

As e-tailing continues to gain momentum people will usually report the following when asked what concerns them; Identity theft when using credit cards, not being able to try/wear the item prior to purchasing, the viability of returning a faulty product and the conceivably receiving a replica or a non-genuine item.

Of course reputable stores protect shoppers against these things. eBay for example allow items that bear a company's official brand name or logo to be listed as long as the products were lawfully made by, for, or with the consent of that company. They don't allow replicas, counterfeit items, or unauthorized copies to be listed, etc.

I thought I had seen my share of replica products over the years and I usually associate replicas with watches, sunglasses, leather goods etc. By definition replica or counterfeit items are manufactured to look or feel like the genuine item. It’s rare that a counterfeit item is made of a non-existing original. But it seems they do.

For years I’ve enjoyed collecting The Adventures of Tintin by the Belgian artist Georges Rémi. It’s been fascinating to read the progressive reprints which have reflected the changing times and social norms. Not long ago for example, there was a court bid to ban Tintin in the Congo, for its racist portrayal of Africans. The book was first published in 1930 and it has been said that many of the scenes range from politically incorrect to hideously offensive, including one in which a black woman bows before Tintin exclaiming, "White man very great. White mister is big juju man!"

So imagine my surprise to read about Tintin in Thailand. Here’s the thing. Georges Rémi never wrote a Tintin adventure in Thailand. The real Tintin never visits Bangkok. As it happens Bud E. Weyser (a parody of Budweiser beer) is listed as the author. As well as the new volume, the characters are, of course, imitations of the originals, and are presented as acting uncharacteristically, such as by using profane language.

Tintin in Thailand opens with the first of many self-references where on a rainy and cold day Tintin and Captain Haddock are miserable and poor because there are no new Tintin adventures. They didn’t have to wait long though as Jolyon Wagg's wife arrives to Marlinspike Hall and ask them to go to Thailand to look for her husband who went there on a trip he won from his employer, the Rock Bottom Insurance Company, but never came back.

Psychopaths and CEOs

Jack Dikian

September 2011

Journalist Jon Ronson’s new book “The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry” explains that as a part of the book research found that the incidence of psychopathy among CEOs is about 4 percent, four times what it is in the population at large.

Ronson recounts how Al Dunlap (“Chainsaw” Al Dunlap, former CEO of Sunbeam and professional company downsizer) was able to redifine items on the clinical rating scale for psychopathy into a manual of how to do well in capitalism.

Ronson offers an insight that the way capitalism is structured really is a physical manifestation of the brain anomaly known as psychopathy.

Cloudstreet

Jack Dikian

June 2011

Let me say right from the start – this has to be Tim Winton’s best novel without a doubt.

Two families flee their rural livings to share a house in the Perth suburb of West Leederville. The two families are contrasts to each other; the Lambs find meaning in industry and in God’s grace; the Pickles, in luck. The Lambs’ God is a maker of miracles; the Pickles’ God is the ‘Shifty Shadow’ of fate. And so the story is unfolds all against post-world war II Australia.

As the back page synopsis states: "Cloudstreet a broken down house of former glories on the wrong side of the tracks, a place teeming with memories of its own, a place of shudders, shadows and spirits.

The Lambs and Pickles together roister and rankle in a divided house that begins as a roof over their heads and becomes a home for their hearts. In this novel full of wonder and dreams, the author weaves the threads of lifetimes, of 20 years of shouting and fighting, laughing and grafting, into a story about acceptance and belonging.

Reminiscent of the Merry-Go-round in the sea the novel is riddled with teasing slang, expressions unique to down under, and humor in the face of adversity and a much simpler Australia.

The King’s Speech

Jack Dikian

January 2011

I’m not a huge moviegoer, I’ve never seen myself a move critic, and even if I wanted to describe a movie, I don’t think I have the required language to do even the best made films the justice they deserves. Sure, I’ve read plenty of movie reviews and know that phrases like “it’s a period drama”, “it’s led by a cast of Academy award winners…”, “the genre…”, are the word tools of many a critics. I, on the other hand, want to share with you that above all, the simple joy that I experienced while watching The King's Speech.

Without overstating the sheer pleasure of seeing this movie for the first time, I couldn’t but help letting the words of Disney’s “A whole new world” run through my mind. “I can show the world,..I can open your eyes, take you wonder by wonder over sideways and under on a magic carpet ride…a whole new world, a new fantastic point of view…”. In the same way, this beautiful film transports us, as on a magic carpet,completely sideways, under and over and unfolds the meaning of friendship, loyalty, courage, and yes, even tells a compelling story of personal triumph in a way that makes us lose all sense of time and savior every moment of this experience.

Tom Hooper’s new film, details the relationship between King George VI (Colin Firth) and his impertinent speech therapist, Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) against a visually stunning and historically fascinatingbackdrop. The King’s Speech works not because we watch a historical royal overcome a debilitating verbal ailment, but because we watch a human being do so. This is the film’s greatest strength – two men, from vastly different worlds, class, and privilege form a bond that transients all that is expected of each, the British Empire and the new king, the credential-less [speech therapist], who uses a sign on his office door that says only “Speech Defects” and his loving family.

While this film is set in the tumultuous era of 1930s Britain, it tells the intriguing story of how King George VI rose to the throne while battling a debilitating speech impediment. However, the dialogue between the two men (during the speech lessons) breaks from historical account as there probably isn’t official record of what was said between George VI and Logue, and the scenes therefore become are infinitely better for it.