No stopping now
Year 2017 marks the one hundredth year for Finland as an independent state. Coinciding with the centennial, Finnish SFF fans celebrate the arrival of Worldcon of Fantasy and Science Fiction in Finland.
It's the perfect year for telling stories about Finnish storytelling.
This list of one book for every year of Finland's independence is a satisfying peek into a century of Finnish writing. It's exciting to realise just how many books they were choosing from to compile the list! That may seem a silly thing to be excited about, but I keep thinking what literature has meant to the history of this nation, starting from just being encouraged to write and read publications in your native tongue, a fact that wasn't always as self-evident to Finns as it seems to be for many of them today.
Of course people in Finland have been writing for many centuries, as evidenced by Codices Fennici, a recently opened free-to-use digital collection of manuscripts written in Finland (for the pleasure of all you history geeks out there). But Finnish literature... that's a relatively new invention. In the early years of Finnish self-governance, it served as a tool for the emergent Finnish identity.
By the by, it's always tickled me that the word Finns use for the written form of Finnish is kirjakieli, meaning "the language of books". It makes me think that when we write, we're speaking with books. We give shape to our thoughts like we're weaving a spell.
Maybe we are. I think we are.
Spoken Finnish is much much older than its written form, and like languages tend to do, it boasts myriad dialects and vernacular variants. Finnish literature today builds upon an oral tradition that reaches back centuries. As I think of it, I imagine the campfires of the ancient tribes, the settlers who probably came from the east. Here under the dark skies their tongues would spill poetry upon the snow, spin magic into the northern lights. They would sing, they would craft wonders with words -- they would tell stories.
Finnish fiction writers continue this storytelling tradition.
In compiling the famous Kalevala, Elias Lönnrot may have been the first to put the legends of our ancestors into print, but he was not the last to make literature out of folklore. Fiction writers in Finland have been drawing inspiration from Finnish mythology for as long as fiction writing has existed, and many fantasy and science fiction writers build their own worlds and visions upon imagery and lore that's been passed down countless generations.
Naturally not all Finnish writers build on Finnish mythology. Many -- most? -- reach far away and farther to distant shores, even past the stars. Finnish speculative writing, dubbed suomikumma or Finnish Weird, explores every avenue and every angle, from unknown galaxies to the innermost depths of the human psyche. I often feel sad that I am not able to share all this wonderful stuff with my friends in other countries.
It is for that reason that Never Stop -- Finnish Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories excites me. The anthology is a collection of stories selected by Emmi Itäranta and made available in English for the first time. I'm featured as the author of the titular story, a cyberpunk tale set in a post-apocalyptic dystopia, and I'm also involved also as an editor, which means I get to be among the first to see the whole thing come together.
It has been and continues to be a privilege and a pleasure to join the continuum of Finnish storytelling in this way.
The tone and style of the stories varies from steampunk to science fiction and from high fantasy to horror and suspense. For example, Anne Leinonen's gripping work Maid of Tuonela (Lautturin tytär) digs into Finnish mythology and offers a fascinating view into the life of those responsible for ferrying souls across the river of Tuonela, while Magdalena Hai's The Beautiful Boy (Kaunis Ululian) takes us on board hoverships in a whole new world -- with tension galore, just take a look at the teaser!
Of course, Never Stop is not alone in bringing more Finnish fiction within grasp of international audiences. For example, we have the newly launched Finnish Weird publication, a collaborative effort to bring more Finnish speculative fiction out there in English (and for free, to boot). And, let's not forget that there is a (growing?) number of writers in Finland writing in English. For example, take a look at the epic science fiction series Final Fall of Man by Andrew Hindle.
There are many others I could mention, a treasure trove of fiction for the true Finnlore explorers to discover. Bravely does Finnish storytelling venture forth towards its next century. I believe it shall, heh, never stop.
It's the perfect year for telling stories about Finnish storytelling.
Of course people in Finland have been writing for many centuries, as evidenced by Codices Fennici, a recently opened free-to-use digital collection of manuscripts written in Finland (for the pleasure of all you history geeks out there). But Finnish literature... that's a relatively new invention. In the early years of Finnish self-governance, it served as a tool for the emergent Finnish identity.
By the by, it's always tickled me that the word Finns use for the written form of Finnish is kirjakieli, meaning "the language of books". It makes me think that when we write, we're speaking with books. We give shape to our thoughts like we're weaving a spell.
Maybe we are. I think we are.
Spoken Finnish is much much older than its written form, and like languages tend to do, it boasts myriad dialects and vernacular variants. Finnish literature today builds upon an oral tradition that reaches back centuries. As I think of it, I imagine the campfires of the ancient tribes, the settlers who probably came from the east. Here under the dark skies their tongues would spill poetry upon the snow, spin magic into the northern lights. They would sing, they would craft wonders with words -- they would tell stories.
Finnish fiction writers continue this storytelling tradition.
In compiling the famous Kalevala, Elias Lönnrot may have been the first to put the legends of our ancestors into print, but he was not the last to make literature out of folklore. Fiction writers in Finland have been drawing inspiration from Finnish mythology for as long as fiction writing has existed, and many fantasy and science fiction writers build their own worlds and visions upon imagery and lore that's been passed down countless generations.
Naturally not all Finnish writers build on Finnish mythology. Many -- most? -- reach far away and farther to distant shores, even past the stars. Finnish speculative writing, dubbed suomikumma or Finnish Weird, explores every avenue and every angle, from unknown galaxies to the innermost depths of the human psyche. I often feel sad that I am not able to share all this wonderful stuff with my friends in other countries.
It is for that reason that Never Stop -- Finnish Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories excites me. The anthology is a collection of stories selected by Emmi Itäranta and made available in English for the first time. I'm featured as the author of the titular story, a cyberpunk tale set in a post-apocalyptic dystopia, and I'm also involved also as an editor, which means I get to be among the first to see the whole thing come together.
It has been and continues to be a privilege and a pleasure to join the continuum of Finnish storytelling in this way.
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| Never Stop - Finnish Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories Cover art by Anu Korpinen. |
The tone and style of the stories varies from steampunk to science fiction and from high fantasy to horror and suspense. For example, Anne Leinonen's gripping work Maid of Tuonela (Lautturin tytär) digs into Finnish mythology and offers a fascinating view into the life of those responsible for ferrying souls across the river of Tuonela, while Magdalena Hai's The Beautiful Boy (Kaunis Ululian) takes us on board hoverships in a whole new world -- with tension galore, just take a look at the teaser!
Of course, Never Stop is not alone in bringing more Finnish fiction within grasp of international audiences. For example, we have the newly launched Finnish Weird publication, a collaborative effort to bring more Finnish speculative fiction out there in English (and for free, to boot). And, let's not forget that there is a (growing?) number of writers in Finland writing in English. For example, take a look at the epic science fiction series Final Fall of Man by Andrew Hindle.
There are many others I could mention, a treasure trove of fiction for the true Finnlore explorers to discover. Bravely does Finnish storytelling venture forth towards its next century. I believe it shall, heh, never stop.
I'm a Finn whose been reading mainly fantasy from authors outside Finland. My absolute favorite is Robin Hobb, but being huge fantasy buff I'll read anything.
ReplyDeleteNow I've had the joy of discovering the rich world of fantasy being written in Finland. Mainly thanks to Emmi Itäranta's Memory of Water (can't remember the Finnish title now...)
It's as if I've jumped into a deep lake and I don't know where to turn with all the wondrous multicolored fish swimming around. So an anthology like this might just provide me with a diving bell. Here's hoping.
Thank you! I'm so happy to have been able to point you to the anthology, and maybe to other Finnish fiction in English too.
DeleteAnd, my apologies that I haven't replied sooner to you, I had forgotten to switch on notifications for comments so your comment has been hanging in moderation queue for an unacceptable amount of time!
Heh, and of course, if you're inclined to read in Finnish, there's an even bigger pool of fish. I recommend checking the inventory of smallers stores like Aavetaajuus, but many Finnish fantasy authors' books are available in public libraries too, though you may occasionally need to venture into the youth section for them.
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