100 years of Tove Jansson

[Urmas]

Saturday August 9 marks 100 years since the birth of beloved Finnish artist and author Tove Jansson (1914-2001).

Beloved? Understatement. Tove was the read deal.

(YouTube Linky)

YLE: 100 years of Tove Jansson

BBC: Tove Jansson: Love, war and the Moomins

Biographical Centre of the Finnish Literature Society: Jansson, Tove (1914 - 2001)

 

[muckshifter]

I remember the Moomins, great stories, great author.

 

[Becky]

Gosh, I had no idea the Moomins had been around since the 1940s! I remember having loads of story books when I was a kid, they were my favourites

 

[Urmas]

Becky (& others),

Time to read THIS, mayhaps?

“Small animals are a great problem. I wish God had never created small animals, or else that He had made them so they could talk, or else that He'd given them better faces. Space. Take moths. They fly at the lamp and burn themselves, and then they fly right back again. It can't be instinct, because it isn't the way it works. They just don't understand, so they go right on doing it. Then they lie on their backs and all their legs quiver, and then they're dead. Did you get all that? Does it sound good?"
"Very good," Grandmother said.
Sophia stood up and shouted, "Say this: say I hate everything that dies slow! Say I hate everything that won't let you help! Did you write that?”

Sophia and Grandmother sat down by the shore to discuss the matter further. It was a pretty day, and the sea was running a long, windless swell. It was on days just like this--dog days--that boats went sailing off all by themselves. Large, alien objects made their way in from sea, certain things sank and others rose, milk soured, and dragonflies danced in desperation. Lizards were not afraid. When the moon came up, red spiders mated on uninhabited skerries, where the rock became an unbroken carpet of tiny, ecstatic spiders.

A very long time ago, Grandmother had wanted to tell about all the things they did, but no one had bothered to ask. And now she had lost the urge.

 

[floppybootstomp]

A fascinating lady.

Ignoramus that I am, I'd not heard of either Tove or The Moomins before this.

 

[Urmas]

Psst, Sir Flopps... looky HERE



http://gren.ent.sirsidynix.net.uk/c...dlist$0026rt$003dAUTHOR$0026sm$003dfalse$0026