Talk:Thithijs (fictional Character)

It's interesting. Abdul-aziz 11:01, 24 May 2007 (PDT)

Xylophonia? LOOOL! The Jervan 11:52, 25 May 2007 (PDT)

The name Xylophonia for the fictional country is droll indeed. I won't say I'm ROFL, but that was a nice pun! On the other hand, I'm not very enthusiastic about the Thithijs proposal, for the following reasons: (a) Quod scripsimus scripsimus - there already is a Tintin in existence in IB, e. g. on the page about the Xliponian language (to speak only of my own province(s)). (b) Is the creator of Thithijs willing to retranslate all the album covers on his own? (c) An IB literary character does not have to have a different name from the same "person" *here*, as witness for example Napoleon. J.S.Bach or J.R.R.Tolkien. I believe I have the above three reasons roughly in decreasing order of importance. Kyrmse 04:52, 28 May 2007 (PDT)

Actually, when I think more about it I guess Kyrmse is right. Abdul-aziz 05:13, 28 May 2007 (PDT)

A) QSS has been broken more then once when there was sufficient support for it.

B) I'll give it a try anyway

C) those are real live historical figures, their is no copyright or trademark attached to them. Tintin has.

--Marc Pasquin 07:04, 28 May 2007 (PDT)

I wonder how would this issue be treated (that is, the usage of copyrighted names for alternative history, especially non-commercial projects such as IB) - I am not sure if there have been any cases (in courts) like that. Anyways, we have other real-world trademarks in use in IB, such as Boeing and Airbus (which are as far as I understand manufactorers of airships in IB), and outside of alternative history projects there exists fan fiction and other such things. If the copyright holder would ever demand taking away such material we would edit it accordingly but for now I believe there is no reason for that. In general where it concerns names I am against changing the names of people, locations, etc. for the sole purpose that these names would be different. This should be done only where logical (for example, where local language is somewhat different in IB or where the nation belongs to different religion and a person has a religious name in real world). Abdul-aziz 08:03, 28 May 2007 (PDT)

Actualy the language thing is one of the reason why I wanted to IBfied Tintin, we had the odd situation of a Francian speaker in Batavia publishing work in Francian. While it is not impossible per say, it is to me a bit unlikely. --Marc Pasquin 08:45, 28 May 2007 (PDT)

If the author wasn't originally Dutch speaking, then why wouldn't he publish it in his native French? It could have been concurrently published in both Dutch and French (I assume that Thithijs is Dutch?) Perhaps Thithijs can be used as his Dutch name; while the rest of the world has translated from the, presumably, more populous French version?

Regarding Ron's points, he is quite right that QSS should be respected here: amplifying and tweaking what is already known about Tintin and his creator are fair game, but otherwise is there truly a compelling need to change the name? For example, has anyone received a letter from the publishers of Tintin that the name needs to be changed? You are correct, Marc, that at times facts have been changed -- but the need to alter fact should be compelling. That is, if a new fact absolutely contradicts an existing fact, it needs to be altered. If an old fact is found to be completely ridiculous (the Militant Buddhist Tibet thing), then it can be altered. Regarding the third point, there are certainly potential copyright issues that touch many of IB's characters: JRRT and Herge are but two examples. We have imported JRRT and his works largely whole cloth. We've done the same with Tintin. There's nothing wrong with this, and there are many examples of whole cloth borrowing. There's also nothing wrong with identifying something that hasn't yet been borrowed, but could be, and altering it accordingly before it placed into IB's canons.

My opinion is that I'd prefer to leave the name "Tintin" be. It's QSS and unless a compelling argument presents to change it, let it be. If some judicious fiddling needs to be done with the author, then fine. If IB specific titles are required (I think there are already some), that's fine too. As I've said previously, I see no problem with amplifying what is known of the author or his works or his conlang. Elemtilas 15:01, 28 May 2007 (PDT)

Yes, there are IB-specific titles: Tintin au Pays du SNOR and Vol 714 pour Sednîr (many translated titles still have Sidney, but that may be regarded as a variant). And then there is all the work several people - myself included - have invested on adaptation of the album covers! Kyrmse 06:29, 30 May 2007 (PDT)

Since the consensus seem to be against it, I withdraw my proposal. --Marc Pasquin 22:27, 11 July 2007 (PDT)