Eh, I am from Sweden. I don't think we should turn this forum
into a political debate, but one should really take Sjö·¡¬l
& Wahlö¶’³ descriptions of the various societal woes with a
large pinch of salt. Take it from me.
And regardless if they were right or not, I think those
political rants that appeared increasingly often as the
series went on, turned the novels into Complaint Literature.
Not a good thing.
From:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com [mailto:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Patrick King
Sent: den 1 maj 2008 22:37 To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: RARA-AVIS: The
Laughing Policeman
--- Anders Engwall <
anders.engwall@comhem.se
<mailto:anders.engwall%40comhem.se> > wrote:
> About the overall quality, I'm not so sure.
The
> so-called social commentary
> really gets in the way, at least in the later
half
> of the series. While
> there might some grain of truth here and
there,
> basically all of it is just
> gross exaggerations and pompous demagoguery. And
the
> nonsense ratio
> increased as the series went on - I found the
last
> entry to be basically
> unreadable. This series was once the subject of
some
> very vicious parodies,
> and it deserved it too. And I'm saying that
as
> someone who is politically
> (very) left-wing - these books are
politically
> counter-productive.
***************************************************** Let me
guess, you're from the United States, right? Please consider
that you're reading these books in translation. As an
"American" you speak only one language. These books were not
written for Democrats or Republicans. They are written for
Swedish people with the very real political problems
regarding the politics of law enforcement in Sweeden in the
60s & 70s. The fact that they were translated into dozens
of languages is a testament to how widely those problems were
reflected in other cultures at that time. I think your
comments about these books miss the big picture. I know
you're trying not to be prejudiced against ideas you've been
taught from the cradle to despise on general principles
without considering their potential. But just consider that
these ideas are still viable throughout Europe where the
concept of democracy is inclusive as opposed to the US where
its exculsive.
Patrick King
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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