MATERIAL BOOK

Finally, the package with the american edition of my Parapornographic manifesto arrived, and this beautiful, dirty-pink little pamphlet feels good to touch!

I can't decide if it's more beautful than the swedish edition, but I'm truly happy to have editors that put so much effort into the layout:

REVIEW OF "MITT GRYMMA ÖDE"

To my great joy, the Swedish Book Review recently published a critique of my novel about Händel, Mitt grymma öde, written by the dutch translater Janny Middelbeek-Oortgiesen. She describes it as a "whirling roller coaster ride through the baroque age" and also compares it to one of my favorite swedish writers:

"Edenborg presents his story in a lively, bombastic style, dark and colourful at the same time, with hedonistic scenes, highs and lows, in which he brings Handel to life as a fat, ugly megalomaniac, full of self-contempt but capable of great insight into human character. Edenborg’s style reminds me of that of another Swedish writer, the famous Sven Delblanc, who was a master of the mixture of solemnity and vulgarity, of baroque writing, fine metaphors and very refined characterisation. And who, by the way, also wrote a novel on the life of some famous castrato singers, Kastrater (The Castrati, 1975)."

You find the whole review here: http://www.swedishbookreview.com/show-review.php?i=400

SWEDISH REVIEWS OF THE MANIFESTO

Here are some excerpts from the swedish reviews of The Parapornographic Manifesto, translated by me:

David Stenbeck in Kristianstadsbladet: "an interesting and important book" – http://www.kristianstadsbladet.se/kultur/bokrecensioner/article1628817/For-porren-i-samtiden.html

Elin Lucassi i Litteraturmagazinet: "well worth reading (and re-reading) when you return home and wishes for your sunburned head to do some work" – http://www.litteraturmagazinet.se/carl-michael-edenborg/det-parapornografiska-manifestet/recension/elin-lucassi

Benny Holmberg in Tidningen Kulturen: "it is a very interesting and in some parts highly provocative pamphlet Edenborg has written" – http://tidningenkulturen.se/artiklar/litteratur/litteraturkritik/12244-litteratur-carl-michael-edenborg-det-parapornografiska-manifestet

Unsigned, in Arbetet: "teaches us how to relate the postpornographic state that keeps us prisoners" – http://arbetet.se/2012/05/29/ink-forlags-serie/

Erik van Ooijen in Kulturdelen: "Carl-Michael Edenborg's Det parapornografiska manifestet is a crazily stimulating read, that with both elegance and insurrection manages to collect a wealth of exciting ideas and impulses" – http://www.kulturdelen.com/2012/05/29/bok-det-parapornografiska-manifestet/

Nina Lekander in Aftonbladet: "instead of a sex-obsessed publisher - I prefer a sex-obsessed writer, that has put on  Bengt Anderberg's, Hans Nestius', Inge & Sten's, Suzanne Brøgger's och Kathy Acker's wings and flown further" – http://mobil.aftonbladet.se/kultur/bokrecensioner/article14943668.ab

John Sjögren in Uppsala Nya Tidning: "Edenborg formulates, with a verbal fire that reminds me of the intensity in the classic modernistic manifestoes, a critique of both commercial pornography and the censoring antipornographic movement" – http://www.unt.se/kultur/litteratur/ett-manifest-som-klar-av-skammen-1767786.aspx

Jens Liljestrand in Sydsvenskan: "a both stimulating and worrying pamphlet against humanism, an intellectual crusade on slack rope against our time's established ideas of gender, power, sexuality and ethics" – http://www.sydsvenskan.se/kultur-och-nojen/det-jaglosa-runket

THE PARAPORNOGRAPHIC MANIFESTO

One year ago, the swedish publisher Ink bokförlag published my Det parapornografiska manifestet, a text written in the classical style of the communists, surrealists, futurists etc, to plead for a perspective on porn and antiporn that hopefully is both liberating, revolting and inspiring.

The edition was very well received in Sweden. You find quotes and links (only in swedish, still) here.

Now, the US publisher Action books has produced a translated edition of the work, called, to no big surprise, The Parapornographic Manifesto, with a beautiful and brilliant cover:

This is a screenshot from one of the events surrounding the swedish book-release, when I discussed the ideas with historian Klara Arnberg and publisher Gabriel Itkes Snap (the whole video is on YouTube):

The Parapornographic Manifesto can be purchased at Amazon or SPD.

HOUSE OF HUNGER

In 2011, me and my wife Loka Kanarp made a graphic novel called Hungerhuset, published by Kolik förlag in Sweden in the autumn, and in January 2012 in translation by the french Actes Sud.

The french magazine Le Monde put it as number one on their list of "Les choix culture". They write, among other things:

‎"You don't have to be a fan of scandinavian literature or film to be seduced by the poisonous charm of this graphic novel in duochrome, where imagination is mixed with psychological tension. As a metaphor of forest and shadow, this voracious house tells us with strong emotion of the childish anguish in the face of loss and emptiness."Read the whole review on Le Monde. 

Here are some translated excerpts from the swedish reviews of Hungerhuset:

”The low-key, taciturn text carry the dramatic story, and it is remarkable to see the pace that Kanarp’s attenuated, clearly contured drawings manage to produce. The force in Kanarp’s and Edenborg’s book, perhaps the best comic book this year, is that the authors rely on the genre’s – the horror story, the comic – ability to express a psychological content beyond and woven into the fast-paced story." (Jonas Ellerström, SMP)

”From time to time, I forget I’m reading a comic book, because it has the feeling of a movie. / It’s a well narrated story in text as well as in images. It’s an exciting, scary and creepy tale that works very well in this format.” (Anna Jonsson, Bokcirklar)

”Hungerhuset is a very atmospheric horror story, told in beautiful, stringent, clean pictures. In the same way that the house conceals something dark and evil, there are both darkness and sorrow beyond what at the surface can seem like a simple plot and charming pictures.” (Spektakulärt)

”The book isn’t only beautiful and pretty drawed, it’s vital and sparkling in its literary design, the people we meet are made of flesh and blood. Buy the most beautiful book cover this year and get a ghost story worth its name at the same time.” (Staffars serieblogg)

”The result is both an effective ghost story and a sensitively narrated tale about the sorrow of two girls after their mother’s death.” (Simon säger)

”Hungerhuset is a handsomely and cleanly drawn, creepy, exciting and easy-read horror story.” (Gummistövlar)