Farthest north
I’m going to Stockholm for a couple of days next week. It seems very absurd to go from Seattle to Stockholm for a couple of days, but then again, it’s better than not going to Stockholm at all, so I’m going. Does God Hate Women? is being published in translation, and there’s going to be a launch and stuff.
I will have a very horrible time the first day at least, and possibly throughout, because they got confused and scheduled a seminar and then the launch on the day I arrive as opposed to the next day. I have to go directly from the airport to the seminar. This is not good. I will be filthy and red-eyed and ravenous and grumpy, and it will be 4 a.m. my time without any sleep. I do not like to think what kind of spectacle I will present at this seminar, much less what I will feel like, but I have told them not to expect anything. They have only themselves to blame.
So anyway that’s where I’ll be next week for a couple of days.
Accident? Perhaps not. Perhaps God really does hate women and messed with your schedule as Revenge. Mwuahahahah…
Ok, j/k. Congrats on the translation. :)
Well it was a pretty stupid accident, since we discussed it and I said gee, no, thanks, I wouldn’t like to do everything on the day I arrive, I would like to arrive the day before I have to do things, and I thought it was all settled. [scowl]
Good luck Ophelia! May the facts be with you! :)
I imagine Stockholm is more pleasant this time of year than in 6 months time. Good luck with the seminar, launch and general godless behaviour.
We just got back from Europe — my wife gave me “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” as required reading — the whole thing takes place in Sweden. The length is about right for one trans-Atlantic flight (no way I could have slept in Economy class, with the person in front of me in my lap).
Oh this is horrible. Not the trip to Stockholm but the trip from the Stockholm Airport to the launch w/o a shower or a sleep or anything. How very annoying. I’m sorry to hear it. What a horse’s ass. Except you get to go to Stockholm as opposed to not going to Stockholm. Congratulations, and etc, alas.
A fun read. And definitely more fun than other classic Swedish mysteries/police procedurals like the Martin Beck Mystery Series by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, or Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander novels, all of which are a tad slow and depressing, if well written. The Swedish title of the Girl with the dragon tattoo is apparently “Men Who Hate Women” (if the wiki can be believed), perhaps somehow related to “Does God hate women”? And much of the Girl with the Dragoon Tattoo series (the Millennium Trilogy) takes place in Stockholm.
Will your co-author be there?
After a hot and dry July (so I’ve been told – I was in Japan for the entire month) Stockholm has cooled down and is a bit overcast at the moment. I live fairly close to the centre of town and its starting to fill up again (Stockholm tends to empty during July, shops close and public transport is less frequent as that’s when people go on vacation.) Is your seminar open to the public?
I don’t get it. Is it that hard to change your ticket so you can go there one or two days earlier than scheduled? I don’t want to scare you, but my eastbound jet lag usually takes a whole week to recover from.
And yes: will your co-author be there?
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The seminar will be free and open to the public. As far as I’ve gathered, the seminar room has a rather limited 100 seats. If you wish to attend, you are, however, asked to pre-register by email. Further information can be found in the press release (http://is.gd/eeprw). The publisher has also put together a neat promotional poster (http://is.gd/eepvA) (both in Swedish.)
Oh, that’s helpful – thanks, lapher! Now I know what time it will be and everything. Unfortunately I also know that I’m apparently the headliner, so to speak, which means I will be expected to be something more than sullen and half-asleep. Er. Honestly, this really is ridiculous planning. Tea, I don’t get it either, frankly. [sigh]
No, judging by the press release and the poster, my co-author will not be there.
Oh and you can’t scare me any worse than I already am, Tea; I’m the same way with eastbound jetlag.
It’s a trap?
Have fun OB, and don’t underestimate the power of caffeine and adrenaline. ;^)
The image on that poster doesn’t show many kvinnor, does it? Mostly it shows the representatives of Gud. And is that a pile of bricks? A woman trapped in rubble? Something nice and graphic for you to respond to once you get there, I imagine.
GD – no, I’m not; I know from experience that adrenalin does hold the sleepiness off on the first day. It’s not much help with being filthy and in need of fresh air and exercise rather than more sitting still in stuffy air though, nor with lunch.
Claire, I couldn’t tell – it looked like the head of a monkey doll growing out of a woman’s leg. Maybe they have those in Sweden.
O, if I were you, I’d simply insist they rebook your flight for the prior day. That kind of schedule is grueling, and it’s very unkind – surely they understand that and wouldn’t want to go through it themselves?
Josh, yes…I’m a wimp, I guess. She didn’t offer, so I didn’t feel able to demand. But I did want to. It is grotesque…
You really should insist, O. They want you, and they’re not going to risk losing your presence after they’ve made all these plans. Really. I travel on biz all the time, and I always insist on getting in the day before-it’s standard practice. Not to be a prima donna, but because your hosts want an alert, engaged presenter – not a grump.
Really. Make a polite fuss – you’ll be infinitely glad you did.
I had a similar schedule problem back in June, anticipated the same difficulties you’re anticipating, and found out I’d anticipated wrong. I’m 63, so you’ll probably do even better. I did have no sense of time for a few days, though.
Ophelia:
I have sent a polite email to the organizers explaining the misunderstanding and urging them to, if possible, rebook the flight so that you could arrive one day earlier. It would, after all, be in everyone’s best interest to have a fully awake and non-sullen Ophelia leading the seminar.
Claire:
The cover art is made by the (in certain religious circles) controversial artist Elisabeth Ohlson Wallin and is from her latest exhibition “Jerusalem,” which deals with the three major monotheistic religions’ views on homosexuality.
In June this year, the exhibition was preemptively pulled from being shown in one of Sweden’s major museums – ostensibly because she refused to allow religious representatives to present ‘counterpoints’ to her art within the exhibition itself. With the Vilks controversy vividly in mind, as the museum representatives likely have, it does not take a stretch of the imagination to figure out the real reasons for their refusal to exhibit her art.
In Sweden, Wallin is most famous for her 1998 exhibition Ecce Homo (http://is.gd/eg1Ze), that among other things depicted Jesus as a homosexual. This caused a major outcry, and, though most people seem to have forgotten this, the same arguments for self-censorship and respect for religious sensibilities were marshaled against Wallin as are today used to castigate Vilks.
Well I took Josh’s advice and made the suggestion myself.
That’s very interesting about Wallin! Notoriety and all; how exciting. I’ve been wondering if Lars Vilks might be there…
Sigh. No response from the publisher, and it’s probably after working hours now, and it’s the weekend. I should have said No on Wednesday when they realized they’d messed it up, but I’m too much of a nerd. Ho hum.
[…] right, I’ve adjusted my attitude since yesterday and the day before. We had a nice chat on the phone, and it will be okay. The seminar will be mostly discussion and q […]
Um, Stockholm is “farthest north”? Me, I think of it as being in the south, and I myself am not that far north, methinks. Heck, the arctic circle is still about a 550 kilometers’ drive north from where I live. There is a whole lot of space north of Stockholm. Good luck with your trip, though.
I didn’t mean farthest north period – obviously! – I meant farthest north for me. It’s the farthest north I’ve ever been, apart from Reykjavik, which doesn’t really count because it was just the airport.
Did you think I actually thought there was nothing north of Stockholm?!
No, but I was just wondering, you know, if you didn’t think there was anything worth bothering with north of Stockholm. I wasn’t entirely serious, though. Just a little.
Heh. Absolutely I do. The norther the better! It’s just…I look at the globe, and see that Stockholm is on a line with way the hell north in Canada and Russia. It’s north. I like that.
“Farthest north/south” is actually a phrase from polar exploration – each exploration party had its own. So it was a sort of joke.
Is it too late to suggest a title for the Swedish translation? I’m all for ‘The God with the Dragon Tattoo’.
Should sell a squillion.