Autumn is here. The season of fallen leaves, soaked boots (depending on where you are), bout of cold-induced consumerism, and packing your offspring (if you have any) to Hogwarts. It's been some time since we've last posted. Elina is busy with Satumetsä magazine (check their Facebook page) and I've been preoccupied with my dissertation, which will be published (and defended!) later this year and will be available online.
The dissertation focuses on the places with connections to Tove Jansson and draws, in part, on our visits detailed in the earlier entries. I'll write a longer post about the whole affair soon, but here are a couple of things which might be of interest to fans of Jansson.
First. It might be old news for some, but the film Tove came out last year and now it's on YouTube Movies. I wanted to watch it, but it wasn't available on any platforms, but last week I was browsing through cdrama recs and cooking videos on YouTube, and it appeared in the recommendations, so I 'rented' it. Without giving any 'spoilers', as much as it applies to a biographical film, I really liked it! (Vivica Bandler is amazing!) The film is in Swedish, with Finnish subs. No English subs available at the moment.
And the second. Just as I was making edits to the dissertation before sending it for printing, I found out about this book, Tove Janssonin Helsinki (English: Tove Jansson’s Helsinki) by Juha Järvelä. Based on biographical research, it tells about places with ties to Jansson in Helsinki, which is exactly the topic of my own study! The book has been published in August and can be purchased here, ebook (which I will buy and read very slowly, because it is in Finnish) will be available soon.
I do realize that English-speaking audiences are at a loss here, but if there is enough interest in the book and the film, they might become available in English. Just to give a teaser preview, here is a freely translated description of the book from the publisher’s website:
Tove Jansson’s Helsinki by Juha Järvelä
Where did Tove Jansson live, revel, paint and write?
Supplemented with photographs and maps, this monograph takes the reader to places with connections to Tove Jansson and her works.
Where did the Moomin mugs originate from? Where did Jansson’s artist friends lived, including those on whom she based the characters of Snufkin, The Muskrat, Too-Ticky and Bob? Where on the streets of Helsinki does her face appear?
Writer and artist Tove Jansson (1914–2001) lived for biggest part of her life in Helsinki, and the city is full of places where her footprints can be traced. The book invites you to follow in the footsteps of Tove Jansson and consider her works from a new perspective.
That's it for now.
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