Why people love Stieg Larsson's Novels

The "funniest" part is that there really was a a scandal recently in Sweden about an upper class guy using his position for e.g. raping and abusing women.

He was a police chief which, despite police union criticism, got reinstated by the social democrat minister - because he was so politically correct...

Quite fun, considering the political leanings of Larsson.

Re: Why people love Stieg Larsson's Novels

#5

Post by Muzza » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 8:03 AM UTC

> (And that welfare state may soon be disabled by the recently elected conservative government.)

Uhuh. They've been in power since 2006 and the welfare state has not been "disabled".

Re: Why people love Stieg Larsson's Novels

#6

Post by hristov » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 8:09 AM UTC

berntb wrote: post #4

The "funniest" part is that there really was a a scandal recently in Sweden about an upper class guy using his position for e.g. raping and abusing women. He was a police chief which, despite police union criticism, got reinstated by the social democrat minister - because he was so politically correct... Quite fun, considering the political leanings of Larsson.

Hmm source? I assume you mean Goran Lindberg, but there is nothing out there about him being reinstated to anything after being convicted. In fact wikipedia says he is in prison right now. How has he been reinstated?

I don't know what this has to do with Larsson at all.

Re: Why people love Stieg Larsson's Novels

#7

Post by dagw » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 8:28 AM UTC

Muzza wrote: post #5

> (And that welfare state may soon be disabled by the recently elected conservative government.) Uhuh. They've been in power since 2006 and the welfare state has not been "disabled".

That and the fact that the current government hardly classifies and 'conservative' in any meaningful international comparison. At best they're a "slightly less socialist" government.

Re: Why people love Stieg Larsson's Novels

#8

Post by Tichy » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 8:39 AM UTC

While I didn't care so much for the violence, I thoroughly enjoyed the novels. I thought they had a comparatively unusual plot and unusual characters. They are definitely much better written than, say, Dan Brown novels.

Funny to see the the NYT complain about 12 page long boring descriptions. Surely any regular reader of the NYT should have no problems to cope with those.

Also that article just quotes things out of context to make them sound silly.

Re: Why people love Stieg Larsson's Novels

#9

Post by mzl » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 9:02 AM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #8

While I didn't care so much for the violence, I thoroughly enjoyed the novels. I thought they had a comparatively unusual plot and unusual characters. They are definitely much better written than, say, Dan Brown novels. Funny to see the the NYT complain about 12 page long boring descriptions. Surely any regular reader of the NYT should have no problems to cope with those. Also that article just quotes things out of c…

Funny, I place Stieg Larsson and Dan Brown in the same section: writers who are good at constructing a compelling story, but not so good in actually writing it down.

With Stieg Larsson, I got really annoyed with the amount of boring expositions, pseudo-cliffhangers at the end of every other chapter, overuse of clichés ("and then they talked for X hours"), etc.. It reads like a very rough draft of a book, not as an edited text ready for publication.

That said, I've read both authors and enjoyed the books. I just feel that they could have been so much better with some serious rewrites (as apparently the English translation of Stieg Larsson had, I have to check that one out).

Re: Why people love Stieg Larsson's Novels

#10

Post by kmfrk » Wed, Jan 12, 2011, 9:32 AM UTC

Muzza wrote: post #5

> (And that welfare state may soon be disabled by the recently elected conservative government.) Uhuh. They've been in power since 2006 and the welfare state has not been "disabled".

The Swedish economy is basically the envy of most countries in Europe at the moment.