Astrid Lindgren - Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus

A good thing about this blog is that I get to revisit some of my old favourites and it has been quite a while since I read this one. The first time I read them I was about 12 and had just seen the newer two films that were made in the 1990's: Kalle Blomkvist - Mästerdetektiven lever farligt (Kalle Blomkvist - the Master Detective Lives Dangerously) (1996) and Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus (Kalle Blomkvist and Rasmus) (1997). I have talked about the Kalle Blomkvist books in a couple of other entries to this blog (here and here).

Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus is the third and last of the books about the Master Detective Blomkvist, first published in 1953. Now you might wonder why I did not start with the first book Mästerdetektiven Blomkvist (Master Detective Blomkvist) (1946) or even the second one, Mästerdetektiven Blomkvist lever farligt (1951). To be honest, I got a strong urge to reread it because of the Phryne Fisher book Flying to High. Parts of the plot in that book is similar to the one in Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus. While the first two books deal with a jewel theft and a murder, this one deals with a kidnapping.

Eva-Lotta and Rasmus
(Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus, 1997)

The plot surrounds, as usual, Kalle, Anders and Eva-Lotta. This time, however, they share the spotlight with five year old Rasmus Rasmusson. His father makes tin, but he is not a tinsmith. He is a professor. A professor who does not have a beard, but who drives a motorcycle. He has invented a special type of metal that is said to revolutionize the war industry. Engineer Peters wants that metal and therefore abducts both Rasmus and his father. Kalle, Anders and Eva-Lotta witness the kidnapping and Eva-Lotta climbs into the kidnappers's car so Rasmus will not feel lonely.

Kalle, Eva-Lotta and Rasmus
(Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus, 1997)

I enjoy this kidnapping plot more than I did the one in Flying too High. Even though this is the one mainly aimed towards children (I remember who thrillingly wonderful all the Kalle Blomkvist books were when I was 12.) this is both much darker and more intense. Neither is it as straightforward as the kidnapping plot in Flying to High. One, or more, of Kalle, Anders and Eva-Lotta actually manages to flee multiple times both with and without Rasmus and this is really the main suspence of the book. Are their plan to escape the island where they are trapped before they get captured... again? And they do get captured from time to time.

Battle of the Roses,
(Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus, 1997)

When Kalle, Anders and Eva-Lotta is not out fighting kidnappers, they play a game they call War of the Roses. The three of them being knights of the White Rose (Anders being their leader) and Sixten (the other leader), Benke and Jonte being knights of the Red Rose. Part of me actually wish the plot was just them playing, because it seems so exciting. They fight over this stone figure they call Stormumriken and steal them from each other. However, they also need to give each other clues as to where they have hidden it. These clues are always pretty clever, like when the White Rose have hidden it inside a globe in Sixten's house and says that the red leader needs to go home and look in the bowells of the earth. Rasmus desperately wants to become a White Rose and the others uses that to get him where they need. Rasmus is to little to understand the seriousness of the kidnapping and tends to say a little too much to the kidnappers.

Eva-Lotta with her parents in the older version of
Mästerdetektiven Blomkvist lever farligt, 1957

I think I need to say a couple of words about Eva-Lotta even though I have talked about her before. Eva-Lotta Lisander is the daughter of a baker and, as she say herself, only feminine on Mondays. The rest of the week she is just as fierce a warrior as the boys. I have talked about the masculinizing of female characters in a lot of posts before and EvaLotta definitely is among the girls who are just as feminine as she is masculine. Simply because she is not reduced to her gender. Neither is she a stereotypical "tomboy" nor a "girliegirl". She is a person!

Den frejdiga Eva-Lotta som var en så tapper krigare hade sina ögonblick av kvinnlig svaghet - det hjälpte inte att ledaren försökte få henne att förstå att sådant inte gick an i rosorna krig. Anders och Kalle blev alltid lika häpna och förbryllade över Eva-Lottas beteende, så fort hon kom i närheten av små barn. (The bold Eva-Lotta who was such a fierce warrior had her moments of female weakness - it did not help that the leader tried to get her see that it did not work in the War of the Roses. Anders and Kalle were always surprised and puzzled by Eva-Lotta's behaviour while in close proximity with small children.)

~ Astrid Lindgren, Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus

 I like the quote above from when the White Roses first encounters Rasmus. Even though it talks about motherly feelings as a "female weakness", it is rather ironic and Anders and Kalle's reactions (being surprised and puzled) towards Eva-Lotta's behaviour show how equal they see her.

One thing bothers me a little about Eva-Lotta with the newer films from the 1990's is the fact that they do not seem to get the ambiguity of her character in relation to gender roles. The original illustrations in the books and also the films from the 1940's and 50's (The first Kalle Blomkvist book was actually the first of Astrid Lindgren's books to be made into film in 1947.) does this better in giving her a dress even when she is out playing war with the boys. The films of the 1990's however make her into a boy and gives her boyish clothes in scenes where she is out playing. In those films she only wears a dress when she is supposed to emphasize her female side (like she says herself, she does every Monday).

Last and not least, the White Roses have a code language called Rövarspråket (The Robber's Language), which apparentely was made up by Astrid Lindgren's husband and his friends when they were children. It is quite simple. You double the consonants and put an O in between. For example: Kalle becomes Kokalollole. This language really comes in handy when the White Roses need to tell the others secrets, often in front of the bad men that they are up against. The books (and the films) made the language popular and last christmas someone uploaded a video of a man singing O helga natt (O Holy Night) that I would like to finish this entry with:

Pictures from the second film from 1997 was found here and the one from the older film Mästerdetektiven Blomkvist lever farligt from 1957 was found here.  The cover of Kalle Blomkvist and Rasmus did I borrow from here

Kerry Greenwood - Flying too High

'Where do we start, Cec?'
'At the beginning mate,' replied Cec easily. 'At the beginning'.

~Flying too High, Kerry Greenwood

The second of the books about Phryne Fisher was never made into a TV episode and I can somehow see why. Some themes of the book, like Phryne's interest in airplanes and flying (even the chase with the airplane) and the Western interest in Ancient Egypt at the time following the discovery of king Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922.

In the book Phryne investigates a murder of a quite terrible man, Mr McNaughton and also the kidnapping of the little girl Candida. The book is not bad per se, but I have to admit that it left me feeling slightly awkward.

One of the kidnappers (Sidney) is a known child-molester (the term pedophile was probably not in use in 1928) and I think this was glossed over a little too much. Just like the fact that Amelia McNaughton had been molestered by her father. I can see the point in making Mr McNaughton abuse his daughter (Amelia's age at the time is never told, but I got a feeling she was quite young.), but there is really no reason to make Sidney a pedophile.

Sidney is kind of a flat character and has little to redeem himself and while the other kidnapper, Mike, gets more of a back story and actually grows and changing during the course of the book, Sidney (and the female kidnapper and Mike's wife Ann) stays pretty much in the same place. This is not exactly unusual when it comes to depiction of pedophilia in popular culture.

Do not get me wrong! Pedophilia is probably as worse as it gets, but the background is often deeply tragic with the pedophile himself having been sexually abused as a child. This is seldom depicted in popular culture wherefore the pedophile more often is treated as a total monster.

One thing I came to think about is how similar Amelia is to Lydia Andrews from Cocaine Blues. Both of them have been sexually abused by men they live in close proximity to. There is also some implications that Phryne also has been in this position.

'I know,' observed Phryne quietly. 'But it happens to a lot of women. You and I are fortunate in that we have found lovers who could coax us out of our shells.'

~Flying too High, Kerry Greenwood

This is a theme that will certainly be explored more later (It is in the TV series.) but it is interesting that Phryne encounters women who she can relate to even though they are still pretty different from her. These three women have different ways of dealing with the abuse. Lydia pretty much "turn to the dark side" becoming the King of Snow, Amelia gets kind of submissive and Phryne gets pretty much totally wild and reckless. Amelia and Phryne have the fortune of encountering different types of men that show them the good side of love and sex, while Lydia is pretty much stuck in a destructive relationship to her husband. Amelia also takes her grief and anger out in painting him.

One thing interesting with the plot of the kidnapping is the similarities to the kidnapping plot of Astrid Lindgren's Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus. A subject I have brought up before. While travelling in the car with her kidnappers, Candida thinks about if it is possible to use "The Grimms fairytale method" (a.k.a. throwing out bread crumbs on the way like Hansel and Gretel) and later on, Phryne uses it in her way to get the rescue team to Candida. Eva-Lotta, the daughter in the books about Kalle Blomkvist is the daughter of a baker and uses the buns she always carries in her pockets and a poster she has snatched to help Kalle and Anders find a way to her, Rasmus and the Professor as they are kidnapped.

Then there is the matter of Mike in Flying too High and Nicke in Kalle Blomkvist and Rasmus. They are both rather unwilling kidnappers. In fact, Nicke even gets offended when Eva-Lotta and Rasmus use the term against him. They are both also very lovely towards children (even if Nicke gets fed up with Eva-Lotta from time to time) and helps them flee. The kidnapping plot in Flying too High does not flow as well as the one in Kalle Blomkvist och Rasmus. It seems a little more forced and as said above and I wonder if it was necessary to make Sidney a pedophile. Still I cannot help that I still have a soft spot for the book as well. This might be because Phryne is still Phryne though.



Cover of Kalle Blomkvist and Rasmus did I borrow from here and the one of the covers of Flying too High can be found here and here