Ruumiin kulttuuri 2/2008: English Summary Literary spring 2008 was crowned by a new Finnish translation of the classic crime story, Feodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. In his comprehensive essay Risto Saarinen, Professor of Ecumenics at University of Helsinki, studies the novel’s themes and conception of the world. He reminds us that most often the book has been read as an Entwicklungsroman: for all his misery, Raskolnikov grows and develops as a human being. However, Saarinen tells us that the first round is not the whole truth; in the second round of interpretation the murder itself is central. Through the murder, the characters are able to see a wider pattern, which helps analyze the society and brings about an awareness of good and evil. ”The murder turns into an issue which has the power to create culture, into a basic fact which eliminates chaos and makes it possible to perceive right and wrong. In the end, the moral code cannot be violated, but the moral code can be identified and carried out only through a dramatic crime. The starting point of culture is murder,” Saarinen puts it (”Dostoyevsky’s Two Rounds”). The new translation of Crime and Punishment is by Olli Kuukasjärvi who works in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Translating took up all his free time over two and a half years. ”It was a matter of honour, an offer one simply had to accept,” Kuukasjärvi says. He didn’t examine the older translations until he had finished his own. ”When you translate, you write all the text in Finnish and stay close to its author. If you start conversing with a previous translation, you risk a triangle or quadruple drama,” Kuukasjärvi points out to his interviewer Heikki Ollikainen (”An Offer a Translator Could Not Refuse”). Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was born on May 28 a hundred years ago. ”Do the Bond novels still merit the status of a classic?” Kyösti Salovaara asks – and replies in the positive, after a re-read. He observes, however, that even at the time of Fleming’s death in 1964 James Bond was a hero of the silver screen, not of the libraries. ”The noisy gigantism of the Bond films gets in the way when you try to form an objective opinion on Fleming’s novels,” Salovaara thinks, but comes to the conclusion that ”the novels were a pleasant surprise literaturewise” (”You Often Meet Heroes – But Bond Is Bond”). Swedish crime writers Karin Alvtegen and Johan Theorin and British crime author cum scriptwriter Nigel McCrery visited Finland this spring – and they all ended up being interviewed by Ruumiin kulttuuri. A master of the psychological thriller, Karin Alvtegen says that in her latest book Shadow she wanted to describe what it really feels like to take another person’s life. ”I hate media violence,” she says. She herself often describes mental cruelty and wants to dig deep into the soul of each of her characters. ”I want to understand, not simply build black-and-white types. I know my characters through and through.” (”Everyone Should Have Therapy”). Johan Theorin’s novel Skumtimmen (Echoes from the Dead) was a great success in Sweden in 2007 and was awarded Svenska Deckarakademin’s prize for the best Swedish debut crime novel of the year. Publishing rights have already been sold to 15 countries. The intensive crime story is located on the island of Öland where Theorin spends all his summers. ”It was natural to start writing about a place of which I have personal experience and memories and of which I’ve heard lots of stories all my life. The more people pack into big cities, the more you want to know about your own roots,” Theorin explains (”Frightening Twilight Tales”). In addition to writing novels and documentaries, Nigel McCrery has also scripted several television dramas of which the successful BBC series Silent Witness is perhaps the best known. ”Anything goes. Writing books just takes longer,” McCrery says and grins. His novel Still Waters had come out in Finnish just before his visit to Helsinki. ”No matter what you write, you have to grab the reader’s or audience’s interest right away.” (”A Good Story Is the Basis”). Other items Harlequin, the publishing company known for its romantic paperback fiction, is now also investing in suspense in a big way: large printorders of some 25 thrillers annually are distributed through supermarkets and newsstands. Our interviewee is Pia Junnila, editor-in-chief of Harlequin in Finland (”Suspense Joins Romance”). Former Parliamentary Deputy-Ombudsman, Doctor of Laws Pirkko K. Koskinen presents her favourite crime novels. She is currently also a member of our Clew of the Year jury (”My Top Ten”). Since the 1950s, Bob Morane, the hero created by Belgian author Henri Vernes (b. 1918), has had adventures on land and sea and in the air. Veli-Matti Huhta tells us about Vernes’s massive oeuvre (”Horror-Stricken We Go into a Temple of Dinosaurs”). Juri Nummelin ponders about why hardboiled crime lit has never really taken root in Finland (”The Invisible Hardboiled Crime Novel”). 1946 was a superb noir year in the American cinema, and also in Finland two dark-hued noir melodramas were premiered then: Ville Salminen’s Menneisyyden varjo (The Shadow of the Past) and Edvin Laine’s Kultainen kynttilänjalka (The Golden Candlestick). Risto Raitio gives us a thoroughgoing survey of these two classics plus Finland’s later releases in the noir tradition – alas, too few (”Brief History of Finn-Noir: Bad Blood and Loopyhead Engineers”). Capital Sentences: reviews of more than 40 new books in our genre, released this spring. Translated by Liisa Koskinen

Ruumiin kulttuuri 2/2008