Errata 2

Swedish Academy News

Malte P — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 18:01:00 +0000

Two new members of the Swedish Academy were announced today: Jesper Svenbro and Kristina Lugn. Two good choices, I think. The comments in the press are so far quite enthousiastic.

Jesper Svenbro is an excellent poet and a classics scholar in Paris. His book Phrasikleia, on reading in ancient Greece, is translated into English, I believe.

Kristina Lugn is a playwright and a poet. Irony and drastic humour are typical qualities of her work. She is widely read and liked in Sweden. Thus a popular choice, but not populist.

On Thursday (12th October) the winner of this year's literary Nobel Prize will be announced. I haven't heard any interesting gossip and the speculations are about the same as last year (when all of them was wrong, of course).

Nobel prize gossip

Malte P — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 13:42:00 +0000

Sorry for never updating this blog! The Literary Saloon complains about lack of Nobel buzz this year, so I'll do my best. An article in the Norwegian press seems to claim that dramatist Jon Fosse, according to "sources close to the academy", "is seriously considered" for the prize. I've mentioned him before on this blog, but wouldn't give much credence to that kind of source. I've also had an open discussion on my Swedish blog, which lead to no consensus, as would be expected. Personally I've placed my bets on Philip Roth, but lots of other usual suspects are mentioned. Perhaps it's time for a poet? Then probably Adonis, Gennadij Ajgi, Adam Zagajewski, Inger Christensen, or Tomas Tranströmer. Among novelists Amos Oz, Orhan Pamuk, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Herta Müller, Mario Vargas Llosa, Cees Nooteboom, Hugo Claus, Nuruddin Farah, as well as others, are frequently mentioned.

Hello

Malte P — Wed, 04 May 2005 07:08:00 +0000

So, what's a nice blog like this doing in this part of the internet, never getting updated? Maybe its writer is busy writing a new novel? – Alas, not at all. That slob is probably in bed reading Thomas Mann, if he's not blogging in Swedish or playing on-line Scrabble. He claims to be studying Greek, too, but I happen to know that he hasn't opened the textbook in the last week or two.

Norwegian literature

Malte P — Mon, 06 Jun 2005 10:51:00 +0000

The Independent offers its take on the (remarkably well-financed) contemporary Norwegian literary scene. The selection of mentioned writers is naturally very incomplete. Not even the wildly successful – and even more wildly uneven – Jan Kjærstad [amazon.com] is mentioned; whose latest novel, Tegn til kærlighet ("Signs of love") by the way was the most cliché-laden sentimental crap I've read in years... – Others missing include internationally successful playwright Jon Fosse [amazon.com] and, of course, less mainstream writers like Thure Erik Lund and Stig Sæterbakken. I really like the dark, Beckett-like monologues of the latter.

Thomas Kling is dead

Malte P — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 10:29:00 +0000

My favourite living poet, Thomas Kling, is no longer a living poet. Very sad. I translated his brilliant cycle Der erste Weltkrieg (The First World War) into Swedish a year ago. English translations of his poetry do exist; but are probably hard to find. A collection of links to texts in German are to be found here and there's also a good interview here, as well as links to several obituaries from Perlentaucher.

On Swedish literature in English

Malte P — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 01:46:00 +0000

An essay in English on Swedish books published during 2004 can be found here (pdf). Not that I personally remember reading any Swedish book worthy of international attention last year (though I suppose whatever crime fiction was written will do for competing with Dan Brown in German airports). Anyway, at least my book is mentioned.

The Nordic Council Literature Prize

Malte P — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 11:39:00 +0000

The Literary Saloon comments on The Nordic Councils choice of Sjón for literature prize winner. (Probably the only text available in English is in this book on the singer Björk, if indeed it is in English.)

Actually, Sjón, whose books I haven't read was something of a dark horse. Favourites were Monika Fagerholm [amazon.com], from Finland (but writing in Swedish) and the Norwegian Karl Ove Knausgård.

The Literary Saloon also lauds the book coverage in Swedish newspapers. Thank you!

Mircea Cartarescu

Malte P — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 08:54:00 +0000

Since this blog (thanks to its much more regularily updated Swedish sibling, of course) is placed remarkably high in the Google index I might as well use it, if not to gain friends, then at least to influence people.

For example, people are searching for Mircea Cartarescu, who (apart from what I think is a volume of poetry) doesn't seem to be translated into English [amazon.com]. He definitely should be! Since I read the Swedish translation of his story collection (or possibly novel) Nostalgia he's been a favourite of mine. Recently the first part of his trilogy Orbitor appeared in Swedish, partly on my recommendation, and I think it is even greater (if possibly not quite as charming) as Nostalgia. This "baroque autobiography" is partly reminiscent of South American magical realism (especially the more sinister strain of it, as represented by Ernesto Sabato), but set in Bucharest. While describing a personal history, and the history of modern Romania, it also integrates parts set outside the world or inside the brain, whichever you prefer. It is actually a bit megalomaniac in its attempt to present a "theory of everything" – i e, the world, thought, science, dreams, religion... –, but gets away with it remarkably well. Part sci-fi, part fantasy, part philosophy. Definitely a major work by a major writer. Do check him out. Nostalgia is at least translated into French and German. The first part of Orbitor at least into French, though apparantly that translation isn't as complete as the Swedish one. (As Cartarescu noted when I interviewed him a few years ago, publishers in market economies apply a censorship nearly as random as the one applied in communist Romania.)

Update: Good news! It seems that Nostalgia will appear in English during 2005, and an excerpt can be found here, along with another text, called Nabokov in Brasov. Some more info on Cartarescu in English here.

Gombrowicz' Polish Memories

Malte P — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 01:08:14 +0000

I finished Polish Memories [amazon.com] by Witold Gombrowicz recently, and I wish I could say something interesting about it, but it really wasn't that interesting. I would only recommend it to hardcore Gombrowicz fans (of which I am one, of course) and possibly the very small number of people who are specifically interested in the prewar Polish literary scene. Everyone else I recommend to start with Gombrowicz' magnificent Diary [amazon.com] instead. If not the best book ever written, I think at least it's the best book on literature ever written.

Paris Review interviews on-line

Malte P — Sun, 02 Jan 2005 12:16:44 +0000

Yes! The first Paris Review interviews (those from the fifties) are finally available on-line. Unfortunately, the interview with Faulkner isn't available for copyright reasons. I especially wanted to read that one, but I guess I'll have to find it on paper. Interviews from the sixties and so on will be added to the site during 2005. Happy new year, by the way!

Kertész: Liquidation

Malte P — Sat, 18 Dec 2004 03:55:40 +0000

Another day, another Nobel prize winner... Imre Kertész' latest novel Liquidation [amazon.com] is reviewed by Ruth Franklin in the NYTBR. In my opinion the cleverly constructed Liquidation is Kertész' best book yet. That is, since his books are very much interconnected, maybe one should regard them as a whole. Few writers have written as entertaining as Kertész on suicide, depression, Auschwitz and the business of publishing books in Eastern Europe.

(Caveat: Apparantly, the protagonist of Liquidation is called "Kingbitter" in the English translation. I suppose is a literal translation of the name "Keserü" in the original, but it sounds a bit silly, anyway.)

The Liffey Project

Malte P — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 22:41:38 +0000

The Liffey Project is

a site devoted to contemporary writing from five countries: Ireland, the UK, Austria, Germany and Denmark. The Liffey Project is supported by the Culture 2000 programme of the European Commission and [...] presents a selection of writing from each of the participating countries in the original and two translated versions. All of the writing on the site is available in English, Danish and German. Material is also translated into these languages from Welsh, Irish and Slovenian.

I have only had a first look (and am not right now in the mood for reading anything that isn't printed on paper) but several interesting writers seem to be included. I don't know if the site is still updated. Apparently they haven't bothered to tell anyone of its existence. (Thanks to Bengt in Austria for sending me the link.)

Darwinian poetry revisited

Malte P — Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:48:12 +0000

The Darwinian poetry site seems very neglected nowadays, which is a shame, but at least the poems are a lot better than they were at the start. Not that I'd ever expected any great poetry to come out of it, but the concept is an interesting one. At least the early history of poetry, with orally transfered and manually copied texts, commonplaces and imitation, may very well be regarded as an evolutionary process. What if humanity is merely the medium for literature, for myth, and the medium, in this case, isn't the message? Sounds like another philosophical SF-novel I'll never write... (I'll leave it to those monkeys with the typewriters, where ever they are.)

And more

Malte P — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 05:50:00 +0000

So, what is it that Elfriede Jelinek is going to miss out on today? Probably great food and very boring conversation with the king of Sweden (or someone like that). As for me, I'm escaping from more Nobel coverage and going to Helsinki over the weekend.

Austria

Malte P — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 09:36:38 +0000

No Nobel news of real interest today, I think... That Elfriede Jelinek isn't exactly fond of Austria is of course no new information either. Austrian writers seldom are. Thomas Bernhard (whose last novel Extinction [amazon.com] definitely would have been worthy of a Nobel prize) never tired of denouncing its "nazi catholicism", as he liked to call it.

However, the interesting thing is that I have always thought all of this to be an exaggeration. Which it maybe is. But recently I have had the opportunity to speak to a few rather prominent German writers, one of which lived in Austria, and they claimed that the Jelinek/Bernhard-picture of the country as horribly conservative and utterly unwilling to challenge its Nazi past is more or less literally true.

Having never been to Austria I can't have an own opinion. But I know that I have at least two readers in Austria, so feel free to add yours.