(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Abo Rasul aka (also known as) Matias Faldbakken, has delivered a new powder barrel of a novel; Power and Rebel kicking as hard and as sleazy as last year The Coke Hola Company.
It is a joy to see that both the leftist activist communities and the advertising industry get the hat fit; Faldbakken delivers in their fresh, yes almost aggressive language their full-fledged world views, and puts their finger on the loss of meaning that occurs in the symbolic carousel the two groups are sometimes involved with.
Power & Rebel
Power is CCCCPU (Contemporary Counter Culture Commersial Pick Upper), or in good Norwegian: Advertising guru who snaps up underground trends for use in commercial brand projects. He goes dressed as Robert De Niro in the movie Taxi Driver, and, to put it mildly, controversial tattoos: WW1 on one arm, WW2 on the other; SOUTH TOWER on one leg, NORTH TOWER on the other. Still, he's not a walking disaster, but a blazingly intelligent guy.
Although the corporations bring Macht underground, he avoids becoming one of the “culture bums, the activist bums, the neo-radical bastards, the critical theorists, the slum kings of progressive music, the inhabitants of the opinion production ghetto, the huge gypsy camp of lyricists. , the counterculture rats. ”, which he believes this environment consists of.
Rebels on the other hand are part of the underground environment; an environment that does not resemble a normal left-wing association:
PUSH
Fact Frank is the commander in PUSH, and has steel control over his troops, which in addition to Rebel consists of people like Satan-Hora, Hacker-Cato, Nasdaq, Pat Riot, and others.
They all have an interest in cultural "youngness, freshness, newness and actuality", which characterizes their business; a business that ranges from the import and sale of counterfeit branded clothing, through the manipulation of the logos of various brands, to violent demonstrations of the more traditional kind.
Acid pump
Rebel, however, is pot sour. Even drugs have become boring: “I do not get a bad conscience from it anymore. "Everything that does not give me a bad conscience begins to appear meaningless," he says.
PUSH's business has also become silly; as dumb and predictable as the society Rebel will criticize: “What the hell role does it really play here in Scandinavia, where everything works and at a time when everyone – every student, every loser, every junkie, every… MUSICIAN – thinks alike, is equal subversive and equally inventive, similar on the edge, which means equally BORING BORING everyone. ”
Anything worse?
The normative distinctions are about to collapse for Rebel, and with them also the possibility of meaning collapses. It is this loss of meaning that drives Rebel towards ever new transgressions: “What is worse than atrocities in sex, violence and abuse of power, or a clever and cold combination of the three? Extensive sexual, physical or psychological abuse of innocent children? I do not think of anything and it makes me uneasy. It M ?? then is there anything worse? ”
Hitler / pedophilia
This attitude also has Macht, who becomes fascinated when he sees Rebel recycle Hitler's speeches and experiments with pedophile escapades in a desperate attempt to fill life with something provocative, which can create reactions.
The two find each other, and end up embracing a mixture of Nazi symbolism and pedophilia as a last resort in the pursuit of meaning in our rich oil empire. It all culminates in a violence / sex orgy that gives the advertising industry, the underground and the Internet porn audience very long masks.
half Absurd
The provocation to Faldbakken is meant to hit the radical activist community, and perhaps especially those parts of it that specialize in manipulating the logos of well-known brand names, such as Adbusters, and the harsh demonstrator communities. I have to admit that I like this railing quite well.
In the borderland between what is excessively absurd and what is easily recognizable, Faldbakken manages to put his finger on something significant: a tendency to make the symbolic dimension of politics take on more importance than the content of politics; the aestheticization of radicalism leads to a dangerous loss of meaning.
Perhaps the extreme solution of Macht and Rebel is necessary to regain meaning, but I doubt that Rasul's intention can be summed up with this; The grotesque nature of Nazism and pedophilia perhaps makes it more accurate to say that the strategy is flawed. Maybe you should try to regain meaning in a radical project?
Creates debate
Whether this is to kick in open doors is a slightly different question; for there are hardly any environments of PUSH's caliber that dominate the left. It is a weakness of the novel that it seems so far removed from life. Some of the power of the literary amusement parks disappears.
Nevertheless, the book has given rise to a discussion in Klassekampen about the possibilities of radicalism. Last Monday, the newspaper had an interview with the advertiser Thomas Seltzer in Bengal Consulting, who believes the left is too elitist and exclusive, and to such an extent that a radical project becomes impossible before the left slides down from its high pedestal. "The left is stolen from ordinary people," he said. Both Macht and Rebel could agree with him on this; the issues in the novel are probably therefore relevant nonetheless.
Semi Pubs Talt
Either way Power and Rebel fun reading. It has drift and it has lap.
And that despite the fact that the language is at times puberty; anal sex, puling, pedophilia and its like are the review melody.
Fortunately, Faldbakken has more to do with: Power and Rebel is an excellent example of how literature can have political power without being admonishing and moralizing. The book also addresses more interesting topics than the left's flaws: Is genius tolerance above anything else about whispering the normative distinctions? Is a radical project possible? What is left when nothing provokes anymore?
Provocative
Faldbakken does not answer these questions unequivocally, but the novel itself is designed to provoke both linguistic and content. For even though the genius of the book being attacked is widespread within the left, there are limits to tolerance. Nazism and pedophilia are over the limit. Then why am I not being provoked?
A daunting loss of meaning is not an answer to this question. It is, on the other hand, the caricature and exaggeration Power and Rebel showing signs of. However, this is not so serious that the overall impression is disturbed.
Worth the wear
Power and Rebel is a difficult book for anyone who does not know the references. Extensive use of both English and youthful jargon makes the novel tiring for those who are not used to it.
It is not thus said that Power & Rebel is inelegant, just that it requires some wear and tear. A struggle for which you get many more.
