The Final Handling

For discussion of John Ajvide Lindqvist's short story collection Pappersväggar
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StefL
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Re: The Final Handling

Post by StefL » Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:35 am

lombano wrote:What about the other stories in Paper Walls? To my personal taste, The Final Handling doesn't sound very promising, it sounds like it explains too much and I wasn't that keen on Flora as a character anyway (I liked the Elvy-Flora subplot in HTU the least, while for me the Mahlers' subplot was the best).
In all there are nine or ten stories in Paper Walls, between 5 and 97 pages long - The Final Handling being the longest with 97 pages, second is Gräns (Border) at about 75 pages. The stories deal with different aspects of both supernatural things and aspects of human nature and our imagination.

Gräns (Border) is about a female customs officer who is extremely good at identifying those people who are hiding something as they pass the border (smugglers normally). One day however she encounters a man who is definitely hiding something - but she cannot find out what...

By på höjden (Vertical village) is about a man living in a high flatblock which is accidently in Blackeberg. One day he notices that the building has suddenly started to lean somewhat to the side... This story contains a reference to LDRKI where the main character passes by the pool house "which had been closed for over ten years after some terrible things had happened there" :mrgreen:

Majken (has actually been filmed!) is about a group of old ladies who extort revenge for their bad pensions by organised shoplifting on a large scale.

Pappersväggar (Paper Walls), ie the title story, is about a boy who gets a large carton box from his father's job and what happens when he starts playing in it.

And then there are a few more stories, can't quite remember them all right now and I also think I need to do some actual work here at the office...

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genie47
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Re: The Final Handling

Post by genie47 » Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:47 am

StefL wrote:Majken (has actually been filmed!) is about a group of old ladies who extort revenge for their bad pensions by organised shoplifting on a large scale.
Now this I would like to to see. The topic of pensions is very big in my country. The authorities are holding back returning money that is rightfully ours and forcing us to take up expensive annuities when the time comes.
Låt den rätte komma in in both its printed and celluloid form is a slow acting poison. You will be poisoned white. White from arsenic and innocence.

To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage. - Lao Tzu

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StefL
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Re: The Final Handling

Post by StefL » Mon Sep 21, 2009 9:02 am

genie47 wrote:Now this I would like to to see.
So would I. I haven't seen it and I have no idea about whether it has been filmed for TV or something else. The only reason that I happen to know about it is that it's listed on IMDB and i discovered it looking at JAL's page there.

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lombano
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Re: The Final Handling

Post by lombano » Mon Sep 21, 2009 11:17 pm

StefL wrote:By på höjden (Vertical village) is about a man living in a high flatblock which is accidently in Blackeberg. One day he notices that the building has suddenly started to lean somewhat to the side... This story contains a reference to LDRKI where the main character passes by the pool house "which had been closed for over ten years after some terrible things had happened there" :mrgreen:
What terrible things? An angel coming down to save a boy from drowning? :D
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StefL
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Re: The Final Handling

Post by StefL » Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:46 am

lombano wrote:
StefL wrote:By på höjden (Vertical village) is about a man living in a high flatblock which is accidently in Blackeberg. One day he notices that the building has suddenly started to lean somewhat to the side... This story contains a reference to LDRKI where the main character passes by the pool house "which had been closed for over ten years after some terrible things had happened there" :mrgreen:
What terrible things? An angel coming down to save a boy from drowning? :D
I can't remember the exact words and since I'm at work I can't check in the book right now, but I'll try and remember doing it this evening. But something like that, or rather that some kids had been murdered and possibly that one had dissapeared.

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gareth1971
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Re: The Final Handling

Post by gareth1971 » Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:50 am

Sounds like another Stephen King similarity here - referencing your previous work!

Which as a King constant reader ;) I quite like as it's as if they've created their own parallel universe, not just seperate different worlds for each book.

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StefL
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Re: The Final Handling

Post by StefL » Thu Sep 24, 2009 7:42 am

OK I found the passage, here it is (my translation):

"Joel went out, and passed the pool house where the windows were still covered by black wooden boards after the horrible events there twenty years earlier. Two children had been killed and one kidnapped by some madman who thought he was a vampire. Neither the perpetrator nor the kidnapped child had been found."

This short passage of course also gives us some hints about what happened - or not happened - after LDRKI ;)

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lombano
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Re: The Final Handling

Post by lombano » Mon Sep 28, 2009 10:44 pm

gareth1971 wrote:I have just finished reading this for the second time, and I'm sure quite a few of us have read it recently too ;)

Its a more satisfying end to Handling the Undead, in my opinion, and the fact that it features my favourite character from HTU is just a bonus!

What are other peoples opinions?
I liked several things about it, one was that the supernatural was handled well - didn't try to make it too spectacular, and mostly didn't explain too much (though the hints about some decades-old conspiracy within the establishment related to the whole thing at the Heath for me did fall in the 'saying too much' category). And while I didn't like Flora in HTU, I thought she was a much better character in TFH - I can't quite put my finger on why but I found her both far more sympathetic and far more interesting in TFH.
Regarding the love story, it seems reasonable that Flora would love Kalle so quickly, since she can see his core, and while it makes sense that he would like her immediately, because she accepts him as he is, it seems too abrupt for him to love her so quickly.
One criticism I do have is the description of the research at the Heath - scientists don't take notes in Latin (few would be able to), and the chances of a philosophy professor being put in charge of what is, shall we say, unique biomedical research would be nil. Also the guards not firing didn't seem realistic to me.
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StefL
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Re: The Final Handling

Post by StefL » Tue Sep 29, 2009 8:09 pm

lombano wrote: One criticism I do have is the description of the research at the Heath - scientists don't take notes in Latin (few would be able to), and the chances of a philosophy professor being put in charge of what is, shall we say, unique biomedical research would be nil. Also the guards not firing didn't seem realistic to me.
Ha ha, yes I have to agree I found it pretty odd to see notes in Latin. And even more odd that I was actually able to understand some of it, despite never having studied neither Latin nor Italian, French or Spanish. But I guess there's enough of Latin heritage in all of our languages in Europe to allow us to understand a lot of words. I don't know how widespread Latin is in the medical field - being a physicist myself - but from what I've heard from friends in med school they at least have to learn the names of all parts of the body in Latin.
And it sure is strange how a professor of philosophy was responsible for the research, even if I had the impression that Sture was somehow connected to Karolinska Institutet, which is the largest and most prominent medical university in Sweden.

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lombano
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Re: The Final Handling

Post by lombano » Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:43 pm

There seems to be an unusually high number of scientists on this site - I'm a physicist/chemist myself. Back on topic, to write the notes you'd have to know more Latin than the names of body parts, but in any case there is no obvious reason to want to use Latin in the first place - surely Swedish would've been the most natural language to use, and if the purpose was to have them 'in code' Latin is nowhere nearly exotic enough (I understood most of it, Spanish is my native language). Especially given that most people would recognise it as Latin and thus would know where to start. It'd be better to use a cipher of some sort, unless you knew some language that would be extremely exotic in Sweden, something like tzotzil or purépecha.
I suppose a philosophy professor might lecture about ethics in a medical institute, but they still wouldn't put him in charge of biomedical research. In contrast, in HTU that a neurologist interviewed Eva seemed very realistic (and the interview was very good). Given the nature of the Heath, my guess is that they would put a military doctor in charge (perhaps a pathologist), or a physiologist, but definitely someone with a background in medicine or biology.
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