Misanthropy as medicine

By Kaare M. Bilden, kaare@nytid.no

9. April this year. Of course, Stoltenberg wants to refuse, but Faldbakken's project just goes out of the blue, possibly the opposite. Previous book in this series resulted in Faldbakken being called on the carpet by the cultural fief and had to stand in school during a literature evening at the cultural scene Blue at the Akerselva river in Oslo.

The reason was the content of Scandinavian misanthropy 2: Macht und Rebel, where left-wing activist Rebel, to fend off repressive tolerance, ends up as a supporter of neo-Nazism and pedophilia. He believes these are the only two remaining taboos, the only phenomena that can still be subversive, subversive, revolting. It was boiling on Blue that night, and Faldbakken was asked by the hall whether he was in favor of just pedophilia and neo-Nazism. He chose not to answer.

So what kind of social analysis is at the bottom here? At the end of the first book, The Coca Hola Company, the main character Simpel also ends up on a talk show where he has to explain his project. Not at Blå, but at Peter Nilsen who is cheated out of the nose at Skavlan / Grosvold.

Project fulfilled

Nilsen wonders if not everyone who opposes something must have an alternative, which they are supporters of? No, Simpel answers, and when Nilsen doesn't give up, Simpel explains why he simply has no faith in humanity: "THING DOES THE FUCK NOT BETTER BECAUSE THEY ARE IN PULGED SCANDINAVIA RIGHT NOW, AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN? WHAT? NILSEN? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? IT MEANS THAT PEOPLE WILL BE LIKE LIKE PURPLE SHOP AND HAVE LIKE PULP LIKE LIKE FUCK HOW GOOD IT WILL BE. "

Let's compare with this quote from Jens Stoltenberg during the 2005 election campaign: "One of the problems we have today is that even though we are doing pretty well materially, we obviously have trouble filling life with content. So, we have plenty to live for, but we don't have much to live for ”.

Once again: "We don't have much to live for". Oi. So then, can we just as well? Or what exactly does Stoltenberg here imply?

Stoltenberg says first and foremost that he should wish he was Gerhardsen. At that time, there were tasks to tackle. The land was to be built. "Something to live for". The Labor Party's national project has now been completed. In Stoltenberg's first government, the stated vision was to reform the public sector. Not as lively. So what is the solution? To tear down again, so that there will be something to build up again? Of course, Stoltenberg cannot formulate this question. Luckily. But still, we should also think about the totally inedible alternatives.

Even if the conditions are right for it, there are very few new and surprising ways of seeing the big questions in the Norwegian public in 2008. Here, fiction has not only an opportunity, but also a responsibility. A responsibility that the vast majority of authors ignore. That is why Faldbakken's trilogy is the most important Norwegian fiction in the 2000s. Not necessarily show the one who is best written, or best told, but why the hell should fiction always be judged by these criteria? Herrejemini so much nonsense and boring literary criticism that is written.

Traps

The analysis Stoltenberg and Faldbakken's character Simpel outlines is in the wind this spring. Thomas Hylland Eriksen is also relevant with a book on the subject (see page 52 in this issue of Ny Tid). It is uncertain whether it is the literature evening at Blå that is the reason, but Faldbakken consistently refuses to appear on talk shows ala Skavlan / Grosvold. As is well known, Hylland Eriksen does not.

It was a funny session when Hylland Eriksen visited Grosvold and tried to explain, engaged as always, that when Storeulv has finally managed to catch the three little pigs, his life will be emptied of meaning, the life task is complete. This will of course be a metaphor for Norway in 2008 – one of the best communities to live in ever. The national project is complete. Nevertheless, or precisely because of this, we are dissatisfied. We only compare ourselves with our immediate surroundings, therefore the number of satisfied people decreases, even if prosperity increases. Statistics show that people who live in miserable conditions, but who believe it will be better in the future, are more satisfied than those who have a higher material standard of living.

But Grosvold does not buy the Storeulv analysis at all. "Haven't you been awake at night thinking about how to afford to send your young people to camp school?" asked Grosvold, who otherwise earned 876.015 kroner last year, according to the tax administration's popular website. Consequently, neither Grosvold, Hylland Eriksen nor the average Norwegian has been awake for so many such nights.

Hylland Eriksen's main point is that even though there is a not insignificant poverty problem in Norway, the average Norwegian is doing well financially and materially. While Grosvold's ability not to have two thoughts in his head at the same time is not unusual. Therefore, it is often difficult to get anywhere with this discussion. How about choosing a different angle of attack?

Negation

Faldbakken's project in the misanthropy trilogy is to see what happens when you turn things upside down, turn the inside out, do not want to be part of the big social project, simply say no.

Simple in book no. 1 pretends to have no project, but ends up being embraced by the audience. Rebel in book no. 2 turns the rebellion against the rebellion itself and enters into an alliance with the advertising man Macht. While one of the main characters in Book 3, Lucy, simply says, "I'm a wandering no." Lucy's family comes from the Ik tribe in Uganda, and here Faldbakken quotes the real but extremely controversial book The Mountain people by Colin M. Turnbull. According to Turnbull, the Ik people are without empathy. When famine and disease hit the tribe, the Ik responded with "a human reaction to the wrong thing: the crisis and decay were met with laughter".

The author Stig Sætherbakken has also tackled this topic. This is how he reacted when the planes hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001: "I thought yes! Now it's happening! Before I got into it, and became part of the community and talked about how awful this was ». Sæterbakken calls the phenomenon of the September 11 joy, an irrational pleasure over the great destruction, the frightening and threatening.

This diagnosis obviously affects one of the characters in Macht und Rebel who is so fascinated by 9/11 that he tattoos "south tower" down one leg, and "north tower" down the other.

Is there really any point in using fiction in this way, to twist, to negation, to tear down the whole machinery of society? Well, once you have picked everything apart, it may be easier to ask yourself how to put it all back together. Social machinery, yes, but how is society defined? The ones we have something to do with? Since Norway in 2008 is extremely closely woven into the global economy, it is certain that the right question we should ask ourselves is whether the national project has been completed? Should not the question also be whether the national framework should continue to be the only one we should relate to? Or should we continue to ignore those affected by our protectionist trade policies, our climate emissions and our arms exports without real end-user declarations? What if they get angry?

Between Scandinavian Misanthropy 2 and 3, Faldbakken has published another book, Snortstories, which is a collection of various interviews and essays. Among other things, Faldbakken interviews the actor Ed Norton, who together with Brad Pitt played the main role in the American film Fightclub from 1999. In the interview, Norton is concerned with taking the thoughts from the film further. He believes Fightclub shows that the one who is really oppressed is the white heterosexual man, because unlike women, colored and gay, he can not link his frustration to a clear group identity.

The revenge of the slaves

Therefore, Norton is in the process of establishing the city of Waspville, where only people like him (wasp is an abbreviation for "white anglo saxon protestants") will be able to live.

The interview is of course fictional. But the point is interesting in relation to who has the floor in the Scandinavian Misanthropy trilogy. In the first two books, the narrator's perspective is mainly with white men, but in the third book, Unfun, the I-person is a colored woman. This means that the humor in Unfun is experienced as even a little more painful than in the previous two books. On the whole, there is a clearer north-south dimension in the third book than in the first two.

Unfun is built a bit like a Russian babushka doll. The action in the book is driven forward by discussions about the splatter computer game Deathbox, which Lucy's ex, the violent intellectual Slaktus, is trying to make. The action in the game should be like Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness on the wrong side, where the game character Mbo should be like «Kurtz in negative. Going north instead of south… the heart of civilization instead of… the jungles jungle ».

The slaves will take revenge on the colonists, through the road worker Mbo and his stone cutter with the nickname Tuck. We in the heart of civilization, the heart of light, will experience the "wrath of Africa". In this way, the Scandinavians will be shaken out of the apathy we are characterized by due to the following two emotions: "The feeling of invulnerability: I can not be harmed (by what I see on TV) – and the feeling of inadequacy: I have no opportunity to influence (what I watch on TV) ».

The game will open with a movie sequence, to introduce the plot. For this film sequence, Slaktus has engaged the Nigerian actor Taiwo and the American Dan Castellaneta, the latter also exists in reality, best known as the voice of Homer Simpson. Taiwo should be Mbo's body, Castellaneta should be Mbo's voice. During a discussion between the two, Taiwo concludes: "That game is as anti-racist as rape / revenge movies are feminist".

There is a lot of powerful food in Unfun, the balance between nausea and humor is fine. But there are thick metal layers everywhere, and quotes from the black metal band Darkthrone fit with the greatest obviousness together with quotes from Celine Dion. Faldbakken is obviously marked by the 1990s, and I'm not sure how readers who had completed their formative years before this decade will perceive the books. Faldbakken puts different ideas into play in surprising ways and the result gives a lot to chew on. The trilogy does not provide ready-made solutions for Jens Stoltenberg. Still, I think Stoltenberg should read Unfun.

To read Unfun as a post in the north-south debate is perhaps to pull the strings a little far. But just stretching the elastic a little extra is completely in line with Faldbakken's project. At the same time, he has of course reserved himself against such a reading through the following quote put in Slaktus' mouth, as an explanation for why Slaktus did not receive public support for his film project:

"With the leftie glasses on the nose and a good portion of goodwill, one could even rub out one or two points of view in relation to cultural alienation, civilization crash or colonialist backlash. But the system criticism was not clear enough for the script consultants, they wrote off the "commitment" as a thin excuse to be able to mingle in a semi-racist slasher universe, the possible criticism disappeared in ball fog and severed limbs ".