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Thoughts on the Millennium Trilogy...
Nov. 2nd, 2010 10:45 am While lounging by the pool at our vacation place with the superb Carlos bringing me cocktails, I finally got around to reading Steig Larrsson's Millennium Trilogy. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl who Played with Fire and The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest.
It was an interesting set of reading and I don't really want to pass too much comment on the books except they're good and definitely worth reading.
I was more fascinated by the setting, Sweden.
Full Disclosure: I work in the mobile industry and have either worked with or for Swedes for a significant proportion of the last decade, I've also had relations with Scandinavians and been to Norway, Sweden and Denmark rather a lot. So it was interesting to read the novels from two perspectives. Firstly, it was interesting to read a Swede describing things I had observed as an outsider, secondly, it was interesting to read about the laundry that the Swede's try not to wash in public.
While they're very proud of what they achieve - for such a small country Sweden punches way above it's weight - they've global leading companies across a huge range of technologies - they're also a nation full of contradictions. They are very proud of the equality in the society, but they also have pockets of intolerance that are shocking for an outsider - you only have to spend a few hours in a bar in Malmo listening to people talk about Muslims to realise that all is not as they like to portray. They're very reserved, rules are followed and people are often extremely controlled in their behaviour - but get Swedes out of Sweden and they tend to let go in a BIG way. They pay high taxes, but they also maintain standards of living on their take home pay that would shock most Americans. There wasn't a single person I worked with who didn't have a new or nearly new car (Volvo or Saab of course), own their own home, boat and have access to a second family home. They were incredibly health conscious, but used tabacco; smoking, snuff and chewing in a way that you don't see in the UK or USA these days.
However, they also have an extremely pervasive and some could argue invasive state. There were experiments with eugenics happening into relatively recent times. A part of the plot of the novels revolves around a central character having been declared "incompetent" as a minor and was having to run their life under the control of a Guardian, even as an adult.
Sweden's state is not portrayed well in the novels and I begin to understand about why there are conspiracy theories about the author's early death. He was certainly kicking at the Hornet's Nest and he damn well knew it. He was making fun of the central apparatus of the state in a way that would be considered fairly normal in a British or American thriller but must have come as a shock to the Swedes. The narrative of the final book has several laugh out loud moments where the incompetence of the spy masters in the back ground is almost comical.
He also, I suspect, played a Mary Sue. I have no trouble that the crusading journalist of the central narrative, Michael Blomqvist is Steig Larsson. And this was another interesting conflict. Larsson's narrative is very focused on women's rights, and yet, Blomqvist is a womanizer who leaves a trail of broken relationships in his wake and sees absolutely nothing wrong in his behaviour. And here I found it harder to believe. He's writing a feminist series, where the central male character sleeps with pretty much every woman he meets.
It might be a metaphor for the contradictory nature of Scandanavian Society and it's perception of sex. It might also be evidence of a massive blindspot in the author.
Either way, they're well worth the read.
It was an interesting set of reading and I don't really want to pass too much comment on the books except they're good and definitely worth reading.
I was more fascinated by the setting, Sweden.
Full Disclosure: I work in the mobile industry and have either worked with or for Swedes for a significant proportion of the last decade, I've also had relations with Scandinavians and been to Norway, Sweden and Denmark rather a lot. So it was interesting to read the novels from two perspectives. Firstly, it was interesting to read a Swede describing things I had observed as an outsider, secondly, it was interesting to read about the laundry that the Swede's try not to wash in public.
While they're very proud of what they achieve - for such a small country Sweden punches way above it's weight - they've global leading companies across a huge range of technologies - they're also a nation full of contradictions. They are very proud of the equality in the society, but they also have pockets of intolerance that are shocking for an outsider - you only have to spend a few hours in a bar in Malmo listening to people talk about Muslims to realise that all is not as they like to portray. They're very reserved, rules are followed and people are often extremely controlled in their behaviour - but get Swedes out of Sweden and they tend to let go in a BIG way. They pay high taxes, but they also maintain standards of living on their take home pay that would shock most Americans. There wasn't a single person I worked with who didn't have a new or nearly new car (Volvo or Saab of course), own their own home, boat and have access to a second family home. They were incredibly health conscious, but used tabacco; smoking, snuff and chewing in a way that you don't see in the UK or USA these days.
However, they also have an extremely pervasive and some could argue invasive state. There were experiments with eugenics happening into relatively recent times. A part of the plot of the novels revolves around a central character having been declared "incompetent" as a minor and was having to run their life under the control of a Guardian, even as an adult.
Sweden's state is not portrayed well in the novels and I begin to understand about why there are conspiracy theories about the author's early death. He was certainly kicking at the Hornet's Nest and he damn well knew it. He was making fun of the central apparatus of the state in a way that would be considered fairly normal in a British or American thriller but must have come as a shock to the Swedes. The narrative of the final book has several laugh out loud moments where the incompetence of the spy masters in the back ground is almost comical.
He also, I suspect, played a Mary Sue. I have no trouble that the crusading journalist of the central narrative, Michael Blomqvist is Steig Larsson. And this was another interesting conflict. Larsson's narrative is very focused on women's rights, and yet, Blomqvist is a womanizer who leaves a trail of broken relationships in his wake and sees absolutely nothing wrong in his behaviour. And here I found it harder to believe. He's writing a feminist series, where the central male character sleeps with pretty much every woman he meets.
It might be a metaphor for the contradictory nature of Scandanavian Society and it's perception of sex. It might also be evidence of a massive blindspot in the author.
Either way, they're well worth the read.
