Fantasy and reality in life and literature.

Byline: Atle Hetland

Autumn must be the best season for everyone who wants to discuss books and authors. The world's largest book fair in Frankfurt has just ended, and the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded a couple of weeks ago, this year with two prizes since last year's prize was postponed due to a trust and management crisis in the awarding institution, the Swedish Academy. The 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature went to Olga Tokarczuk (57), a Polish writer on the left, who writes about political issues without therefore being a political writer; the 2019 Prize went to Peter Hanke (77), and Austrian writer who a few decades ago settled in Paris, France. They are both universal writers discussing issues without borders. They base their works on knowledge and facts, thoughts and feelings, fantasy and imagination, and much more that make great writers' stories great.

When Olga Tokarczuk was interviewed by Swedish Television (SVT) about her large historical trilogy, 'The Books of Jacob', she said that there is not such a thing as a 'historical novel'. It is always an interpretation of the past. Even if somebody from the past were here, what would be told would be selective, based on what one remembers, and how it is remembered, digested and retold. It is fantasy and reality in a mixture, in ordinary people's minds, and in writers' minds.

When we try to understand events and actions in the past, maybe several hundred years ago, we lack the real context of the time; the sounds, the smells, the worries and joys of people, the hustle and bustle at work places, the abuses of the strong and wealthy against the poor and worthless, the tenderness, the roughness, and so on. Even today, when we read about people in different places, classes, situations and backgrounds, we can only grasp and understand a piece of reality - the rest is left to fantasy and our recreation of reality.

On the SVT literature programme 'Babel', a few distinguished writers and critiques discussed Olga Tokarczuk's books, and one of them said that a particular strength in her work is that she manages to tell the stories so that the readers feel they are part of it all, almost being there. But he added that he was a bit worried about that ability, too, almost an ability of deceit, he said.

The other Nobel Prize for Literature winner announced this year was Peter Handke. Nobody questions his literary eminence, not the least in his earlier works, including his book about his...