Karin Boye - Kallocain

I have understood that recent events in the world has made George Orwell's dystopian book 1984 popular again. I definitely see the reason to compare it to the world of today, but I want to tell you about a Swedish book that is not so famous, even though it has been translated to other languages than Swedish. It is called Kallocain and was the last book written by Karin Boye who commited suicide only months after it was published in 1940.

The book is about the chemist Leo Kall who tells the story of his life. He invented a truth serum called kallocain for the totalitarian Världstaten (World State) which controls everything in its citizens lives. The kallocain gives the state a way to control people's inner thoughts as well. However, listening to them has a side effect on Leo himself. He starts to question the teaching and the propaganda of Världstaten.

Considering it was published in 1940, it is easy to see that Boye mainly got her inspiration from the situation in contemporary Germany and Russia where the state required everything from the individual. The citizens should be submissive and obey every whim from the regime. Just like the regimes in Germany and Russia, Världsstaten also stalks, tortures and kills disobediant citizens. Feelings (especially of the more empathetic nature), humanism and free thoughts needs to be supressed totally and everyone needs to make huge sacrifices in the name of the state (such as giving up your own children to the state!) without blinking. The book also uses a lot of military terms, so you from the very beginning realise that the regime is into warfare. Everyone wears uniforms (special ones for every occasion) and the children are taught to play war from a very young age (They even uses explosives and has their own guns!). I also cannot help thinking Karin Boye wanted to criticise the view of science at the time. I do believe that science is good and things need to be scientific, but during that time, it was from time to time misused to devastating purposes.

Boye's language is very austere, but the pace of the story is rather hectic. It is easy to read, but you still need to stay with it all the time. It is a very thought-provoking book that unfortunately is still relevant today. While Orwell's future is in the past (1984), Kallocain is set in today's present (the 21st century), something that, to me, makes it a bit scary based on the current political situation we see througout the world.