Warning : This post is not about what you think. So no gender wars please!
It was on an international flight that I saw ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’. I remembered reading the review of the movie (the Swedish original) about a year or so back online and remember being intrigued by the still of the heroine of the movie. The review I read was of the 3rd installment of the movie and in the movie still, the girl looked positively creepy with black face-paint and gelled hair standing upright! So when I saw the movie listed in the in-flight entertainment guide, I started watching it immediately. I was very impressed by part 1 and so after returning to India watched the remaining 2 parts of the movie.
Then a month ago, I was thinking of what to read next and for some reason, wondered if I could get hold of the Millennium Trilogy. It is an accepted theory that films in general are usually no match to the books they are based on (Godfather, being a universally accepted exception) and so I thought that if the films were good, the books had to be better. And again, for no particular reason, I thought that it was unlikely that my librarian would stock this series. So I tried the wrong method first and searched the internet for e-books. I got one set, but they were in Swedish and so initially dropped the idea of reading them in the near future. And then I struck gold when visiting my library once. I saw the 3rd part of the series and found to my delight that the library had all 3 parts. I started with part 1 and read a book every week and finished all 3 parts in 3 weeks!! And yes, the generally accepted theory is very much true !!
When you think of a heroine of a story, how do you imagine her to look like? Maybe it depends on the language and genre of the story. We may settle for the sacrificing angel type who is like a human candle, giving her life to build the lives of others; or the avenging angel/woman spurned kind – the kind that is all docile and soft in the first half of the story and later turns to this one-person killing machine (think of the many many Sidney Sheldon novels and films like Khoon Bhari Maang). But irrespective of genre, a vast majority of the novels have one thing in common about the heroine – she is physically attractive. There are very very few books where the heroine is described as plain or bizarre looking. Whether guardian angel or avenging angel, most authors (predominantly male) like to create beautiful looking protagonists who use their beauty and brains to win over their opponents. The authors tell us repeatedly that these women use their sexuality as a weapon and I have never stopped wondering at the transparency of male fantasy!!
So picture a girl looking like this : Pale, skinny with very short hair, tattoos on her arms and neck, pierced nose and eyebrows – a person who stands out in a crowd for very different reasons from the other usual ‘heroines’. That is how Lisbeth Salander, the protagonist of the Swedish novel series – Millennium Trilogy is described as looking. She is scrawny, about 5 feet tall, extremely antisocial. With this most unlikely protagonist, author Stieg Larsson has created one of the most unforgettable and probably strongest woman-protagonists in history.
There is a hero in the series too – Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist who runs the monthly magazine called Millennium. The first part of the series – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the Swedish title Män som hatar kvinnor – literally, men who hate women and hence the title of the post) introduces us to Blomkvist who has just lost a libel case involving a billionaire. He is sentenced to 10 months of prison when he is commissioned for a job by another businessman – Henrik Vanger, to solve the mystery of his niece who went missing 30 years ago. While his fate is not as bad as that of heroes in Vijayshanti movies, Blomkvist’s character is more a supporting role than the central one.
We are also introduced to Lisbeth Salander, who works as a detective/surveillance agent with a company called Milton security. Salander’s past is not explained fully, but it is obvious from the outset that this one is no normal woman. She behaves like a complete socio-path (and made me realize that I am not really one!) and has difficulty experiencing/showing any emotion. She is about 25 but looks like a 16 year old. She makes people in front of her uncomfortable by simply staring at them stone-faced!! But Salander has other qualities that make her suitable for Milton security – she has a photographic memory, is very meticulous with her work, and is a genius with computers. Details here and there indicate that she suffered a traumatic childhood and something that happened at the age of 12, that she calls ‘All the Evil’ changed her life completely. At the time of the story, she lives under the supervision of a government appointed guardian.
Although the first book is mostly about how Salander comes together with Blomkvist and helps him in solving the mystery of the missing niece, it also narrates some incidents in Salander’s life that prepare the readers for the rest of the story to unfold in the 2 sequels. There is a very disturbing and shocking incident in book 1 about an atrocity committed against Salander, but the way she gets back to the perpetrator made me jump up and dance with joy (figuratively of course, for I am a socially responsible person). I would highly recommend this action to be made the legal punishment for anyone committing such a crime!
Salander’s story takes centre-stage in parts 2 and 3 (The Girl who played with Fire and The Girl who kicked the Hornet’s nest). Two creepy and scary villains are introduced in part 2 – Zala and Niedermann. But the highlight of book 2, to me was a scene where Salander is caught unaware while researching on a murder victim, at a deserted country house, by two members of the villain’s gang. She manages to incapacitate both of them even though she is physically no match to either of them! I am normally bored with action sequences and fast-forward through most of them in films (and yes, that is why I don’t enjoy watching films in the theatre where I do not get to use a remote-control). In books, action sequences are worse, because I don’t like to be bothered to visualize them. But this sequence was a treat. I don’t remember how the film-version looked – it was a long time ago. The description in the book was mind-blowing and I was mentally cheering for the diminutive Salander.
Apart from Salander, there are many memorable characters in the series. Mikael Blomkvist is a ladies’ man who has numerous affairs but treats the women with respect. He is one of the people in the series who steadfastly stand by Salander throughout all her ordeals and against all odds. There is another female character equally powerful – Erika Berger – Blomkvist’s partner and lover, who supports Blomkvist throughout all his troubles.
The writer Stieg Larsson delivered the manuscripts of all 3 parts of the books to his publisher and suddenly died before seeing his works becoming best-sellers. It is very rare to see strong women characters in fiction (as I have said only about 1000 times in the past) and rarer still when the author is male. The Millennium series scores on two counts – the plot which is very engaging and the characters, that are extremely well-etched. After a long time, I had a very satisfying read.
P.S. I am now seeking out books by other Scandinavian writers, given that I really enjoyed the Danish series – The Killing, the Stieg Larson books and movies based on them, in Swedish and the 2 recent books I read/am reading by Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo. These people sure know how to create mystery fiction!!
It was on an international flight that I saw ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’. I remembered reading the review of the movie (the Swedish original) about a year or so back online and remember being intrigued by the still of the heroine of the movie. The review I read was of the 3rd installment of the movie and in the movie still, the girl looked positively creepy with black face-paint and gelled hair standing upright! So when I saw the movie listed in the in-flight entertainment guide, I started watching it immediately. I was very impressed by part 1 and so after returning to India watched the remaining 2 parts of the movie.
Then a month ago, I was thinking of what to read next and for some reason, wondered if I could get hold of the Millennium Trilogy. It is an accepted theory that films in general are usually no match to the books they are based on (Godfather, being a universally accepted exception) and so I thought that if the films were good, the books had to be better. And again, for no particular reason, I thought that it was unlikely that my librarian would stock this series. So I tried the wrong method first and searched the internet for e-books. I got one set, but they were in Swedish and so initially dropped the idea of reading them in the near future. And then I struck gold when visiting my library once. I saw the 3rd part of the series and found to my delight that the library had all 3 parts. I started with part 1 and read a book every week and finished all 3 parts in 3 weeks!! And yes, the generally accepted theory is very much true !!
When you think of a heroine of a story, how do you imagine her to look like? Maybe it depends on the language and genre of the story. We may settle for the sacrificing angel type who is like a human candle, giving her life to build the lives of others; or the avenging angel/woman spurned kind – the kind that is all docile and soft in the first half of the story and later turns to this one-person killing machine (think of the many many Sidney Sheldon novels and films like Khoon Bhari Maang). But irrespective of genre, a vast majority of the novels have one thing in common about the heroine – she is physically attractive. There are very very few books where the heroine is described as plain or bizarre looking. Whether guardian angel or avenging angel, most authors (predominantly male) like to create beautiful looking protagonists who use their beauty and brains to win over their opponents. The authors tell us repeatedly that these women use their sexuality as a weapon and I have never stopped wondering at the transparency of male fantasy!!
So picture a girl looking like this : Pale, skinny with very short hair, tattoos on her arms and neck, pierced nose and eyebrows – a person who stands out in a crowd for very different reasons from the other usual ‘heroines’. That is how Lisbeth Salander, the protagonist of the Swedish novel series – Millennium Trilogy is described as looking. She is scrawny, about 5 feet tall, extremely antisocial. With this most unlikely protagonist, author Stieg Larsson has created one of the most unforgettable and probably strongest woman-protagonists in history.
There is a hero in the series too – Mikael Blomkvist, an investigative journalist who runs the monthly magazine called Millennium. The first part of the series – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the Swedish title Män som hatar kvinnor – literally, men who hate women and hence the title of the post) introduces us to Blomkvist who has just lost a libel case involving a billionaire. He is sentenced to 10 months of prison when he is commissioned for a job by another businessman – Henrik Vanger, to solve the mystery of his niece who went missing 30 years ago. While his fate is not as bad as that of heroes in Vijayshanti movies, Blomkvist’s character is more a supporting role than the central one.
We are also introduced to Lisbeth Salander, who works as a detective/surveillance agent with a company called Milton security. Salander’s past is not explained fully, but it is obvious from the outset that this one is no normal woman. She behaves like a complete socio-path (and made me realize that I am not really one!) and has difficulty experiencing/showing any emotion. She is about 25 but looks like a 16 year old. She makes people in front of her uncomfortable by simply staring at them stone-faced!! But Salander has other qualities that make her suitable for Milton security – she has a photographic memory, is very meticulous with her work, and is a genius with computers. Details here and there indicate that she suffered a traumatic childhood and something that happened at the age of 12, that she calls ‘All the Evil’ changed her life completely. At the time of the story, she lives under the supervision of a government appointed guardian.
Although the first book is mostly about how Salander comes together with Blomkvist and helps him in solving the mystery of the missing niece, it also narrates some incidents in Salander’s life that prepare the readers for the rest of the story to unfold in the 2 sequels. There is a very disturbing and shocking incident in book 1 about an atrocity committed against Salander, but the way she gets back to the perpetrator made me jump up and dance with joy (figuratively of course, for I am a socially responsible person). I would highly recommend this action to be made the legal punishment for anyone committing such a crime!
Salander’s story takes centre-stage in parts 2 and 3 (The Girl who played with Fire and The Girl who kicked the Hornet’s nest). Two creepy and scary villains are introduced in part 2 – Zala and Niedermann. But the highlight of book 2, to me was a scene where Salander is caught unaware while researching on a murder victim, at a deserted country house, by two members of the villain’s gang. She manages to incapacitate both of them even though she is physically no match to either of them! I am normally bored with action sequences and fast-forward through most of them in films (and yes, that is why I don’t enjoy watching films in the theatre where I do not get to use a remote-control). In books, action sequences are worse, because I don’t like to be bothered to visualize them. But this sequence was a treat. I don’t remember how the film-version looked – it was a long time ago. The description in the book was mind-blowing and I was mentally cheering for the diminutive Salander.
Apart from Salander, there are many memorable characters in the series. Mikael Blomkvist is a ladies’ man who has numerous affairs but treats the women with respect. He is one of the people in the series who steadfastly stand by Salander throughout all her ordeals and against all odds. There is another female character equally powerful – Erika Berger – Blomkvist’s partner and lover, who supports Blomkvist throughout all his troubles.
The writer Stieg Larsson delivered the manuscripts of all 3 parts of the books to his publisher and suddenly died before seeing his works becoming best-sellers. It is very rare to see strong women characters in fiction (as I have said only about 1000 times in the past) and rarer still when the author is male. The Millennium series scores on two counts – the plot which is very engaging and the characters, that are extremely well-etched. After a long time, I had a very satisfying read.
P.S. I am now seeking out books by other Scandinavian writers, given that I really enjoyed the Danish series – The Killing, the Stieg Larson books and movies based on them, in Swedish and the 2 recent books I read/am reading by Norwegian writer Jo Nesbo. These people sure know how to create mystery fiction!!
