[Blog contribution by Max Ryynänen*, Helsinki-based scholar - thanks Max: for once offering me a book by Mario Perniola, for the arts and culture discussions and for motivating me to write this blog]
Since the first of Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi books was published in 1945 this anarchistic, animal loving child has been considered to be both a negative, disobedient role model for children, and a carnevalistic feminist icon.
Neither of these normative interpretations (of which the latter is more constructive) conveys the transitory nature of this miracle girl who beats Superman not only by being way cooler, but also by being capable of enjoying life to its fullest.
Pippi meets prejudices and people who try to educate her. A teacher wants to nurse her. The police wants her to act like other children – to reinforce order in society (like there wouldn’t be an overdose of it in Sweden). Of course Pippi is cooler because she is a girl, but in the end she transcends Western metaphysics, and does not fight against it anxiously.
Like the first butterfly of May she is closer to Buddha than to most ‘revolutionary’ characters of Western literature."
[1] Pippilotta Delicatessa Windowshade Mackrelmint Efraim’s Daughter Longstocking.
2 comments:
Oh wow. I forgot all about Pippi! I had all of the stories on tape and listened to them all the time when I was little. I don't really remember much about them (now I need to find them and listen to them again) but there's this one bit that always sticks out in my head. There's one story where she has those two kids who were the neighbors over for tea and they go up into the tree that gives presents. The narrator read after the little girl spills tea on her dress; "first it was warm and wet, and then it was cold and wet, but that didn't matter" and every time I spill a hot beverage I think of that line.
Funny what sticks with you from childhood.
Greta Thunberg always reminds me a kind of Pippi... in a positive manner.
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