She raced past me on the street, wind in her hair, tears from her eyes. I was always the one passing people by, leaving them behind me, staying ahead. Now she catapulted herself past me, left me among the other cyclists, in some slow stew of people who appear to stand still. 'I've got a devils haircut in my mind', Beck sang in my ears but the only thing I saw in the morning commotion was my speed being reduced to sand by the tears of a speeding woman. The fleetingness of the specialties we carry around.
Among the many fine Swedish authors I've read Bodil Malmsten stands out as one of the most important. This many people know. Bodil also has a blog(in Swedish), where she writes long and short things, sometimes fiction about a faimly of tejp, sometimes small sad observations of life, a life she used to live in France but now does in Sweden. She has humor, like when she linked to this article in The Guardian titled 'Ten rules for writing fiction'. Her only comment to this link, with numerous novels written? 'I've always wondered.'
The article lets authors give their advice on the writing process, and even though I am against rules in fiction writing there are some good things, like reading what you have read out loud or Magraret Atwood's suggestion of what to think about when writing on airplanes: 'Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can't sharpen it on the plane, because you can't take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils.'
I finished a novel in Swedish this past week, and in the spur of the moment sent it out to some people who I trust. This was, according to Atawood a good plan as her number 8 rule is: 'You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You've been backstage. You've seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone in the publishing business. This friend should not be someone with whom you have a romantic relationship, unless you want to break up.'
Anyway, read the article, its funny and even though I do not agree with many things I always find it interesting when authors discuss the writing process.
I've been writing plenty lately, so if you have some patience you can soon look forward to:
1. A review of the new Beach House album Teen Dream
2. A review of Mumford And Sons album Sigh No More
3. A discussion of character interaction in Tarantino movies
4. A short short story titled 'The coffee that left the office'
Until then I bring you some color in this Feist (who will play a part in the upcoming Broken Social Scene album) video which all of you have seen but might have forgotten about.
The main character, Alan Blair, in Jonathan Ames (creator of the fabulous TV-series Bored To Death) novel 'Wake Up, Sir!' on sexuality:
'The human sex drive is relentless, especially the homosexuall human sex drive. One finds it everywhere, it knows no dark corners - or, for that matter, dimly lit corners - where it cannot trespass. But it's not just homosexuality that is prevalent: old-fashioned heterosexuality is still the most popular form of sensuality between two people. Drive past any school yard - somebody is producing these children, though I understand that enrollments have been dropping. Homosexuality is perhaps then making headway in terms of overall subscription, while of course self-abuse remains the most popular form of sensuality overall, though not between two people, unless the two people are self-abusing in each other's company, which is often a happy compromise in both the homosexual and heterosexual communities.'
On the back cover someone from the Portland Oregonian (had to google that to make sure it actually was a real paper, it is) claimd that Ames is a edgier David Sedaris. I would agree and say that generally, that is a good thing.
Airportline was recently encouraged to write a short presentation message that would be sent to his new colleagues. This is what he wrote:
I’m originally from Karlstad, Sweden but have lived in Malaysia, the United States and The Netherlands. I really enjoy working and studying in an international environment and appreciate the fact that I will be able to continue to do this at Spark. I finished my Masters degree in European Communication Studies at UvA in October last year, in my master thesis I researched the role of organizational culture and core values in Greenpeace International and Philips. At SPARK I will mainly work with communication aspects and try and develop the newsletter and website and figure out how we can use social media to make an even bigger impact and hopefully intensify the community around our projects. On my spare time I am an aspiring fiction writer, floorball (kind of indoor hockey) player, music nerd and excellent meatballs chef.
This Friday I watched a long interview in Swedish with, probably my favourite Swedish author, Jonas Hassen Khemiri. I understand that you not-Swedish people find his name as non-Swedish sounding as you are. But be calm, Sweden is no longer only a country of blond women with large breasts and white tennis players with hair bands. We also have writers that provoke and enhance the Swedish language with both creativity and bravery. Jonas Hassen Khemiri is maybe the best example of this trend, both his books Ett Öga Rött (One Eye Red in English) and Montecore – En Unik Tiger (Montecore in English) are both magnificent books which he has sold translation right to both the U.S and The Netherlands and Germany.
In this interview he claims that he sometimes is more concerned by fictional character than with real ones, and that he sometimes spends too much time with the fictional characters and not enough with real ones. I find this very interesting, a sort of productive escapism. And maybe it's something that is demanded from a great fiction writer, just as a business man needs to devote time to his work, so does a fiction writer with his/her characters. And maybe that's why I will never be as good as him, cause so far, I'm not willing to trade time with real people for time with my fictional character. Maybe I just need to come up with better characters, characters that I would like to spend time with...
