“It is my desire, it is my wish
To set out to sing, to begin to recite,
To let a song of our clan glide on, to sing a family lay.
The words are melting in my mouth, utterances dropping out,
Coming to my tongue, being scattered about my teeth”
So begins the first poem of the Kalevala, the national heroic epic of the Finnish people. The tales depict numerous universal subjects such as failed marriage proposals, death, sorrow, the miscommunication between parents and their children, love, hope, and war over wealth and power. Before being documented upon paper, the stories had traveled throughout Finland by song and tale telling for thousands of years. The poems were learned by heart and passed on through oral tradition, since books in the Native Language of the Finns did not yet populate that nation (nor had Finnish yet been standardized for script). The poem chroniclers not only sang the tales to entertain, but also to teach the lessons of life, morals and customs. Despite the oral tradition of the tales, and their recounting, dying out around the 18th centrury, the growing desire to restore and cherish the ancient stories blossomed in the early 19th century.
The birth of the earth (by: Gallen Kallela)
The one who set out to re-discover and collect the poems was Elias Lönnrot, a highly educated young man, who not only was an explorer but also a doctor and scientist. Lönnrot is often credited as the father of developing and reinventing (standardization of the scriptural form of the language which had yet to see the written page) the Finnish language – and indeed, after working as a doctor he moved on to becoming a professor of the Finnish tongue and spent his retirement working upon the Finnish dictionary. While traveling, Elias Lönnrot collected many of the old myths and legends. He used the known poems in his work while also adding more characters and events to the original tales.* Thus the first volume of the epic, titled “The Old Kalevala”, was published in 1835, soon followed by the second volume, “The New Kalevala” in 1849. “The Kalevala” has by today been translated into over fifty different languages and is the only national epic which is honored with a flagging day.
Elias Lönnrot
Since today, the 28th of February, is the national day for the Kalevala, I should probably say what the Kalevala means to me as a fellow (Half) Finn. The Classic book is historically important for the development and growth of the Finnish language. The language in question had weakened and been held back for quite a while, so one could argue that “The Kalevala” and Lönnrot basically saved the Finnish tongue. To me, a speaker of fluent Finnish and one who finds some sort of personal subjectivity in the use of this tongue, “The Kalevala” stands out as a form of linguistic savior. But beyond the importance of the text to Finnish national identity and the personal subjectivity this engenders, the book further explores the realms of the broad-spectrum human condition and metaphors and fantasies which form the collective insights and narratives of the human tale and the abode of nature in which we find ourselves.
In addition, “The Kalevala” is interesting in its portrayal of the female characters. For the Era in which the epic was published, not to mention when the myths-singings and tellings were communally recounted, one could argue that the tales are surprisingly feminist. One of the most famous stories found in the epic is Väinämöinen’s (the Kalevala’s leading character, and the oldest being in the world) ill-fated wooing of the young maiden Aino. The legend begins with Väinämöinen getting promised the hand of Aino from her brother Joukahainen through the machinations of a lost duel. The mother of Aino and Joukahainen is thrilled with the idea of her daughter saying “I do” to Väinämöinen (as he is considered very old and wise, perfect husband material), but Aino is not. After Väinämöinen’s persistent chase of Aino, she, in absolute despair, drowns herself. In the aftermath of her child’s suicide, Aino’s mother woefully exclaims : “Do not, wretched mothers, ever , ever at all lull your daughters, rock your children into a marriage against their will as I, wretched mother, lulled my girls, brought up my chicks”. The Aesop of the myth is clearly that children, especially young women, should not be forced into marriage. Even if it’s peculiar that the Aesop only targets mothers instead of both parents, it’s really fascinating and wonderful to hear such an enlightened, modern moral from a story that probably was told thousands of years ago. The poem is a manifest to a woman’s right to choice.
Gallen Kallela's "The Aino Triptych"
The epics women are also portrayed as just as wise, if not sometimes wiser, than “The Kalevala’s” men. Lemminkäinen, an ambitious and notorious ladies man, is rescued from death by his wise mother who often gives him life-saving advice. Louhi, the powerful mistress from the North, is shown having more smarts then any of the men and being more handy of life-important objects. Even the creation story depicted at the beginning of the Kalevala is credited to a woman: the maiden of the air, who grew tired of living her life as a virgin in the sky and came down to the sea. She created land when she, out of kindness, befriends a bird and helps it to fabricate a nest in order to lay and nurture its eggs. After land was formed, the maiden gave birth to Väinämöinen. (If you’re wondering: yes, the sea somehow manages to impregnate the maiden of the air). Basically: land is born through a maiden’s curiosity and kindness and we are shown how the open and inquisitive woman can accomplish great things.
Lemminkäinen's mother brings him back to life (by: Gallen Kallela)
The Kalevala is a lyrical, tragic, comic read, and the varied and multiple characters and story lines yield themselves easily to a re-reading, re-immersion and re-interpretation many times over of this wondrous text. A book that saved a language, offers great entertainment and insights for today, and flows as both great literature and narrative folk-art —– A day for “The Kalevala”!
Aaltonen's "Ilmatar, maiden of the air and the bird"
Information on “The Kalevala” and Lönnrot token from educational site here.
For those interested, you can read “The Kalevala” online here. You can even download it as a e-book!
Jill at “Feministe” wrote an article on sexual violence in prisons. An important subject that is too often over looked in America; more should be done to stop rapes and other sexual violence from happening to prisoners. As Jill puts: “There are many reasons to be horrified by prison assault — and sexual assault generally — but the degree to which it’s enmeshed in the American consciousness as just part of our system of ´justice´ is particularly disturbing”.
“One thing I love about speculative fiction is its ability to explore difficult topics. Because of it’s separation from our current timeframe, it can comment on Socio-economic and Cultural issues in really engaging and interesting ways” – Anita Sarkeesian
Recently, I’ve seen two fascinating films that take place in “the future”, which tackle subjects in both a political-satirical way as well as asking some basic questions about the general human condition. The six minute long “The Terrible thing from Alpha 9”, a tragicomic animation by Jake Armstrong delves into the human fears of otherness while the gritty and gloomy “Black Mirror: 15 Million Merits”, written by satirical and serial pessimist Charlie Brooker and Kanaq Huq looks to the trajectory of a society created by our own individual weaknesses. The reviews of these works will be featured in this series, “Sci-fi Speaks Of US”, presented in two parts; in part one I’ll review “The Terrible thing from Alpha 9”. Part two will contain a review of “Black Mirror: 15 Million Merits”.
“The Terrible thing from Alpha 9” is a completely dialogue free short, with the character’s actions (and some brief clips of news papers) being the only clues the viewer will get as explanation of what is going on and what the driving motivation is of the two lead characters. The animation begins with an astronaut landing his spaceship on a seemingly empty planet. He’s is in search of a “terrible creature” which has supposedly taken 40 lives. With grim determination the space travel holsters his gun and heads out to kill. However, upon stumbling across the terrible thing, the hunter is cut off guard. The blue, five-eyed alien jumps at the hero, knocking his weapon out of his hand and starts greeting him by licking his space helmet (in attempt of licking his face). At this point it clear to the viewer that the creature is perhaps not a dangerous vicious monster, but more of a dog-like alien which wants to be friends. Despite this possibility, the astronaut runs from the creature, resulting in the accidental death of the supposedly deadly hunter. After this decidedly odd turn of events, the viewer quickly learns what, in humorous actuality, happened to the 40 first “victims” of this creature. The viewer is left with a lingering glimpse of a lonely and desperate creature that yearns for friendship and continually fails to find it. A heart-breaking ending sees the horrible demonstration of a creature, no matter what bad luck it haunts it, will give up its dream of companionship. Hope against all odds lingers in the grand wishes of the creature.
“The Terrible thing from Alpha 9” strength comes from the two main characters in the film. The astronaut is a man who tries to be really overly-manly and macho, seeking without thought to kill a scary looking beast because it is considered, against all fact, to be dangerous. His motivations for going out on this mission are never given, yet one is lead to assume it’s strongly tied with the fame and honor which he feels he would garner from killing a thing deemed to be so dangerous. In fact, he is so determined to assassinate a scary beast that he doesn’t even stop to think how peculiar it is that the supposed savage creature acts gently and playfully towards him while he pursues his fatal vendetta towards his victim. The supposed hero obvious finds the looks of the creature distasteful and threatening (and which seems to be the motivation of all the humans to seek this creatures demise), which drives his already made-up mind that the creature needs to die. The astronaut’s determination ends up fatal for him, making his quick decisions seem unwise. The creature on the other hand acts just like an attention starved pet; from fetching things the man throws away to following him loyally regardless of where he wanders. This makes the creature come off as something in distressed need of companionship, which he seeks from the space wanderer and hunter, in spite of latter rejecting him strongly, fearfully, and constantly. The monsters sturdy willpower is also a great personality trait highlighted in the short. It’s a universal subject of wanting something and frequently doing your best to get it, even if it’s most likely that your desires won’t ever be met, as well as an analysis of the superficial creations of hate which humans impose on what they do not understand.
“The terrible thing from Alpha 9” has a simple, tragic plot point: The creature just wants a friend, but probably won’t get one due to people’s constant disgust with its looks. Isn’t that unfair? Wildly funny, but also a bit of a tear jerker, this short is a must-watch for fans of cartoons and Science-Fiction.
View below the full short “The Terrible Thing from Alpha 9″:
“Saying Atheism is a religion is like claiming that being bald is a hair color” – Anonymous
Bill Maher (b. 1956) is an American comedian, who has become mostly known for his commentary on religion. Mr. Maher started his career in comedy with Stand-Up routines and acting. He then moved on to become the host of the late-night political talk show “Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher” (1993-1997). Currently, He’s the host of the show “Real Time with Bill Maher”, which has been running since 2003. The newest season which just recently began in February, presented an episode where Mr. Maher gave a monologue explaining, once and for all, why Atheism isn’t a religion.
I applaud you, sir! Words can’t express how frustrating it has been for me, as well as to many other atheists, constantly to hear non-atheist make the claim that non-believers are in fact “believers”. As soon as this brilliant speech was over, all I could think was: “Finally!”.
“Valentine’s Day is a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap” – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Ah, the 14th of February! The day is slowly, but surely, coming upon us with all that it entails with its meanderings and commercially tinted vocabulary of love. Usually we are fed the most mundane and conservative of loves: predominately focused on the heterosexual, circulating around the material gift as its expression, and, usually, one sex seen as passively accepting the honors of the day. Not to mention the holiday’s neglect of love that isn’t “successful”; i.e. the holiday’s depiction of romance that is blissfully ignorant of the times when love falls far short of happy endings. Valentine’s Day uplifts the beautiful, harmonic side of love, which no doubt is important. On the other hand, the sad and dark parts of love are a major part of romance and relationships. Therefore, it is my pleasure to contemplate those most unhappy of love tales which I invite the curious reader of this post to watch, read, or listen to on Valentine’s Day.
(Note: I will talk about the tragic parts of the tales and stories of love and betrayal, so this post will harbor the most conclusive of spoilers).
The series “Powerpuff Girls” was a children’s cartoon about three kinder garden aged girls with superpowers which ran for six seasons from the years 1998 to 2004. The episodes were filled with irony and amusing reconstructions on the superhero and the story-telling around them. The series was also a delightful blending of action and cuteness, featuring very bold and strong heroines who never drifted far from their adventurous and comical personalities: Blossom-the intelligent, but slightly vain leader, Bubbles-who’s naïve and passive-aggressive, and Buttercup-the rough and tumble tomboy (who despite being a tomboy always wears a dress). Most of the episodes concentrated on the girls solving the mysteries, and actively fighting crime and the criminal. Still the episode “Buttercrush” which aired on season one as its fourth episode, found the tough and unsentimental Buttercup embroiled in her first crush. She falls for Ace, a bully and mean leader of a criminal gang, who manipulates Buttercup by sweet-talking himself and his gang out of trouble. After successfully getting Buttercup to believe he returns her affections, Ace sets out a plan to use the situation as a chance to kill off Blossom and Bubbles. However, Buttercup finds out about Ace’s plan and doesn’t take to the attempted murder of her sisters kindly.
“Buttercrush” portrays two different types of love. Firstly we are presented with Buttercup’s blind infatuation with the bad guy Ace, which is exploitive and manipulative. This theme is extremely universal, for haven’t we all sometimes been taken advantaged of due to our emotions blinding us? The second form of love is that which we find between siblings. This love is demonstrated by Buttercups ultimate loyalty to her sisters and her sisters understanding and forgiveness to their sister’s misguided crush. The girls share an unconditional love to each other, which strength saves Buttercup from the deceitful Ace. Even if it is sad to see Buttercup get her heart shattered, it is still extremely touching to see how important the bond with her sisters is to Buttercup. Bad love and good love, both demonstrated in this fine episode!
Greek Mythology is known and regarded for its near soap-opera like tales of the gods and god-like creatures. When I was young, I read all the myths I could come across, and at the age of ten I read the myth of “Apollo and Daphne”, which details Apollo’s first love. Humorously, it was the first love story I enjoyed (and the only one I would enjoy till recent years), so much that I read it out loud to the grownups around me. In the legend, Apollo enrages Eros by claiming he’s too much of a boy to handle his arrows. Eros decides to prove Apollo wrong, so he shoots one golden arrow into Apollo and one blunt dart into the nymph Daphne. Thus Apollo falls violently in love with Daphne despite Daphne not wanting anything to do with Apollo. This leads to Apollo obsessively chasing Daphne, begging her to marry him. While Daphne sees Apollo as an ultimate terror, Apollo can’t stop thinking about how wonderful Daphne is, even when she runs from him. The nymph tries to escape Apollo multiple times, and in her most desperate hour pleads the earth goddess Gaea to destroy her beauty. She is then transformed into a tree. However, Apollo loves Daphne even in this form, and concludes: “Since you cannot be my wife, you shall become my tree”. The love sick god takes the tree to his heavenly garden where he intends to keep it eternally. After his last soliloquy of love he embraces the plant.
"Apollo and Daphne", famous statue by Bernini
This legend is an intense take on obsession, unrequited love and despair. Daphne is a woman who can’t escape her stalker and not even as a tree finds freedom. Apollo is a lost, immature man struck with feelings he can’t handle. The ending is bittersweet in the realization that Apollo didn’t love Daphne for her looks, but for who she was and how she expressed her being. Daphne having her beauty destroyed couldn’t alter the feelings which Apollo felt for her. Even though we find the stalker Apollo as unsettling in the extreme in this story, we still find ourselves oddly moved by the tragedy which unfolds. Apollo, as immature in his emotions, doesn’t have the means to handle unrequited love and reacts to it as a child would, making his actions sympathetically tragic in hindsight, while still overdone and horrific in his refusal to accept her wishes (no means no). In short this could also be a cautionary tale of what happens when you refuse to take no for an answer. If you can get your hands on a collection of Ancient Greek legends, make sure to read this tale of woe.
“Futurama” is an animated series created by Matt Groening. The series centers on Philip J. Fry, a delivery boy who is accidently frozen in 1999 and thawed out in the year 2999. There he befriends a scoundrel robot named Bender, a warrior-spirited Cyclops named Leela and starts working for an absent minded professor Farnsworth, who is Fry’s last living relative. Due to Fry’s situation, many episodes explored the things Fry had left behind back in his 1999. The most famous, or infamous as some would say, was “Jurassic Bark” (season four, episode seven). Fry uncovers the remains of his late dog and learns that 29th century science will be able to resurrect his beloved pet, Seymour. Fry is thrilled, but his best friend Bender grows painfully jealous, disliking the fact that Fry is paying more attention to Seymour’s remains then he is to their mutual friendship. The plot portrays Bender’s jealousy leading to near disaster, but Bender redeems himself in the end, learning to sympathize with Fry’s wishes. The episode at that point seems upbeat and will end happily, until Fry learns that his dog died at the age of fifteen. He then decides not to resurrect Seymour. The last scene takes the viewers back to the 21th century. Seymour is shown patiently waiting for Fry, year after year, in summer sun and in pouring rain. He dies of old age while still contemplating the return of his human friend Fry. Fry’s decision to leave the past as it is and not resurrect the long dead friend makes the episode a complete downer, since Seymour will now never get to be with Fry again.
“Jurassic Bark” is perhaps the saddest episode from “Futurama”, and as one of the most powerful and touching one we find in the series. Bender learns to become a better friend to Fry, which is an uplifting plot point. However Seymour’s love for Fry is devastating, and he uncompromisingly waits for his owner to return to him in a past without mercy. Fry will never return, and love and loyalty is depicted in a dark, bitter light. This episode is a must see. However, a fair warning is that you should have many boxes of tissues beside you while watching this utterly depressing, striking episode.
“Pokémon” is a Japanese children’s Anime show which takes place in a world filled with so-called pocket monsters. People in this world collect these creatures by “catching them”, maintaining them in small magical globes and then training them to fight each other (i.e. this world is a member’s of PETA worst nightmare). Ash, the show’s star, is a young boy who travels this world finding and pursuing a multitude of adventures with his favorite Pokémon, Pikachu, and his two friends, the feisty Misty and the caring Brock. The team of friends is constantly chased by Team Rocket, a criminal trio who steal Pokémon’s from others. The members are Jesse and James, and the talking Pokémon Meowth. Meowth is a cat-like creature, who is the only one of his species who can speak and walks on two feet. This is a mystery many characters in the show ponder about aloud, but it’s not until the seventy-second episode, “Go West, Young Meowth!” that an explanation for this phenomena is given. Team Rocket decides to go to Hollywood, which awakens painful memories in Meowth, causing him to reveal his past to the viewers. Turns out Meowth started out as a hungry homeless Pokémon, who couldn’t talk and walked on four paws. After seeing a block-buster film, Meowth decides to traveled to Hollywood in search of glamorous food, ending up in a thieving league of other Meowths and a Persian (another cat-like Pokémon). Finally having and abundance and grand access to food, he comes to longed for love as well. His craving for love is fulfilled in his becoming smitten with Meowsie, a female version of a Meowth. His love will never be returned since, as she is more than boldly willing to tell him, she is rich and he is not, and she values beyond measure her rich owner who will give her constant love in the guise of expensive gifts. Meowth becomes determined to win the love of his heart through making himself as human-like as possible to emulate the owner and master of Meowsie. Throughout a torturous process, Meowth learns to talk and walk like a human. Yet, Despite this massive effort, Meowsie still turns him down, telling him, in no uncertain terms, that though he has achieved these behaviors, he is a street-cat. Meowth leaves the pain of unreturned love to seek out riches, hoping he then would finally win Meowsies heart. After this past is revealed in the story, Meowth finds himself returning to Hollywood with Team Rocket, where he meets his lost love Meowsie again, only to find that his ex-love has been abandoned by her owner and need to be with Meowht’s old criminal gang to survive. Meowht promises Meowsie to help her leave the gang and he fights in order to gain her freedom from the gang, only to have Meowsie reject him again and stay with Persian. Meowth, at last, realizes he’ll never win Meowsie’s heart and is shown at the end of the episode devastated.
This episode is the only Pokémon episode I’ve re-watched since my early childhood, and it made a bigger impact on me now than when I was seven. The episode brings up a painful, yet solid truth about love: sometimes you will make great sacrifices and deeds for the one you love; only to find rejection and denial. All the pain and forfeit will be for nothing. This happens to everyone at least once in their lifetime. It’s nearly shocking how honestly Pokémon is able to portray this fact, considering the love martyr being a talking cat-like creature. The issue of class is also brought up nicely. A strong recommendation for anyone who has sometimes felt used!
Ang Lee is a Taiwanese-born director who has made a number of great films, many which have love as a major theme. He’s two most famous films are “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000) and “Brokeback Mountain” (2005). The Latter is an adaption of the short story written by Annie Proulx, and follows the literary works plot to the letter. The film stars Health Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, who do stunning portrayals of star-crossed lovers in the 60’s Wyoming, capturing all the heartfelt wonder of two guys who, despite loving each other, never really get to be together. The film is beautifully shot, the characters are complex and the ending brutal. Few romantic films are this well done. Proulx’s short story is also a great read for those who haven’t examined it yet, too.
Nancy Sinatra’s song “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” is a beautiful song about falling for your friend in early childhood, only to be horribly abused and abandoned by that friend once you’ve grown up. Listen to the song below. (The Clip features the lyrics!).
Kraftwerk’s song “Sexobject” deals with feeling emotionally neglected and used. View video below.
Jack Off Jill’s song “Vivica” depicts friendship, abuse and repressed feelings. Lyrics and song exist below.
These sagas of woe and misfortune all depict harsh realities that come with loving another person, despite the stories varying from cartoons to mythology to grittier down-to earth films and songs. All of these tales are exquisitely interesting takes on love, friendship and devotion, and all are handled with care and marvel.
Today it is the National Sami Day in Finland! So it’s time to spread some information about the Sami culture and History, as well as mention a few of the interesting cultural people of Sami origin.
Naturally they have even a contemporary cultural production and the information on the Sami filmmaker Paul Anders Simma, who grew up with a nomad Sami famil, gives a good account of this.
The famous musician Mari Boine, known for adding jazz and rock to the yoiks of her native people.
