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Pippi and the Moomins

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21–30 of 47 posts

Re: Pippi and the Moomins

#21
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.

Re: Pippi and the Moomins

#22
post #20

“I have never tried that before, so I think I should definitely be able to do that.” ― Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking One of my favorite quotes, such a great way to look at life

“Var inte ängslig! Jag klarar mig alltid!” - Pippi

Re: Pippi and the Moomins

#23
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.

Re: Pippi and the Moomins

#24
post #17
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is that about Pippi's father being a king of the natives?

Yes mainly. Pippi, Tommy and Annika also goes to his little island where he is king, and the language in that chapter is not the greatest!

Re: Pippi and the Moomins

#25
post #16
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 found this, where a parent edits out the word in an audioplay version: https://koneensaatio.fi/en/when-pippi-said-the-n-word/ > 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 smo…

Yeah, it's a really awesome book and censoring the language as you go isn't that hard really!

Re: Pippi and the Moomins

#26
post #13
post #3

I remember rereading Pippi to my son and marveling at how authority subversive it was.

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 know it's not that much better, but it's not the actual n-word right?

Re: Pippi and the Moomins

#27
post #4

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. Jansson also illustrated some books by other authors, for example The Hobbit: https://imgur.com/gallery/njtkL

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin_(1990_TV_series)

Re: Pippi and the Moomins

#28
post #17
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Is that about Pippi's father being a king of the natives?

In the (US English) versions that were read to me as a child, I seem to recall it being rendered "King of the Pygmies."

Re: Pippi and the Moomins

#29
post #26
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 know it's not that much better, but it's not the actual n-word right?

It's the Swedish "neger", which was the uncontroversial term for black people at the time.

Times have changed!

Re: Pippi and the Moomins

#30
post #26
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 know it's not that much better, but it's not the actual n-word right?

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).

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