Hjärnstorm - Swedish literary magazine

Hjärnstorm is one of those Swedish literary and cultural magazines that have survived against all odds. Smaller circulation literary magazines do not always last for more than a decade, but owing to a combination of subsidy and good editorship, Hjärnstorm (i.e. Brainstorm) has been going since 1977.

The issues of the magazine tend to be theme-centred, the latest (issue 96-97) being focused on the topic of suicide, which I hope does not presage an imminent departure from the Swedish literary scene. But the themes have been many, including psychedelia, Duchamp, Nietzsche, art criticism, pessimism, photography, Finland, the Sixties, Folkhemmet, the Weimar Republic, plus quite a few others. As can be seen, the magazine has an international outlook, but by no means neglects Sweden itself. So it can be a good windvane for translators who want to keep up with Swedish cultural trends.

As you can see from their website, it is sold at a number of outlets, scattered throughout Sweden, but mainly in Stockholm.

Don't be fooled by the surname

On account of the complex symbiosis between Finnish- and Swedish-speaking people in the bilingual regions of Finland, you cannot always immediately tell whether someone is a native-speaker of Finnish or Swedish, or what their second-language is likely to be. There are relatively few true bilinguals; Finnish-speaking people have picked holes in the Finnish of such people as Elmer Diktonius and Jörn Donner, even though they seem incredibly bilingual to the outsider. Whether this criticism is accurate, or mere envy, I cannot tell.

But it is the Christian name, or forename, that often (with some exceptions) gives a clue to the main language of specific people from Finland. Take a number of authors, statesmen and cultural figures in no particular order. Some will fool you, others not, and some speak somewhat unexpected languages:

Albert Edelfelt
Arvid and Eero Järnefelt
Henrik Tikkanen
Märta Tikkanen
Sally Salminen
Johannes Salminen
Johan V. Snellman
Anja Snellman
Amos Anderson
Jutta Zilliacus
Annika Idström
Kjell Westö
All names ending in -ius
Karmela Bélinki
Gustav Mannerheim
Hella Wuolijoki
Malin Kivelä
Tapani Ritamäki
Zinaida Lindén
Aleksis Kivi
Edith Södergran
Max Jakobson
Mirjam Tuominen
Hannele Mikaela Taivassalo
Heidi von Wright
Kristina Rotkirch
Akseli Gallen-Kallela
Thomas Warburton
Väinö Tanner
Eeva-Liisa Manner
Volter Kilpi
Matti Klinge
Tommy Tabermann

And so on. I'll continue later, in a comment on this same thread.

The Dream of a Nordic Alliance

Much is often talked about the rivalries and divisions between the Nordic nations, based on differences that are seen nowhere so clearly as in the field of culture. Yet it's hard to find written discussions of the subject - as though it were something to be hidden away rather than given a public airing. I recently came across an interesting and in-depth study of the topic, not by a literary figure but by a Danish musicologist, Anders Beyer, who has written extensively about the music of Per Nørgård, among other composers. In his essay, Beyer considers the changing face of the North as it comes, rather uneasily, into contact with the "mainland" of Europe. Although the essay was written some time ago, back in 2002, it still has contemporary relevance, and could perhaps form the basis for further debate. Excerpt:

We now see the outlines of an alliance shaping up between Norway, Iceland, the Faroes and Greenland as opposed to Denmark, Sweden and Finland who belong to the EU. We are seeing a new North, comprising the non-EU Western North and the EU Eastern North. In the case of Iceland, it has with a some justification been suggested that as a result of external influences the Icelanders have more in common with the Celtic temperament than the Nordic mentalilty. This illustrates the fact that in our enthusiasm to examine the Norse traditions we should not overlook other influences, for example from the British Isles.

Taking the birds' eye view of history, so to speak, we must at this point state that the euphoric Scandinavianism of the mid-nineteenth century has been eroded away. Back then, one could truly speak of a common goal which averted the rise of nationalist movements witnessed on the Continent. But strong interests in terms of realpolitik behind Scandinavianism as an alliance no longer exist. The contrary is rather the case, succumbing to temptations in the form of offers of new partnerships in the major central European movements.

Read it all.