Whoohoo! I’m still on a winning spree. Perhaps you feel that you have already read enough about Fosse, but this is, after all, Litteratur-Norge’s answer to Karsten Warholm’s and Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s winning moment on the pitch. It must be allowed to linger a little. A Norwegian Nobel Prize in literature – we will not experience that again in our lifetime. In this week’s Book Letter, I take you behind the scenes on the big day, and give you three points about Fosse’s books to take with you. Never have the seconds passed so slowly as when the camera zoomed in on the gilded door of the Swedish Academy and permanent secretary Mats Malm stepped out in front of the world’s press. – Twenty-three Nobel Prizes in Literature are awarded… Time stands still in the small meeting room on the news desk. No one is breathing. – … the Norwegian author … Who-who-who-who? – … Jon Fosse, för att … We explode in cheers. YESAAAA! The critics Thula Kopreitan, Gerd Elin Sandve, Anne Cathrine Straume and I hardly believe our own ears. Photo: Robert Rønning / news Rewind two weeks in time. Every autumn, the literary people at news form an ad hoc Nobel committee, a literary SWAT team that can jump into any broadcasting space and say a few wise words about this year’s Nobel laureate in literature. As there is no public nomination list, we must be able to say something about any writer in the world. We are therefore distributing a long list of possible winning names. We have read, met, reviewed and interviewed some of these authors. In some cases we have read one book once in the 90s, other authors we know superficially, and then every year there are some newcomers that we have not heard of before. LIST: Critic Gerd Elin Stava Sandve was responsible for 45 possible winners, neatly catalogued. Photo: Gerd Elin Sandve / news We always start by removing from last year’s list those who have died since the last time (Cormac McCarthy, gasp!) and Anne Cathrine Straume and I have to haggle over who gets responsibility for shared favorites such as Ian McEwan and Margaret Atwood. This year, Knut Hoem has perfected the pronunciation of Hungarian László Krasznahorkai and Romanian Mircea Cărtărescu. Afraid of questions from news anchors about the significance of the award ceremony for author X, I have been listening to long podcasts about the current situation for Chinese writers. I’ve read up on Pinochet’s 1973 coup and Chilean poet Rául Zurita’s art activist stunts. Then we place one person in the news studio live, while the others sit ready to rush in and comment if “their” author wins. Last year, Marta Norheim was sitting in the TV studio when the Academy announced Abdulrazak Gurnah. Then we laughed wickedly in the waiting room and said poor Marta, because that name came COMPLETELY out of the blue. But this year. This year, Jon Fosse’s name was at the top of the betting lists. Number 1. READY: The experts Inger Merete Hobbelstad and Knut Hoem are ready. Notice Knut’s folder with information about 44 possible winners. Photo: news In recent years, news and Det Norske Samlaget have had a set-up ready should Fosse win. The publisher makes sure that Fosse is available in his Grotten and that they have champagne in the fridge, and news has a TV team ready at the publisher’s premises. But this year Fosse was probably tired of this ritual of NOT winning the prize, so he ran off to the cabin at Frekhaug. The only party drink in Samlaget’s premises was a bottle of hardanger side left over from a launch party. Our local permanent secretary, critic Knut Hoem, did not dare believe in a Norwegian “victory” in Nyhetsmorgen, but struck a blow for Central European literature. CELEBRATION DAY: Never has the literature gang at news spread so much on the News Desk. The mood was great. Photo: Robert Rønning / news Fosse has been mentioned as a candidate for 22 years, and for a long time we said that it was a little too early for Jon Fosse to receive the award. After the giant work “Septologien” (2019–21), however, several people have said: Yes, NOW is the time for Fosse. And that was it. In Nina Owing’s studio, Knut could throw away his binder with all the foreign names, for Fosse’s writing, he can do that in and out. I was so happy that first I screamed, then I laughed, then I cried, and then I peed myself, and then I cried again. EMOTIONAL COCKTAIL: Worried, hopeful, crazy happy and touched. Photo: Robert Rønning / news Now it will be fun to immerse yourself in Fosse again. I’ve only read a fraction, and can’t wait to tackle early and late works. Nobelprize.org posted a poll on Twitter/X whether people out there in the world had read Fosse, and 91.6 percent answered no. Now I THINK that we in Norway can beat that response rate in a positive direction, or what, folks? Have you read or seen anything by Jon Fosse? Three things that helped me understand Fosse Photo: Ana Leticia Sigvartsen / news Whether you’ve read him or not, here are three things I think you must know about Fosse: 1. He’s funnier than you think Like many, I was of the opinion that Jon Fosse was a serious man with serious lyrics. The long pauses and the oppressive atmosphere between the characters on stage in some of the plays can feel burdensome. Then two things happened that changed that. I saw improv theater with, among others, Harald Eia and Helén Vikstvedt who did Fosse on stage and I laughed out loud. It removed the awe that stood in the way of the text. The second breakthrough came when Samlaget launched the first volume of “Septology” at Det Norske Teatret in 2019. They had hired Hildegun Riise to read aloud. She is also from Strandebarm and one of our foremost Fosse interpreters on stage. FRESH AT FOSSE: Hildegunn Riise knows the art of conveying Fosse. Here in the radio studio with Cille Biermann. Photo: Robert Rønning / news To my great surprise, I had to laugh several times. And Fosse, who was also present, chuckled with satisfaction. It was a delight how Riise played with the many repetitions that are so typical of Fosse. Sometimes she herself has found humor in the text and highlighted it, while at other times she is a little surprised when people laugh, Hildegunn told me when I visited her in the radio studio at Cille Biermann. – It’s a subtle form of humour, where we recognize our own fumbling in life, I think, said Riise mildly. You can hear both Hildegun Riise and Helén Vikstvedt talk about Fosse in Åpen bok’s recent special programme: I recommend listening to “Septology” on audiobook, with Anderz Eide reading 1,200 pages without punctuation as if it were a game. 2. There are so many layers It is impossible to say anything short about why Fosse’s books are so good, because there are so many layers. A small example: My first Fosse theater experience was “Någon kommer att komma” at Dramaten in Stockholm. I loved the play immediately, interpreting it as a picture of how a love relationship can destroy itself from within. Then I spoke to my partner, who is a writer. For his part, he believed that the play is about what theater is. The title alone is an image of the theatre’s essence, he explained to me. Because what happens in a play? Someone is on stage, then someone else enters from the side, and thus the drama begins. SOMEONE WILL COME: What happens when a stranger enters the scene and breaks the twoness of the couple in love? Here from the Shanghai Theater Academy’s production at the Festspillene in 2011. Photo: Festspillene i Bergen Jokingly said: If those who come on stage stumble out of cupboard doors, it’s comedy, If they come in with a knife, it’s tragedy. Jon Fosse is well-read on modernism and postmodernism, and is thus a believer in writing a meta-play about theatre. At the same time, he is a master at boiling down human relationships and dialogue into a dramatic essence, so “my” interpretation is also valid. This small example suggests how many layers one can dig into and why long books are still being written about Fosse’s plays and books. LAYER ON LAYER: Norli bookshop congratulated the prize with this impressive stack of Fosse books Photo: Norli at the literature house in Oslo 3. Fosse is a mystic This with the repetitions at Fosse was a nut for me early on. Then I was given a key by the theologian Rolv Nøtvik Jacobsen. He is concerned with the meeting point between religion and literature, and has seen this in two of our literary giants, Jan Kjærstad and Jon Fosse. Kjærstad grew up in Oslo and trained as a theologian. Fosse grew up in Bedehuswestlandet and has recently converted to Catholicism. Nøtvik Jacobsen interprets the two authors’ texts in the light of Christianity, and says they represent two completely different aspects. He calls Jan Kjærstad’s literature messianic. When Jesus comes to earth, he announces a completely new world, where values are turned upside down: The last shall be first. God is not punishment, but love. It is not an eye for an eye that applies, but to love and forgive one’s neighbor as oneself. Just as Jesus brings messages about a new understanding of God, so Kjærstad tries to create something completely new with his literature. He twists and turns Norwegian values and truths and creates new ways of telling stories, in an optimistic and positive attitude. Fosse’s literature, on the other hand, is liturgical. It reminds of the regular rituals in the church, such as prayer, the confession of faith and the blessing. NEAR: Fosse in his kitchen in Grotten. I think he looks both kind and sharp. Photo: Ana Leticia Sigvartsen / news If you have an all-encompassing anxiety, where you feel that everything flows out, the well-known repetitions in the liturgy can help you hold on to reality in an unsafe world. It is no secret that Fosse has struggled with dark moments. Perhaps the prayer, the invocation and the incantation are a way of navigating the world? At the same time, what happens when you repeat a word or phrase many times? The meaning dissolves, and a new meaning can emerge. Or you can suddenly reach into something behind, something mysterious that cannot be put into words. Thinking of the literary repetitions as a kind of incantation is thus one way of interpreting the texts. It seems logical. PRICE SHELF: Fosse has learned from English custom that you should keep your prices in the bathroom. There is still just room for a gold medal with Alfred Nobel’s face on it. Photo: Ana Leticia Sigvartsen / news When I interviewed Fosse about his poems in 2011, I tried to elicit from him what this mystery is, which hides behind simple poetic images, such as old hands, snow-covered mountains and dark soil. We started with a tour of the Grotto, which he had recently moved into, and ended by talking about death, of course. I was a little nervous because Fosse is not very happy in the interview situation, but during the conversation I grew fond of him, if I can say so strongly. Maybe that’s why I was so madly happy about the Nobel Prize? Portrait program from 2013. Jon Fosse is internationally sought after, but shy and private. He has nevertheless let us into the honorary residence Grotten for an exclusive tour. And a kitchen chat about birth, death and poetry. Program manager: Siss Vik. A new name Jon Fosse has been a national treasure for a long time, and dear children should have many names. At Samlaget they affectionately call him Fossen. Now he needs an international nickname. Bergens Tidende’s culture editor Jens Kihl suggested JoFo. I like it. Congratulations on the award, JoFo. A look ahead The first thing I’m going to do is read the slender Fosse novel “Morgon og kveld”, because Hildegun Riise warmly recommended it to me. In my Lord of the Rings project, I just read the scene where the huge spider captures Frodo, and it was MUCH scarier in the book than in the movie. In this week’s Arena, we discussed whether a fantasy writer could receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, and I revealed what the Swedish Academy had to say about Tolkien in his time. On the bedside table I have the book by Jon-Are Masternes, who is the rapper KLISH and lives with being on the autism spectrum, and then of course the debut book by Oliver Lovrenski. Now I’m looking forward to autumn darkness, mutton cabbage and good reading experiences! Comment What did you think of Jon Fosse’s books and drama? Is that your cup of tea? Or do you think another Norwegian author should have received the award? Hello! Welcome to dialogue at news. Since you are logged in to other news services, you do not have to log in again here, but we need your consent to our terms of use for online dialogue
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Book letter #23 Siss went bananas when Jon Fosse received the Nobel Prize – Siss Vik’s book letter
