Counter-Currents
Knut Hamsun, circa 1890
1,910 words
Knut Hamsun’s 1917 classic Growth of the Soil seems to defy the fundamental conflicts found in most fiction. It is a mystifying novel. One can pigeonhole it as modern with its use of stream of consciousness, flashbacks, and other literary techniques. It’s also considered part of a literary movement called Norwegian New Realism, which was highly influential beyond Norway in the first half of the Twentieth Century. Most interesting for dissidents, the novel reflects the near mystical connection Man has with the soil, consecrated through hard work and family.
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“And besides a few notable exceptions, nothing happens apart from life. Building a shed may be interesting when you do it. You plan the design, buy the materials, budget the time, and then get to work. … In three dimensions, the suspense will be there. But with only two dimensions on a page, such an enterprise as fiction would be death. Except when Knut Hamsun writes it. When Knut Hamsun writes it, it’s not death, it’s life. And I am really not sure why. … Plot actually becomes beside the point, almost vulgar.”
I’m reminded of online discussions of how on Breaking Bad Vince Gilligan & Co. would frequently use long montages of people, usually Mike Ehrmantraut, just doing tasks, making pancakes, making meth, making bombs, finding a parking spot, whatever, and it was always intensely interesting. Someone said they would pay for a livestream of Mike just doing things all day long.
“People are actually nice in the town, and whenever the farming community denizens run afoul of town authorities, they are treated with respect and compassion.”
It’s hard for Scandinavians to work the usual Fascist blood & soil anti-urban meme, because their cities are full of Scandinavians, hence nice people. The idea has more traction in Weimar Germany or USA today, where the cities are full of Jews and obstreperous minorities.
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