Astrid Lindgren and Tove Jansson

I want a Mum. And a Dad. And a philosopher

BY ANN-CHRISTINE SNICKARS

In a photograph from the 1970’s Astrid Lindgren and Tove Jansson appear together. They have just received the prize Heffaklumpen, awarded by the newspaper Expressen; Astrid has her arm around Tove, who looks slightly embarrassed. If one had to choose a photograph of Astrid by herself, she would probably be wearing a beret; perhaps it would be the photograph from the time when she had just received yet another prize for a little girls’ book and because of this mentions that she has another manuscript (refused by her publisher) in her desk drawer. It is about a little girl called Pippi Longstocking.
The photographs of Tove Jansson portray a rather more reserved artist. As she grew older, she withdrew and like Wislawa Szymborska hid herself amidst a fog of cigarette smoke. Those photographs obscure earlier portaits of her, like the series of photographs taken by her brother Per Olov Jansson, in which she is sitting next to some thick ropes out on her beloved summer island in the Finnish archipelago. She is wearing a shirt cut like a sailor’s, she is beautiful in a somewhat introspective and androgynous manner, just like in her self portrait in oil from 1942, in which her long lynx boa is more feminine, though it does seem slightly dressy.
Tove Jansson and Astrid Lindgren died within seven months of each other, Tove Jansson in June 2001 and Astrid Lindgren in January 2002. They were born in 1914 and 1907 respectively and their average age is about 90. They have left an enormous void behind them; it is almost as if their readers had ultimately decided to afford them physical immortality.
Outside the realms of their books, it would seem that they have provided the child within us with an important, virtual sense of parenthood. In Astrid Lindgren’s books, it is often a question of fathers; one of the most moving episodes in her work is when Luffaren the Tramp gives Rasmus not only one of his delicious sandwiches but two, then finds a dry spot in the sun for Rasmus to have a good sleep. In the work of Tove Jansson, longing for a mother seems to be a central impulse, she removes from it any sense of absurdity or weakness. Indeed, Moomin Troll would not have been such a multi-faceted character had he not had such strong ties to his mother. There are also other characters who express their longing for a mother. In the book Sent i november (Moominvalley November) Whomper ponders: “I want someone who is never afraid of anything and who takes care of you, I want to have a Mum! “
According to biographers, the presence of these mother and father figures has very much to do with the authors’ respective backgrounds. Astrid was very much Daddy’s girl, whilst Tove was Mummy’s. This may well be the case, they would certainly complement each other in this respect, and it is all to the reader’s advantage. However, what is perhaps more important is that, through their writing, they opened up unlimited amounts of space for play and for childish thoughts. In fact, this philosophy equally applies to artistry itself.
On occasions both Astrid Lindgren and Tove Jansson have accepted commissions from children. The picture book Vem ska trösta Knyttet? (Who will comfort Toffle?) came about after a little boy had written her a letter about how afraid and shy he was. The letter was signed simply “Knyttet”. In the beginning of the 1950’s Astrid Lindgren received an irresistible letter from the young Jarl Hammarberg (who, as an adult, became a writer and a painter). He and a friend ordered a story “about a little dragon” to go into a magazine they wrote themselves. The fee was a free copy of the magazine and two “krånor”(crowns); Astrid Lindgren decided to accept the commission and wrote the story Draken med de röda ögonen (The Dragon with Red Eyes), which later became available as an illustrated book.
It was widely reported that the postal service refused to give Astrid Lindgren her own personal postman. In her book of anecdotes Resa med Tove (Schildts 2002; Journey with Tove), Tove’s summer neighbour Greta Gustafsson points out that the amount of post often created serious problems: “The amount of post was always increasing, a lot. We used to collect all the post in a sack, the drawer just wasn’t big enough.”
Her readers eventually started making so much contact with her that it even became rather a burden. New generations of readers simply could not refrain from contacting their favourite writers. You can almost bet that every single child in Scandinavia is more than familiar with the Brothers Lionheart and the Moomins. That certainly is a powerful following. Although it is rarely mentioned, Astrid Lindgren and Tove Jansson also served as models for many women. As an unmarried teenage mother, Astrid Lindgren smashed many conventions by doggedly working towards being reunited with her son, who had been taken away from her, as was the custom of the time. As a role model, there is a certain guarantee of integrity in Tove Jansson: in her respect for artistry, which is paramount, and for personal choice.
If Tove Jansson had been born fifty or so years later, she would have ended up becoming a spokesperson for gay rights, now she was spared that. However, one of the Moomin books Trollvinter (1957; Moominland Midwinter) can also be read as a kind of initiation, it has associations with raising people’s awareness of sexual orientation. Many gay people have commented that this book has meant a great deal to them.
After this book, it was no longer really possible to write exclusively for children. Many people found it difficult to come to terms with the fact that Sent i november (1970; Late in November) in fact represented a farewell to Moomin Valley and that it was openly written for an older readership. In Japan, where Tove Jansson is immensely popular, (for example, in Moomin Land just outside Nådendal (Naantali) in Finland, one can always see throngs of enthusiastic Japanese tourists, almost as many as Norwegians) she is considered just as much an “adult” writer. After her death, she has re-emerged as what she originally was: an artist and a painter. A large-scale memorial exhibition, first displayed in the art museum in Tampere, is currently touring round Finland. This also reminds us that Moomin Troll was in fact conceived in an entirely different genre: that of political caricature. This is something to bear in mind when one has followed his path through life and eventually into the commercial quagmire, in which his ultimate lowpoint was to be used as an emblem on a brand of nappies.
Tove Jansson and Astrid Lindgren are both very dear to their readers, but in different ways. In Finland, there has not been a funeral for any author as well attended as that of Astrid Lindgren since the burial of Zacharias Topelius. Astrid Lindgren’s characters are far more enduring than those of any fairytales which had gone before her. Perhaps this is because Pippi Långstrump, amongst others, has a philosophical mission. In this, she is as effective as Socrates, as the writers Jørgen Gaare and Øystein Sjaastad have pointed out in their book Pippi and Sokrates (C. Huitfeldt forlag 2000, Swedish translation Natur och Kultur 2002). Both characters function by questioning things and ultimately through making ironic remarks about them. They often manage to convince their opponents to change the way they think. That is indeed a very flattering comparison for Pippilotta Provisonia Gaberdinia et al. And for Socrates.

Ann-Christine Snickars is a literary critic and cultural journalist

Translated by David Hackston