half off-topic: Astrid Lindgren

[Lunnan & Hjort]

Since the date looks special today (02-02-02 to some 
of you, 2/2-02 to some, where I'd prefer 2/2/2 or 2-2-2, 
in a futile attempt to avoid the imperialist ever-presence of 
the machine- and computer-age caused unnecessary 
"zero", as if we counted objects with 01, 02, 03, ...), 
I feel I should utter something to the DCML.
 
And I choose to say: let's pause for a minute to salute
one of last century's greatest writers, who died last week
at age 94. I even refuse to define or label this as "fully off-topic",
for reasons I'll attempt to explain. The DCML policy, tradition 
and polite (most of the time) anarchist culture does allow a 
reasonable amount of off-topic-ness, where one strays by 
association from genuinely Disney Comics- or Duck-related 
issues on to Something Completely Different, and where one 
perhaps manages to manouevre oneselves back after a little 
time. The list has also tolerated various discussion of 
"other literature" from time to time. 

It is perhaps a fruitful exercise for any Disney Comics reader 
to somehow define, by genre or by examples, "literature which 
is not Ducks or Disney Comics, but which in main aspects 
resembles such". Each of us would come up with a separate 
list. But for me, as a fan of Disney Barks (and Strobl and Rosa)
Ducks in particular, it feels natural to include Astrid Lindgren 
(1907--2002) on my personal list. This is not so much due to the 
"both Barks and Lindgren wrote for children" argument, as I 
seriously consider both of them writers for _all_ readers, of all ages. 
It has to do with the form of their stories, their occasional 
(and very effective) balancing of genres (realism vs pseudo-realism
vs fantasy vs humour), and, importantly, their literary quality. 
I don't have to convince people on the DCML that the best 
of Ducks is High Literature (such efforts would be needed 
elsewhere), but perhaps many of you would object to the 
assertion that AL stories also are equally High Literature. 
I do believe they are. (And I am not alone, of course; there 
were strong pressures over the last ten years or so trying to
push towards a Nobel Literature Prize for her.) In "Mio" and
"Ronja", possibly in "Karlson" and "The Lionheart Brothers",
she reaches himalayan heights. 

Astrid Lindgren is dead. Long live Astrid Lindgren. 
Nils Lid Hjort.