Finland

November 2015: Nordic Book Club in NYC Reads Jääskeläinen

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Scandinavia House in New York City runs a new Nordic book club, and this November’s book is The Rabbit Back Literature Society by Finnish author Pasi Ilmari Jääskeläinen.

Jaaskelainen Rabbit Back Lit Soc

Novelist and short-story writer Jääskeläinen writes realistic fantasy (to translate his term reaalifantasia). The Rabbit Back Literature Society, published in 2014 in UK and 2015 in US, is Jääskeläinen’s first novel and the first of his works to be translated into English (from the original Lumikko ja yhdeksän muuta, 2006).

Here’s the publisher’s description:

“Only very special people are chosen by children’s author Laura White to join ‘The Society’, an elite group of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back.

“Now a tenth member has been selected: Ella, literature teacher and possessor of beautifully curving lips.

“But soon Ella discovers that the Society is not what it seems. What is its mysterious ritual, ‘The Game’? What explains the strange disappearance that occurs at Laura’s winter party, in a whirlwind of snow? Why are the words inside books starting to rearrange themselves? Was there once another tenth member, before her?

“Slowly, disturbing secrets that had been buried come to light…

“In this chilling, darkly funny novel, the uncanny brushes up against the everyday in the most beguiling and unexpected of ways.”

The only other piece of Jääskeläinen in English at this writing is Where the Trains Turn (orig. Missä junat kääntyvät, 2000), published in November 2014 by Tor.com.

Apart from Finnish SFF, the book club program for this fall contains Danish contemporary fiction and two Swedish crime thrillers. From scandinaviahouse.org:

“Read and discuss Scandinavian literature in translation as part of Nordic Book Club – ASF’s newest literary series. This season’s selections include Swedish crime thrillers, Danish contemporary fiction, and Finnish fantasy. Discussions typically take place the last Tuesday of the month in the Halldór Laxness Library at Scandinavia House and online at scandinaviahouse.org.”

Jääskeläinen’s book will be discussed on November 24, 2015, at 6 pm at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Ave (Manhattan). The entry is free.

Image: Pushkin Press.

Post edited for style.

Hey, look! We found a thing on the internet! We thought it was cool, and wanted to share it with you.

Sean Bean on the LotR Joke in The Martian

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Finland’s national public broadcasting company Yle interviewed actor Sean Bean (article in Finnish; the 4-minute video in English) during his promo tour for The Martian.

Yle Sean Bean Interview
Yle Uutiset.

(Note: I wasn’t able to share the video; you’ll have to follow the link to Yle and play it there.)

Bean mentions that the Lord of the Rings reference – Project Elrond – was something he didn’t know how to react to. My partial transcription from the interview (from ca. 1:50-2:30) picks up with Bean’s answer to how it came about:

“I don’t know. I think it was in the script originally and it stayed in there, and it was very funny ’cause I’ve never been in a f– I was in a film that– then– which was– within a film. So it was very funny. [Laughs.] And, erm, you know, I just kind of listened to it, I didn’t know how to react, really [laughs], to that. It’s an unusual kind of situation I was in. But it was great, it’s great. I love that, it’s nice.”

When asked whether they joked about the reference on set, Bean answered:

“Not really, no, you said it and everyone went, like– [indistinct; laughs.] You know, I couldn’t kind of go, like, ‘Oh yeah, I was in [that]’, you know. But I– So I just kind of– [makes a gesture of playing it cool] went on with it.”

Other questions touch on the large number of team leader roles he’s played or characters who die (which Bean doesn’t seek out, specifically), how Bean built the character of Mitch Henderson with director Ridley Scott, and the kind of roles Bean would like to play in the future.

Serving exactly what it sounds like, the Quotes feature excerpts other people’s thoughts.

The Story of Kullervo: Tolkien Inspired by the Finnish Folk Epic

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J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Story of Kullervo edited by Verlyn Flieger will be published only a few weeks from now in the U.S. The October release was preceded by a late August launch in the U.K.

HarperCollins.
HarperCollins.

According to the publisher’s statement,

“Kullervo son of Kalervo is perhaps the darkest and most tragic of all J.R.R. Tolkien’s characters. ‘Hapless Kullervo’, as Tolkien called him, is a luckless orphan boy with supernatural powers and a tragic destiny.

“Brought up in the homestead of the dark magician Untamo, who killed his father, kidnapped his mother, and who tries three times to kill him when still a boy, Kullervo is alone save for the love of his twin sister, Wanona, and guarded by the magical powers of the black dog, Musti. When Kullervo is sold into slavery he swears revenge on the magician, but he will learn that even at the point of vengeance there is no escape from the cruellest of fates.

“Tolkien wrote that The Story of Kullervo was ‘the germ of my attempt to write legends of my own’, and was ‘a major matter in the legends of the First Age’; his Kullervo was the ancestor of Túrin Turambar, tragic incestuous hero of The Silmarillion. In addition to being a powerful story in its own right, The Story of Kullervo – published here for the first time with the author’s drafts, notes and lecture-essays on its source-work, The Kalevala, is a foundation stone in the structure of Tolkien’s invented world.”

As The Kalevala is my national epic, it feels odd to see the storylines and names used with little or no change by a celebrated international author. I’m used to thinking of my country and culture as small and unimportant. Perhaps that is our strength, after all – we’ve managed to hold on to some unique features in our little corner of Europe.

If the original folk epic interests you, an English-language version of The Kalevala is available for free at Project Gutenberg.

This post has been edited for formatting.

OMG OMG OMG OMG – Worldcon 2017 in Helsinki!

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The biiiig thing in the SFF fandom this year has been the Hugo kerfuffle. Erik and I have followed and talked about it, but engaged more with the 2017 Worldcon campaign. Helsinki in 2017 is one of four bids, competing with D.C., Montreal, and Nippon.

I haven’t been involved with Worldcons before, but the prospect of a major international con in Finland, during our centennial of independence to boot, was just too good to pass. As a Finn and a part of the Finnish fandom, I know Finns put together smooth, professional, kick-ass events.

hki2017-logo

Site selection for the 2017 con was decided by voting among this year’s Worldcon members. Voting closed last night. Aaaaaand we won!

Kermit flail!

Kermit Flail

At this writing, the results are still unofficial, but as they are undisputed, it’s pretty much a given that we’ll have a Finnish Worldcon.

I’m so, so happy for my compatriots and co-geeks, and thankful to everyone who voted and spread the word. We did it! Suurkiitos!

Disclaimer: I’m a supporter of the bid, and also sewed a bunch of items bearing the bid logo for the bid to give away. More at my business blog and Flickr.

Kermit flail image: Via Walker—Bait on Tumblr.