Knox and Knuts
Henrik Pontoppidan is an answer to the same pub quiz question as Knut Hamsun. He is also the specialist subject of former Swedish Academician Knut Ahnlund, who resigned after the award of the Nobel prize to Elfriede Jelinek. When pressed, he said he didn't think much of Pinter either.
I am concerned that he might turn into the Nobel's answer to Moira Knox, an Edinburgh councillor who would be reliably disgusted at performances on the Edinburgh Fringe. She did get wise to it in the end.
posted at: 19:04 | path: /nothamsun | permanent link to this entry
Shelving
I have found my copy of Victoria. It is a poor thing of 112 pp, printed on 55 gsm Snowbulk paper and loses easily. Perhaps they don't have trees in Norway.
posted at: 18:51 | path: /methods | permanent link to this entry
Knut Hamsun: Desværre. Gudskelov.
When I mentioned a biography of Hamsun called Svermeren, I neglected to mention Hamsun's 1904 novel Sværmere, because I hadn't heard of it.
Knut Hamsun: Unfortunately. Thank God. includes a skeleton bibliography and an amusing gallery of front covers from all over Europe.
posted at: 12:39 | path: /links | permanent link to this entry
Files
My translation so far is split between two notebooks, one flat ASCII file on a Linux box in London, and several notes files on a mobile phone. Most of the translation has been done on trains.
For. (1) High-density seating, such as you find on a London Eastern Class 150, gives you no elbow room. (2) I can transfer the material, using the Short Messaging Service or Bluetooth, without rekeying. (3) It's very hard to find a working pen.
Against. (1) To type at any speed on a numerical keypad, you need to use predictive text, which is nothing of the sort. (2) A sufficiently large dictionary is too unwieldy in physical form and too slow over GPRS to use, so I put unknown or doubtful words in capitals in square brackets. There is no T9 (predictive text) dictionary for 1898 Bokmål, which means typing out the words letter-by-letter. Click click click wait click click, click click click click.
posted at: 14:48 | path: /methods | permanent link to this entry
Conviction
Despite having a stable name and personal history, unlike the narrator of Hunger, who I shall misleadingly call Tangen from now on, and Nagel in Mysteries, Johannes is unconvincing. He is a poet, apparently, a writer of a great book, then a writer of a new book about Didrik and Iselin, set, like Tangen's planned blasphemous work, in the Middle Ages, but there is little evidence of an inner life.
I am tempted to explain the difference in the following way, thinking of Hamsun's own difficulties in later life. Johannes's chief problem is that he can't move into the same social circles as Victoria. Nagel and Tangen, on the other hand, can barely walk down the road, talk to people, or buy food.
If you've ever walked into a shop and failed to recognize any of what they have for sale as food because you have low blood sugar, you will recognize Tangen's predicament. I've never tried to hobnob with the late 19th century Norwegian upper middle and upper classes. Maybe my lack of imagination is to blame.
posted at: 13:50 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Danish orthography
Mand. (Man.) Fotbold. (Football.) I'm not going to justify, excuse or even attempt to explain, let alone pronounce Danish spelling, or discuss in what sense the d in those words is silent. I will simply point out that in 1898, two years after the death of Ivar Aasen, when Victoria was written, Bokmål still largely followed Danish spelling. Hence the homunculus that Johannes, the miller's son, imagines in the cave where he takes Victoria in chapter 1, is a mandsling. He would be a mannsling today.
I will mention that Dogville could conceivably in Danish be pronounced like Deauville in France, where they have an American film festival. Then I could make the rather rude nasal siren sound that means "You didn't think of that, did you?" and which mirrors the tone of the long Oh that means "I didn't think of that".
posted at: 18:34 | path: | permanent link to this entry
Victoria on stage
If you're near Oslo between the 8th of September and the 30th of October, and I won't be because I've run out of holiday, it's on at Oslo Nye Teater, Hovedscenen on Rosenkrantzgata.
posted at: 18:20 | path: /links | permanent link to this entry
Svermeren, by Ingar Sletten Kolloen
NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) has a review of this recent Hamsun biography.
Northmen and Northwomen will have to be patient while I explain the title to non-speakers. It divides into svermer, and en, which is the masculine definite marker in Norwegian. Often you can use -en or its neuter counterpart -et to translate "the". The University of Oslo's Norwegian to Norwegian dictionary defines svermer as a dreamer, or a fantasist. en romantisk svermer. This looks like a calque or a borrow from the German.
en sverm is a swarm, just like in English.
posted at: 22:24 | path: /biogs | permanent link to this entry
Review of Hunger and Selected Letters, Vol. II
James Wood's review in the LRB (no subscription needed). Last year, his book The Book Against God, which I haven't read, was released, and the reviews said that he was a famous and formidable critic. It was only a few weeks ago that this critic, of whom I thought I had never heard, turned out to be the author of this memorable article, and another which explains why Bohumil Hrabal is so much better than Zadie Smith (please send any reasoned disagreement to victoria@insidecolinshead.com).
What did concern me, and this is raised in the linked letters at the foot of the article, is his claim that the narrator in Hunger is called Andreas Tangen. The narrator merely tells a policeman that his name is Andreas Tangen. He continues, in Sverre Lyngstad's translation:
I don't know why I lied. My thoughts fluttered about in disarray and gave me more fanciful notions than I could handle. I hit upon this far-fetched name on the spur of the moment and tossed it out without any ulterior motive. I lied unnecessarily.We have no reason to trust this statement more than the statement he gave to the policeman.
Not like Catherine Cookson country
Hamsuns Rike (Hamsun's Kingdom) promotes the districts of Hamarøy and Tysfjord, which I have passed through very briefly travelling to the Lofot islands.
posted at: 21:04 | path: /links | permanent link to this entry