How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country • Hacker News Board

Re: How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country

#11

Post by Mediterraneo10 » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 6:27 PM UTC

yosito wrote: post #3

hodgesrm wrote: post #2

Finland has some interesting literary quirks. My favorite is that it's one of the few places other than the Vatican where you can read the news in Latin, for example: https://areena.yle.fi/1-1931339 It's an account of the US/North Korea meeting in Singapore. A little out of date on July 18 but still appealing since most other 'news' you can read in Latin happened 2000 years ago.

This is interesting. But why does anyone bother to write news in Latin?

> This is interesting. But why does anyone bother to write news in Latin?

The University of Helsinki has had a respected Classics department for generations. They do all kinds of mainstream research in the field. The production of news in Latin is just as a fun hobby that happens to be helpful to keeping their scholars’ skills honed.

Re: How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country

#12

Post by mar77i » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 6:43 PM UTC

Finland has a huge collection of quirky things, really:

- the allegedly worst musicians: Elekäläiset

- Literature that starts with glorification of collective suicide only to be attempted, failed, called off some pages later. Then rescheduled, and called off again, lather, rinse, repeat.

- the most quirky looking blues-harpists: Sväng

- allegedly Finland remains the only nation without weaponizable satellites

- Finnish music, from classical through to folk, rock, metal and Avant-Garde there's literally everything and anything. Did you know they invented Tango?

- Finland is kind of the opposite of Japan with its many islands when it comes to lakes. There are too many of them to count.

- The language is amazingly versatile and abstract. The Finns also don't like borrowing words from other languages. If there's a word, there's probably a Finnish construct for it that sounds nothing like what you've heard of.

- Home to a certain author famous for pissing off translators for her frivolous approach at above language.

- Finland is, together with Scandinavia, home to an amazing bunch of Eurasian indigenous people

- Finland is home to the creepiest Santa Claus there is. No dispute there.

- Oh, and whatever started on that comp.os.minix newsgroup in 1991 is currently running my entire IT infratructure as well as that of my workplace's.

I could provide sources to all of these claims, but that would be no fun at all, right?

Re: How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country

#13

Post by timwaagh » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 6:45 PM UTC

i dont think literature can ever replace actual business. most books that sell are not even literature.

as for the new nokia, maybe the old nokia is also the new one? i have no doubt a lot of people there still know how to make good phones.

Re: How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country

#14

Post by atombender » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 6:49 PM UTC

mar77i wrote: post #12

Finland has a huge collection of quirky things, really: - the allegedly worst musicians: Elekäläiset - Literature that starts with glorification of collective suicide only to be attempted, failed, called off some pages later. Then rescheduled, and called off again, lather, rinse, repeat. - the most quirky looking blues-harpists: Sväng - allegedly Finland remains the only nation without weaponizable satellites - Finni…

The Finns did not invent tango, which is an Argentinian dance. There is such a thing as Finnish tango, though.

Re: How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country

#15

Post by antris » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 7:49 PM UTC

mar77i wrote: post #12

Finland has a huge collection of quirky things, really: - the allegedly worst musicians: Elekäläiset - Literature that starts with glorification of collective suicide only to be attempted, failed, called off some pages later. Then rescheduled, and called off again, lather, rinse, repeat. - the most quirky looking blues-harpists: Sväng - allegedly Finland remains the only nation without weaponizable satellites - Finni…

Also a Finnish way of reducing teen pregnancies is a "summer condom song" made every year made by top Finnish artists, sponsored by all the big record labels and the national broadcaster YLE. Most of the biggest selling artists in Finland have appeared in one. The condom song itself is played constantly during the summer in radio, and some of the more catchy ones appear even years later in poppy radio stations and night clubs in Finland.

One example of a recent condom song that became a hit is Kasmir feat. SAARA (that girl from the "Finnish girl speaks 40 pseudolanguages" YouTube video) - Vauvoja. It's annoyingly catchy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYqrcgqmI9Y

Re: How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country

#16

Post by AltVanilla » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 8:06 PM UTC

mar77i wrote: post #12

Finland has a huge collection of quirky things, really: - the allegedly worst musicians: Elekäläiset - Literature that starts with glorification of collective suicide only to be attempted, failed, called off some pages later. Then rescheduled, and called off again, lather, rinse, repeat. - the most quirky looking blues-harpists: Sväng - allegedly Finland remains the only nation without weaponizable satellites - Finni…

Other quirkiness:

- Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world.

- Enough saunas that the whole population could do it at the same time.

- Most heavy metal bands, per population.

- Annual championships in wife-carrying, air-guitar, boot and phone throwing, sauna, cattle calling, swamp soccer, mosquito swatting, ant nest sitting, etc.

- Mämmi: food that looks like diarrhea.

- Candies made of tar.

- Birch branches are used to whip yourself with in sauna.

- New years tradition of throwing melted tin in water. The shape tells of the future.

- Easter tradition of kids dressing up as witches and going trick-or-treating.

- No trespassing laws, so you can roam and camp anywhere (although not too close to anyone's home).

- Finland is a 3rd world country by the original cold war definition (politically non-aligned with either NATO or the Communist block).

Re: How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country

#17

Post by doikor » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 8:32 PM UTC

AltVanilla wrote: post #16

mar77i wrote: post #12

Finland has a huge collection of quirky things, really: - the allegedly worst musicians: Elekäläiset - Literature that starts with glorification of collective suicide only to be attempted, failed, called off some pages later. Then rescheduled, and called off again, lather, rinse, repeat. - the most quirky looking blues-harpists: Sväng - allegedly Finland remains the only nation without weaponizable satellites - Finni…

Other quirkiness: - Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world. - Enough saunas that the whole population could do it at the same time. - Most heavy metal bands, per population. - Annual championships in wife-carrying, air-guitar, boot and phone throwing, sauna, cattle calling, swamp soccer, mosquito swatting, ant nest sitting, etc. - Mämmi: foo…

> - Annual championships in wife-carrying, air-guitar, boot and phone throwing, sauna, cattle calling, swamp soccer, mosquito swatting, ant nest sitting, etc.

We stopped doing the sauna world championships after one guy died and another ended up in a coma.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Sauna_Championships#2010...

Re: How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country

#18

Post by pimeys » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 8:32 PM UTC

AltVanilla wrote: post #16

mar77i wrote: post #12

Finland has a huge collection of quirky things, really: - the allegedly worst musicians: Elekäläiset - Literature that starts with glorification of collective suicide only to be attempted, failed, called off some pages later. Then rescheduled, and called off again, lather, rinse, repeat. - the most quirky looking blues-harpists: Sväng - allegedly Finland remains the only nation without weaponizable satellites - Finni…

Other quirkiness: - Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world. - Enough saunas that the whole population could do it at the same time. - Most heavy metal bands, per population. - Annual championships in wife-carrying, air-guitar, boot and phone throwing, sauna, cattle calling, swamp soccer, mosquito swatting, ant nest sitting, etc. - Mämmi: foo…

And a tendency to meet at the market square every time somebody mentions the country.

Re: How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country

#19

Post by digi_owl » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 8:57 PM UTC

AltVanilla wrote: post #16

mar77i wrote: post #12

Finland has a huge collection of quirky things, really: - the allegedly worst musicians: Elekäläiset - Literature that starts with glorification of collective suicide only to be attempted, failed, called off some pages later. Then rescheduled, and called off again, lather, rinse, repeat. - the most quirky looking blues-harpists: Sväng - allegedly Finland remains the only nation without weaponizable satellites - Finni…

Other quirkiness: - Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world. - Enough saunas that the whole population could do it at the same time. - Most heavy metal bands, per population. - Annual championships in wife-carrying, air-guitar, boot and phone throwing, sauna, cattle calling, swamp soccer, mosquito swatting, ant nest sitting, etc. - Mämmi: foo…

> - Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world.

I wonder what the ratio between hunting and handguns are...

Re: How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country

#20

Post by AltVanilla » Wed, Jul 18, 2018, 10:49 PM UTC

digi_owl wrote: post #19

AltVanilla wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other quirkiness: - Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world. - Enough saunas that the whole population could do it at the same time. - Most heavy metal bands, per population. - Annual championships in wife-carrying, air-guitar, boot and phone throwing, sauna, cattle calling, swamp soccer, mosquito swatting, ant nest sitting, etc. - Mämmi: foo…

> - Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world. I wonder what the ratio between hunting and handguns are...

I googled a bit. Officially Finland has 1.5 million firearms. Mainly for hunting and sport. Handguns make up only 0.2 million, which is about 13%.

Most all murders in Finland are done with a knife while drunk.

(The Finnish police, which keeps a database of firearm permits, objected to the mentioned study that Finland is ranked 3rd in the world. The study was updated and now Finland is ranked "only" 8th:

http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/T-Briefing-Pap... )