If you are curious about the Moomins, be aware that a lot of low quality material have been created by the estate which inherited the rights. Look for the books written and illustrated by Tove Jansson. They are some of the best Scandinavian literature and the illustrations are amazing.
For folks with kids, I'd like to add the Finnish-Japanese-Dutch TV-series "Moomin." It is an iconic TV show here in Finland and generally quite good quality. It is of course a bit old by now.
It's also a foundation of childhood memories for 90s kids here in Norway (albeit with voiceovers, as we tend to do for children's stuff). I can still hum the intro tune. And perfectly hear the sound the moomins make when they go from standstill to moving. And the Groke still creeps me out, and anyone my age gets a reference to that character right away! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Groke
There's a similar author in Russia, Nikolai Nosov [1]
He wrote most heart-warming stories for children or about children during WWII. If you read Russian, here's a great article about him: [2]
--- quote, Google translate ---
And the truth is that Nosov began writing stories shortly before the war (the first publication was in 1938), but the most famous, the brightest and most memorable were written in the most terrible years. Forty-first to forty-fifth.
The most important thing is that when you know the answer, annoyance immediately wakes up - well, of course, it's understandable! All young heroes have only mothers, where the fathers have gone is not clear. And in general there are not many male characters for the entire cycle: a rather elderly, apparently, "Uncle Fedya" on the train, who was all indignant at the recitation of poetry, and the leader Vitya, apparently, was a high school student. Ascetic life to the limit, jam with bread as a delicacy ...
But still there is no war there. Not by word, not by hint, not by spirit. I don’t need to explain why. Because this is for children. For children to whom life has already measured so much that God forbid us to find out.
It's hardly hardcore communist propaganda. It's some of his best work. It is anticapitalist propaganda, for sure, but hardly hardcore communist propaganda, and is very prescient of many issues (well, hard to be prescient about something that was always the case).
Moreover, Dunno on the Moon uses concepts and ideas that a person in the USSR would have no to little idea about (e.g. stock markets, negative campaigning etc.), or concepts that didn't even exist at the time of writing (police batons with built-in electric discharges first appeared in the West after Nosov's death).
If you just show worst bits of one side, make them define the side as a whole, and then show idealized version of the other side, that is pretty much propaganda, even if these worst bits are described accurately.
Dunno and His friends is sort of naturalistic kids book.
Dunno in the Sun City is the communist propaganda promoting a statist view.(the anti-hooligan bits). Lots of cool tech will solve everything. Self-driving cars.
Dunno on the Moon is a biting satire of free market.
Some of the bits are still relevant.
-The big seed startup that Dunno creates with the shady partners.
-The stock market schemes on the barge.
-The pay for everything(key,blanket,tv etc) business model hotel.
-The police corruption.
-The collusion at the highest level.
-The dog walker profession. (the walker's condition is markedly worse than the dogs they care for
- the role of mass media
-The salt startup and the salt market dumping and crash.
Also check out Lindgren’s Emil series of books. They’re about a boy on a farm whose curiosity, energy and prankster imagination keep getting him into trouble. He is not super powered, just full human. Very funny, and poignant in perhaps the way Calvin & Hobbes can be.
I'm reading the Moomin books to my two eldest at the moment and they are loving them.
My eldest is on the spectrum and seems to find the honest, gentle Nordic nature of both the style of writing and the content to be very appealing. We read a lot of books together and these are certainly his favourites. Might be of interest to others with similar thinkers.
It is also absolutley filled with the n-word (at least my Swedish edition from the 90's), which always makes for an interesting challenge having to censor and come up with alternative words as you go.
> I mentioned the situation later to a colleague, who said that the same problem had come up in the family, but they had tackled it with a practical solution. Working with sound, this colleague processed the audiobook with editing software to find out whether the N-words could be cut out smoothly. That being done successfully, the children could then listen to the edited version. The problem was solved.
I like this part:
> “For my daughter, Pippi is a really empowering character, so I can’t just not read the book, because censorship would only make her more interested. So I edit the text while reading it,” he says.
I'm Danish so i only know the Danish version but I think it's the same word as in Swedish. The Danish word is "neger" and the best translation to English would be "negro" (Pippi's dad is the "negro king" or "negerkonge").
Today it's a controversial word because by many it's considered racist almost like the n-word. However, especially older people don't consider it racist and they use it to describe people that otherwise might be described as "black".
Newer revisions of the Pippi books have been edited to no longer use the word "neger" and I think this applies to both the Danish and Swedish editions (it was approved by Astrid Lindgren's daughter).
My Penguin version (1997) has "King of the Cannibals." Not much better -- probably worse, in fact, since they aren't even depicted as cannibals, so the name isn't in any way necessary.
But I guess "King of the Islanders" would be boring.
I saw the Moomins when I was at university. I should probably have been studying.
I happened across some episodes on Youtube a couple of years ago, and my opinion of it was that it was "enchanting". Although aimed at kids, there's something distinctly magical about it. Drop your adult mind, and think like a child again.
I find the subtitle is weird (at least for the Pippi part):'left propaganda and prudery behind.'. Prudery in my understand mostly refers to a person 'being more uncomfortable than most with sexuality or nudity.'. Maybe it is used in a different sense here, but the Pippi book do not take any position on sexuality or nudity (like Disney in movies, parents are absent (father later joins in)).
Prudery is not specifically about sexuality but more generally being overly concerned about "manners" and "proper behavior", something Pippi completely disregards.
Yes, that's how it's mostly used today. But here are some dictionary definitions.
OED (I've cut the examples)
> prude, a. and n.
> A. adj. That maintains or affects extreme propriety of speech and behaviour, especially in regard to the relations of the sexes; excessively modest, demure, or prim; prudish: usually applied adversely. Now rare.
[...]
> prude, a. and n.
> (pruːd)[a. mod.F. prude adj. and n., said of a woman in same sense as the Eng. (Molière in Littré), in OF. prude, prode, preude, in a laudatory sense, good, virtuous, modest, respectable; either a back-formation from prudefemme (cf. prudhomme) or a later fem. form of prod, pro, pru: see preux, prow a.]
>prude, a. and n.
> B. n. A woman who maintains or affects excessive modesty or propriety in conduct or speech; one who is of extreme propriety: usually applied adversely with implication of affectation.
[...]
> prude, a. and n.
> Hence ˈprudelike a., of the nature of, or characteristic of, a prude; ˈprudely adv., in the manner of a prude.
[...]
> prude, v.
> intr. To conduct oneself in the manner of a prude; to act prudishly. Hence ˈpruding vbl. n.
Websters Revised (1913):
> Prude \Prude\, n. [F., prudish, originally, discreet, modest;
> shortened from OF. prudefeme, preudefeme, a discreet or excellent woman; OF. preu, prou, excellent, brave + de of + fete woman. See {Prow}, a., {Prowess}.] A woman of affected modesty, reserve, or coyness; one who is overscrupulous or sensitive; one who affects extraordinary prudence in conduct and speech.
Chambers:
> prude /prood/
> noun
> 1. A person of priggish or affected modesty
> 2. Someone who has or pretends to have extreme propriety
Jansson also illustrated some books by other authors, for example The Hobbit: https://imgur.com/gallery/njtkL