#Swedish literature

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

"Summer is growing old and everything is flowing into a single melancholy murmur"

~ Tomas Tranströmer, from "The Cuckoo"

[megairea]

Nothing can be as peaceful and endless as a long winter darkness, going on and on, like living in a tunnel where the dark sometimes deepens into night and sometimes eases to twilight, you’re screened from everything, protected, even more alone than usual. You wait and hide like a tree.

Tove Jansson, The True Deceiver (tr. by Thomas Teal), 1982

[lionofchaeronea]

The language marches in step with the executioners. Therefore we must get a new language. --Tomas Tranströmer (1931-2015), trans. Robin Fulton

[chiara-klara-claire]

Men jag kan inte döda någon’, sa Jonatan, ’det vet du, Orvar!’ […] ’Om alla vore som du’, sa Orvar, ’då skulle ju ondskan få regera i all evinnerlighet!’ Men då sa jag att om alla vore som Jonatan, så skulle det inte finnas någon ondska.

— Astrid Lindgren, Bröderna Lejonhjärta

But I can’t kill anyone,” said Jonathan. “You know that, Orvar.” […] “If everyone were like you,” said Orvar, “then evil would reign forever.” But then I said that if everyone were like Jonathan, there wouldn’t be any evil.

[hana-loves-bumblebees]

Selma Lagerlöf really thought she could sneak in a greek tragedy into Nils Holgersson’s wonderful journey through Sweden and we wouldn’t notice

[gennsoup]

Choked by its clown's mask And quite dry, my mind Is crumbling.

Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings

[kattahj]

Wealthy people complaining about taxes are in 99.99% of the cases just assholes...

And then there's Astrid Lindgren, who, due to an unfortunate combination of old and new taxes for self-employed people, one year ended up with a marginal tax rate of 102%, meaning that the MORE books she sold, the LESS money she had.

She wrote a fairytale about it that she published in the newspaper, and the minister of finance rather condescendingly claimed that she had miscalculated.

Only she hadn't. And this is considered a contributing reason why the social democrats lost the next election, for the first time in 40 years.

Ironically, Astrid Lindgren otherwise supported the social democrats.

[medea-of-colchis]

Poems written by Z. Topelius

[hoyatype]

I was attracted to it, I inhaled it, I let myself be impregnated by her way of speaking and being. I adapted, made my own version of it, let her change me forever. That’s all there is to the self, or the so-called “self”: traces of the people we rub up against. I loved Johanna’s words and gestures and let them become part of me, intentionally or not. I suppose that is at the core of every relationship, and the reason that in some sense no relationship ever ends.

ia genberg, details, trans. kira josefsson

[birdisland]

Hi Birdisland,

Since you mentioned sweden/Swedish, I wonder if you have any tv shows/films/books that aren't well known internationally (Swedish, or nordic) or really would deserves to be more heard about.

Had this in mind since I fell in love with the movie Aniara! Not rush or pressure. Have the same interest towards African, East Asian, South Asian (in my particular interest non traditional Bollywood) , Latam cinema/media.

If I have missed a previous post or ask. I apologise in advance.

Gräns (Border) from 2018 is a fantastic film. As is Hets (1944).

As for books... my favorite authors are John Ajvide Lindqvist and Astrid Lindgren, both very well known. Another author I like is Inger Edelfeldt, but she's kind of hit-or-miss, 50% of her stuff is pretty bad tbh. Her earlier books are best.

[dendro80]

Took a stroll in the neighbourhood. Went to Karlfeldts gården and looked for signs of spring. Tibasten is soon blooming but otherwise it was nothing to be found.

Erik Axel Karlfeldts childhood home, a swedish author and poet (1864-1931). He lived here as a child and later in life he bought it back. Now owned by the community and is open for everyone. Have during the summer a herbgarden and a smal museum.

April 2023

Karlfeldts gården, Karlbo, Avesta, Dalarna, Sweden

[notallsandmen]

—August Strindberg

[Solnedgång på havet, 1883]

Selected Poems of August Strindberg, editor and translator Lotta M. Lofgren

[megairea]

It’s funny about paths and rivers,’ he mused. ‘You see them go by, and suddenly you feel upset and want to be somewhere else — wherever the path or the river is going perhaps.’

Tove Jansson, Comet in Moominland (tr. by Elizabeth Portch), 1946

[beljar]

A pregnant woman is a frightful object. A new-born child is loathsome. A deathbed rarely makes so horrible an impression as childbirth, that terrible symphony of screams and filth and blood.

Hjalmar Söderberg, from Doctor Glas, 1905

[chiara-klara-claire]

Men svärmodern överraskade Kristina en dag på logen, när hon höll på att åka i en repgunga, som hon i smyg hade satt up åt sig i bjälkarna. […] Kristina var ännu lite barnslig i sinnet och hade leklusten kvar i kroppen. Det var dock underligt att hon ännu ville hållas med att gunga i rep, när hon en gång hade fallit fran en sädan gunga och skadat sig svärt i knäet. Denna yra lek passade inte en gift kvinna, hon borde veta bättre.

- Vilhelm Moberg, Utvandrarna

But her mother-in-law surprised Kristina one day at the lodge when she was riding in a rope swing that she had secretly set up for herself in the beams. [...] Kristina was still a bit childish in her mind and still had the desire to play. It was strange, however, that she still wanted to keep swinging on a rope when she had once fallen from such a swing and badly injured her knee. This dizzying game was not suitable for a married woman; she should know better.

[dynamobooks]

Pär Lagerkvist: Ahasverus död (1960)