Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The escape from reality

by Jorn Lier Horst

I am a new member of this blog and write from Norway, one of the remotest corners of the globe. Or, let me correct that, I am not completely new here. I have previously been a guest blogger when I revealed The Secret of Nordic Noir.

So, let me use this first blog post to introduce myself and my writing. I am 44 years old and am married to Beate. Together, we have a son of 18 and a daughter of 13, as well as the dog Teodor. We live in the small coastal town of Larvik, which is located 105 km (65 miles) south west of Oslo.

Faithful companion, Teodor
Until the autumn of 2013 I worked as chief investigator of police in Vestfold, a police district with 450 employees serving a population of approximately 250 000 inhabitants. Experiences from this real police work has, in many ways, shaped me as a human being, and traces of that are visible in my books. My work as a chief investigator allowed me to go behind the barrier tapes and to walk among the remains and traces of severe crimes. See the aftermath of a relentless struggle. Stepping into rooms that have been closed yet contain unexplored secrets. That’s where I like to bring readers. 

I've written nine novels about police inspector William Wisting. Four of them are translated into English. The last of them, The Caveman, is out February 19. And please bear with me on this blog. English is not my first language. I write my books in Norwegian, but I blog with the English I learned at school.

My work as an investigator of murders and other serious crimes has taught me a lot about death, but even more about life. I have met crime victims and their families, and for many years it was also my job to talk with those who had carried out those crimes, to interrogate the perpetrators. Standing face to face with other peoples' anger, grief, despair and remorse has been invaluable to me. It helps me to create an authentic nerve running through my current books and in my books to come.

Crime is about the world we see around us. The stories of murder and crimes arising out of social injustice and social misery that we can all recognize ourselves in. I think that crime literature has its own ability to function as a mirror of society. The genre tends to confront society with itself. It provides these books with an intrinsic value and quality far beyond just making a flight a little shorter. To open a book, is to open a world of possibilities: Opportunities for new experiences, new discoveries and new insights. Reading and literature can give us knowledge and overview. The more we read, the more we know. And the more we know, the more questions we can ask. In addition to enable us to understand reality better, literature might also give us the opportunity to escape from reality.

Jorn Lier Horst





12 comments:

  1. Welcome Jørn! I look forward to your entries and the English translations of your books. Jeg ble unnfanget i Norge, men er født i Amerika. Jeg snakker bare litt norsk. :(
    Jon Anders Øfjord

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    1. Takk for hyggelig tilbakemelding, Jono. Your Norwegian is perfect.

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  2. Jorn, we are so happy to you with us. And you can see from Jono's remarks above, we are a polyglot group of writers and readers. One of us even speaks Scottish, and another claims to understand it.

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  3. Seconding that welcome Jørn! I'm a fan and blogmate and have read all your English translations. Can't wait for the next!

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  4. Welcome, Jorn! And about your "please bear with me on this blog. English is not my first language," fear not. You write English FAR better than 90% of Americans! (Which is a crime, but not the kind of crime that crime novelists normally write about... :-)

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  5. Yes, welcome, Jørn! I have to say that, just from your artful description of what helps you create the "authentic nerve" running through your work, you've tantalized a host of new readers.

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  6. Yes, you have tantalized me to look up your books, and get to read them. Sounds like you understand the world very well. That appeals to me.

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  7. Welcome, Jørn. I look forward to your blogs with eager interest.

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  8. Thanks to everyone for such a warm welcome to the blogworld. I'm going to show up here every other week and share my thoughts about crime, literature and crime fiction.

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  9. Welcome, Jørn! I've always wanted to visit Norway - and now I'm looking up your books also. It's great to meet you and write with you at MIE!

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  10. I am not a member of this blog but I do read it regularly, so I too welcome you. Those who know me and my writing (about crime fiction) know that I use the image of the book left on the plane because you finished it. I favor the literary mystery, which I define (borrowing from someone else) as the one you will reread and perhaps often even if you know whodunit. I have been to Norway. Stunningly beautiful! The only Norwegian crime writer I have read is Karen Fossum (I hope I am spelling her name right.) With a Danish cultural anthropologist I wrote a book on folklore in Ibsen's late plays: Ibsen's Forsaken Merman. I am not sure the Norwegian critics liked the emphasis we gave Denmark, although during Ibsen's time I believe that culturally Denmark was to Norway what France was to Russia. My essay on Hedda Gabler was reprinted in a book of essays on Ibsen. I claimed the source of the story were the stories of the huldre woman. I look forward to reading your books. I would like to know how a book of mayhem, murder, and misery can be an escape from reality. Perhaps you could expand on that.

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    1. Hi Barbara!

      Interesting about Ibsen. I occasionally provokes by mentioning Henrik Ibsen as a mystery writer. In most of his contemporary dramas he uses the same dramaturgy as we can find in the crime novel. It's about a secret or crime that is hidden in the past, and that bit by bit is revealed through the play.

      As for how a book of mayhem, murder, and misery can be an escape from reality: That will be topic for my next blog post, schedule for wednesday. I am asking myself why we let ourselves be entertained by what we otherwise deplore. Why do we read crime?

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