![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
misscamNicked from like half my flist:
Ask me my fannish Top Five [Whatevers]. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post.
It's Knut Hamsun year in Norway and I'm still not sure how I feel about him.
On one hand, influential writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature and his obsession with nature reflects a certain part of Norwegian culture.
On the other, Nazi-sympathizer, supporter of the wildly unpopular occupation government and non-apologetic about it to the end.
How much, if at all possible, can you remove a writer from their written work? How much are you willing to? That's not always an easy one and it's very, very hard to forgive him his support of the occupation government as a Norwegian, I have to say. It's funny - we're friendly with Germany again and there is no particular ill will lingering against Germans. But the Norwegians that helped them...
Even my generation harbor resentment towards them, though not with the same sort of fevor as right after the war. But still. We've forgiven Germany, but not our own that sided with them. So Knut Hamsun still has no street named after him while less known authors do.
I'm not sure I feel bad about that.
(You can read a bit about Hamsun's life and writings here. He's an interesting character.)
In a similar historical vein: German citizenship is granted for the first time to a war child. Norway too, had children born to German soldiers. I'd like to say they were treated better; I cannot.
That I definitely feel bad about.
Ask me my fannish Top Five [Whatevers]. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post.
It's Knut Hamsun year in Norway and I'm still not sure how I feel about him.
On one hand, influential writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature and his obsession with nature reflects a certain part of Norwegian culture.
On the other, Nazi-sympathizer, supporter of the wildly unpopular occupation government and non-apologetic about it to the end.
How much, if at all possible, can you remove a writer from their written work? How much are you willing to? That's not always an easy one and it's very, very hard to forgive him his support of the occupation government as a Norwegian, I have to say. It's funny - we're friendly with Germany again and there is no particular ill will lingering against Germans. But the Norwegians that helped them...
Even my generation harbor resentment towards them, though not with the same sort of fevor as right after the war. But still. We've forgiven Germany, but not our own that sided with them. So Knut Hamsun still has no street named after him while less known authors do.
I'm not sure I feel bad about that.
(You can read a bit about Hamsun's life and writings here. He's an interesting character.)
In a similar historical vein: German citizenship is granted for the first time to a war child. Norway too, had children born to German soldiers. I'd like to say they were treated better; I cannot.
That I definitely feel bad about.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-06 09:03 pm (UTC)Top five villains.
Top five non-human characters.
Top five 'Terribly Overrated By Fandom' characters (As in character that are usually popular but that you don't think much of).
Top Five Unpopular Opinons in BSG Fandom.
Top Five Ships That Never Made It to Canon But Should Have.
I could go on forever.