(Untitled)

[bruno_greengras]

"There's something that separates the Scandinavians from the rest of the continent, and England for that matter. It's a certain...sadness. It doesn't mean that we're sad all the time, or that we're dull and boring, it's just - good to be sad

Comments

[bruno_greengras]

I've had this journal for too long, I think. :p I can't remember what I've talked about anymore, so I've started to repeat myself.

[polykleitos]

That's the kind of thing only you and other Scandinavians would really understand. It sort of makes things like traveling and sight-seeing a bit meaningless. Because, it's only after spending more time in a country will you really understand the people. It's like that for China (and I'm sure other countries too). There's just something there that, unless you were raised there or have lived there a long time, you won't see.

Re: Lisa drops in uninvited to ask...

[polykleitos]

I spent a summer there, and I'm planning to study abroad there one of these college semesters. That should be interesting. :)

Re: Lisa drops in uninvited to ask...

[bruno_greengras]

dolorous_ett has also spend time in China, several years in fact. :)
Looks like there's something special about that country...I'd better go and see for myself one day.

[privatemaladict]

That's really interesting - the sort of insight you'd only every hear froma Scandinavian. I mean, I can't imagine a geography book saying "The Scandinavian people have a certain melancholia..."

I don't think I've seen you talk about this before, but then, you're a relatively recent addition to the f-list... feel free to elaborate, if you want.

[bruno_greengras]

I don't really have much more to elaborate with. ;) It was just a thought that struck me, you know - that's just another on a long list of cultural differences.

If you ever find any films made by Aki Kaurismäki, rent it. :) His films have this atmosphere that I'm trying to describe (only more exaggerated, of course).

[lindra]

I see that in my parents, too. And when I was in Denmark a while ago, I felt that too. I've been raised Danish, and it'd be interesting if it made any difference to a Scandinavian who lived there. I tend to think of it as pressure - not so much crushing, but just there and constantly hanging over you.

[bruno_greengras]

Now, I've never lived anywhere else so I can't really compare...but I see it in the new people coming here. Immigrants and asylum seekers from nations so different from ours, they have a hell of a time trying to fit in. :/

I don't tend to see it as a pressure myself, but as I said I have nothing to compare with. To me the mere idea of not having this feeling seem strange. I actually think I'd miss it.

[dolorous_ett]

I'm not a Scandinavian of any flavour - just a boring old Brit - so I can't comment on any personal level.

But when I visited a Folk Customs Museum in Voss this April and got the tour of an old Norwegian farm, I was amazed by the hardiness of the people who lived there - the short growing season, the isolation, the long winters with cold outside and only the same faces and the same tasks indoors... At this point I admired such people even more - but stopped romanticising the life at once.

If someone told me you needed a special kind of mindset to cope with such a lifestyle, I wouldn't be particularly surprised.

Please don't be offended - I'm trying really hard to convey a feeling of awe for previous generations of your fellow countrymen, but I'm having problems expressing this properly.

[bruno_greengras]

Not offended in the least. It is true, and to live like that you had to be strong, no doubt about it.
If you go back two or three generations you'll find these people. Norway didn't have the city-culture you'll find in so many other European countries, mostly because we were ruled by other nations who didn't even see it fit to develop our nation. We were only suppliers of fish and wood, after all. Yeah, nothing romantic about those lives. :) Hard work, parents/husbands/children lost at sea, and the lowest living standard in Europe (besides Ireland).

But yeah, I think that's it.