hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää!
Happy Finnish Independence Day!
Since my post on Kalevala was so popular (not really), I'm going to sum up everything you need to know about Finnish literature.
Finnish Literature 101
Seitsemän veljestä (The Seven Brothers) by Aleksis Kivi // This is the first novel written in the great Finnish language. It has brothers. I know some of you watch Supernatural so you must really like brothers. This one has seven! At this one point, they all sit on a stone, it's brilliant. Read this book.
Sinuhe egyptiläinen (The Egyptian) by Mika Waltari // Massive, apparently historically accurate novel about a doctor in ancient Egypt. I don't even know.. I think there may be something like 9 people in Finland who've actually read it, and 5 of them only read it to translate it into other languages. Read this book! ..and tell me how it ends. :(
Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) by Väinö Linna // It's a war novel, obviously. Characters speak with funny dialects/accents. I ..only saw the movie. *is shot*
Moomin novels by Tove Jansson // Whenever somebody writes something brilliant in Swedish in Finland, we're like "OURS!!!". The rest of the time we eye finlandsvenskarna suspiciously. It's unnatural to be that happy. But Moomin novels are awesome. There's magic and slashy subtext and the stories were made into an anime. Sigh. Read these!
Ihmiset suviyössä (People in the Summer Night) by F.E. Sillanpää // Our only Nobel win, ever. But hey, like the Swedes ever knew what was good! ;)
Modern literature
Anything by Tuija Lehtinen // Don't read it. Burn it. Burn it, and when your Finnish friend asks why you're burning Finnish books, tell them you're just doing the language a favor.
Anything by Jari Tervo // All people in Northern Finland are criminals. Period.
Anything Kari Hotakainen // Hey, cars are cool! As are houses. Mmm, houses.
Anything by Ilkka Remes // No, seriously, Finland will totally play center stage when that war between powerful world megapowers breaks out! Seriously!
Poetry
Eino Leino // EVEN HIS NAME RHYMES!!
Tommy Taberman // Sex, sex, sex, sex. Oh, and sex!
Heli Laaksonen // Dear book-buying people of Finland, STOP ENCOURAGING THE TURKULAISET!
Heruuks // The new generation. Unfortunately.
I think that is it. Get out there! Learn Finnish! Read our fantastic history! (I apologise, this entry probably will not amuse anybody who is not Finnish.)
Since my post on Kalevala was so popular (not really), I'm going to sum up everything you need to know about Finnish literature.
Finnish Literature 101
Seitsemän veljestä (The Seven Brothers) by Aleksis Kivi // This is the first novel written in the great Finnish language. It has brothers. I know some of you watch Supernatural so you must really like brothers. This one has seven! At this one point, they all sit on a stone, it's brilliant. Read this book.
Sinuhe egyptiläinen (The Egyptian) by Mika Waltari // Massive, apparently historically accurate novel about a doctor in ancient Egypt. I don't even know.. I think there may be something like 9 people in Finland who've actually read it, and 5 of them only read it to translate it into other languages. Read this book! ..and tell me how it ends. :(
Tuntematon sotilas (The Unknown Soldier) by Väinö Linna // It's a war novel, obviously. Characters speak with funny dialects/accents. I ..only saw the movie. *is shot*
Moomin novels by Tove Jansson // Whenever somebody writes something brilliant in Swedish in Finland, we're like "OURS!!!". The rest of the time we eye finlandsvenskarna suspiciously. It's unnatural to be that happy. But Moomin novels are awesome. There's magic and slashy subtext and the stories were made into an anime. Sigh. Read these!
Ihmiset suviyössä (People in the Summer Night) by F.E. Sillanpää // Our only Nobel win, ever. But hey, like the Swedes ever knew what was good! ;)
Modern literature
Anything by Tuija Lehtinen // Don't read it. Burn it. Burn it, and when your Finnish friend asks why you're burning Finnish books, tell them you're just doing the language a favor.
Anything by Jari Tervo // All people in Northern Finland are criminals. Period.
Anything Kari Hotakainen // Hey, cars are cool! As are houses. Mmm, houses.
Anything by Ilkka Remes // No, seriously, Finland will totally play center stage when that war between powerful world megapowers breaks out! Seriously!
Poetry
Eino Leino // EVEN HIS NAME RHYMES!!
Tommy Taberman // Sex, sex, sex, sex. Oh, and sex!
Heli Laaksonen // Dear book-buying people of Finland, STOP ENCOURAGING THE TURKULAISET!
Heruuks // The new generation. Unfortunately.
I think that is it. Get out there! Learn Finnish! Read our fantastic history! (I apologise, this entry probably will not amuse anybody who is not Finnish.)