(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
"There are still signs that the human body is a unity," the novel states Solar by the Danish author Theis Ørntoft (b. 1984). In short, it is about a mind in disintegration. We meet the poet Theis on his way from Copenhagen to a poem reading in Skanderborg. He then goes on to Viborg, where he is a teacher at a writing school. Apart from this, he has no plans for the future.
frenzy Longing
Well ahead in Viborg, Theis embarks on a planless walk, reflecting on his Danish contemporary: "It is the unambitious that can be hard to endure in the Danish world." Start taking interest in the world at one really manner. They – that is, everyone - never does anything crazy, he thinks; they do not even seem to have any idea what madness is. As a picture of this, he makes the following observation: “In their neighborhood, musical instruments had been chosen as the overarching theme, and the roads were therefore called things like: Violinvej, Lyrevej and Orgelvej […] Why not Keyboardvej? Or Bongotromme Allé? What about Acoustic Guitar Boulevard? Or yes, what about: Double Bass Avenue?»
Last part of Solar is a blazing journey through time and the cosmos
Theis' dreams are scary and intense. In one of them he is in a huge warehouse where people are slaughtered, parceled and wrapped in plastic. It is drilled, filtered and fine filtered; Robots do the job.
The role of a writing school teacher perceives Theis primarily as one role: He is a piece in a game where the rules must be followed to the point – and if you go out, you are without a chance and soon fall through. When Theis meets a student off the "board" and breaks the rules, it's not because he wants to, but because he can't adapt to the rigid system.
Whether or
Why does Theis feel he has to? spille college teacher, why can't he just allow himself to be a human being? Because he experiences his entire being as constructed. In a way, he tries to accept this, follow the rules and play with it, while at the same time fumbling to understand where the boundaries go.
The protagonist begins his fall, first through culture, then through nature. Underneath everything that happens is the awareness of the ecosystem's total collapse. The "fall" is a backward movement in the civilization process and evolution of man, eventually the evolutionary history of life. Theis kindles a fire in the forest; he reflects on the words and grammar, how man through language sorts thoughts, words and concepts.
Although both language and human sense of community are being lost to him, Theis manages to reflect credibly and accurately on the contemporary, and as he thinks and falls, his connection to the world also grows stronger. He recovers himself in the loss of himself, and gradually feels like part of the world's total biochemical mass. He experiences being penetrated by all life: He "becomes" all insects and without awareness of the modern world: "I think I know what honey and milk are," he thinks, "but I have no idea."
unreality
In this state, Theis returns home to Copenhagen. “The sensory information hit my brain like a hand grenade. In the square in front of the main track, it swarmed with activity, families with children on weekend vacations, noisy buses and blonde teenage girls with tanned legs and cowboy boots; it was the usual combination of sexual euphoria and panic anxiety; opposite lay Tivoli with its grotesque amusements; who spun people around in circles over the roofs… »
“The roads were called things like the Violin Road, the Lyre Road and the Organ Road. Why not the Keyboard Road? Or Bongo drum too? ”
Still, he acquires a lover, albeit by using a kind of automated linguistic ongoingness that he does not control himself. He moves in with her, has animal sex with her – otherwise computer games are more and more like real life. Soon the girlfriend disappears without realizing why, he takes a job but gets laid off. Eventually, he decides to flee and sets out on a train to Frankfurt. There he meets Diego, who hates his father, and who plays croquet on golf courses after closing. They agree to kill Diego's father if Theis loses the next croquet match, which he does.
Diego, who initially appears to be an idiot, is transformed into a knowledge bank of enormous dimensions, which knows everything from algae creation to the world map's coordinate system and the chemical composition of the sun.
underpass Vision
The last chapter cannot be reproduced or described, but should be experienced. It is a blazing journey through time and the cosmos. To call Solar a warning becomes too easy. The novel is an apocalyptic-visionary text about man's downfall, about our biological and existential place in the world. I can't give a better novel recommendation – although I have to admit that I was scared.
