We, The Infected

decltype wrote:Aww, I feel a bit bad for derailing John Ajvide's thread.

Go ahead and have a ball. At some point I will lock this thread, and at that time I'll go through and separate the wheat from the chaff.

N.R. Gasan wrote: The word "stars" is mentioned in the last line of 3 of the 4 main parts of the novel; I have the English translation, of course, so "stars" isn't the last word in all of them, but it is there. I had not heard that mentioned anywhere, nor is that something I would have been likely to notice, regardless of how many times I read the book.

In the original edition stjärnor is the last word in part 1, 3 and 4. (In the Norwegian translation it is the last word in only the two last parts).

Dear John,



Love, RaVen

Hi John, Merry Christmas to you and your family

p.s. so you're going to read Twilight are you? Let us know what you thought of it

OK, I guess some of you may have anticipated this, so here it is - my very quick but hopefully accurate translation of John's text:

Solliden, Skansen. The twenty second of June 2006. It is ten minutes to eight. The show host is warming up the audience by leading them through “Är det konstigt att man längtar bort nån gång”. When the song is over a technician tells all parents to take their children down from their shoulders so they won’t be hit by the camera cranes.
The sun is hanging just behind the stage, blinding the audience. The sky is deep blue. The teenagers by the fences up front are asked to back down a bit so noone will be squeezed. Sweden’s biggest musical program is going live in five minutes and nobody must be harmed.
There must be oases of enjoyment where everyday problems are put aside for a while. Nothing bad must happen and all thinkable security measures have been taken to secure the pleasantness.
Screams of pain and horror are unthinkable and there must not be blood across the ground, across the seats when the broadcast is over. There must not be a dead person on the stage and many more on the ground below. Chaos cannot be allowed here. There are too many people. It must be calm and pleasant.
Now the orchestra starts playing. “Stockholm i mitt hjärta” and everyone joins in. Hands wave in the air and mobile cameras are raised. A great feeling of community. It will be another fifteen minutes before everything is torn apart with planned precision.
Let us sing along for the time being. We have a long way to go before we return here. Only when the way has softened us up and we are ready to think the unthinkable are we allowed back.
So come on! Everyone!
“Genom Mälarens kärlek till havet
En blandning av sött och salt…”



Notes
The scene described is from Allsång på Skansen, a very popular musical program broadcast live from the Solliden scene at Skansen, Stockholm’s open air museum, at Tuesday evenings during summer.
The songs mentioned are
“Är det konstigt att man längtar bort nån gång”. Meaning ”Is it strange that you long away sometimes”.
“Stockholm i mitt hjärta”. Meaning “Stockholm in my heart”. This song is used as the theme to the program and expresses the beauty of Stockholm and it’s position at the meeting point of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren.
The final words in the text are from the lyrics and mean “Through Mälaren’s love of the Sea – a mixture of sweet and salt”. (Fresh water is called sweet water in Swedish).

PS And I should of course also note that I will definitely verify this the second the book hits the book shelves in May.

Sounds like a good start, very well written, and ominous! I can't wait to find out what happens here.
Thank you for the translation, Stefl!

Same here, it's looking good.
In a way, I feel that John's last book, Människohamn - Human Harbour is the best so far, or better written with more focus than LTROI. However LTROI is stronger in being autobiographical, and also has the icon Eli, while HH is more fictional (John has made a couple of islands for the story).

Well, my favourite is actually the short story Gräns - Border(?), but maybe that's because I'm Norwegian and love trolls..

...minus internet trolls, I hope .

We are the Troll Company.

Mistake - you're letting your intelligence shine through Actually John made me take a completely different view of trolls