Tintin and the AstraZeneca Tribe
Maybe you are like me. You are afraid to be vaccinated . We don’t really know what we’ll have in our body after all. But maybe you are afraid, like me, to also get sick and die because of the COVID-19.
So I tried to be brave and I took an appointment to have a shot with the AstraZeneca vaccine, the only vaccine I’m authorized to have.
What a strange name for a vaccine don’t you think? It took me days to say correctly the name of this Swedish-English thing. AstraZeneca reminds me of an exotic pre-Columbian civilization lost in the wet jungle of Central America. The AstraZeneca tribe would worship Astra, the god of stars (Astra means stars in Latin) and they would be the cousins of the Aztec and Inca people. A kind of civilization you see in Prisoners of The Sun,, one of the most famous episodes of Tintin (in this episode the civilization the The Incas in Peru, I know my classics…).
It makes sense don’t you think? So I call this vaccine The Tintin vaccine.
So here I am with the nurse, trying to be as brave as Tintin.
Tintin is never afraid
Not to stress I focus on the nurse’s brooch pinned on her black velvet jacket. It’s a nice silver bird.
« You have a nice brooch, it’s a swallow? »
« Not at all, answers the smiling nurse while she takes une syringe. « It’s a dove. I bought it because the symbol of dove comes from a painting… I don’t remember the name of the painter, it’s blue …there is a dove in the clouds »
« You mean Magritte? The dove by the Belgian Surrealist painter? »
The dove by Magritte
« Oui! Magritte that’s it! Are you left or right hand? It’s for the vaccine, it will hurt a bit after … »
« Left hand but…eh… The dove does not come from Magritte but from Picasso. Magritte painted the dove in the late 1950’s, Picasso before I’m quite sure of that …Although the same year Picasso called his daughter Paloma, dove in Spanish it’s a sign! »
Paloma Picasso born in 1949
« Really ? No! I think it comes from Magritte first. It’s over! Please stay in the waiting room for 10 minutes to make sure you don’t have an allergy.»
Great ! Now I’m even more stressed, Waiting? Why? Allergy? Oh my God! I’m going to die in a cold and ugly waiting room …
To stay positive. I write on my smarpthone Dove, Picasso …Yes! I was righ ! The famous Louis Aragon asked Picasso to draw a peace symbol for the French communist party in 1949. Peace… and communists… It’s well known that communist is the synonym for Dalaï-Lama. As the dove is the peace symbol in the Bible ( since the arch of Noah) so Picasso did draw a dove. And the dove is now known as the peace symbol. Surrealist painting of Magritte was made much later in the late 1950’s. Yes! I knew I was right.
The Dove by Picasso in 1949
Another dove by Picasso more well known
« Are you all right ? Can you breath? No allergy? You can go now! »
« I’m fine thank-you. …Well I think. I was right for Picasso. He created the dove before Magritte « «Oh thanks! It’s aways nice to talk about something else than Covid those days. Art is a always consolation. Au revoir Madame … see you in one month ! »
Ah yes… I have to come back in one month for the second shot, Wonderful…
As I walk in the street and I see my reflection in a showcase. I touch my face with anxiety, I touch my eyes too. Nothing. I don’t look like a woman painted by Picasso.
I’m relieved.
Thank God I don't look like that!