NNL Trailing Q&A, a few quick ones
Name, work, lives, age?
Per Eriksson, Teaching Art, South Stockholm, passed 50.
What is NNL?
NNL, Nordic Noir Locations is a way to travel and follow in the steps of Nordic Noir crime stories. Both Novels and Films. In he beginning I called it Wallander Zafaris.
Doing trailing as the English call it,I walk in the steps of…...
Among foreign readers noticed that some, typical Nordic, things in the NN novels did fly under the readers radar. As well as it must been to BBC's scriptwriters on English spoken adaptations of Wallander, for instance. So I took it as my duty to explains some of it. Like Fika, Miljonprogrammet and our obsession with party on big ships as well as some traditions. I call those posts "The Nordic Ways".
Are You from a Nordic Country?
I know and speak a little Danish, don’t ask why.
My dialect is hard to place nowday, a bit of mixture with a stroke of the Västgöta dialect in the bottom of it. I can speak the Skåne dialect, possibly Malmöitiska.
I also spent some time in the USA in my youth that might have formed me in a way.
My Danish is not as good as I think it is, but I try.
Why is NNL in English?
It was in the English spoken online communities (Facebook) I found people interested in it.
I guess it is more exciting to them, than to the ones that live at the locations. I for instance pass Martin Beck’s balcony every workday. And still I like the scenes with the neighbor.
It is not always that people in Stockholm understand my Salander references as Brits do.
Unfortunately the Pandemic had people on a halt going to Bron, Ystad and Fiskargatan..
Do you have a favorite Author?
Yes Henning Mankell’s Novels about Kurt Wallander is something extra.
Ruth Rendell made a great impression on me once. Outside the crime genre, Charles Bukowski and Cathy Acker meant a lot to me back in the days. And before that J.R.R. Tolkien and Arthur C. Clarke was pure excitement to read.
And I always read some H.P. Lovecraft. I have read them all.
Do you have any formal education related to literature?
No, I studied Art. Mostly at Konstfack and have a Art teachers degree along with studies in painting (I did video art at the painting department). Yes, I can paint so you can see what it looks like.
I have been teaching Art in a prison to prisoners with long term sentences.
Have you done anything in the book world?
Yes, I worked in bookstores and comic book stores for many years. I did a year as a voluntary intern at Comic Book Galago in the mid 80's.
I've been interviewed in books about the future of architecture and written a chapter in Nordic Museums yearbook Fataburen. And have self published some photo books.
Video became to be my main media and internet and that is hard to do books from.
Do you have a family? And do they trail?
Separated, with the daughter living with me, we are the family. and of course brothers and parents. They are family too.
In the extended family I have some more. They are our extended family.
No, they don’t like to follow me. My daughter didn't understand it at all and was just whining about it if she had to follow.
However my mother claims she learnt to find her ways in London from Colin Dexter's novels.
Favorite location for reading a book?
By a lake, under a tree. Or on the pouch at the family summer
house (Very Swedish).
Lately I started sitting at the places the novels take place. Or listen to the audiobook while walking the streets where it happens in the novel.
Mostly I have been reading on buses and commuter trains on my way to work.
What is the best with The Nordic Countries?
Skåne's and Bornholm's beaches.
And the relaxed atmosphere.
Allemansrätten!
What is the worst with the Nordic Countries?
November, February and March. I can’t tell how much I don’t like November.
And when the Jante Law gets too much hold on us.
What is the best with the genre NN?
1 The realism in many stories. The “it's just around the corner from my place” feeling.
2 That I learned to like the gray weather.
What is the worst with the genre?
When it gets to be a bit too close to glossy Lifestyle Magazines. Cozy Noir isn’t always doing the stories right. And is a bit of a threat to the genre's unique atmosphere.
Cozy and home decorating-ish that some later Swedish novels contains , get a bit too much of must not take over, That would be dull.
I doubt the Finns and the Icelanders even can think in such terms? Cozy!
What is the best with trailing NN locations?
The inner journey doing it. The reward when I reach a certain Location. I guess I get the same adrenaline rush as a mountaineer reaching the top?
What are the worst trailing NN Locations?
I can’t think of anything. Maybe that you can’t have pictures on Swedish Police Stations and Arrests. The Law is a bit strict there.
What would you say to someone that wants to do NNL trailing?
Just do it! Don’t make up excuses for not doing it.
Start easy and then expand your goals.
Which is your favorite NN Trail?
Those that are a bit odd, and those that are not in plain sight.
It is as much reading the map at home, rewind and watching movie clips over and over again to get where it is. Re-reading some novels just to scan it for locations.
Ystad is always a Ball.
Sandhamn was a revelation.
Salander's Fiskargatan always gets me in a good mood.
Karlstad’s trail was a bit unexpected so that one I treasure high. And the way I connected with the Authors Peter Mohlin and Peter Nyström. Great guys, great books and an odd city.
