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Art:
Tove Jansson is Dead
Moominmamma
Forever!
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Oliver Weiss
Tove Jansson has died, aged 86 - my favorite Finnish childrens' book
writer and illustrator. The Moomins - gone forever? Certainly not! Ardent
fans around the world will be keeping things up. |
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Moominpappa at Sea |
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he Moomin world reigned for 20 years - and then had to be abandoned. "Sorry I couldn't keep up with that happy
valley," Tove Jansson wrote me in 1993 in fine-lined handwriting with
dark-blue ink on paper which smelled of heavy chain-smoking.
Happy
valley indeed: a world so abundant with friendship, joy, high mountains and green grass; a world full of love and
respect for each other. But also a world of adventure, angst, and
solitude. Above all, a world where wit and absurdity abound. In short - life as
it is.
For over two
decades, Tove Jansson
invented stories about the many adventures of the Moomins, a family of
Scandinavian trolls who look like hippopotami more than anything else. Moomin
books have shaped whole generations of children like myself - stories involving our hero,
Moomintroll, and his girl-friend,
the Snork Maiden; stories with the wonderful Moominmamma and the earnest but
warm-hearted Moominpappa; the restless
traveller, Snufkin, and the skittish Sniff who dreams of great
richness and fame; with the weather-ridden Too-Ticky, Little My, and the
absent-minded Hemulen; and (shudder) the Groke, and, of course, the mysterious Hattifatteners.
The Moomins are a family
whose savoir vivre lies right in-between bourgeoisie and bohemia. They
reside in a
comfy wooden house - vast
porch, steep roof, and all - in
Moominland which, situated amidst a thickish forest, stretches from the Lonely Mountains
to the open sea and beyond. The rugged Scandinavian landscape is the scene of action for
the family's
encounters with comets, floods, wizards' hats, and lighthouses.
Comets,
wizards,
and the sea
A happy world? The first
"real" Moomin book entitled Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland)
was conceived in 1945, and finds itself strongly under the influence of doom and desolate post-war Europe. Eerie omens indicate
that a comet has set out to destroy the earth. Seeking to learn more, Moomintroll and
his friends set out on a dangerous journey to the Great Observatory in the
Lonely Mountains. They make it
back just in time to warn the others. The comet misses the earth only by inches.
Moominsummer Madness
(all illustrations:
(c) Tove Jansson).
A pallid-colored Japanese comic
book with Lars Jansson's drawings.
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The subsequent
books, too,
are set in the very types of adventurous environment that children enjoy, and
feature Moomintroll (or his father in
recollections from the past) in search for himself - only to return home
strengthened, after coping with dangers from the world outside.
The original titles alone sound exciting: Trollkarlens
hatt (Finn Family Moomintroll, 1948) is about a wizard's magic hat. In Muminpappans bravader (The Exploits of Moominpapa, 1950),
dad recollects his sturm und drang past. Farlig midsommar (Moominsummer Madness, 1954)
sees the Great Flood in Moominland, which tears apart the family, and sets the
children out on their own, while the parents get hooked on a floating theater
(and, of course, take up performing a play before you know it).
The
all-to-1950's-style German translations of the books have long yielded the
wide-spread belief, at least in Germany, that the Moomin stories were plain adventure
novels set in Never-Never-Problem Land where reality is avoided, and
the good guys win. The contrary is the case, however. The seemingly timeless
stories are in truth sociological psychographs in times of World War II, the atom
bomb, and the prior-to-writing wholly unheard of threat of universal destruction:
Utilizing modern mythology, Tove Jansson addresses reality
through the back door.
The
Fine Line
As time passes and Tove
grows older, her somewhat naïve Moomin world takes a gradual, but drastic,
change towards literary postmodernism. Increasingly, her view of the world as a
grown-up tiptoes into Moominland, and eventually takes over. While the Moomins
grow up, they turn increasingly commercial - a phenomenon frequently seen in
popular cartoon characters.
Take Disney - the Mickey Mouse of 2001 is no
longer the saucy little mouse whistling a happy tune in Steamboat Willie of
1928. Instead, he has changed, has grown up and turned into a commercial
trademark. Used and
abused, Mickey has morphed into a Hollywood propaganda
atavar.
These stamps from Tove Jansson
books were published in Finland a few years ago.
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Same in
Moominland. First publications tend to be among the best work ever
for many authors
and illustrators, since they are conceived with only few strings attached. There
is often a vigor involved, an urge to go out there with force brute, and
to set forth
something that is truthful and real. The resulting magic, the air
of experimenting with meaning and form, expression and style, usually wears off
in time.
There is only a fine line
between professionalism and routine. For a number of years, Tove Jansson
continued to conjure up stories and illustrations which rank among the most
beautiful ever composed, alongside the works of
contemporaries like A.A. Milne and Ernst Shepard (Winnie-the-Pooh), or Erich Kästner
and Walter Trier (Emil and the Detectives). Tove's expressive use of light
and dark, and her magic stroke are unparalleled. A similar way of expression accounts for her comic
strips, which for the longest time were supervised by
her younger brother, Lars.
As time
passed, Tove saw
herself riding the roller coaster of commerce. With respect to her enormous
success in Finland and abroad, such an evolution was likely inevitable. A devastating
monstrosity along this process is the Japanese cartoon
television series of 1993, alongside the horrid theme parks in Finland. The magic spirit
seemed lost forever.
But then
again, Tove's
characters are still alive. Maybe we ought to appreciate this, and be happy that
they haven't vanished into
obscurity,
or remained a 1950's product like Swedish
writer Astrid
Lindgren's Pippi Longstockings, who never quite made it into today's
world. So maybe we shouldn't be complaining, after all.
The big question is, how
are we kids going to end up without Tove? Well, we have grown up, I suppose. I
assume we'll simply go on living as we've been taught to. "The light burned," it
says in the last-but-one Moomin book, when the lighthouse fire, after countless
failing efforts, is finally lit anew. We don't want to sound lofty. But, hey,
this it what it'll be like.
[2001]
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