Kari Hotakainen.
Absolutely an important figure for me.
It was his and Arto Paasilinna's books that got me attracted to the Finnish storytelling style, which later made me want to learn Finnish so that I could read more of their books in the original language, which then after some time led me to buy the flight ticket to Finland. In other words, he partly contributed to how I started this journey. Thus, 'an important figure' he is.
His stories are full of funny dramas but the flow goes so gentle and even rhythmical that nothing feels over-dramatic. His language is simple yet it somehow lingers on one's mind for a long time after a read. His stories are humble. Humble in language, humble in drama. But they are rich in humor, irony, and honesty.
Absolutely an important figure for me.
It was his and Arto Paasilinna's books that got me attracted to the Finnish storytelling style, which later made me want to learn Finnish so that I could read more of their books in the original language, which then after some time led me to buy the flight ticket to Finland. In other words, he partly contributed to how I started this journey. Thus, 'an important figure' he is.
His stories are full of funny dramas but the flow goes so gentle and even rhythmical that nothing feels over-dramatic. His language is simple yet it somehow lingers on one's mind for a long time after a read. His stories are humble. Humble in language, humble in drama. But they are rich in humor, irony, and honesty.
Here are some parts from Kari Hotakainen's <The Human Part>.
- Talking about money makes you feel dirty, even though there's nothing wrong with the instrument itself. In this country you can only speak freely about the weather, which is the same for everyone - bad.
- The greatest injustice is that you only get to be face-to-face with them for 20 years, if that. Then they visit you with their boyfriends and girlfriends and have turned into people. A child and a person are completely different things.
- Paavo can stay on one topic for a long time. His record is probably four years. Now he's going for a new record. The event this time is muteness.
- He was depressed about a world that had changed without consulting him.
- A lie sticks in your head. It's like a migraine. The truth, on the other hand, is like a boomerang. It hits you in the forehead, wakes you up nicely, and then continues from there off to the horizon. Truth doesn't belong to anyone. If I start to lie, I disappear almost completely. The outlines disappear and before you know it you're in a big whiteness, nowhere. The boomerang knocks you on the forehead and takes you back to the world of color.
- According to Alfred, a human being is a long, symphonic piece of music. You have to listen to the overture, the principal there, the crescendos and the finale, and then when the piece is over, there is still the silence. You have to listen to that too. Alfred thought that a person continues on even after he dies.
- "We haven't had much chance to practice diversity in this country, since the youth of one generation was taken up with wars and that of the next with coping with the aftermath. Because of this, we had to proceed with slow steps, but looking each other in the eye the whole way."
- He said it was best to think of one person at a time, not whole nations.
- In the picture, they had that glow in their eyes. Paavo knows that glow -- it comes from love. Normal eyes glisten with tears and exhaustion, but the eyes of love have a unique luster, similar to sauteed onions. Paavo said, "Maija has her own life."
- You'll have to get used to all sorts of things. If you're the touch sort, you'll be offended the whole time. Grow a thick skin. But not so thick that you can't feel a person's hand through it.