Monday, January 6, 2014

Preparing for the Tove Jansson centennial - just a colossal delight at being alone

2014 is the centennial of the birth of Finnish writer and artist Tove Jansson.

Jansson wrote the Moomin books, which are in some important sense for children, and after retiring from them wrote novels and short stories for adults.  As a child I read The Exploits of Moominpapa (1950) many times, but never any of the other books, presumably because I never came across them.  Last year, preparing for the centennial, I read several more Moomin books as well as the three later novels published in the U.S. as NYRB Classics, The Summer Book (1972), The True Deceiver (1982), and Fair Play (1989), the latter all translated from the original Swedish by Thomas Teal.

I thought they were all terrific, Moomin and non-Moomin, in their own ways.  What caught my attention – what fit in with some of my other reading – was Jansson’s attention to art and creativity, a central subject The True Deceiver and Fair Play, a running theme of The Summer Book, and a surprisingly important part of several of the Moomin books, as when Moominsummer Madness (1954) ends with an impromptu amateur theatrical performance strangely resembling A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or when the free spirit Snufkin has trouble capturing a song in his head because of his irritating fans (“The Spring Tune” in Tales from Moominvalley, 1962).  But of course everything works out all right:

He stretched out on his back and looked up into the spring sky.  It was a clear dark blue straight above him and sea green over the treetops.  Somewhere under his hat the tune began to move, one part expectation, and two parts spring sadness, and for the rest just a colossal delight at being alone.  (16)

The end of this story returns at the end of the adult novel The True Deceiver, which features an artist who creates highly specialized books for children.  It is again spring, early this time:

Anna sat and waited for the morning mist to draw off through the woods.  The silence she needed was complete.  And when every bothersome element had departed, the forest floor emerged, moist and dark and ready to burst with all the things waiting to grow.  Cluttering the ground with flowery rabbits would have been unthinkable.  (181)

Rabbits covered with flowers here rather than big-snouted Moomintrolls.  Fair Play is about a mature lesbian couple, one a writer, one a painter.  Given the emphasis on silence, it is hardly surprising that the women keep separate, adjacent apartments, or that the book ends with this:

Mari was hardly listening.  A daring thought was taking shape in her mind.  She began to anticipate a solitude of her own, peaceful and full of possibility.  She felt something close to exhilaration, of a kind that people can permit themselves when they are blessed with love.  (100)

The Summer Book does not end with an artist treasuring silence, so Jansson does not always end this way.

A number of other books, mostly collections of short stories, are available in England.  A lot of them are also about art and artists.  Jansson was the daughter of two artists; her brothers both became artists.  One of them helped her create a Moomin comic strip (which is, no surprise, pretty good).

Someone should do a proper book blog event for Jansson this year, perhaps in August around her birthday, with graphics and giveaways of books supplied by her publisher and whatever else it is people like, all of the things that I refuse to do under any circumstances.  The event would be popular and widely celebrated.

I do plan to host an event, possibly the least popular event in the history of book blogs.  Tomorrow for that.

The wonderful photo is borrowed from the Moomin wiki.  That is Moominpapa in the top hat.  Jansson is the one with a watch.

18 comments:

  1. For me Moominvalley in November has been one of the most terrifying horror stories ever written. It is set at the end of autumn and the time of approaching winter. Various lonely characters feel the need to travel to Moominvalley where they hope to meet the Moomins one more time. They find nobody there because the Moomins are absent or dead. Finally they start performing a strange theatrical wake to bring memories back (it almost looks like a version of Finnegans Wake) . After it each of them goes their own way. It's a short story but very profound and memorable.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Now that's the way to end a whimsical series of children's books! Fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can stare at Moominartwork all day, these little white trolls are the cutest thing ever!

    ReplyDelete
  4. In Tokyo, you can have Moomin-shaped pancakes, with a Moomin seated at your table. Moomin spoons, Moomin coffee.

    Given the quality of food in Tokyo, it does sadden me a bit to think that people actually eat at the Moomin Bakery, though.

    German toy stores - reverting to my own experience - have plenty of Moomin merchandise but for some reason they have never caught on in the U.S. despite their undeniably endearing qualities.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, by all means that's an event to host.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Now we just need to find the right host.

    Tove 100, which looks like it is related to the Jansson estate, has a calendar of 2014 events all over the world, "world" mostly meaning Finland, Sweden, Germany, and Japan.

    The site for the centennial exhibition at the Finnish National Gallery shows a landscape that Jansson painted at age 16 or so which looks like it ought to be populated with Moomin characters, like they are hidden in it somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Whenever I contemplate the various things my parents did wrong, I am always checked by the fact that they somehow managed to put Jansson's Moomin books into my hands.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Moomin or non, I don't know yet. I bet I will not know until the summer. Some Moomin books ought to be in the Sparkling Squirrel house at some point.

    Scott, you should send your parents, or whoever you like, a Moomin thank you card.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I so need to read the novels for adults--I never even knew about them till last year, though I've been a big Moomin fan since I was a kid. I love converting other people to Moomin stories.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I have never heard of the Moomin books. I've just checked, they've been translated into French but they're OOP. Strange because it seems such a familiar series to you all.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Emma - Check FNAC and Amazon.fr, if you haven't already. They should be readily available in French, as I've been ordering them regularly over the past few years for my goddaughters in Paris.

      Delete
    2. I don't think FNAC or even Decitre will carry that glass Moominpapa top hat (see comment below), though.

      Delete
    3. I don't know why I've seen «définitivement indisponible»
      My children are too old to learn colours with the Moomins but I'll have a look at books for older children.

      Delete
  11. OOP en France, mais non, en stock! And with the lovely painted covers.

    I do not know the history of Moomin transmission. In the US, too, the books exist. They are not especially well known. My proof of this is that there is so little merchandise available, unlike in France where you can get a glass vase in the form of Moominpapa'a top hat.

    Jean - NYRB Classics needs to redouble their promotional efforts! I have not even mentioned the most Scandinavian aspect of them, their settings, often on islands in the Gulf of Riga, and Jansson's keen attention to seasons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But the books for adults do seem to be OOP in France. What a shame.

      Delete
  12. I hadn't even heard of the Moomin books until last year, but the drawings alone make me want to read them. Thank you for sharing about the centennial, I will have to read one of the Moomin books for it. Happily, several are available from my local library.

    ReplyDelete
  13. several are available from my local library - as is only right! Have fun with them. Meine Frau was just recently enjoying - or perhaps mocking - their Existentialism.

    ReplyDelete