Wednesday, April 15, 2015

A Robert Creeley story

I went looking for something else and found this short story:

Last night talking to the poet Claes Andersson, who is also a member of the Finnish parliament and a psychologist, he tells us he had encouraged a young woman, a patient, to look to books for a relieving sense that many feel as threatened as she in the world. The book she randomly finds is Kafka’s The Trial.

Robert Creeley, Autobiography (Madras and New York: Hanuman Books, 1990).
A Wikipedia article describes Andersson as “a Finland-Swedish psychiatrist, author, jazz musician, politician and former member of the Finnish Parliament.”

comments: 7

Fresca said...

This makes me laugh---a great example of a Finnish pov?

How to cheer yourself up?
Read Kafka.

Like "The Man Without a Past", which you wrote about recently (I'm glad you liked that movie too)--
or the Moomin cartoons by Tove Jansson, who started them during WWII in the face of depression.

I find these things weirdly cheering, but when I loaned my Moomin collection to a neighbor, she gave it back saying they were too disturbing.

Michael Leddy said...

“A great example of a Finnish pov?”

Seems like it to me. I wish a Finn would stop by here to confirm. :)

Tove Jansson is new to me. Thank you!

Frex said...

The Moomins are new to you?
Oh, the cartoons are a treat!

I like T.J.'s non-Moomin writing too---her novel (sort-of-memoir) The Summer Book is one of my favorites: spare, but spot on.

Eeva said...

A convenient Finn stops by and confirms it! Well, Fresca summoned me here. Hi! :)

So, yes, one could say that's a great example of a Finnish pov, but I'm not sure if's very uniquely Finnish. "European" is the word that springs to mind, but that might just be my standard response whenever Claes Andersson's name comes up.

The one thing I am sure of, though, is that the irony of the story would be wasted on the overwhelming majority of Finns who haven't the slightest idea of who Kafka is.

Michael Leddy said...

Hello, Eeva, and thank you.

Now that story sounds to me like something from Samuel Beckett. I just read that Finland was the first Nordic country to stage his work.

Fresca said...

One day your Finn will come,
tra la, tra la...

And we have confirmation.

(Hei, Eeva! Thanks!)

Michael Leddy said...

I feel like Snow White. Sort of.