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Nylig historikk
387 hendelser som aldri før er beskrevet i norsk skjønnlitteratur: eksempler og moteksempler på hvordan menneskeheten vil bli husket etter at vi er borte.
- GenresPoetry
176 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2016
19 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 17, 2017
For eit umerksamt auge kan Nylig historikk kanskje samanliknast med han fyren på jobben som alltid har ei god historie å fortelja, og om ein gjer det kan ein sannsynlegvis argumentere for at boka gjer jobben sin, for den er fylt frå perm til perm med svært underhaldande anekdotar.
Men dette er ikkje han fyren på jobben som alltid har ei god historie å fortelja. Dette er han fyren på jobben som sit to plassar bortanfor den andre fyren ved lunsjbordet, han som ler like godt av desse historiene som du gjer, og på veg heim frå jobb møter han ein kamerat på gata, og så byrjar han å gjenfortelja. "Arne på jobben fortalte ei artig historie i dag," kan han starte med, og så gjenfortel han historia, med sine eigne ord, utan visuelle verkemiddel, men godt nok til at kameraten òg kan humre litt.
Eg skal ikkje nekte for at eg har vore den fyren sjølv, det har vi vel alle. Gode historier er til for å delast. Men ikkje på denne måten.
Det Mortensen har gjort, er å stappe ei bok full av ting han har lest på Twitter og i andre sosiale medier. Resultatet er ei vitsebok, verken meir eller mindre, der Mortensen ikkje tilfører ein millimeter av originalitet, for orda han legger frå seg på papiret er nokre andres, bortsett frå at han starter kvart avsnitt med "Noen deler at" og at alle fotografi som er relevante for forståinga er erstatta med tekstuelle skildringar. Skulle det vera nokon som lurte, inneheld boka sjølvsagt ikkje ei einaste kjeldehenvisning. Eg har høyrd boka bli samanlikna med Frode Gryttens Vente på fuglen, ein metafor som diverre ikkje funkar for meg så lenge Grytten faktisk har skrive teksten i Vente på fuglen sjølv.
Dette er ei vitsebok. Og for all del, vi trenger vitsebøker. Men der tradisjonelle vitsebøker gjerne inneheld vandrehistorier der det kan vera vanskeleg å feste vitsen til ein konkret opphavsperson, er det i Mortensens tilfelle eit konkret val å ikkje oppgi opphavspersonar på tweetane han gjengir. Det er ikkje viktig for han, dei passar ikkje inn i narrativet, og den irriterande omslagsundertittelen "387 hendelser som aldri før er beskrevet i norsk skjønnlitteratur" insinuerer at dei ikkje eigentleg eksisterer - at historiene som forteljast i boka og menneska som har skrive eller opplevd dei er verdilause, det einaste som betyr noko er at Mortensen har putta dei der. Det er sannsynlegvis òg den einaste vitseboka eg har vore borti som er innkjøpt på innkjøpsordninga.
Eg klarer ikkje å gi denne ei stjerne, for dei fleste av historiene i boka ER oppriktig morosame. Det ER morosamt at Donald Trump ser ut som skurken i ein film der helten er ein hund. Det ER morosamt når eit bibliotek flytter alle bøkene sine om Lance Armstrong til fiksjonshylla. Er historiene nye for deg, lover eg at du kjem til å humre.
Men alle desse historiene var mykje betre første gong ein høyrde dei, i den konteksten dei opprinneleg høyrde heime i. Dette blir ei halvhjarta gjenforteljing, vitsetjuveri med potens i andre, som bleiknar fullstendig samanlikna med det originale mediet dei forsøker å overgå.
Men dette er ikkje han fyren på jobben som alltid har ei god historie å fortelja. Dette er han fyren på jobben som sit to plassar bortanfor den andre fyren ved lunsjbordet, han som ler like godt av desse historiene som du gjer, og på veg heim frå jobb møter han ein kamerat på gata, og så byrjar han å gjenfortelja. "Arne på jobben fortalte ei artig historie i dag," kan han starte med, og så gjenfortel han historia, med sine eigne ord, utan visuelle verkemiddel, men godt nok til at kameraten òg kan humre litt.
Eg skal ikkje nekte for at eg har vore den fyren sjølv, det har vi vel alle. Gode historier er til for å delast. Men ikkje på denne måten.
Det Mortensen har gjort, er å stappe ei bok full av ting han har lest på Twitter og i andre sosiale medier. Resultatet er ei vitsebok, verken meir eller mindre, der Mortensen ikkje tilfører ein millimeter av originalitet, for orda han legger frå seg på papiret er nokre andres, bortsett frå at han starter kvart avsnitt med "Noen deler at" og at alle fotografi som er relevante for forståinga er erstatta med tekstuelle skildringar. Skulle det vera nokon som lurte, inneheld boka sjølvsagt ikkje ei einaste kjeldehenvisning. Eg har høyrd boka bli samanlikna med Frode Gryttens Vente på fuglen, ein metafor som diverre ikkje funkar for meg så lenge Grytten faktisk har skrive teksten i Vente på fuglen sjølv.
Dette er ei vitsebok. Og for all del, vi trenger vitsebøker. Men der tradisjonelle vitsebøker gjerne inneheld vandrehistorier der det kan vera vanskeleg å feste vitsen til ein konkret opphavsperson, er det i Mortensens tilfelle eit konkret val å ikkje oppgi opphavspersonar på tweetane han gjengir. Det er ikkje viktig for han, dei passar ikkje inn i narrativet, og den irriterande omslagsundertittelen "387 hendelser som aldri før er beskrevet i norsk skjønnlitteratur" insinuerer at dei ikkje eigentleg eksisterer - at historiene som forteljast i boka og menneska som har skrive eller opplevd dei er verdilause, det einaste som betyr noko er at Mortensen har putta dei der. Det er sannsynlegvis òg den einaste vitseboka eg har vore borti som er innkjøpt på innkjøpsordninga.
Eg klarer ikkje å gi denne ei stjerne, for dei fleste av historiene i boka ER oppriktig morosame. Det ER morosamt at Donald Trump ser ut som skurken i ein film der helten er ein hund. Det ER morosamt når eit bibliotek flytter alle bøkene sine om Lance Armstrong til fiksjonshylla. Er historiene nye for deg, lover eg at du kjem til å humre.
Men alle desse historiene var mykje betre første gong ein høyrde dei, i den konteksten dei opprinneleg høyrde heime i. Dette blir ei halvhjarta gjenforteljing, vitsetjuveri med potens i andre, som bleiknar fullstendig samanlikna med det originale mediet dei forsøker å overgå.
August 23, 2017
Synes man skal finne på noe selv i alle fall...
January 31, 2018
En mann anmelder en diktsamling, og sier at boken var helt grei underholdning til bussen, men at han var glad for at han lånte den på biblioteket istedenfor å kjøpe den selv.
June 3, 2023
The stories of a contemporary resident of the World Wide Web – a disinterested, world-weary collection of alt-lit poetry.
The alt-lit movement came from a generation that felt like it had no true identity, no place that was theirs. Everything was already owned, except the recently digitalized side of the world, an area where there were no extant rulers or experts. So they took it as their own, and in it they found a substitute for their missing identities. At least this is what the movement postulates, and they have taken it to task to represent this experience in writing. The resulting output is often deadpan, having a hard time showing emotions or a sense of subjective involvement, and frequently makes use of the Internet as reference, style, or publication format.
Nylig historikk (translation: Recent History) is in every way an alt-lit work. Its title is taken from the log which Internet browsers keep, and its contents is also, or at least feels in every way like, a log:
1
A man impresses a woman
by showing her how many
apps he has opened. (p. 9; reviewer's own translation)
Yet, in the unmetered and rhymeless poetry there seems to be something of a human interaction. It's as if someone is trying as a matter of social interaction to relay a story they have heard, but who are unable to inject anything more than the bare bones of the fact and are thus unable to make themselves a proper storyteller. Emotions are absent, so is subjectivity and then opinions in particular. This is a showcase of a person who is barely capable of being a person at all.
The book, in that it is a log, doubles up as a time capsule of sorts. Most of the poetry refers to events, mostly of the social media kind, concepts and ideas that pertain to the time when the log was made/recorded. For instance:
240
A news article informs that
Spotify hackers are threatening to
disclose the complete list of us-
ers that listen to Nickelback. (p. 138; reviewer's own translation)
375
Someone shares a picture of a poster
in a library that informs that
all the non-fictional books about Lance
Armstrong, including Lance
Armstrong: Images of a Champion,
The Lance Armstrong Performance
Program and Lance Armstrong:
World's Greatest Champion soon
will be relocated to the section for
fiction. (p. 171; reviewer's own translation)
These were current issues when the social media posts were made, but pop cultural as they are they date quickly. The sentiments of these poems will probably feel irrelevant in ten years – in fact, this review is written seven years after this was published and already this reviewer finds myself thinking, ”huh, I haven't made a joke about that in aeons.” At the same time, because the poems are based purely and without subjective injection on posts that were current when they were made, they didn't add anything of value – this was part of the point, whoever is doing the reiteration isn't able to add anything to their anecdotes – and therefore the contemporary reader would probably have been left with only the feeling of having gained nothing from them. They would have been bored – and that seems to be either intentional on the author's part, or at least an accepted side effect of the concept. But as a time capsule it has gained value. Perhaps is it more satisfactory to those who read it now? – this reviewer suspects as much.
A lot of subjects repeat themselves. If the poems are anything to go by then people have both little and much imagination regarding what they post about. Such as dreams, people apparently post a lot about their dreams.
13
A man wakes up after having dreamt
that he was playing with a dog who were
smarter than him. (p. 13; reviewer's own translation)
People also muse about celebrities, often with results as disconnected from reality as they still ring true.
31
A woman comments that
Donald Trump looks like the villain
in a movie where the hero is a dog. (p. 19; reviewer's own translation)
They share words of wisdom.
66
A woman comments that you re-
alize how boring your life is every
time anyone asks you what you
like to do when you want to have fun. (p. 34; reviewer's own translation)
They talk or show their video clips about what they have observed that other people do – which brings the meta relationship of those poems to a whole new level.
154
A man is walking with a shopping trolley,
looks around, increases the speed, leans
over the trolley, lifts his legs up from
the ground and rolls past a teenager
who mumbles «yolo». (p. 70; reviewer's own translation)
Recent History casts a wide net in what kind of posts it reiterates. It covers quite a sizeable part of what goes on in social media. Perhaps the reiterator has a richer life than they are able to reiterate?
The choice of cover art is less obvious. Exactly how all of its contents relates to the book's garish-but-blank cover is something this reviewer is unable to find a good reason for. This is a concept-heavy book so there probably is one, but so far it remains elusive.
As far as finishing conclusions go, perhaps this will suffice? If, after reading this book, one comes to the conclusion that by reading about what someone else saw on social media one has traded away time which one could have spent going on social media and there experience all of this directly, then perhaps that is proof enough that the postulation made by the alt-lit movement is correct.
The alt-lit movement came from a generation that felt like it had no true identity, no place that was theirs. Everything was already owned, except the recently digitalized side of the world, an area where there were no extant rulers or experts. So they took it as their own, and in it they found a substitute for their missing identities. At least this is what the movement postulates, and they have taken it to task to represent this experience in writing. The resulting output is often deadpan, having a hard time showing emotions or a sense of subjective involvement, and frequently makes use of the Internet as reference, style, or publication format.
Nylig historikk (translation: Recent History) is in every way an alt-lit work. Its title is taken from the log which Internet browsers keep, and its contents is also, or at least feels in every way like, a log:
1
A man impresses a woman
by showing her how many
apps he has opened. (p. 9; reviewer's own translation)
Yet, in the unmetered and rhymeless poetry there seems to be something of a human interaction. It's as if someone is trying as a matter of social interaction to relay a story they have heard, but who are unable to inject anything more than the bare bones of the fact and are thus unable to make themselves a proper storyteller. Emotions are absent, so is subjectivity and then opinions in particular. This is a showcase of a person who is barely capable of being a person at all.
The book, in that it is a log, doubles up as a time capsule of sorts. Most of the poetry refers to events, mostly of the social media kind, concepts and ideas that pertain to the time when the log was made/recorded. For instance:
240
A news article informs that
Spotify hackers are threatening to
disclose the complete list of us-
ers that listen to Nickelback. (p. 138; reviewer's own translation)
375
Someone shares a picture of a poster
in a library that informs that
all the non-fictional books about Lance
Armstrong, including Lance
Armstrong: Images of a Champion,
The Lance Armstrong Performance
Program and Lance Armstrong:
World's Greatest Champion soon
will be relocated to the section for
fiction. (p. 171; reviewer's own translation)
These were current issues when the social media posts were made, but pop cultural as they are they date quickly. The sentiments of these poems will probably feel irrelevant in ten years – in fact, this review is written seven years after this was published and already this reviewer finds myself thinking, ”huh, I haven't made a joke about that in aeons.” At the same time, because the poems are based purely and without subjective injection on posts that were current when they were made, they didn't add anything of value – this was part of the point, whoever is doing the reiteration isn't able to add anything to their anecdotes – and therefore the contemporary reader would probably have been left with only the feeling of having gained nothing from them. They would have been bored – and that seems to be either intentional on the author's part, or at least an accepted side effect of the concept. But as a time capsule it has gained value. Perhaps is it more satisfactory to those who read it now? – this reviewer suspects as much.
A lot of subjects repeat themselves. If the poems are anything to go by then people have both little and much imagination regarding what they post about. Such as dreams, people apparently post a lot about their dreams.
13
A man wakes up after having dreamt
that he was playing with a dog who were
smarter than him. (p. 13; reviewer's own translation)
People also muse about celebrities, often with results as disconnected from reality as they still ring true.
31
A woman comments that
Donald Trump looks like the villain
in a movie where the hero is a dog. (p. 19; reviewer's own translation)
They share words of wisdom.
66
A woman comments that you re-
alize how boring your life is every
time anyone asks you what you
like to do when you want to have fun. (p. 34; reviewer's own translation)
They talk or show their video clips about what they have observed that other people do – which brings the meta relationship of those poems to a whole new level.
154
A man is walking with a shopping trolley,
looks around, increases the speed, leans
over the trolley, lifts his legs up from
the ground and rolls past a teenager
who mumbles «yolo». (p. 70; reviewer's own translation)
Recent History casts a wide net in what kind of posts it reiterates. It covers quite a sizeable part of what goes on in social media. Perhaps the reiterator has a richer life than they are able to reiterate?
The choice of cover art is less obvious. Exactly how all of its contents relates to the book's garish-but-blank cover is something this reviewer is unable to find a good reason for. This is a concept-heavy book so there probably is one, but so far it remains elusive.
As far as finishing conclusions go, perhaps this will suffice? If, after reading this book, one comes to the conclusion that by reading about what someone else saw on social media one has traded away time which one could have spent going on social media and there experience all of this directly, then perhaps that is proof enough that the postulation made by the alt-lit movement is correct.
February 13, 2017
3.5 stjerner!
June 30, 2018
Humreverdig oppsummering av de siste digitale år.
April 4, 2017
Det er en bok som man ler høyt av, når man leser de en og en av "fortellingene". Men som helhet er den faktisk egentlig slitsom. Og en del av "fortellingene" har man sett enten på Facebook, Twitter eller lignende tidligere.
Men føler vel egentlig det mest er feil i markedsføring/cover, for den hadde jo passet fint på en humorhylle - hvis den så litt sprekere ut.
Men føler vel egentlig det mest er feil i markedsføring/cover, for den hadde jo passet fint på en humorhylle - hvis den så litt sprekere ut.
April 28, 2017
Denne var bra, masse finurlige kommentarer, fikk meg en god latter.
Lønnte seg å lese den i små porsjoner, alt på en gang tror jeg kan bli litt mye av det gode.
Lønnte seg å lese den i små porsjoner, alt på en gang tror jeg kan bli litt mye av det gode.
April 21, 2017
So. This book stood in what seems to be the showcasing spot for newly arrived stuff in our communal library.
Naturally, it's empty cover, devoid of any particular content - in stark contrast to the multitude of other books with somewhat meaningful illustrations on their front, piqued my interest.
I took a peek inside. Big text. Two to three paragraphs per page (oh, that triple p rhyme), their content being what seemed like transcripts of results of people's constant lurking on social media and occasional other "tales" from this age of technological stupidity. And those two quotes at the start, of actual sizzling critique of the author and his work.
Turned the book around in my hands. No text, I thought - but there, on the back, a strip of (not quite) microscopic text. The postmodern-sounding and ever-so-slightly ambitious title. And oh, there actually was some text on its spine too, with the author's regular-sounding name and the actual title.
All in all, this seemed like some weird piece of writing that might have some sort of deeper intent and meaning behind itself, possibly coming through in some aspects of the experience of reading it.
Hah, so I thought. And so it seemed, the first pages and snippets of the rest.
Some sort of expressionist-ish critique of today's internet-influenced and -dependent society, the stupidity and flatness that [rides] us all...
Nah. That's not quite it. This thing is much more like some simple collection of memes and jokes and clickbait-y, moronific titles and sentences. In essence, much of what I hate, disdain and in some cases may actually like. Just, here it's stripped of its visual elements and context, with no reference to the actual authors - for yes, this seems to be a bunch of stuff caught in the seas of this wonderfully wide web of normally mediocre content, by the author, who may fit the description of being a guy who surfs the seas of the Internet a tad too much (I'm referring to that quote on an early page)
gah, goodnight, gotta sleep, finishing this tomorrow if I bother, heh
Naturally, it's empty cover, devoid of any particular content - in stark contrast to the multitude of other books with somewhat meaningful illustrations on their front, piqued my interest.
I took a peek inside. Big text. Two to three paragraphs per page (oh, that triple p rhyme), their content being what seemed like transcripts of results of people's constant lurking on social media and occasional other "tales" from this age of technological stupidity. And those two quotes at the start, of actual sizzling critique of the author and his work.
Turned the book around in my hands. No text, I thought - but there, on the back, a strip of (not quite) microscopic text. The postmodern-sounding and ever-so-slightly ambitious title. And oh, there actually was some text on its spine too, with the author's regular-sounding name and the actual title.
All in all, this seemed like some weird piece of writing that might have some sort of deeper intent and meaning behind itself, possibly coming through in some aspects of the experience of reading it.
Hah, so I thought. And so it seemed, the first pages and snippets of the rest.
Some sort of expressionist-ish critique of today's internet-influenced and -dependent society, the stupidity and flatness that [rides] us all...
Nah. That's not quite it. This thing is much more like some simple collection of memes and jokes and clickbait-y, moronific titles and sentences. In essence, much of what I hate, disdain and in some cases may actually like. Just, here it's stripped of its visual elements and context, with no reference to the actual authors - for yes, this seems to be a bunch of stuff caught in the seas of this wonderfully wide web of normally mediocre content, by the author, who may fit the description of being a guy who surfs the seas of the Internet a tad too much (I'm referring to that quote on an early page)
gah, goodnight, gotta sleep, finishing this tomorrow if I bother, heh
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews