This post is dedicated to my adolescence's idol and present-day's Goddess who has shaped my opinions and views of the world through her work. Since childhood I've looked up on her and even after her death I hold her high in my mind. This post is about Tove Jansson.
Tove Jansson (1914-2001)
Tove Jansson was a finlandssvensk (Finland's Swedish, a person who is Finnish but speaks Swedish as his native language) writer, cartoon-drawer and artist who has influenced the Finnish culture massively. Her most well-known works are her Moomin books that are social critic, philosophical stories about hippo-like Moomins. The books are meant for children as adventure stories but when an adult reads the book he will notice the tints meant for older people (this is actually a very interesting thing because I noticed that when I read her books as a kid the stories had a completely different kind of meaning than they have now that I read them as an adult - it is very confusing but at the same time refreshing as you realize some new things in the book that you didn't understand as a kid!). Jansson's Moomin stories have created a small kind of a phenomenon in Finland: we have Moomin books, cartoons, movies, comics, mugs, blankets, spoons, toys, clothes, bags, you name it, we have it! Moomins also have their own theme park called Moominworld (I actually went there yesterday) in the beautiful city of Naantali. Moomins are known world-wide but are extremely popular in Japan - the cartoon about Moomins was made by the Japanese.
But Jansson was an educated artist so her Moomin books very surely not her only works. She has painted some beautiful paintings and illustrated multiply books. She has also worked with her brother Lars Jansson doing Moomin comics and has also of course written some other books than Moomin books as well. She has also written plays and radio plays are not strange for her either. After her death in 2001 nothing has really changed. She is still one of the most popular writers in Finland and is quoted and compared with others more often than other writers in Finland.
I always loved Tove Jansson and will always love her. She is one of the few people that I can say I will never stop loving. Her books have influenced me so much and in to such a good direction that no one can do the same thing to me. I have all her Moomin books that I read like possessed! My favorite one is Muumipappa ja meri (Moominpappa at Sea): it tells about the main character's father's, Moominpappa, difficulties finding out who he really is and what he wants from his life. As a kid it was a story about Moomins going to a lonely lighthouse island and having adventures there but nowadays I see that the book is full of views about loneliness and the feeling of meaningless.
I found a site in the internet about Tove Jansson which I think is one of the best sites about her that I've ever seen. I really wish you'd go there and read it through to learn more about Jansson (my small introduction about her is so not enough). I copied some photos from the site which I will show you here. I also like quoting Tove Jansson so I also copied some of her texts and I will try to translate them the best I can. Photos of Jansson's studio and island, you're welcome.
 |
| Tove Jansson |
 |
| Photos from Tove Jansson's studio. |
 | ||
| "Some times it felt the same as when, you are deeply in love, everything is growing, for example I felt like this enormously spoiled and mistreated island is a living thing that hated us or pitied us, always according to how we behaved or somehow" |
 |
| "Sometimes you build a durable and strong, sometimes just for decoration, sometimes both" |
 |
| These photos are from an island where Tove lived with her life partner. |
 |
| Tova Jansson and Tuulikki Pietilä: Tuulikki was Tove's life partner. |
(Headline is a quote from Tove Jansson)
Oh and btw, my dog's name comes from her: Tove :)
ReplyDelete