London Bound

Tate Britain

I'm writing this on Sunday to post Monday as I'll likely be in transit about this time; if all goes according to plan I ought to be on the Piccadilly Line heading to Russell Square and my swanky hotel. Hurrah for internet deals! Plans include seeing as many friends as I can, visiting my namesake at the Butterfly World Project on Tuesday, seeing Kaurismäki's new film Le Havre and the new Moomin Shop in Covent Garden, maybe catching the Hirst exhibit at the Tate Mod and definitely seeing the Wednesday matinee of The Ladykillers -- very excited about that.

News as I have time and wifi to pass it along: check Twitter. Alt-Fiction this weekend!

If you need entertaining, go listen to Elaine Stritch sing a very appropriate Noel Coward song.

Friday's Forgotten Books: Tales from Moomin Valley

Known and loved around the rest of the world, Tove Jansson's Moomin books seldom get exposure beyond the Finnish-American communities in this country. I suppose it's because Moomintroll himself often presents a rather melancholy figure, who feels sad without everybody around him demanding that he cheer up.

Shock!

When you look at the aggressively happy face of so much of American children's books (in contrast to the gritty, dark nature of so much YA reading) I suppose the Moomin tales stand out. Loosely based on Jansson's own upbringing in a bohemian family of artists, all the characters are eccentric and allowed to remain so. They range from the Moomins themselves to the nervous Sniff, the anarchic rebel Little My (after whom I named one of my five-string kanteles) and of course, my favourite, Snufkin -- to say nothing of Hattifatteners, Hemulens and of course, Fillyjonks. The books are about doing and making and finding your own interests and being curious about the world and the people in it.

Tales from Moomin Valley collects short tales that happen around the longer books. One of the underlying themes is that people who worry too much generally find they're wasting their time. Peace and a mutual respect are the only real requirements. In "The Invisible Child" (who's become invisible because she's too timid) there's a wonderful moment where Jansson writes of the family, "They continued their work in peaceful silence." People seldom know what they would really enjoy: the "Hemulen Who Loved Silence" finds out that maybe it would be more fun in his park if people could laugh and "possibly even hum."

The first story is a Snufkin one: he's my role model -- especially now. When Moomin and Sniff meet Snufkin for the first time in Comet in Moominland he tells them, "I'm a tramp and I live all over the place...I wander about and when I find a place that I like I put up my tent and play my mouth organ." When asked if he might be a painter or a poet, Snufkin says, "I am everything!" He finds the memory of things far superior to having the things themselves (hence my role model) and hates all kinds of authority, especially those who wield power for its own sake. Thus he hates the Park Keeper who continually puts up signs forbidding things: "All his life, Snufkin had longed to pull down notices that asked him not to do things he liked to do."

In "The Spring Tune" Snufkin wanders along, a tune just about ready to be born from his head. I love the way Jansson talks about the process of creation, finding that just-right moment to make something manifest, too soon and it gets stuck, too late and it escapes all together. When he thinks of how Moomintroll will like the song, he suddenly starts to feel annoyed with the idea that his friend is waiting for his return. Nothing a traveler likes less than being expected. When a strange little creature treats him with something like hero-worship, Snufkin warns, "You can't ever be really free if you admire somebody too much."

These stories are just wonderful: get all of Jansson's books, including the fantastic and fun comics collections from D&Q.






As always, check with Patti Abbott's blog for the full list of overlooked treasures [oops, or this week over at Todd's].

Reviewed

"Ninja" Paul Gravett, the one man comics crossroad of Britain, has reviewed Tove Jansson Rediscovered, the collection edited by Kate McLoughlin and Malin Lidström Brock [Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2007]. Scroll down past the pillowcases to find the review.

As his primary interest is comics, he really only reviews my piece which he mostly seems to like. But he's positive about the project as a whole:

Late last year, the organisers, Kate McLoughlin and Malin Lidström Brock, edited for Cambridge Scholars Publishing a 256-page collection of nineteen essays by these conference attendees, interestingly the majority of them women. It's perhaps inevitably a rather pricey hardback but it is well worth seeking out, perhaps by getting your library to order it in for you. A joyful photo adorns the dustjacket showing an elderly, radiant Tove swimming, her hair garlanded with flowers, and sets the tone. Inside, a six-page section of colour plates includes a striking self-portrait painted in 1942 entitled 'The Lynx Boa' and one of her illustrations from 1966 for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...

Get your library to order it today!

Publication: Tove Jansson

It was a nice surprise to come home after a long day of teaching (in which my students did not like Egil Skallagrimsson, grumble grumble) to find my latest publication on the kitchen table.
This is the collection that grew from the conference in Oxford last March. My essay is "Roses, Beads and Bones: Gender, Borders and Slippage in Tove Jansson's Moomin Comics." Of course it is on the gorgeous comics now being issued by Drawn & Quarterly. I can't wait to read the rest of the essays -- but I will have to wait, as I'm still writing my conference paper which I'll be giving Friday morning in Canada!

Double Blurbed!

I just opened my review copy of the next beautiful volume of Tove Jansson's Moomin Comics from Drawn & Quarterly. I really don't think they're capable of making an unattractive book. The cover of the second volume looks more mysterious than the first and has such rich blue and green and pink hues. Just getting it was a nice thing, of course -- even better was to see that I was blurbed twice in the promotion materials. There's a band slipped around the back cover with pull quotes from Neil Gaiman and Jeff Smith, then me -- although identified as Finlandia Weekly, since I'm not a big name like those two. Inside there's a press release that also features a quote pulled from New World Finn -- that's me, too. Cool -- with luck, my copy of Tove Jansson Rediscovered will arrive soon, too. Then I'll be rolling in Moomins! If only I had more time to read right now, but deadlines loom. Somehow it will all get done... [lather-rinse-repeat]

Oh, to be in England

Now that spring and Alan Moore are there --

Moore will be performing at a tribute to the late Robert Anton Wilson this Sunday. In April he will be giving a talk at the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery on"Magical Northampton":

Native psychogeographer, occultist and legendary graphic novel writer Alan Moore was “born in Northampton in 1953 and never left”. Alan will discuss local superstitions, myths and fables recreating the magical landscape of the town and its shire.



I shouldn't complain. I will be heading off to Oxford next week for a whirlwind visit where I'll give a paper on Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip - Book One. It will be fun to explore the land of Lewis Carroll!