Enthusiasm and rage
For Christmas I got a lot of books, I finished the first one last night: Ari Behn – ”Entusiasme og raseri” (which translated would mean something like Enthusiasm and rage). I thought I’d write about it in my blog, sort of like a review, and I started thinking about this in bed last night – and then I realized that if I was going to write about this it would probably be more about Ari Behn and the royal family than it would the book, but anyway…. I’ll just start writing shall I, and then we’ll see where it ends….
For those non-Norwegians among you, Ari Behn is a Norwegian writer somewhere around his mid-thirties, he’s been published twice before: a collection of short stories called “Trist som faen” (Sad like hell) and a novel “Bakgård” (Backyard). I’ve read his previous novel I’ve never read his collection of short stories. He is also married to Princess Märtha Louise, the daughter of King Harald of Norway, and with Märtha he’s got two daughters.
I remember wondering (as did probably most of the reading public of Norway) when he married the princess how this would effect his career as a writer, would he still dare to be as daring in his writing, and the way he is as he had been before. I guess he can be called a kind of a rebel in the small Norwegian crowd of authors when he was first published in 1999 and was actually given a 6 for his collection of short stories in the critiques. And once again, for my foreign readers: there is a tradition in all Norwegian newspapers, and also on TV now I think, when there is a new book, new movie or new CD, to give it points from one to six – usually visualized by a dice. On the front page of one of the largest tabloid newspapers, VG, Ari Behn was given a six-dice for “Trist som faen” – and after that he went out and tattooed the dice on his body (I think it was on his shoulder, but I might remember it wrong). He also did quite a lot of media stunts and was a bit bizarre. Then he and the princess fell in love and became a couple which quite shocked a lot of people in Norway, since they love their princess but didn’t care that much for this Behn-character.
What did I think of Ari Behn back then? Well, I thought he was a bit too dandy and I was pretty sure that he had to be gay, so I was a bit surprised when he got together with the princess, and even more surprised when he ended up marrying her and having two children. But I’ve also been one of those who say that the members of the royal family should also be allowed to marry whoever they fall in love with who are also in love with them, so I said if this is the guy she wants, well, then, no problem, then there’s got to be something about him worth loving because she seems like a pretty bright and nice girl and probably wouldn’t go THAT wrong in her choice of husband. I’ve still through the years thought him a bit dandy, but I have (as have the rest of Norway I think) seen how much our princess has blossomed after she got together with this guy, so yeah, I know there’s got to be lots of good things about this guy that we don’t see in the media image that is built around him.
Back to the book; “Entusiasme og raseri”. I quite enjoyed it, I think what I enjoyed the most is that the main character Kryx Zisswoll is to quite a large extent based on Ari Behn himself. Kryx publishes a collection of short stories and then finds himself being the best received and most sold debut writer in Norwegian history. He tattoos a six-dice on his body and he does a lot of media stunts and becomes kind of like a clown in Norwegian media. He has an on and off relationship with a woman called Vera Sara, a relationship that is very weird. She is a star on TV where she’s called the comedy/hostess queen of TV for something like that. (Ari Behn used to date a woman called Anne-Kath Hærland before the met the princess, and she does comedy and is the co-hostess of a program called “News on News” on TV). There are so many details in this books that have parallels in the life of Ari Behn as it has been presented to the public through the media. It is interesting to speculate when reading the book where Ari Behn’s life ends and the life of Kryx Zisswoll begins. He has of course done this deliberately, knowing that the media in Norway would immediately start investigating and speculating about this – I’m sure he’s got himself a really good laugh from that one. He does write quite a lot in the book about how Kryx sometimes intends to be a clown in the media and is fine when he’s presented that way, but when he tries to be real and serious the media refuses to treat him like that and still finds angles and focuses on other things than what is his true message. I’m pretty sure that this also must be a way for Ari Behn to try to say to his readers please don’t even believe half of what is written and said about me, it’s a media created image that’s got nothing to do with who he truly is.
And I think that’s true. How I see him has changed through the years, especially in the last year. He has given some interviews where we’ve been given the chance to see the family man and father Ari Behn, and not the clown that the media wants him to be. He as also, quite bravely I think, publicly announced that he supports the Labour party. Traditionally in Norway the members of the royal family and those married to them don’t speak in public about what political party they support, the Royal family is supposed to be non-political. They do have the right to vote, they just never use that right. It’s been quite a debate about Ari Behn now announcing his political views. He’s simply said that I’m not really part of the royal family, I’m only married to the princess, I never represent Norway in any official function at all. This is true, and I think it’s ok for him to actually step forward and talk about this. I don’t really know how far I would allow for him to go though. One think is for him to support a political party, what if that party suddenly wanted him to be there candidate for Prime Minister? He should be allowed to, it’s one of his civil rights, I’m not sure if it could be accepted though, and then again, why not? As I said, I’m not sure how far he could take it if he wanted to.
The book, is it any good? It’s not bad, I quite enjoyed it. I guess, this isn’t really the literature I normally read and then I find it a bit hard to write a true critique of it. I think it’s quite an interesting story, but at the same time, I’m not sure how much it would have sold if Ari Behn wasn’t married to the princess and this novel of his has so many parallels to his real life. Then again, that is a harsh accusation to make because Ari Behn can obviously write, he was published before he married “well”. As I said the story is quite good, it gets a bit too detailed and boring at times, I found myself skipping certain paragraphs because I simply got bored, and some of his sentences are just too long, I had to go back and read them both 2 and 3 times before I could extract the true meaning of them – both he and the publisher should’ve seen that and known to edit those parts. They might not have bothered because they knew that a book by Ari Behn would be a big-seller anyway. And that’s the danger for Ari Behn in the situation he is now: he got published the first time because he was a good writer, but now I don’t really think he has to improve himself or even prove that he is a really good writer to get a new book published because everyone knows that it will get sold anyway. “Entusiasme and raseri” is an interesting and entertaining story, but it’s not told in the optimal way. I think he might have done well to re-draft it a couple of more times, sharpen it a bit more and it would have been better. Instead it seems like both he and the publisher have felt the pressure for him to publish a new book now and they’ve said that well, this is good enough, this will sell, when they should have waited and taken still some more time to work on it. It’s still worth reading though, as I said, interesting and entertaining. If I was to role the dice I’d give it either a 3 or a 4, I can’t really decide.
For those non-Norwegians among you, Ari Behn is a Norwegian writer somewhere around his mid-thirties, he’s been published twice before: a collection of short stories called “Trist som faen” (Sad like hell) and a novel “Bakgård” (Backyard). I’ve read his previous novel I’ve never read his collection of short stories. He is also married to Princess Märtha Louise, the daughter of King Harald of Norway, and with Märtha he’s got two daughters.
I remember wondering (as did probably most of the reading public of Norway) when he married the princess how this would effect his career as a writer, would he still dare to be as daring in his writing, and the way he is as he had been before. I guess he can be called a kind of a rebel in the small Norwegian crowd of authors when he was first published in 1999 and was actually given a 6 for his collection of short stories in the critiques. And once again, for my foreign readers: there is a tradition in all Norwegian newspapers, and also on TV now I think, when there is a new book, new movie or new CD, to give it points from one to six – usually visualized by a dice. On the front page of one of the largest tabloid newspapers, VG, Ari Behn was given a six-dice for “Trist som faen” – and after that he went out and tattooed the dice on his body (I think it was on his shoulder, but I might remember it wrong). He also did quite a lot of media stunts and was a bit bizarre. Then he and the princess fell in love and became a couple which quite shocked a lot of people in Norway, since they love their princess but didn’t care that much for this Behn-character.
What did I think of Ari Behn back then? Well, I thought he was a bit too dandy and I was pretty sure that he had to be gay, so I was a bit surprised when he got together with the princess, and even more surprised when he ended up marrying her and having two children. But I’ve also been one of those who say that the members of the royal family should also be allowed to marry whoever they fall in love with who are also in love with them, so I said if this is the guy she wants, well, then, no problem, then there’s got to be something about him worth loving because she seems like a pretty bright and nice girl and probably wouldn’t go THAT wrong in her choice of husband. I’ve still through the years thought him a bit dandy, but I have (as have the rest of Norway I think) seen how much our princess has blossomed after she got together with this guy, so yeah, I know there’s got to be lots of good things about this guy that we don’t see in the media image that is built around him.
Back to the book; “Entusiasme og raseri”. I quite enjoyed it, I think what I enjoyed the most is that the main character Kryx Zisswoll is to quite a large extent based on Ari Behn himself. Kryx publishes a collection of short stories and then finds himself being the best received and most sold debut writer in Norwegian history. He tattoos a six-dice on his body and he does a lot of media stunts and becomes kind of like a clown in Norwegian media. He has an on and off relationship with a woman called Vera Sara, a relationship that is very weird. She is a star on TV where she’s called the comedy/hostess queen of TV for something like that. (Ari Behn used to date a woman called Anne-Kath Hærland before the met the princess, and she does comedy and is the co-hostess of a program called “News on News” on TV). There are so many details in this books that have parallels in the life of Ari Behn as it has been presented to the public through the media. It is interesting to speculate when reading the book where Ari Behn’s life ends and the life of Kryx Zisswoll begins. He has of course done this deliberately, knowing that the media in Norway would immediately start investigating and speculating about this – I’m sure he’s got himself a really good laugh from that one. He does write quite a lot in the book about how Kryx sometimes intends to be a clown in the media and is fine when he’s presented that way, but when he tries to be real and serious the media refuses to treat him like that and still finds angles and focuses on other things than what is his true message. I’m pretty sure that this also must be a way for Ari Behn to try to say to his readers please don’t even believe half of what is written and said about me, it’s a media created image that’s got nothing to do with who he truly is.
And I think that’s true. How I see him has changed through the years, especially in the last year. He has given some interviews where we’ve been given the chance to see the family man and father Ari Behn, and not the clown that the media wants him to be. He as also, quite bravely I think, publicly announced that he supports the Labour party. Traditionally in Norway the members of the royal family and those married to them don’t speak in public about what political party they support, the Royal family is supposed to be non-political. They do have the right to vote, they just never use that right. It’s been quite a debate about Ari Behn now announcing his political views. He’s simply said that I’m not really part of the royal family, I’m only married to the princess, I never represent Norway in any official function at all. This is true, and I think it’s ok for him to actually step forward and talk about this. I don’t really know how far I would allow for him to go though. One think is for him to support a political party, what if that party suddenly wanted him to be there candidate for Prime Minister? He should be allowed to, it’s one of his civil rights, I’m not sure if it could be accepted though, and then again, why not? As I said, I’m not sure how far he could take it if he wanted to.
The book, is it any good? It’s not bad, I quite enjoyed it. I guess, this isn’t really the literature I normally read and then I find it a bit hard to write a true critique of it. I think it’s quite an interesting story, but at the same time, I’m not sure how much it would have sold if Ari Behn wasn’t married to the princess and this novel of his has so many parallels to his real life. Then again, that is a harsh accusation to make because Ari Behn can obviously write, he was published before he married “well”. As I said the story is quite good, it gets a bit too detailed and boring at times, I found myself skipping certain paragraphs because I simply got bored, and some of his sentences are just too long, I had to go back and read them both 2 and 3 times before I could extract the true meaning of them – both he and the publisher should’ve seen that and known to edit those parts. They might not have bothered because they knew that a book by Ari Behn would be a big-seller anyway. And that’s the danger for Ari Behn in the situation he is now: he got published the first time because he was a good writer, but now I don’t really think he has to improve himself or even prove that he is a really good writer to get a new book published because everyone knows that it will get sold anyway. “Entusiasme and raseri” is an interesting and entertaining story, but it’s not told in the optimal way. I think he might have done well to re-draft it a couple of more times, sharpen it a bit more and it would have been better. Instead it seems like both he and the publisher have felt the pressure for him to publish a new book now and they’ve said that well, this is good enough, this will sell, when they should have waited and taken still some more time to work on it. It’s still worth reading though, as I said, interesting and entertaining. If I was to role the dice I’d give it either a 3 or a 4, I can’t really decide.
posted by Lena M Bakke @ 3:24 PM
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