Bookwormish, 2nd quarter of 2018
Jul. 7th, 2018 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starfishstarVERY TOP BOOK:
Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
It is so rare that I’m able to pick just one favorite out of the 30 or more books I read in a quarter (!), but this time there’s no question: It’s Tess of the Road, by the ever-increasingly brilliant Rachel Hartman.
Tess is a very traumatized, very angry person, forcing down every single one of her desires for the sake of her family. This is the story of how she finally breaks away and starts walking, coming to know herself as she just keeps walking down the road. It’s an amazing portrait of grief and healing, of friendship and family ties and how to balance them with the needs of the self. And because it’s Rachel Hartman, it’s often funny too, and the world-building is as flawless as ever. (This book falls under fantasy, probably YA fantasy, but I’ve been recommending it even to people who normally never touch fantasy, because it’s just that good.) What also blew me away was the compassion that keeps unfolding throughout the book – every minor character gets a chance to be seen as more than just what the protagonist first thought of them. Truly astounding. Such a beautiful and necessary book, I could write about it for pages and still feel speechless.
MORE TOP BOOKS:
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado – Machado combines vivid, visceral realism with a twist of fantasy and a touch of horror to tell powerful stories. And she’s very, very good.
Chime by Franny Billingsley – Another beautiful Franny Billingsley story of learning to outgrow past beliefs that are hurting you, in a beautifully realized folklore-based setting. Also, Billingsley practically creates her own language for her character’s inner voice. (Warning, though: this otherwise beautiful book includes a very negative portrayal of an autistic secondary character, so proceed with caution if that’s upsetting!)
The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson – A book that is impossible to describe. A nonfiction portrait of love (both as partner and parent) and of making a nontraditional, queer family. Nelson’s writing draws deeply on poetry, philosophy, sex and everyday domesticity and – as one reviewer said – turns every one of those things on its head.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid – Hamid’s Exit West was another rare case of a book that won my clear favorite of a whole quarter, quite possibly a whole year. So I wanted to read more by him, and this didn’t disappoint. A seemingly simplistic set-up (a friendly local tells his life story to a visiting tourist, as they drink tea at a local market) twists more and more complexly, as you increasingly wonder who is telling the truth and who, if anyone, is what they seem.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston – Another classic I’m so glad I finally read: Hurston’s portrait of a woman coming into herself and her own narrative voice.
The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson – Recommended to me, of course, because of the Iceland connection and the folklore connection (thanks to gilpin25 for being the first to mention it!) but why it captured me was Magnusson’s gentle, compassionate portrait of long-ago people bearing unbearable horrors, bringing vivid life to people who are otherwise just names in a historical record.
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward – Ward weaves together the small incidents of daily life and the heady themes of mythology to tell the story of Esch, her brothers and their dog, surviving extreme poverty and neglect in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina.
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli – Wait, wasn’t this already one of my top books in a previous quarter? Why yes, it was, but I recently reread it and it’s still a favorite. :-) I reread this after seeing the movie; because I’m very, VERY glad the movie exists – it was good in many ways and so important in many more – but I found it only middling as an adaptation of the book. A lot of the things that are cringe-worthy in the movie (or just underdeveloped) are beautifully handled in the book. One to read and reread!
EVEN MORE GOOD BOOKS:
A Time to Keep by George Mackay Brown – Quietly moving stories of the struggle to survive in the harsh conditions of Orkney in the past.
Toning the Sweep by Angela Johnson – Slim but powerful tale about a daughter, mother and grandmother coping with love and grief, as they pack up the grandmother’s house that she’s moving out of due to illness.
Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo – A weird but quite wonderful story that is yes, a love story, and yes, involves a troll, but probably not in any of the ways you’re thinking.
Orkney Folk Tales by Tom Muir – An excellent collection of traditional tales, told with humor and the eye of an avid historian. I was very interested in reading up on the folklore of Orkney while I was there, and found this book an excellent route in.
Venus as a Boy by Luke Sutherland – Another Orkney author, telling a magical realist tale of racism and ostracism in a small town.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë – A classic I wanted to reread now that I actually know some things. :-) It fascinates me how Brontë is this combination of so traditional to our eyes yet so radical for her time.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling – Working in a library in the UK seemed like a very good opportunity for access to the Harry Potter audiobooks, specifically the Stephen Fry audiobooks. I noted down so many thoughts during my reread that I’m going to add them as an addendum at the bottom of this post, rather than filling up space here!
The Likeness by Tana French – Another intricate and deeply character-driven mystery from Tana French, whose In the Woods I raved about last quarter.
Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson – The more time I spend in Scandinavia, the clearer it is what an important piece of the culture I’m missing by not having grown up with the Moomins. Working to rectify that!
A Separate Peace by John Knowles – A thoughtful exploration of war, childhood, innocence and the sometimes devastating effects arising from small moments of anger and jealousy.
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – I’ve read every other single thing by Adichie, so I needed to complete the canon! I don’t love these short stories as much as I love her novels (and nonfiction!) but they still bear her trademark insightful explorations of the places where people – and cultures – overlap.
Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde – Aww. It’s that story about three best friends falling in love at their first fan con, and it’s just as charming as expected. Yes, the characters’ dialogue sometimes reads like a how-to manual on How to Be the Best and Most Supportive, Perfect Friend at Every Possible Moment, but the overall story was so charming that I didn’t even mind the sometimes unrealistic dialogue (and unrealistic dialogue is usually my biggest hard no).
The Great Shelby Holmes Meets Her Match by Elizabeth Eulberg – Nine-year-old Shelby Holmes and 11-year-old John Watson continue to be an utterly charming addition to the wide world of Holmeses and Watsons, in this sweet retelling of the events of A Scandal in Belgravia through the lens of middle school friendships and dramas.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde – Wanted to reread this now that I know more about British history, culture and literature (as compared to when I first read it and knew nothing!) and it’s still delightful.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
I feel like damning these books with faint praise by putting them into this section, but even making it onto my quarterly books post at all means I thought they were worth recommending! I just had way, way too many books this quarter, and had to subdivide them somehow…
Magical Folk: British and Irish Fairies: 500 AD to the present ed. Ceri Houlbrook and Simon Young – A comprehensive survey of folktale traditions from all parts of Britain and Ireland; another piece of my folklore research while in Orkney.
A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas – The plot is a little overly convoluted, but Charlotte Holmes is an intriguing contribution to the Holmeses of the world. And I love seeing a Holmes and Watson so different from the original (here, both are women, and they’re divided by a significant gap in both age and class) nonetheless form that immediate bond we love so much between these two.
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon – A fairly straightforward YA romance, but with the very welcome addition that both protagonists are first-generation Indian-Americans, the children of immigrants, and both are navigating family expectations, though in very different ways.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater – Stiefvater’s writing is as good as ever, and Blue and her houseful of clairvoyant aunts are great characters, so I’m not sure why I wasn’t able to get fully into this. I think I’m just at a point where I cannot bring myself to care about the travails of a group of rich white boys (no matter how much they remind me of the Marauders!) But the book is good, so I’m sure I’ll circle back to the rest of the series at some point.
Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley – A fun graphic novel about going too far in using magic to correct your mistakes.
Cinder by Marissa Meyer – Another fun and well-written series starter that I just don’t seem to be in the headspace for at the moment, but I would definitely recommend it to any teen. A futuristic retelling of Cinderella!
The Case for Jamie by Brittany Cavallaro – Um. Wasn’t even sure whether to include this (the third book in Cavallaro’s Charlotte Holmes series) on this list – it was neither good nor bad, but apparently the plot was forgettable…because I’ve already forgotten it. But it at least rounded out the series in an okay way; the first book in the series was one of my favorites and then the second was so bad, so I guess “okay” is all I could hope for in the third one!
AN ADDENDUM: REREADING OOTP!
For all that I think about the Harry Potter world constantly, I don’t actually reread the books themselves all that often. I picked Order of the Phoenix because it was the first Stephen Fry audiobook I hadn’t yet listened to, but there’s also great pleasure in revisiting a section of the canon timeline I’ve written about deeply and extensively for years. (Which is a weird and pretentious way of thinking about someone else’s novel, through the lens of my fanfic about it – but fanfic and writing has been my main mode of engagement with Harry Potter fandom for, what, 7 or 8 years now? I’ve written Harry Potter more than I’ve read it, weird as that is. Even though I have also read it a lot.)
So it was super fun to revisit these characters with an eye to how my own take on them has changed over time. There are characters who didn’t register much on my radar when I first read the books, but I now care about deeply after having explored them in writing for so long. Sirius is the obvious one: I didn’t like him much in the books, because as much as he loves Harry, he’s often not actually a good parent figure to him, encouraging him to do risky things and failing to untangle his own excellent principles from his petty jealousies. But, as I’m sure you all know, I’ve fallen completely for Sirius the more I’ve written him, and I now read even his bad moments with more sympathy. Also, the Crookshanks and Sirius friendship makes me so glad! And Harry losing Sirius breaks my heart anew every time.
Also, Ginny! I didn't pay as much attention to her the first time around, but the more I've written about her the more I’ve come to love and admire her feisty strength and determination, and now I cheer her every appearance.
And of course Neville. Always, always Neville.
As for JKR's writing, as always she's brilliant at how she subtly sets up hints that will later turn out to be important: like Grubbly-Plank’s throw-away mention of “thestrals” by name (before Harry’s made the connection about what they are), or Draco’s mention of the “Closed Ward” at St Mungo's, before we then end up seeing Neville’s parents there. Or a very clever way of slipping in how long Trelawny has been at Hogwarts (i.e. this will prove relevant to the Prophecy, which was made shortly before Harry was born) during Umbridge’s inspection.
JKR’s little bits of stage business are always excellent, too, like the random charms they’re practicing in class while also having important plot-developing conversations.
“Have a biscuit, Potter”!!! Truly one of the most iconic lines in all the books.
And I will never, never tire of the British pronunciation of Dark Arts as “dahhk ahhts” ;-)
“Fools who wear their hearts on their sleeves…” – a beautifully succinct summation of Snape’s life philosophy (and so opposite to Dumbledore!) Nope, though, I still don’t like Snape. He’s an interesting character, he’s an important character, but I don’t like the person. People have been surprised in the past that I’m not drawn to writing about Snape, when I like similarly complex characters such as Remus. But the difference to me is that Remus has suffered and been broken down by life, over and over, he’s been left with so little, yet he still strives to be kind to the people around him. Snape, for all that he ultimately does the right things in the larger picture, spends the rest of his time deliberately being nasty to people less powerful than him, cutting down and insulting his students. Nope, nope, nope. That will never be okay.
Harry and Cho: an object lesson in How Not to Date.
Fred and George’s departure is epic and perfect, always. And Neville as the other one the Prophecy could have been about intrigues my brain so much. I love Neville more every time I think about him.
“He would never forgive Snape” (a line of Harry’s thoughts near the end of the book) – ouch. But also, what an amazing arc Harry is going to embark on, from this point until the end of the series when he names his son after Snape! (As much as I personally dislike Snape, I’m certainly not saying Harry has to dislike him.)
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Date: 2018-07-07 05:39 pm (UTC)i'd be interested in hearing more about your thoughts of troll: a love story! (this is...not at all related to the fact i wrote a paper about it at university that one time...and i would not describe it as a love story either. :'''D it's not a great title imo, the other english publication went with a title closer to the original.)
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Date: 2018-07-09 08:09 pm (UTC)The troll book, oh gosh. I read it super fast while briefly in the US (and thus reveling in brief access to so many books I can't get from the library in the UK), so I'm not sure I remember it cogently enough to say much.
I was on the fence about it for a while, but by the end I would say I liked it. It was definitely weird! And for a while it looked like it was going to go in a pedophilia direction, which...yikes. No. But so then I was pleasantly surprised by the ending, and I actually did feel like I would call it a "love" story in a way, but sort of a familial love instead? (Trying to be a bit vague so as to not entirely spoil it for anyone who might see this and be interested in reading it.)
Also, the translation felt pretty clunky – unnatural dialogue and such. It put me off enough that I wasn't sure I would be able to stand to read the book, but I powered through.
More, though, I would love to hear YOUR thoughts, since you've written a paper about it! You obviously know and have thought about the book much more than I have.
By the way, have you read much or anything by Sjón? (For an example of the opposite: the English translator of his work, Victoria Cribb, is great!)
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Date: 2018-07-10 12:00 pm (UTC)the paper was an exam paper, which meant that i was given a set research question and thus didn't actually decide which direction to go in myself (entirely). i got a week to write the paper, then. i was asked to 'discuss the theme of the novel in relation to Einar Már Guðmundsson's essay about "realistic fantasy" in an anthology about nordic fantasy. so my approach to the novel was through the fantasy genre and less through...well, literally anything else :'''D
the title, ennen päivänlaskua ei voi (not before sundown) is a line from a poem/song. several other lines from the poem are section titles throughout. the poem is Reino Helismaa's Päivänsäde ja Menninkäinen (performed by various artists through the ages - it's a cultural cornerstone), which was not actually in the original Finnish version! it's in the English translation in the same spot where the Finnish version has a poem by Eino Leino called Pimeän Peikko ("the troll of the darkness)". my guess is because the author didn't need to lampshade the poem because literally everyone knows this song, but translated? hmm, well. foreign readers wouldn't know it. so eino leino's poem went, and was replaced with this one instead.
that song is about Päivänsäde, a human (girl, though the song is not gendered) who falls in love with a troll even though the troll is a 'dark' being, and ends up leaving so that she won't fall under its spell and die. basically. this sounds familiar, no? :''D Päivänsäde means "rain during the day", not a common female name, and definitely one that evokes a fairytale feel. and Menninkäinen is a word for troll. Here's a link to the lyrics (in finnish). the lines from the song that make the section titles are (translations are mine):
1st part hämärä jo maille hiipi "twilight already creeps over the land". in the song it's metsään (over the forest) instead of over the land, a change that baffles me and that I suspect may have been an error on behalf of the author. anyway, this is from the beginning of the poem when Päivänsäde finds herself alone (dropped behind) in the forest and the sun is going down.
in the second half of that first verse we find the title to the book, as Päivänsäde sees the troll appear after the sun is gone, and is an explanation "as trolls cannot exist/live above ground before sundown".
2nd part tunsi kumma leiskuntaa "felt strange bliss", from the second verse. it's the troll that's feeling the strange bliss, as they looked at one another. (in the book, it is Enkeli who feels this strange bliss...) and Marte notices that Enkeli has a new aftershave, and is attracted to him, but this 'aftershave' is Pessi's pheromones lingering on his skin.
3rd part loisteesi mun sokeaksi saa "your light blinds me", and the entire line in context i in the poem is "it doesn't matter if your light blinds me, it's good to live in the dark" which is, said by the troll to Päivänsäde. uh, a self destructive thought if i ever saw one. sounds familiar, no? :'''D Enkeli, blinded by Pessi, is headed for the darkness...starts not caring about anything else in his life and continues to manipulate people around him.
4th part pimeys vie hengen multa "darkness takes my breath away" is from the third verse, the verse where Päivänsäde realises she must leave if she wants to live. it goes:
Säde answered: "lovely troll,
[your] darkness takes my breath away,
and i don't want to die.
i have to leave immediately,
fly towards the light,
or else I will not live for a moment [longer]".
and so beautiful Päivänsäde left,
and yet,
when menninkäinen goes to sleep at night
he thinks, why is one the child of light
and why does the night love the other
in the book this is...where everything takes on a more 'devilish' and religious turn, where for example the section literally starts with an excerpt from an old sermon that with old-timey spelling says "old finns have have called evil angels also: [lists of various words for the devil, many of which are taken from old folklore for nature spirits, including words for trolls]. the other non-fictional part of the section is about satanic cults in northern finland. and also, this is the part where everything starts falling apart for Enkeli, Martes tries blackmailing him, he tries getting rid of the troll and can't, etc. and there is a line in there that goes "and again i close the door, again i run away. i run away into myself, into Pessi." so like. :'''D
5th part ja toinen yö rakastaa "and the night loves the other". this is the last section and the one where Enkeli gets "lost" - as you know, he goes with the troll to the forest, where they are met with another, adultier troll, WITH A FUCKING GUN.
also sidenote here because i don't remember how this was in the translation, but Enkeli means angel. and Enkeli is described like an angel, all cherub and blond and blue eyed and beautiful etc, so it seems like he's supposed to be Päivänsäde's counterpart.
so, i've explained all this because I think it's massively interesting that the book is presented within the framework of the song, this important cultural thing, which is all about falling in love with nature and its dangers and then, in order to stay alive, have to *not* engage with that love or succumb to it. it's this...seduction of the mystic nature we don't fully understand that we are advised to resist, you know? don't turn your back on the sea, etc. it's based in folklore, fairytales, and there's a theme in many (western) folklore/tales a theme of nature vs civilisation which is about the boundaries between the two and how they should not be breached lest bad things happen. red riding hood gets eaten by the wolf when she goes into the forest, and even in modern storytelling you see it - king kong wreaks havoc on the city when he goes into it. the message seems to be that you don't mess with nature, you leave it be, you respect it, you stay alive. don't get seduced by it.
and the book does a fantastic job of building up this world where not only are trolls real, they are presented as animals, listed in the encyclopedia, etc. and does this by including real poems and stories from finnish culture amongst the fictional non-fiction parts. so you think you're reading a book about a rescued troll, by the way trolls were recently discovered, isn't that neat? but by the sole act of Enkeli taking the troll into civilisation (his flat) he has upset the boundaries between nature and civilisation and triggered a process that's going to end badly. and as a reader familiar with trolls' cultural role in finland, you might be aware that something isn't right, but if you know Päivänsäde and Menninkäinen, you'll expect a happy ending - for Päivänsäde to get away, and thus for Enkeli to get away. but Enkeli isn't in the forest. the troll is in the city. that story is turned upside down here, and it's revealed, slowly, that trolls aren't all they seem to be, and that not only are they intelligent beings in their own right (literally the hairs on my neck rose when i read the bit where Enkeli came home and saw the troll had built a complex structure in the living room) the entire nature vs civilisation dichotomy might be blatantly false to begin with? or nature has been corrupted already (the machine gun)? and by flipping the Päivänsäde and Menninkäinen narrative on its head, it's also asking us to consider - who in this scenario is the dark, destructive force, really? is it the troll, or is it the human? (and knowing now what i didn't then about Sinisalo's other books (which i haven't read yet), it seems an obvious allegory for manmade environmental destruction.)
so...that's why i don't think it's entirely accurate to call it a love story (though it is, in a way) and why i prefer the original title, because the original title directs our attention to the subversion of the poem (and the finnish troll folklore & cultural 'identity', and the nature vs civilisation trope) the novel is built around. it does it by reframing a love story, sure, but that's not really what's important here? imo anyway!
i think there are loads of other things to dig into re: this book and i haven't even mentioned the other half of my paper which was about the 'realistic fantasy', but basically what that was about was that i was remarking how nordic fantasy often seeks not just inspiration in local folklore and traditions, but grounds it in reality and presents it as something that's real. some other works that do this are the movies Rare Exports (2010) (finnish movie about, uh, the real santa claus) and Trolljegeren (2011) (norwegian blair witch project style movie about trolls), which...surprisingly, are both about trolls. and this book does that, because it takes this local thing and turns it real. so it's fantasy, but it doesn't have wizards and high magic and made up countries or whatever else we think of first when we hear 'fantasy', it's realistic to a degree, and it's intensely familiar, and in the case of this novel, uses that familiarity to provoke the reader and also pose questions.
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Date: 2018-07-11 01:22 pm (UTC)(Any hypothetical person seeing these comments who hasn’t yet read the book but wants to, stop here! Big spoilers ahead, and the surprises in this novel are definitely much of the fun!)
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Well, the pedophilia thing was because of the intense aphrodisiac effect that troll pheromones have on humans… The main character keeps getting extremely turned on in the troll’s presence (with the troll being clearly presented as a very young child!) and just barely managing to pull away and subvert those feelings into more appropriate channels, like hook-ups with his various flings and exes. But it keeps seeming like he’s right on the verge of slipping up WITH the (child!) troll, and because I was perhaps also misled by the English “love story” title, there was a while in the story where I was pretty worried and definitely squicked. That’s why I was so relieved by the ending, where the MC seems to identify himself as kind of family to the troll, to the point of leaving everything and following him into the wild – that’s why I felt like, in *way*, okay, it is a love story – but a family one, not a romantic one.
(I mean, not that anything about the MC’s actions was good or rationally thought out…but I found myself weirdly on board with the idea of the trolls’ impending violent uprising, given the way they’ve clearly been treated! From everything you've said, I now see that this must read VERY differently if you’re steeped in the folklore that inspired the book and are primed to think of trolls as dark beings – rather than as an allegory for present-day oppressed and marginalized people, the way I read it? Then again, from what you said about Sinisalo's anti-environmental-destruction messages, maybe I'm not entirely wrong that her sympathies seem to be with the trolls, not the humans, here?)
But I agree, the other English translation of the title, Not Before Sundown, is better – and I think it works even without knowing the source song/poem. At least, I’m familiar with the folklore of trolls and how they turn to stone in sunlight (I think British and mainland European folklore has that too, not just Scandinavian? I’ve certainly seen it in other fantasy works, not just Scandinavian-based ones.) But I’m guessing they assumed that most Americans wouldn’t have any cultural reference point for that, which is why they changed it. That’s FASCINATING, though, that the poem was added into the English version, and that it’s not even in the Finnish original because everyone already knows it so well! Not the choice I would have made as the translator (probably: would have left the text intact, with the other poem) and added the Reino Helismaa song as an epigraph/prelude up front. hm, man, I do miss being a translator and getting to grapple with these things!)
By the way, I definitely thought it was brilliant how Sinisalo creates this whole alternate reality where trolls have always existed, popping up in scientific works, children’s stories, even Tom of Finland! Really brilliant, and totally convincing. Because, as you say, she’s building on existing folklore, but then also crafting this whole world where trolls have just always been there alongside humans, popping up in references of all sorts.
Oh, also, here’s an interesting thing about this English translation, that I think does work: I didn’t even know the character’s name was actually Enkeli! In the English, if I remember right, his name is Mikael, but he’s also often referred to as “Angel” by the other characters, because he has the nickname Michaelangelo because of his beauty. So his name is essentially Michael, but Michael as in the Archangel Michael, and he also gets called Angel. Again, I don’t think it’s the choice I would have made as the translator (I think I would have kept his name, and maybe also used the nickname Angel? I think it’s clear enough that Enkeli must mean angel, as long as it’s mentioned once or some kind of hint given…though maybe that’s my German speaking!)
Yes, though, it’s clear to me that there’s a ton of meaning I’m missing out on as a non-Finnish reader who hasn’t grown up with the source material, and all the wider folklore about trolls: like, I wouldn’t have known that in the source poem, it’s presented as “leave the darkness so you don’t die” and that this is clearly being presented in contrast with Enkeli’s choice to JOIN the darkness. I wonder if that’s even possible to convey in the translation? Because even if you have the song lyrics in the book, a reader just skims over it once and doesn’t absorb its themes deeply, the way you do if you’ve grown up hearing it all the time. FASCINATING. I love these thorny translation theory questions. :-D
Thanks for giving me all this background on the book!
no subject
Date: 2018-07-12 09:28 am (UTC)oh i'm sorry, i forgot to mention, his name IS mikael in the original and enkeli is his nickname, but very few people called him mikael at all. there's some analysis to be done there (esp if going further with the enkeli/päivänsäde mirror) but i didn't look into it at the time. i just go with enkeli every time because it's the most consistent name in the book. but his name is very much mikael in the original and everything you said re: name applies there too!
i don't know who made the decision to swap out the poems, if it was the translator or editor or if there were copyright issues on top of all that? but it's definitely interesting. the eino leino poem that was there originally is a weird one too, that i'm not even sure how to interpret? i've read it a few times and every time it's like, ok is this about a murderous troll or is it about a soldier consumed by darkness or is it about a devilish darkness in humans, or what is it??? so in a way i completely understand the decision to put reino helismaa's lyrics there instead as it would also have provided some cultural context. and on the other hand, eino leino is one of the finnish national romantic poets, very famous, so *his* work is also in the cultural consciousness - but not this particular one. it's one of his darker poems, less read, less known, not as politically "good" as his national romantic poetry. so having that poem in has a certain effect on a finnish reader, that the helismaa lyrics wouldn't have had, because that one is well known. so it's the difference between subversion and painting with large letters, i think? for finns, anyway. for foreigners, i think it wouldn't have made a difference to have the eino leino poem there because its specific function *would* have gone over their heads. (and also, it's a pain to translate. i don't know if it's been translated, but just reading it is confusing enough, and it seems like one of those where as soon as you start translating it, you have to choose one, maybe two, interpretations to translate and won't be able to have it all, so you risk actually making it worse? so...if it were me in that situation, i'm not sure what i would do, but i do know i'm not against the solution the translator/editor came up with for the english translation. (i don't know what the swedish translation did, and i don't think there are other translations but those two).
Yes, though, it’s clear to me that there’s a ton of meaning I’m missing out on as a non-Finnish reader who hasn’t grown up with the source material, and all the wider folklore about trolls: like, I wouldn’t have known that in the source poem, it’s presented as “leave the darkness so you don’t die” and that this is clearly being presented in contrast with Enkeli’s choice to JOIN the darkness. I wonder if that’s even possible to convey in the translation?
THAT is precisely why I wanted to hear your thoughts! because everyone i know who's read the book is either finnish or a fellow student of finnish, so we have that perspective. i wanted to find out how someone who didn't have that perspective/knowledge at all would've read the book!
for example, it never occurred to me that the trolls could've been representative of oppressed and marginalised peoples so that's not a reading i would've come up with on my own - i don't have that background. (upbringing in a homogenous society and all.) but thinking about it now, given that the trolls in the book are also linked with northern finland, it would be easy to draw parallels between them and the indigenous people of sápmi, as they are a marginalised and oppressed people in finland. i'm not entirely comfortable with that reading though, as allegories of that kind where the people are represented by animalistic beings....lots of unfortunate racist and colonialist ties implications there, as they have been historically treated like animals and denied basic rights, not to mention studied like animals (there's a movie about that called sameblod that came out last year i believe). i'd really hope that was not sinisalo's intention, because yikes. :''D
i definitely think (well, i'm more comfortable with that reading anyhow) that she's laying her sympathies with the trolls and thus nature, and it's part of her larger anti-environmental destruction political beliefs. but even without that angle (which i didn't pick up on at first) one of the reasons why i liked the book so much is that as a fanfiction writer/reader/fandomperson, this book resonated with me in that way - taking a known trope, subverting it, using 'canon' along with 'new' inventions, and also it's gay. XD and to be completely honest, i regularly consider applying for a phd program with a thesis proposal that is just about THIS book. this one book. (i'd probably have better luck if i included the rest of her books, though. i have yet to read them, but it'd probably work...)
and as for your question about conveying all that in translation - who knows, really. we can't control the readers, and even if all the information is there, we can't count on them to pick it up. we can only hope? and even if they don't, who's to say the readers who missed it didn't still have a reading experience and interpretation that's completely valid? that's the beauty of literature after all. but it's definitely something i've given a lot of thought because sinisalo hasn't been translated into danish (aside from one children's book) and i kind of want to (kind of don't) translate this book (and maybe her other books. so i've thought about how to go about it, how to phrase certain things so the meaning comes across, and all, and it's...god, such a task. :''D
the ending though! i read it as very threatening and violent, not at all a happy one. enkeli is met with a *hunting rifle* and my brain instantly went 'oh god, they're going to kill him and eat him.' what else would they be doing with a hunting rifle? he was also clearly (to me, anyway) a prisoner rather than there voluntarily, or at least even if he went there voluntarily, he's now not able to leave. and it's so interesting, esp held up against the song lyrics, because in the song both the troll and the girl are taken with each other, but it's the troll that's willing to burn (go blind) for the girl, and it's the girl who leaves in order to not die (burn/go blind). and here it's exactly the opposite. and because it's the opposite, the ending has to be opposite too, so it's the "wrong" ending. so to me it scans as a...destructive love story rather than a romance. i mean, the original song didn't have a happy ending either if we assume that two lovers choosing to part is an unhappy ending, but they both stayed alive, the girl especially, and we're left only with the troll wondering if it's such a dark creature to begin with when the girl was presented as a destructive force to him, also, you know?
i have a lot of incoherent thoughts about it all. :'''D
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Date: 2018-07-19 01:25 pm (UTC)And yes, that's what drew me to the book too – that fanfic-type interest (or even just: culturally curious interest?) in stories that draw on known stories and folklore but do something new, different and interesting with them, put them in conversation with contemporary questions and issues.
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Date: 2018-07-23 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-07-10 12:03 pm (UTC)anyway, point is, nope. i'm glad to hear the translation is good, though! with more obscure languages it can be SO hard to find good translators.
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Date: 2018-07-11 01:27 pm (UTC)Right now I'm reading From the Mouth of the Whale (Rökkurbýsnir – another case where the English translation of the title is less than inspiring) and it's a bit more of a struggle...I think it may be a case again where I would be getting so much more out of this if I were Icelandic and had all the cultural background!
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Date: 2018-07-12 09:32 am (UTC)that's a hard title to translate, though, i'm not even sure i know what it means??? 'lots of darkness' ?? :'''D what a strange word... i don't think i've seen those two words put together like that before, or even close to it.
best books!
Date: 2018-09-17 06:01 pm (UTC)I'm glad I found you on dreamwidth again. I used to follow you and stereolightning's fics avidly, and I'm pretty sure it was one of you who lead me to Seraphina...
Which goes to follow that I am overjoyed that Tess of the Road was your best book of 2018. it's my best book of the year, too, and I have been telling everyone I know about it. It is so so so so incredibly good. I loved Seraphina so much that I didn't think it was possible that I would love Tess more, but i kind of do, because Rachel Hartman's writing has gotten even better (and it was already amazing to start with.)
I recently discovered Mohsin Hamid and just started Exit West, which I see you have on your last quarter's list. I also find it mind blowing, and am trying to figure out how to do what he does in my own fiction.
And Carmen Maria Machado is high on my to-read list!
It is so much fun to see what you're reading, because I think our tastes are similar, and also so interesting to think about how what we're reading might translate into writing. Thank you for sharing your list!
Re: best books!
Date: 2018-09-17 08:29 pm (UTC)YES, that was totally my experience, and I think probably a lot of other people's too: almost a protectiveness, because I love Seraphina (both the book and the character) SO much, and this new book can't possibly top that and it probably shouldn't even try...and then Tess (both the book and the character) was SO AMAZING. I'm still trying to find words for just how amazing, all these months later.
Exit West! Yes! I just got both my parents to read that. :-) Can you articulate what about his writing you'd like to learn to do? I'm really curious!
Carmen Maria Machado is excellent – and bad news for other short story writers I've read since then, because I keep finding myself comparing them to her (though I know that's unfair).
This is great, I do love talking books, especially with people who have similar interests... I'm going to add you as a friend here, and you're welcome to do the same, so we can continue to talk books in the future. :-D
Re: best books!
Date: 2018-09-28 05:48 pm (UTC)Re: best books!
Date: 2018-09-28 06:03 pm (UTC)Yes, it is me Bets! I use emily-in-the-glass as my username on AO3, so it gets confusing.
Exit West has me thinking a lot about structure first and foremost, and then viewpoint. How does Hamid hold the narrative together, thematically rather than through plot? How do you use such an unconventional framework and yet have it feel perfectly logical and natural? That is what is fascinating. I also love how the voice moves from omniscient storytelling to an intimate third person viewpoint.
I know, Seraphina is one of my favourite beings in literature. I am also very rational, and she is one of a few heroines I've met who help me understand myself. Hartman's writing in Seraphina felt really "fresh," in that I felt like she was writing to please herself, especially with her use of humour.
I just picked up my copy of Her Body and Other Parties from the library (I've been on the waitlist)! I am really inspired so far. I have only read the first two stories and my brain feels like a rabbit jumping around with ideas and inspiration for how to play with form. And then thematically ... I just want to copy out quotes from the book and post them everywhere.
Re: best books!
Date: 2018-10-02 02:34 pm (UTC)Yeah, I should reread. :-)
I hope you enjoy Carmen Maria Machado! And you've read Shirley Jackson, yes? :D