What do you think?
Rate this book
Reportage. Att få fakta att dansa
Swedish / Svenska
1 pages, Hardcover
Published July 31, 2008
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 25, 2016
Anders Sundelin, a swedish journalist, discusses journalism and commentaries, terms like ”new journalism”, how to find the story and how best to succeed as a journalist. It’s essential not to preach, to be able to follow the ”show, don’t tell”-principle, and know what the phrase ”off the record” really means. A reporter should keep to the truth, but at the same time he chooses, simplifies, rearranges, connects events, fantasises, works with a limited field of vision, misunderstands, affects. Of course, the truth is relative, but I think journalists should keep to the truth anyway, even if the story is somewhat dull.
The book feels a little repetitive and jumps between many people, but if you can handle that it's interesting.
The reader follows Sundelin on a journey through time, to a lot of different journalists and authors and their writing style, thoughts about writing and the reason for writing. Among them Truman Capote, Harper Lee, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Günter Wallraff, Hanna Krall, Nuruddin Farah, V. S. Naipaul, Kevin Kerrane, Ben Yagoda, Dieter Strand, Amira Hass, John Mcphee, Leon Dash, Michael Herr, Jane Kramer, Vasilij Grossman, Carl von Linné, Sebastian Junger, Alexander von Humboldt, Wilfred Thesiger, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Gitta sereny and more.
Little did I know that George Orwell hated metaphores and parables that are used commonly in print. Or that Svetlana Aleksijevitj sometimes makes things up to increase the suspense. Or that Ernest Hemingway thought that you should only read dead authors:
”De flesta levande författare existerar inte. Deras ryktbarhet skapas av kritiker som alltid behöver ett säsongsgeni, någon som de förstår helt och hållet och kan bedöma utan risk, men när de här fabricerade genierna är döda så kommer de inte att existera” - Eernest Hemingway, p. 232.
My own translation: ”Most of the living authors don't exist. Their eminence are created by critics that always need a season genius, someone they understand completely and can criticize without risk, but when these fabricated geniuses are dead they won’t exist.”
Sundelin also discusses the writingprocess. Hemingway used to finish for the day when he had the most fun, to make his subconscious work during the night. Richard Ben Cramer wrote 1000 words a day before he let himself leave his chair. Jonathan Harr thinks that ”writing is always torture”. Isaak Babel claims that he got cardiac convulsions when he didn’t manage to complete a sentence, and describes the feeling as being forced to dig up Mount Everest by himself, with a pick and spade. Claes Hylinger views time as the only way to distance himself from his text, and be able to see the flaws. If a tight deadline, he even tries to trick himself into believing that he finds a text in his desk drawer, to manage to view the text as new and discover the faults. Svetlana Aleksijevitj uses a tape recorder during interviews to keep the person’s tone, and calls the polishing of the text ”the refining process”. Jimmy Breslin misses the old times:
”Det var roligare förr. Då fanns det brottslingar som fick en att le. Som förstod värdet av en god replik. Sen kom knarket och förstörde till och med brottsligheten.” - Jimmy Breslin, p. 65.
My own translation: ”It was more fun in the past. Then, there were criminals that made you smile. That understood the value of a good line. Then the drugs came, and ruined even the criminality.”
What is the difference between commentaries and fiction, then? Why commentaries? Svetlana talks about her book ”Bön för Tjernobyl” (Voices from Chernobyl):
”Denna kvinnas känslor kan mäta sig med de känslor som finns hos Shakespeare. En helt vanlig kvinna, som livnär sig på att baka kakor, bär på samma sorts känslor som vi hittar i världslitteraturen. Det fascinerar mig.” - Svetlana Aleksijevitj, p. 178.
My own translation: "This woman’s feelings is equal to the feelings by Shakespeare. A completely ordinary woman, who earns her money by baking cookies, is carrying the same kind of emotions that we find in the world literature. That fascinates me.”
Sundelin claims that eighty percent of the online news 2007 in Sweden originated from paper magazines. ”Google and Yahoo snyltar på andras ansträngningar för att bedriva sin nyhetsservice.” - Anders Sundelin, p. 247. My own translation: ”Google and Yahoo uses others’ efforts to run their news service.”
The reports and commentaries are shorter nowadays, as if people are too lazy to read them. In the future, according to Sundelin, online news will be short as they are today, but paper magazines will be more customised and luxurious to keep readers.
I really want the newspaper business to survive. It’s really important for understanding, questioning and democracy. I don’t think people have the energy to read much on the computer. I think it best to read a book or magazine that you hold in your hand. To be able to read reportage in the papers is extra important for people who doesn’t read books, and there are a lot of people like that, that aren’t interested or ”haven’t got the time”.
”Litteratur är språk, laddat med mening” - Ezra Pound, p. 236.
My own translation: ”Literature is language, charged with meaning”.
The book feels a little repetitive and jumps between many people, but if you can handle that it's interesting.
The reader follows Sundelin on a journey through time, to a lot of different journalists and authors and their writing style, thoughts about writing and the reason for writing. Among them Truman Capote, Harper Lee, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Günter Wallraff, Hanna Krall, Nuruddin Farah, V. S. Naipaul, Kevin Kerrane, Ben Yagoda, Dieter Strand, Amira Hass, John Mcphee, Leon Dash, Michael Herr, Jane Kramer, Vasilij Grossman, Carl von Linné, Sebastian Junger, Alexander von Humboldt, Wilfred Thesiger, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Gitta sereny and more.
Little did I know that George Orwell hated metaphores and parables that are used commonly in print. Or that Svetlana Aleksijevitj sometimes makes things up to increase the suspense. Or that Ernest Hemingway thought that you should only read dead authors:
”De flesta levande författare existerar inte. Deras ryktbarhet skapas av kritiker som alltid behöver ett säsongsgeni, någon som de förstår helt och hållet och kan bedöma utan risk, men när de här fabricerade genierna är döda så kommer de inte att existera” - Eernest Hemingway, p. 232.
My own translation: ”Most of the living authors don't exist. Their eminence are created by critics that always need a season genius, someone they understand completely and can criticize without risk, but when these fabricated geniuses are dead they won’t exist.”
Sundelin also discusses the writingprocess. Hemingway used to finish for the day when he had the most fun, to make his subconscious work during the night. Richard Ben Cramer wrote 1000 words a day before he let himself leave his chair. Jonathan Harr thinks that ”writing is always torture”. Isaak Babel claims that he got cardiac convulsions when he didn’t manage to complete a sentence, and describes the feeling as being forced to dig up Mount Everest by himself, with a pick and spade. Claes Hylinger views time as the only way to distance himself from his text, and be able to see the flaws. If a tight deadline, he even tries to trick himself into believing that he finds a text in his desk drawer, to manage to view the text as new and discover the faults. Svetlana Aleksijevitj uses a tape recorder during interviews to keep the person’s tone, and calls the polishing of the text ”the refining process”. Jimmy Breslin misses the old times:
”Det var roligare förr. Då fanns det brottslingar som fick en att le. Som förstod värdet av en god replik. Sen kom knarket och förstörde till och med brottsligheten.” - Jimmy Breslin, p. 65.
My own translation: ”It was more fun in the past. Then, there were criminals that made you smile. That understood the value of a good line. Then the drugs came, and ruined even the criminality.”
What is the difference between commentaries and fiction, then? Why commentaries? Svetlana talks about her book ”Bön för Tjernobyl” (Voices from Chernobyl):
”Denna kvinnas känslor kan mäta sig med de känslor som finns hos Shakespeare. En helt vanlig kvinna, som livnär sig på att baka kakor, bär på samma sorts känslor som vi hittar i världslitteraturen. Det fascinerar mig.” - Svetlana Aleksijevitj, p. 178.
My own translation: "This woman’s feelings is equal to the feelings by Shakespeare. A completely ordinary woman, who earns her money by baking cookies, is carrying the same kind of emotions that we find in the world literature. That fascinates me.”
Sundelin claims that eighty percent of the online news 2007 in Sweden originated from paper magazines. ”Google and Yahoo snyltar på andras ansträngningar för att bedriva sin nyhetsservice.” - Anders Sundelin, p. 247. My own translation: ”Google and Yahoo uses others’ efforts to run their news service.”
The reports and commentaries are shorter nowadays, as if people are too lazy to read them. In the future, according to Sundelin, online news will be short as they are today, but paper magazines will be more customised and luxurious to keep readers.
I really want the newspaper business to survive. It’s really important for understanding, questioning and democracy. I don’t think people have the energy to read much on the computer. I think it best to read a book or magazine that you hold in your hand. To be able to read reportage in the papers is extra important for people who doesn’t read books, and there are a lot of people like that, that aren’t interested or ”haven’t got the time”.
”Litteratur är språk, laddat med mening” - Ezra Pound, p. 236.
My own translation: ”Literature is language, charged with meaning”.
Displaying 1 of 1 review