The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: a fascinating read, to be sure. I read it in less than a week (which is a strong accomplishment, I think.). Larsson keeps your attention and is a hell of a writer, The fact is, I couldn't put it down and was a complete nerd for the course of about 5 days...
To start --fairly quickly, I picked up three major layers to the story, (and a few sub layers I decided I was right about). The first, are his comments on the media and journalists themselves. He seems to find that media in general, or perhaps in his society is relatively weak and would rather contort old news, beat "a dead horse" or slander contenders than uncover serious mysteries, aka, the truth. The second layer: Corporate greed and their battle for reputation w/in a society. Finally, and the reoccurring, if not the most important theme: violence against women and sexuality.
And it's all plotted around a murder mystery.
First, I will discuss the latter. I have gone through numerous blogs, comments, articles, discussion boards on the nature of the author's motive behind the destructive events against main female characters in the book.
There are some that believe Larsson is a sick sadist, trying to get twisted erotica out of his readers. Some believe that he is discussing the culture as it is: and then creates a strong heroine who knows how to get revenge. And still there are others state he's acting as an advocate, revealing the truth about violence against women in Swedish society, creating a raw picture of what actually occurs.
To start --fairly quickly, I picked up three major layers to the story, (and a few sub layers I decided I was right about). The first, are his comments on the media and journalists themselves. He seems to find that media in general, or perhaps in his society is relatively weak and would rather contort old news, beat "a dead horse" or slander contenders than uncover serious mysteries, aka, the truth. The second layer: Corporate greed and their battle for reputation w/in a society. Finally, and the reoccurring, if not the most important theme: violence against women and sexuality.
And it's all plotted around a murder mystery.
First, I will discuss the latter. I have gone through numerous blogs, comments, articles, discussion boards on the nature of the author's motive behind the destructive events against main female characters in the book.
There are some that believe Larsson is a sick sadist, trying to get twisted erotica out of his readers. Some believe that he is discussing the culture as it is: and then creates a strong heroine who knows how to get revenge. And still there are others state he's acting as an advocate, revealing the truth about violence against women in Swedish society, creating a raw picture of what actually occurs.
After reading several government, non-profit, studies and news websites -along w/ bios about the author- that discuss the statistics of rape and violence in Sweden; I am convinced that there is a mix of the latter two in Larsson's writing.
First and foremost, he started his career as a Journalist/writer. He was known, even before that as a political voice against Nazism and extreme right-wing behaviors- to the point of death threats on his life. There are some that say his long-time girlfriend had a hand in the story itself, but that's not something we'll probably not ever find out for sure.
Nevertheless: as a journalist, myself, I read the story w/ investigative curiosity. And I think that his writing has that descriptive character.
It is believed that 6% of women in Sweden (if not more) are annually raped or experience extreme forms of violence. One article in the NY Times reported that in 1990, 14.000 rapes were reported and that shot up in 2003 to over 22,000~ and this is just what is reported! Some stats estimate that 1 in 3 women suffer rape in the country, and they are 3x as likely to experience violence than the rest of Western Europe, due to the belief that men can get away w/ it more. A Cambridge Study showed that Sweden's efforts to rehabilitate violent men did not meet it's goals roughly 7 years later (b/t 1999-2006).
While there are few more things I could rattle off; I think you get the idea. The point is, I believe that Larsson was making a statement. And I think he's doing what journalists should do: tell the gory truth for better or worse.
YES, there are a couple of scenes that absolutely made me uncomfortable reading, but I am of the belief that the media is weak and that exposing the truth, while it may be ugly, is important. I can't tell you how many pictures every day we sift through at work b/c the rules are ultimately "don't offend anybody." The fact remains, journalists aren't at all what they used to be...but nor is public reception.
Needless to say: I speculate that Larsson's intention was to expose the fate of so many women in his own country, and while the book is still on it's way up in reviews (though it was published in 2005) and now that the film reached theaters in the last month- what attention the public, the UN and other organizations will divert to the problems in Sweden? Moreover, in the US: in our Judeo-Christian society: will more aid trips be taken to reach such women? Honestly, I can say that I don't know.
But those women need someone to tell their story, and I'm glad that Larsson did so. I've seen several articles and "about author" pieces that note the book was originally to be called "Men Who Hate Women." Obviously not as catchy, but defines many of attitudes among characters in the book. It leaves the others complicated and searching.
Maybe if the author hadn't spent so much time opposing "right wing" groups, the rape rate in Sweden would have never gotten so out of control. The increase in rape is directly related to the explosion of non-white immigration into Scandanavia. In most areas, non-white immigrants commit the majority of the rapes against Swedish women, even though they are still a small minority of the population. But, instead of focusing on the real reason behind the rape in Sweden, you will continue to grab for ridiculous "social" causes of this phenomenon. You need to force yourself to come to the correct conclusion, no matter how politically incorrect it is. Read below:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/Fjordman51213.htm
dear whiteminority:
ReplyDeleteactually, 16 girls or more per year are killed by domestic violence. the varying studies that I read dictate that the majority of the violence against women in sweden is due to domestic relationships. this trumps your racist claim that the responsibility lies only w/ immigrants. white, swedish men, too, in their own homes are defiling their wives, girlfriends and daughters.
"According to the National Council for Crime Prevention, Brå, 22,500 cases of domestic violence were reported last year; an increase of 10% since the year 2000. But the report also showed that as many as 80 percent of cases are not even reported to the police."
http://www.thelocal.se/673/20041126/
what i find interesting about your website is that mission statement in the "about" page declares a belief in the "oneness of humanity," (despite that it is clearly an anti-islam site) and if that is truly the case, i suggest you check more facts before pointing to non-whites for the crime (which by the way, islamic women who find themselves abused are not white).
what's more is that one cannot address the root cause until one has heard the stories. this means you need to have willing people to tell the story and to find the women that are being abused. you cannot solve a problem if you do not know there is one...therefore you tout about how i will "continue to grab for ridiculous social causes" is a moot argument. and it is not up to you to decide whether or not i am participating in a solution.
rather, if you feel so strongly, you should be encouraged to pursue a constructive solution, and ethnic cleansing is NOT it- which you are dangerously suggesting.