So far three friends, each of whom I feel to be extraordinarily intelligent and of cultivated taste (see Ish's book reviews, i.e., proof!), asked me about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Well, yes, I read it. Also I read the second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire and third book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Make no mistake, these are not great works of literary genius. My lovely friend Brittany, who has been living in Sweden for like, forever, (1 1/2 years?) says that the Swedish title is Män Som Hatar Kvinnor, or, the man who hates women. (Britt is going to read it in Swedish! Of this I am impressed.) But anyway, here is a brief summary of my thoughts, which are in no way academic in nature, mostly they are feelings and intuitings:1) A new translator, with a literary background or at least a more imaginative approach, needs to look at in the original Swedish and decide if the writing is REALLY ACTUALLY that cliched. And repetitive. The number of times "leveled her/his gaze at her/him" was used makes me want to die. I could almost call it before it happened. Now is the time for some gaze leveling. Sunglasses on.
2) A new editor, with brevity in mind, needs to chop a significant portion of the repetitive plot-summaries. (More noticeable in the second and third books).
3) I don't know. The rape/violence against women scenes are *this close* to being titillating and not instructive of violence against women. Also the repetitions of the events of the scenes, again and again, deaden their effects (affect!) on the reader. Uh.. "I don't have a definition of porn but I know it when I see it".. well, I don't have a definition of sado-masochistic softcore pornography (is that even possible?! a contradiction in terms?) but I feel like it might be happening before my readerly eyes.
4) I'm pretty sure lil' Stieg does not hate, in fact probably loves, women, but he is also very interested in what it would be like, imaginatively at least, to be involved in sexually charged violent behavior.
5) THE IMPLANTS*
*will have to wait until I know how far you've read.
2) A new editor, with brevity in mind, needs to chop a significant portion of the repetitive plot-summaries. (More noticeable in the second and third books).
3) I don't know. The rape/violence against women scenes are *this close* to being titillating and not instructive of violence against women. Also the repetitions of the events of the scenes, again and again, deaden their effects (affect!) on the reader. Uh.. "I don't have a definition of porn but I know it when I see it".. well, I don't have a definition of sado-masochistic softcore pornography (is that even possible?! a contradiction in terms?) but I feel like it might be happening before my readerly eyes.
4) I'm pretty sure lil' Stieg does not hate, in fact probably loves, women, but he is also very interested in what it would be like, imaginatively at least, to be involved in sexually charged violent behavior.
5) THE IMPLANTS*
*will have to wait until I know how far you've read.
