7 ms·

The Origins of Scandinavian Noir

88 points by vo2maxer 6y ago

SiempreViernes 6y ago
Maj Sjöwall died very recently, the 29:th of April.
- bloak 6y ago
  The obituary I found mentioned Simenon as an influence, which makes sense.
OskarS 6y ago
It's interesting to read articles like this, describing the culture you take for granted to outsiders. I devoured Ture Sventon, Kalle Blomkvist and Agaton Sax as a child, but I had never thought of them in the broader context of Scandinavian Noir. You can sort-of see the connection, but it's a bit tenuous: all of these take place in child-appropriate idealized world, they have nothing of the social realism/commentary of Sjöwall/Wahlöö and the later Scandinavian noirs. A closer comparison might be The Adventures of Tintin (obviously not Swedish, but hugely popular in Sweden), which had some of that "social commentary + detective stories", but even that is a bit weak. I think it is fair to say that the genre was essentially invented by Sjöwall/Wahlöö. There isn't much precedence, and you can see strong traces of them in all of their successors. If you're going to trace their inspirations, I would suggest that you shouldn't seek it so much in detective fiction, but rather in things like naturalism and other lefty/socialist fiction movements. Emile Zola is a better place to look than Dashiell Hammett.
- sandGorgon 6y ago
  what are urban scandinavian noirs that you would suggest to read today ? (the urban is in context of topics of technology/privacy, etc which are prevalent in the Dragon Tattoo series)
  - mongol 6y ago
    Have not read myself but Åsa Schwarz could be something for you. Security expert and author https://asaschwarz.com/category/novels/ https://asaschwarz.com/category/novels/
  - pozdnyshev 6y ago
    I would recommend Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series . I’ve read them all. Additionally, you don’t have to start at the beginning either, as they were not translated in order. My favorite was the Leopard.
cs702 6y ago
As a fan of the "Millennium" Swedish TV miniseries, with a fantastic Noomi Rapace as the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo[a], I found this piece fascinating. I knew very little about "Scandinavian Noir," and in fact didn't even think of it as a genre until reading the OP. Now, I want to read the "Beck" novels and also watch its Swedish TV/film adaptions, if there are any. -- [a] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_(miniseries) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_(miniseries) -- In my humble opionion, the Swedish TV adaptations of Stieg Larsson's books are much better than the Hollywood movie adaptations, which tend to be much flashier and have more special effects but don't feel or bite quite as hard as the Swedish TV miniseries.
- drrotmos 6y ago
  ”and also watch its Swedish TV/film adaptions, if there are any” There’s about 50 or so of them, of varying quality. Most (if not all) of them feature length.
  - cs702 6y ago
    Thanks. Any in particular that you can recommend?
  - arnsholt 6y ago
    Those are more recent,and independent of the novels, but some of the original novels have been made into movies too. I'm not sure if all the novels have movies, but I particularly remember watching "The fire truck that disappeared" on TV as a kid.
- jkmcf 6y ago
  https://watch.mhzchoice.com/beck https://watch.mhzchoice.com/beck I really miss MHz from when I lived in DC and it was carried by the local cable station. You can also signup for MHz through Amazon, too.
  - cs702 6y ago
    Thanks. The fact that Kristofer Hivju (best known as "Tormund" in Game of Thrones) is in the cast of Beck is a nice plus.
danielscrubs 6y ago
I've in the mindset that good chefs can do really good food without too much sugar, salt and fat, but for someone used to sugar it can sometime feel bland, until you start to cut down on it and suddenly you appreciate an oyster (for example) way more. It's the same with action packed, jumping from skyscraper to skyscraper, kind of movies and fantasy-books. In that sense the Beck-series with its realism (real police-work) and bland social surface only needed the social commentary to get a grip of you after a heavy non-action diet which to me signifies good authors.

88 points by vo2maxer 6y ago

SiempreViernes 6y ago

Maj Sjöwall died very recently, the 29:th of April.

bloak 6y ago
The obituary I found mentioned Simenon as an influence, which makes sense.

OskarS 6y ago

It's interesting to read articles like this, describing the culture you take for granted to outsiders. I devoured Ture Sventon, Kalle Blomkvist and Agaton Sax as a child, but I had never thought of them in the broader context of Scandinavian Noir. You can sort-of see the connection, but it's a bit tenuous: all of these take place in child-appropriate idealized world, they have nothing of the social realism/commentary of Sjöwall/Wahlöö and the later Scandinavian noirs. A closer comparison might be The Adventures of Tintin (obviously not Swedish, but hugely popular in Sweden), which had some of that "social commentary + detective stories", but even that is a bit weak. I think it is fair to say that the genre was essentially invented by Sjöwall/Wahlöö. There isn't much precedence, and you can see strong traces of them in all of their successors. If you're going to trace their inspirations, I would suggest that you shouldn't seek it so much in detective fiction, but rather in things like naturalism and other lefty/socialist fiction movements. Emile Zola is a better place to look than Dashiell Hammett.

sandGorgon 6y ago
what are urban scandinavian noirs that you would suggest to read today ? (the urban is in context of topics of technology/privacy, etc which are prevalent in the Dragon Tattoo series)
- mongol 6y ago
  Have not read myself but Åsa Schwarz could be something for you. Security expert and author https://asaschwarz.com/category/novels/ https://asaschwarz.com/category/novels/
- pozdnyshev 6y ago
  I would recommend Jo Nesbo’s Harry Hole series . I’ve read them all. Additionally, you don’t have to start at the beginning either, as they were not translated in order. My favorite was the Leopard.

cs702 6y ago

As a fan of the "Millennium" Swedish TV miniseries, with a fantastic Noomi Rapace as the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo[a], I found this piece fascinating. I knew very little about "Scandinavian Noir," and in fact didn't even think of it as a genre until reading the OP. Now, I want to read the "Beck" novels and also watch its Swedish TV/film adaptions, if there are any. -- [a] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_(miniseries) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_(miniseries) -- In my humble opionion, the Swedish TV adaptations of Stieg Larsson's books are much better than the Hollywood movie adaptations, which tend to be much flashier and have more special effects but don't feel or bite quite as hard as the Swedish TV miniseries.

drrotmos 6y ago
”and also watch its Swedish TV/film adaptions, if there are any” There’s about 50 or so of them, of varying quality. Most (if not all) of them feature length.
- cs702 6y ago
  Thanks. Any in particular that you can recommend?
- arnsholt 6y ago
  Those are more recent,and independent of the novels, but some of the original novels have been made into movies too. I'm not sure if all the novels have movies, but I particularly remember watching "The fire truck that disappeared" on TV as a kid.
jkmcf 6y ago
https://watch.mhzchoice.com/beck https://watch.mhzchoice.com/beck I really miss MHz from when I lived in DC and it was carried by the local cable station. You can also signup for MHz through Amazon, too.
- cs702 6y ago
  Thanks. The fact that Kristofer Hivju (best known as "Tormund" in Game of Thrones) is in the cast of Beck is a nice plus.

danielscrubs 6y ago

I've in the mindset that good chefs can do really good food without too much sugar, salt and fat, but for someone used to sugar it can sometime feel bland, until you start to cut down on it and suddenly you appreciate an oyster (for example) way more. It's the same with action packed, jumping from skyscraper to skyscraper, kind of movies and fantasy-books. In that sense the Beck-series with its realism (real police-work) and bland social surface only needed the social commentary to get a grip of you after a heavy non-action diet which to me signifies good authors.