SOUNDTRACK: THE KIDS-“Forelska i lærer’n” & “Norske Jenter” (1980).
The Kids are a Norwegian band that was mentioned in Karl Ove Knausgaard’s story yesterday. He is pretty disparaging of them as they were hugely popular when he was in school (and he liked other bands). They sing in Norwegian and are quite poppy.
“Norske jenter” is the poppier of the two. It’s pretty synthy, with a super catchy melody and chorus. It seems just shy of being a sleek pop hit, but I can imagine that a band singing in your native tongue would fair well even without super slick packaging.
Of course, having said that, “Forelska i lærer’n” is nothing if not slick–check out these guys with their super blond hair. Actually the video is pretty funny and with a name like “In love with the teacher,” it is quite a different subject than I expected). I love the way they designed the teacher. And that wink is fantastic. If only the lead singer could act a little better. 
The song is kind of a heavy classic rock sound–maybe a poppier version of Thin Lizzy (those guitar solos are very Thin Lizzy). I’m of course very curious what the lyrics are.
I found two videos on YouTube (and apparently there are some more recent live songs)
Norske jenter: There’s no visuals in this video, just music:
But the video for “Forelska i lærer’n” is here in all of its glory–it looks much more modern than 1980. The self pogoing at the end is fantastic.
[READ: June 15, 2014] Replacement
I found out about this book from Karl Ove Knausgaard, who claims that it is the best Norwegian novel ever written (he also has a quote on the back of the book). I had never heard of Tor Ulven before. It turns out that he has written mostly poetry. And then he wrote a few prose-like poems and then this novel called Avløsning in Norwegian. And then he killed himself.
This book was translated by Kerri A. Pierce and it has an afterword by Stig Sæterbakken. And literally that is all I can tell you about the book for certain.
Why? Because the back of the book and the afterword actually differ about what they say is happening in the story. To a pretty intense degree. The back of the book says that “the perspectives of unrelated characters are united into what seems a single narrative voice: each personality directing the book in turn.” Whereas Stig makes the case that the book is all one narrator at different points in his life.
And why can’t you tell? Because there seems to be different perspectives (all by men), and yet no one is named. And then there’s the fact that some of the book is written in second person, while the rest is in the third person–this suggest at least two narrators, and yet it could also be a flashback. There are at least four different time settings and seemingly different people. There’s an old man in a wheelchair, there’s a security guard, there’s a taxi driver (I think). There’s a guy who likes to list things, there’s another guy who thinks parenthetical thoughts. And there’s an intense obsession with “her,” a woman who doesn’t seem fictional but is certainly mythical.
And what happens? Well, nothing. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 