Larsson rose

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Karl Stig-Erland Larsson [ ˌkɑːɭ stiːɡ æɭand ˈlɑːʂɔn ] (born August 15, 1954 in Skelleftehamn , Västerbotten County ; † November 9, 2004 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish journalist and writer. He became internationally known as the editor of the anti-racist magazine Expo and above all for his three crime novels ("Millennium Trilogy"), which were only published posthumously .

Life

Stieg Larsson's parents were both 19 years old when he was born. He grew up with his grandparents in a small village in the province of Västerbotten in northern Sweden, which he later quoted in his first crime novel from the Millennium Trilogy. Larsson only came back to his parents when he was eight. According to his friend and biographer Kurdo Baksi , when he was 14 years old, Larsson saw his friends raping a girl and he did nothing about it. From then on, burdened by this feeling of guilt, he dedicated his life to fighting social grievances. The experience can also be seen as a motif for his novels. After attending high school and various jobs, including at the Swedish Post Office, Larsson took a permanent position in 1979 at the Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT). He worked there for the next 19 years mainly in the graphics department, but also wrote essays , small articles and literary reviews .

As a young man, Stieg Larsson was interested in the African wars of liberation. In 1977 he traveled to the province of Eritrea , which was then fighting for its independence from Ethiopia . He joined a guerrilla training camp , where he encountered an army made up of one-third women. Larsson became a military instructor and taught the use of grenade launchers, which he had learned in his military service.

With his partner Eva Gabrielsson, Larsson went on a study trip to Grenada in 1981 , where the political movement New Jewel Movement had established a socialist system after a revolution in 1979.

From 1982 he was Scandinavian correspondent for the British anti-fascist newspaper Searchlight Magazine . He also wrote articles on right-wing extremism and US imperialism in the Trotskyist weekly Internationale in the 1980s, using the pseudonym Severin . In 1991, together with Anna-Lena Lodenius, he published the book “Extremhögern”, which deals with Swedish right-wing radicalism. After seven people had been murdered by right-wing extremists, he founded the Expo Foundation in 1995, which also includes the magazine of the same name. Since then he has been the editor of the anti-fascist magazine Expo , which has been the target of right-wing attacks. Right-wing activists smashed shop windows, the printer received threats and in June 1999 a car bomb detonated seriously injured an Expo writer.

Larsson was considered one of the world's leading experts on fascist , right-wing extremist , neo-Nazi , but also right-wing conservative movements, which he equated extremist movements. He came from a social democratic family and called himself a communist. His father said about him in a ZDF documentary from January 23, 2011: "Politically, he was further left than we, his parents, unfortunately".

In addition, Larsson wrote detective novels in which he criticized social grievances in Sweden. In the years before his death he wrote three detective novels around the main characters "Mikael Blomkvist", a journalist, and "Lisbeth Salander", a bizarre hacker . Larsson changed his first name from Stig to Stieg to avoid confusion as an author with the scriptwriter and director Stig Larsson .

Stieg Larsson died in 2004 of complications from a heart attack .

Style and way of working

The Millennium series was originally designed for ten volumes , similar to the author duo Sjöwall / Wahlöö . That it didn't come to that and Larsson died early was possibly also due to his work and lifestyle. During the day the Swedish author occupied himself with his fight against right-wing extremism and at night he wrote on his manuscripts. He is described by his contemporaries as a classic workaholic . He ate little, came home early in the morning and smoked up to 60 self-rolled cigarettes a day.

Claiming that Larsson was a “mediocre journalist”, his former colleague Kurdo Baksi added: “He's been an excellent influencer. But he was not infallible. ”In an article in the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, the journalist Anders Hellberg reported that he had seen Larsson while working for the TT news agency; Hellberg worked there as a night editor and Larsson as a graphic artist. “And I found that he just couldn't write. The language was poor, there was a lack of word order, the sentence structure was monotonous and the syntax sometimes completely slipped. In order for this language to function professionally, it had to be rewritten. ”Both Hellberg and Baksi concluded that for them it was“ a mystery how Stieg Larsson could have written his books. He simply didn't master the craft. ”Both speculated that there might have been a division of labor between Stieg Larsson and his partner Eva Gabrielsson; Larsson was probably responsible for the plot and material and Gabrielsson for the language.

Some critics expressed themselves very disparagingly about Larsson's writing style, one example: “Larsson's writing is characterized above all by a penetrating logorrhea and a redundancy that is not slowed down by any editor . The book looks like a report blown into ash gray by a shabby investigative reporter who works for a tabloid and doesn't speak any language. Seldom have descriptions been more awkward and bumpy than in this joyless book, rarely the hackneyed clichés and blooms of style clumped together like here. "

Others attested exactly the opposite: “Stieg Larsson cultivates an extremely simple and entertaining style, the execution of which hits the nerve of a skillfully told crime novel and is able to inspire. This style already distinguished 'Verblendung' and makes the second part of the 'Millennium' trilogy a reading experience. But it is also very clear that you shouldn't expect much from this type of style in terms of originality. Neither 'delusion' nor 'damnation' are entertainment at a high level, but the very best reading to enjoy without great mental effort. But style is also the only strength. Neither the characters nor the story can convince. Stieg Larsson exceeds the limits of unbelievability. "

The Millennium Trilogy is not characterized by linguistic subtleties, it is rather the "straightforward writing style" that is one of the special features in Stieg Larsson's work.

Larsson's success can be explained by the successful mixture of story, writing style and characters. The protagonists Mikael Blomkvist, Henrik Vanger and Lisbeth Salander are individualists with strong character traits that make it easier for the reader to identify with the characters. This contrasts with the meticulous depiction of the cruel crimes.

The Millennium Trilogy

Novel series

On his death, Larsson left behind the first three of ten planned books, which were titled Män som hatar kvinnor (“Men who hate women”, 2005; published in Germany as delusion ), Flickan som lekte med elden (“Das Mädchen, das played with fire ", 2006; dt. damnation ) and Luftslottet som sprängdes (" Das Luftschloss that was blown up ", 2007; dt. forgiveness ) were first published posthumously in Sweden. The three novels of the “Millennium Trilogy” (named after the magazine “Millennium” in the novels) became a major international success with 82 million copies sold worldwide (as of 2015). In Sweden alone 3.5 million copies have been sold.

Books four to six of this series are available as an exposé . A fourth volume is largely finished. But neither Larsson's father Erland and his brother Joakim, who jointly hold the rights to his works, nor his partner, Eva Gabrielsson, would like the fourth volume to be written and published by another author, as this is not in the spirit of Stieg Larsson would be. In 2006, Larsson was posthumously awarded the Scandinavian Crime Prize (Glasnyckeln) for blindness , which the Swedish book trade had voted the best book of the year a year earlier. In his analysis of the trilogy, the literary scholar Tim Parks attributes the success not to Larsson's abilities as a suspense architect, but to his authoritative credibility .

In December 2013, the Swedish publisher Norstedts announced that journalist and writer David Lagercrantz was working on a new fourth millennium novel. The novel is written without the participation of Eva Gabrielsson and also without the use of the unfinished fourth manuscript and is designed as a free-standing sequel with Larsson's characters. Larsson's heirs, his father and brother, have, however, consented to the publication. On August 27, 2015, the fourth part of the Millennium series was finally published under the title Det som inte dödar oss (= What does not kill us; German title: "Conspiracy"). The publication of the book has met with some sharp criticism in Sweden because it exploited Larsson's fame and would not have met his approval. The series of novels was continued by David Lagercrantz in 2017 titled Persecution and in 2019 titled Annihilation .

Audio books

Random House Audio published the first two parts of the trilogy (Delusion and Damnation) as an audio book in 2010. The last part (forgiveness) followed in 2011. The reading version, slightly shortened by Thomas Krüger , is read by Dietmar Bär in all three parts and comprises eight CDs per audio book . In 2012, the Schall und Wahn publishing house published an unabridged download version for the Amazon subsidiary Audible.de . This version is spoken by Dietmar Wunder .

In addition, all parts of the 2010 trilogy were set to music by WDR as a radio play.

Film adaptations

Swedish films

The Millennium Trilogy was filmed in Sweden with Michael Nyqvist as Mikael Blomkvist and Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander.

The Swedish film was originally designed as a television production, but was eventually shown in the cinema in an abridged version. The first film about Man som hatar kvinnor ("Men who hate women"; English title: Verblendung ) was released in Swedish cinemas on February 27, 2009 and is one of the most successful films of all time in Scandinavia. In autumn 2009 the second part celebrated Flickan som lekte med elden (“The girl who played with fire”; German title: Damnation ) and the third part Luftslottet som sprängdes (“The castle in the air”; German title : Forgiveness ) premiere in Sweden. A little later, the films also opened in other countries.

In the spring of 2010, the original full versions of the three films were broadcast on six Saturdays on Swedish public television SVT1 . In January and February 2011, the German broadcaster ZDF broadcast the Millennium Trilogy in six parts, also in the extended version.

American films

Directed by David Fincher with the script by Steven Zaillian , the American second film version of the first book Verblendung was filmed in Sweden (October 2010). Verblendung was released in US cinemas in late 2011 and in German cinemas in early 2012. Leading actress Rooney Mara was chosen for her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander u. a. nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe .

Another feature film from the Millennium trilogy is Conspiracy , directed by Fede Alvarez , which was released in German cinemas on November 22, 2018.

Inheritance dispute

A dispute over the rights to the manuscripts and over Stieg Larsson's legacy between his father and brother on the one hand and his partner Eva Gabrielsson on the other made headlines. Eva Gabrielsson and Stieg Larsson were in a relationship for 32 years until his death, but not married, which is why Gabrielsson did not receive any rights to his works. While looking through Larsson's remains, Gabrielsson came across a will written by him in 1977: “I'm hardly a rich man, but my fortune in pure money (and I am very certain of that) should go to the Umeå branch of the Communist Workers' Union. “She ignored it because it is ineffective under Swedish law without authentication . The Swedish TV news magazine Uppdrag granskning ( Eng . Research order) got wind of the matter and made a sensation out of it. His father declared that with part of the inheritance he would continue to finance political movements in the interests of his son. Among them in particular the magazine against right-wing extremism that he founded.

The Umeå local group of the Swedish section of the Communist Workers' Union, which is now called Socialistiska Partiet (SP), said:

“Our party does not participate in any inheritance dispute and does not haggle for money. We have no relationship with anyone personally and we don't want to harm anyone. We hold fast to our ideals of justice and equal treatment, which were also Stieg Larsson's ideals. We believe that Stieg's lifelong relationship with Eva Gabrielsson should be respected. The outmoded Swedish legislation that puts marriage over other couples - be they same or mixed sex - needs to be fundamentally reformed. People should be able to live together according to their own decision, without risking insecurity and lack of rights. The best way to preserve Stieg's memory is to continue the fight against racism and right-wing extremism and for a society that respects the same values ​​and rights for all people. "

Works

Non-fiction books (selection)

  • 1990: Sweden - a new strategy , together with Dick Forslund. In: Hans-Jürgen Schulz (Ed.): You are back! isp-Verlag; Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-88332-169-9 .
  • 1991: Swedish racism - the democratic way. In: A. Sivanandan (Ed.): Europe: Variations on a Theme of Racism. Institute for Race Relations, London 1991.
  • 1991: Extremhögern , together with Anna-Lena Lodenius. Tiden Förlag, Stockholm 1991 and 1994, ISBN 91-550-3686-4 .
  • 1993: Det eviga hatet - om nynazism, Antisemitism och Radio Islam , together with Per Ahlmark. Albert Bonniers Förlag, 1994
  • 1999: Sverigedemokraterna och Euro-Nat , together with David Lagerlöf, Svend Johansen, Kerstin Zachrisson et al., Expo Förlag, 1999
  • 2000: racism inc. - White Power Music made in Sweden . In: Searchlight, Antifaschistisches Infoblatt , Enough is enough, rat (ed.): White Noise: Right-Rock, SKinhead-Music, Blood & Honor - Insights into the international neo-Nazi music scene. Unrast Verlag , Münster 2000
  • 2000: Överleva deadline - handbok för hotade journalister , Svenska journalistförbundet, Stockholm 2000
  • 2001: Sverigedemokraterna : den nationella rörelsen , together with Mikael Ekman. Ordfront, Stockholm 2001, ISBN 91-7324-877-0 .
  • 2004: Debates om hedersmord: feminism eller rasism , together with Cecilia Englund, Svartvitts Förlag, Stockholm 2004
  • 2004: Sverigedemokraterna från insidan , together with Richard Slätt, Maria Blomquist, David Lagerlöf et al., 2004

Novels

The Millennium Trilogy:

Awards (all posthumous)

Film documents

literature

  • Kurdo Baksi: My friend Stieg Larsson . Heyne, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-453-17065-0 (Swedish: Min vän Stieg Larsson . Stockholm 2010. Translated by Susanne Dahmann).
  • Jan-Erik Pettersson: Stieg Larsson: A Political Biography . Structure, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-351-02719-3 (Swedish: Stieg Larsson - journalists, författaren och idealisten . Stockholm 2010. Translated by Wibke Kuhn, Katrin Frey, Ursel Allenstein).
  • Guillaume Lebeau, Frédéric Rébéna: Stieg Larsson - Before the Millennium Trilogy (comic). avant-verlag , Berlin 2013 ISBN 978-3-939080-82-4 (original edition Editions Denoel 2012)
  • Jeanette Schröter: Religion in the Swedish detective novel. The Swedish thrillers by Larsson, Mankell and Nesser. Tectum, Marburg 2015 ISBN 978-3-8288-3528-3 Zugl. Diss. Phil. University of Hanover
  • Jan Stocklassa: Rose Larsson's legacy. Europa Verlag , Berlin / Munich / Vienna / Zurich 2018 ISBN 978-3-95890-225-1 Translated by Ulrike Brauns

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Hans Forsman: Stig Larsson: Han ändrade själv stavningen . Västerbottens Folkblad, February 27, 2009, accessed January 24, 2017 (Swedish).
  2. ↑ Carola Wittrock: Review: A woman against hatred of men - Noomi Rapace as a film heroine in Stieg Larsson's bestseller trilogy. ttt - title, theses, temperaments , January 24, 2010, archived from the original on April 3, 2010 ; accessed on January 24, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Martin Uhrmeister: The Stieg Larsson Story - What is behind the Millennium Trilogy . ZDF documentary film, 2011, 45 minutes.
  4. ↑ Röda Lund: Visst kunde Stieg skriva! Röda Lund's weblog on wordpress.com , January 31, 2010, accessed on January 24, 2017 (Swedish).
  5. ^ Lars creates: Stieg Larsson. KrimiCouch, October 6, 2009, accessed January 24, 2017 .
  6. ^ Kurdo Baksi: My friend Stieg Larsson . Norstedts Förlag, Stockholm 2010
  7. ↑ Thomas Steinfeld: Thriller author Stieg Larsson: The poet and his thinker. Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 17, 2010, accessed on January 24, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Father Ralph de Fricassee (pseudonym): residual waste and stupidity to Stieg Larsson: veneer. LitEx - Magazine for all kinds of verrisse, accessed on January 24, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Father Ralph de Fricassee (pseudonym): Review: Damnation (Stieg Larsson). Legimus - Wirread, December 16, 2012, accessed January 24, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Biography - Stieg Larsson. Fabulous Books, archived from the original on April 10, 2014 ; accessed on January 24, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Review: The Blinding of Stieg Larsson. German-language literature, archived from the original on October 28, 2012 ; accessed on January 24, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Hendrik Werner: Posthumous Fame: Stieg Larsson - the Heath Ledger of crime writers. Die Welt , July 9, 2009, accessed January 24, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Gerhard Spörl : Stieg Larsson's “Millennium” series: So much suffering, so much anger . Spiegel Online , August 27, 2015, accessed January 24, 2017.
  14. ↑ Hannes Gamillscheg: Crime trilogy comes to the cinema. Kölner Stadtanzeiger , September 29, 2009, archived from the original on February 11, 2013 ; accessed on January 24, 2017 .
  15. ↑ Gerhard Fischer: Stieg Larsson: Krimi um seine Erbe - The last chapter. Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 24, 2009, archived from the original on September 27, 2009 ; accessed on November 7, 2018 . Swede and Lowdown. Newsweek June 29, 2009; archived from the original on January 6, 2010 ; accessed on January 24, 2017 (English). Hannes Gamillscheg: Fame only after death. Stuttgarter Zeitung , September 30, 2009, archived from the original on January 28, 2011 ; accessed on January 24, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Information on life thanks to the publisher's information, the publisher's and Expo website and the biography at schwedenkrimi.de , which presumably also refers to the condolence page of the Expo page.
  17. ↑ Tim Parks : The Moralist . Reviewed in the New York Review of Books on June 9, 2011, accessed January 24, 2017.
  18. ↑ Juan Flores: Stieg Larssons fjärde bok skrivs av Lagercrantz. Dagens Nyheter , December 17, 2013, archived from the original on December 17, 2013 ; Retrieved January 24, 2017 (Swedish).
  19. ↑ Best seller project: Jussi Adler Olsen calls for a "Millennium" boycott . In: Spiegel Online . August 28, 2015 ( spiegel.de [accessed on August 28, 2015]).
  20. ↑ The publisher reveals details about the "Millennium" continuation . Die Welt , July 24, 2015, accessed January 24, 2017.
  21. ↑ Bråket kring Millennium - år för år: 2015 - Reviews växer: ”Gravplundring” . Svenska Dagbladet , August 26, 2015, accessed January 24, 2017 (dispute over the continuation of the Millennium series, Swedish).
  22. ↑ “Forgiveness” - the Millennium Trilogy continues. 1 Live , June 15, 2011, archived from the original on June 18, 2011 ; accessed on January 24, 2017 .
  23. ↑ Search results for "millenium trilogie". Audible , accessed January 22, 2017 .
  24. ↑ "Verblendung" - Hollywood-level thriller . Cinema.de , June 30, 2009, accessed January 24, 2017.
  25. ^ Ny svensk i Millennium. Upsala Nya Tidning, March 3, 2012, archived from the original on March 3, 2012 ; Retrieved January 24, 2017 (Swedish).
  26. ↑ Hollywood remake: Daniel Craig plays the Stieg Larsson character. Der Spiegel , July 27, 2010, accessed January 24, 2017.
  27. ^ Criticism of the conspiracy on www.filmstarts.de
  28. ↑ Kerstin Nielsson: Mångmiljonär efter sin död. Aftonbladet , January 14, 2007; accessed January 24, 2017 (Swedish).
  29. ^ André Anwar: Erbstreit: A real Swedish crime thriller. Der Tagesspiegel , June 8, 2008, accessed on January 24, 2017.
  30. ↑ Björn Mertens: Stieg Larsson: The disappeared testament. Inprekorr No. 446/447, January / February 2009, accessed on January 24, 2017.
  31. ↑ Larsson posthumously honorary citizen of his hometown. dpa article on Focus Online , May 21, 2012, accessed on January 24, 2017 .
  32. ^ Frey in the translator database of the VdÜ, 2019
  33. ↑ Allenstein in the translator database of the VdÜ , 2019
personal data
SURNAME Larsson, rose
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Larsson, Karl Stig-Erland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Skelleftehamn
DATE OF DEATH November 9, 2004
Place of death Stockholm