UPDATE:
Hi Olaf,
God brev og veldig godt sagt. Jeg er enig med alt du sa. I USA og Storbritannia og Australia gjelder det samme. CLI fi romaner og filmer er fortsatt ansett av kultur kritikere og bestille anmeldere som aktivist litteratur og derfor skingrende og prekener. Redigeringsprogrammet for New York Times Book Review Pamela Paul, fortalte meg to år siden hun aldri tilordner en cli fi roman vurderes i avisen og at under hennes se ordet "cli fi" vil aldri tillates i utskrift i avisen. Så er Norge del av samme tankesett som USA og Storbritannia. Men når sci fi dukket først opp i 1920, kritikere og dørvoktere sier samme om sci fi så som de gjør nå om cli fi: "Hold avskum av offentligheten!" Imidlertid vil cli fi stige uansett. Sin i luften, i Norge også. Og artikler som din siste i Morgenbladet vil bidra til å styrke offentlig opinion ved siden av cli fi. Men blitt slike romaner ikke populært i Norge.
Sincerely,
Dan Bloom
Olaf, a young woman in Norway, in her mid-20s, very interested in cli-fi literature since she was a teenager, she read your very good article in the newspaper there and she wrote to me:
Hi,
Thank you so much for sending me the link to Olaf's article! My feelings are:
1. I read the article as more negative than positive towards cli-fi (in the article it was called “climate literature” and the cli-fi term was never once mentioned, I am not sure why). Or it tries to explain why there are so few novels with climate and environment themes, why they are unpopular. But the author also suggests that this literature should have a bigger place in common bookstores and shelves.
2. The title translates: ''the weather changed and it got hotter, but the books remained the same. Why doesn’t the climate crisis have a bigger role in current Norwegian literature?”
3. I find the article interesting, but this is very subjective from my own personal point of view as a young Norwegian woman. I am already interested in cli-fi, know what it is and wants to learn more about it. It might be less interesting for the common reader (just as the author of the article suggest is the problem with climate literature)
Again, thanks for sending me the link.
Sincerely,
Your friend in Norway, age 25
=============================================
Now to the letter to OLAF....
Dear Olaf,
In this age of global warming awareness, why are there so few cli-fi novels in Norway about global warming issues? That was the question posed in a recent cli-fi news article published in the Morgenbladet newspaper in Oslo, with your byline. A very good article, too.
The headline was: "Og været skiftet, og det ble varmere"
With a SUBHEADLINE: "Men bøkene forble de samme. Hvorfor har ikke klimakrisen en mer sentral plass i norsk samtidslitteratur?"
In other words, isn't it time for Norwegian novelists to get with the program and start writing cli-fi novels rather than sitting around on their fannies writing boring long-winded diaries about their boring lives like the infamous Karl Kiekegaard of MY STRUGGLE?
Olaf, as you know, and as I have since learned after reading your very good article,
in August 2007, a Norwegian
Literature Festival in Molde (The Bjørnson Festival) was held where the topic
was "Klima", or "whether climate change is being taken seriously enough in
today's Norwegian literary circles".
The Molde festival was the first of
two literary festivals in Norway in 2007 that focused on novels and movies about the major issue facing humanity in the Anthrocene, namely man-made global warming and its future impacts and societal repercussions. Such novels at that point in time did not have a name but they would later be dubbed cli-fi novels and cli-fi movies via the Cli-Fi Report website at Cli-Fi.Net
The other literary fsetival in Norway that year (2007) was in Stavanger. in September, and was called
"Klimaskifte" — "Climate Shift".
In Molde, the world–famous Norwegian
author Jostein Gaarder — of "Sophie's World" fame — told audiences that even
after making his publisher [Aschehough] millions upon millions of dollars from the
sales of ''Sophie's World'' and similar books, a
climate–themed novel that he submitted to them had been rejected by the same publisher.
Ouch.
So maybe in Norway (and other countries, too, the USA and the UK, too)
there's a story to be told about publishers and political and cultural conservatism in the
literary milieu, that has the book industry and media asking time and time
again, as if they don't know, why there is so little literary fiction
about the vast climate crisis we face as a humanity of 10 billion people, when it might be much easier simply to
look in the mirror, no?
In any case, things haven't really changed much in
the nine years since 2007 in Norway. So Olaf, it appears as if literary critics and book reviewers and newspaper editors and "talking heads" on Norwegian TV are still basically asking the very same questions
as were heard in Molde in 2007: "Whether climate change and man-made global warming issues are being taken seriously enough
in today's literary circles and if not, why not?"
Is it possible, maybe, perhaps, sort of, if such a case could be made, possibily, that such cultural and political conservatism could
be in any way related to the fact that Norway is one of the world's worst
remaining petroleum exporters, along with Saudia Arabia, Iran, Alaska and others?
That is what this Morgenbladet article is sort of all about. The answers vary. The questions still remain. However, along with novelists and screenwriters in Sweden and Finland and Denmark and Holland, writers in Nordic countries are beginning to see the light and get the message and I do believe that in the next 10 to 20 years the world will witness the publication of dozens of important cli-fi novels from Norway.
Stay tuned.
In other words, isn't it time for Norwegian novelists to get with the program and start writing cli-fi novels rather than sitting around on their fannies writing boring long-winded diaries about their boring lives like the infamous Karl Kiekegaard of MY STRUGGLE?
Olaf, as you know, and as I have since learned after reading your very good article,
in August 2007, a Norwegian
Literature Festival in Molde (The Bjørnson Festival) was held where the topic
was "Klima", or "whether climate change is being taken seriously enough in
today's Norwegian literary circles".
The Molde festival was the first of
two literary festivals in Norway in 2007 that focused on novels and movies about the major issue facing humanity in the Anthrocene, namely man-made global warming and its future impacts and societal repercussions. Such novels at that point in time did not have a name but they would later be dubbed cli-fi novels and cli-fi movies via the Cli-Fi Report website at Cli-Fi.Net
The other literary fsetival in Norway that year (2007) was in Stavanger. in September, and was called
"Klimaskifte" — "Climate Shift".
In Molde, the world–famous Norwegian
author Jostein Gaarder — of "Sophie's World" fame — told audiences that even
after making his publisher [Aschehough] millions upon millions of dollars from the
sales of ''Sophie's World'' and similar books, a
climate–themed novel that he submitted to them had been rejected by the same publisher.
Ouch.
So maybe in Norway (and other countries, too, the USA and the UK, too)
there's a story to be told about publishers and political and cultural conservatism in the
literary milieu, that has the book industry and media asking time and time
again, as if they don't know, why there is so little literary fiction
about the vast climate crisis we face as a humanity of 10 billion people, when it might be much easier simply to
look in the mirror, no?
In any case, things haven't really changed much in
the nine years since 2007 in Norway. So Olaf, it appears as if literary critics and book reviewers and newspaper editors and "talking heads" on Norwegian TV are still basically asking the very same questions
as were heard in Molde in 2007: "Whether climate change and man-made global warming issues are being taken seriously enough
in today's literary circles and if not, why not?"
Is it possible, maybe, perhaps, sort of, if such a case could be made, possibily, that such cultural and political conservatism could
be in any way related to the fact that Norway is one of the world's worst
remaining petroleum exporters, along with Saudia Arabia, Iran, Alaska and others?
That is what this Morgenbladet article is sort of all about. The answers vary. The questions still remain. However, along with novelists and screenwriters in Sweden and Finland and Denmark and Holland, writers in Nordic countries are beginning to see the light and get the message and I do believe that in the next 10 to 20 years the world will witness the publication of dozens of important cli-fi novels from Norway.
Stay tuned.
And Olaf, you didn't mention this, but Jo Nesbo's TV cli-fi drama OCCUPIED has had a stellar reception worldwide via YouTube clips, the NETFLIX series and of course the original run in Norway. So cli-fi is alive and well in Norway (and in Sweden, and Finland, too) and the Norwegian media should wake up to all this. It is not too late.
Norway is very well positioned to give the world a very important cli-fi novelist or screenwriter and he or she is very likely working on an outline now. Can you report this, too?
Sincerely,
Your Twitter follower in Taiwan,
Dan Bloom, editor
THE CLI FI REPORT
cli-fi.net
==============
Hi Olaf,
Good letter and very well said. I agree with everything you said. In the USA and the UK and Australia, the same applies.
Cli fi novels and movies are still regarded by culture critics and book reviewers as activist literature and therefore strident and preachy.
The New York Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul, told me two years ago she will never assign a cli fi novel to be reviewed in her newspaper and that under her watch the word "cli fi" will never be allowed to appear in print in her newspaper.
So Norway is part of the same mindset as the USA and UK. However, when sci fi first appeared in the 1920s, critics and gatekeepers said the same thing about sci fi then as they do now about cli fi: "keep the scum out of the public eye!"
However, cli fi will rise anyways. Its in the air, in Norway too.
And articles like your recent one in Morgenbladet will help galvanize public opinion to the side of cli fi.
However, these kinds of novels won't become popular in Norway overnight. It will take time. Ten years, twenty years.
But cli fi will rise in Norway sooner or later. Its in the air. And TV shows liked Jo Nesbos Occupied are helping to pave the way
.
Thanks for your letter in response to my letter. Journalists like you help set the stage for "what comes next". Cli fi is coming soon to Norway.
Sincerely,
Dan
God brev og veldig godt sagt. Jeg er enig med alt du sa. I USA og Storbritannia og Australia gjelder det samme. CLI fi romaner og filmer er fortsatt ansett av kultur kritikere og bestille anmeldere som aktivist litteratur og derfor skingrende og prekener. Redigeringsprogrammet for New York Times Book Review Pamela Paul, fortalte meg to år siden hun aldri tilordner en cli fi roman vurderes i avisen og at under hennes se ordet "cli fi" vil aldri tillates i utskrift i avisen. Så er Norge del av samme tankesett som USA og Storbritannia. Men når sci fi dukket først opp i 1920, kritikere og dørvoktere sier samme om sci fi så som de gjør nå om cli fi: "Hold avskum av offentligheten!" Imidlertid vil cli fi stige uansett. Sin i luften, i Norge også. Og artikler som din siste i Morgenbladet vil bidra til å styrke offentlig opinion ved siden av cli fi. Men blitt slike romaner ikke populært i Norge
==============
Dear Dan Bloom,
thanks for your enthusiastic replies to the article «Og været skiftet, og det ble varmere».
It’s not hard to point out examples of Norwegian cli-fi, as you do in your blogpost, and as I do in the article.
Still, I think it would be an overstatement to say that climate change has a prominent place in contemporary Norwegian fiction, a claim pretty much everyone I talked to researching the article agreed with.
My hunch when I started on the article was that climate change literature had an aura of being “activist literature” and somehow inferior to “serious” fiction.
The article was an attempt to find out if this was true, and to contribute to the Norwegian debate on climate change and literature/art.
All the best,
=======================
Good letter and very well said. I agree with everything you said. In the USA and the UK and Australia, the same applies.
Cli fi novels and movies are still regarded by culture critics and book reviewers as activist literature and therefore strident and preachy.
The New York Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul, told me two years ago she will never assign a cli fi novel to be reviewed in her newspaper and that under her watch the word "cli fi" will never be allowed to appear in print in her newspaper.
So Norway is part of the same mindset as the USA and UK. However, when sci fi first appeared in the 1920s, critics and gatekeepers said the same thing about sci fi then as they do now about cli fi: "keep the scum out of the public eye!"
However, cli fi will rise anyways. Its in the air, in Norway too.
And articles like your recent one in Morgenbladet will help galvanize public opinion to the side of cli fi.
However, these kinds of novels won't become popular in Norway overnight. It will take time. Ten years, twenty years.
But cli fi will rise in Norway sooner or later. Its in the air. And TV shows liked Jo Nesbos Occupied are helping to pave the way
.
Thanks for your letter in response to my letter. Journalists like you help set the stage for "what comes next". Cli fi is coming soon to Norway.
Sincerely,
Dan
God brev og veldig godt sagt. Jeg er enig med alt du sa. I USA og Storbritannia og Australia gjelder det samme. CLI fi romaner og filmer er fortsatt ansett av kultur kritikere og bestille anmeldere som aktivist litteratur og derfor skingrende og prekener. Redigeringsprogrammet for New York Times Book Review Pamela Paul, fortalte meg to år siden hun aldri tilordner en cli fi roman vurderes i avisen og at under hennes se ordet "cli fi" vil aldri tillates i utskrift i avisen. Så er Norge del av samme tankesett som USA og Storbritannia. Men når sci fi dukket først opp i 1920, kritikere og dørvoktere sier samme om sci fi så som de gjør nå om cli fi: "Hold avskum av offentligheten!" Imidlertid vil cli fi stige uansett. Sin i luften, i Norge også. Og artikler som din siste i Morgenbladet vil bidra til å styrke offentlig opinion ved siden av cli fi. Men blitt slike romaner ikke populært i Norge
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