Before this week’s list of critics was published, voters faced a challenge of purely tectonic dimensions. Three of the long-running titles were lost due to the three-month rule: Richard Flanagan’s “Question 7”, Åsne Seierstad’s “Ofred” and Therese Bohman: “Kammakargatan”. Two bubblers were also at the start: “Magic of Silence” by Florian Illie and “Boulder” by Eva Baltasar.
So points were redistributed, three new titles were voted on and half of the jury is on sick leave.
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Other institutions have different challenges. I recently received a concerned email from the International Society for Intermedial Studies. It’s about the organization’s problematic acronym. “As you all already know, the current acronym is also used by a militant jihadist organization.” The board invites interested parties to submit opinions and their own suggestions for a new acronym to replace the existing one. The board is having difficulty deciding between the previous proposals – SIMS/SIMS and ISImS/ISIMS. Friend for Order asks whether it would be better to consult with the militant organization about changing the acronym on their side. In the worst case, a draw can occur.
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Many years ago I published a text about postwar Satanism, illustrated with a collage of a devil’s head adorning a gentleman in a suit. The internet was still in its libertarian infancy, and the text was straight up twisted and posted on a Swedish satanist website, with no references or source. I simply became an employee. Well, not against me.
The new issue of Hjärnstorm magazine is damn good. The theme is “Sympathy for the Devil” and the lyrics range from Swedish church paintings and folk legends to metal and Satan in art. The topic invites libertarian, interesting antics. For example, when Petter Spjut begins by discussing the temptations of Anthony and ends in “the ultimate monastic horror vision”: the reality soap “Paradise Hotel.” It is a very rich magazine edition.
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Since I have a weakness for unusual books, I am enlivened by a book package from the new publisher Edition ONT – whose logo is very similar to that of the more established publisher Edition OEI – which contains the book “Banana Handbook”. It features 79 parties, all based on the humor tradition’s slip-on-a-banana joke. Among other things, the Pythagorean banana joke and the psychopathic banana joke are discussed here. It looks like social satire. I may return to the book because I’m curious about how one can be satirical these days.
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Anyone interested in humor and powerful cultural history can take a look at Marguerite Yourcenar’s essay “Ah, mon beau château,” which Ellerströms published and which landed on the critics’ list this week. Yourcenar is one of my favorite daisies and here she explores a castle and its turbulent past. The essay was commissioned as a magazine article, but when people saw where it was going, American journalists turned a blind eye. They had more of a romantic representation of the “Castle of Love” in mind. Which didn’t stop the author from continuing to research, among other things, the beautiful Diane de Poitiers – “The cold Diane had the suggestibility of a dishonest notary and the temperament of a miser.” Kajsa Andersson is responsible for the translation and an excellent foreword.
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Read previous newsletters about books.
1. Ingela Strandberg: “Under the Lakes”
Norstedts, 76 pages (1)
The new collection reminds us that it is possible to go beyond hackneyed phrases and write poems about life, death and love.
2. Samanta Schweblin: “The Good Evil”
Trans. Annakarin Thorburn. The Crane, 240 pages (2)
Six new, masterfully disturbing and compressed short stories from the Argentine author.
3. Torborg Nedreaas: “Nothing grows from moonlight”
Trans. Cilla Naumann. Wahlström & Widstrand, 288 pages (3)
Norwegian classic novel from 1947 about the abortion ban and the renewed attention to moralism.
4. Marguerite Yourcenar: “Ah, my beau château”
Trans. Kajsa Andersson. Ellerströms, 80 pages (new)
The French mistress’s long essay about the history of power struggles and scandalous parties at Château Chenonceaux.
5. Sofia Andruchovych: “Amadoka II. Sofia”
Trans. Nils Håkanson. Albert Bonniers Verlag, 507 pages (10)
The second part of this rich epic deals with the Bolshevik terror in Ukraine.
6. Ingrid Elam: “Reading life. The biography, a life drawing”
Nature & Culture, 220 pages (new)
Essay book that writes the history of biography in a courageous and exciting way.
7. Kamel Daoud: “The Scar”
Trans. Ulla Bruncrona. The Crane, 444 pages (new)
Award-winning and controversial novel about the bloody civil war in Algeria from 1992 to 2002.
8. Soraya Bay: “The Horn of Abundance”
Wahlström & Widstrand, 194 pages (8)
Six insightful short stories in a debut collection about women, bodies, class differences and humiliation.
9. Ian McEwan: “What We Can Know”
Trans. Khashayar Lykke Naderehvandi. Bromberg’s, 400 pages (9)
In the English master’s new novel, the world as we know it is long gone.
10. Hannele Mikaela Taivassalo: “InSanatorium”
Publisher, 180 pages (new)
Strange and poetic novel about people in a hotel between dreams and reality.
Elect ten DN critics
The Critics’ List includes books published after November 14th. Last week’s rankings in brackets. The DN critics Åsa Beckman, Jan Eklund, Johanna Käck, Rebecka Kärde, Kristina Lindquist, Maria Schottenius, Greta Schüldt, Jonas Thente, Malin Ullgren and Gabriel Zetterström vote on the list. All reviews can be read at dn.se/kultur
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