Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Having read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, where Lisbeth is identified as a real world Pippi, I have been planning to read the supposed inspiration for a long time. For the first few chapters, it is hard to imagine how Larsson could have based the character of Lisbeth on Pippi. Eventually I learned to warp Pippi’s world and squeeze it into the supposedly real world filled with rapists and thieves, where little girls have no super strength to get by on. I could then start to see how Larsson could have imagined, reading Pippi as an adult, that each of pippi’s little ‘adventures’ could have been a tragedy. Out of a thousand, one might survive. He decided to write about that one, a modern-day Pippi. For, you probably still need Pippi’s attitude to survive in a modern-day Sweden even if you don’t have her super powers – Lisbeth might have been an orphan and a rebel just like Pippi, she might only have her hacking skills as a proxy for Pippi’s super-strength, but at the end of the day both could kick some ass.
The review you have just read above is meant to illustrate how my reading of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo influenced my reading of Pippi Longstocking. Is it fair to even think of Lisbeth and of Larsson’s interpretation of the tale while reading it? Probably not. I wish I could read it far away from Lisbeth’s shadow. Do I blame Larsson now for spoiling some good fun? Probably yes. I just wish I had read Astrid first – of course I might never have heard of Pippi if not for Larsson. This is an issue I have faced with many books where the source is as enjoyable as the book that referred me to it, but less enjoyable for having read the referring work. How to get around this? Shall I drop everything and run to a bookstore the moment the slightest footnote pops up? They better stock up before I read Ulysses then.
Related articles
- Where is Lisbeth Salander’s home? A review of Millennium Tour in Stockholm (brandsandfilms.com)
- Pippi Longstocking…. (trishborgdorff.wordpress.com)
- Pippi Longstocking – the original INGRID VANG NYMAN illustrations (yeahgrace.wordpress.com)
- Pippi Longstocking – Prinny’s invitations for a 7th birthday (haillo.wordpress.com)
- A Vigilante Love Affair with Lisbeth Salander (pheonixreview.wordpress.com)
- High Hopes, Punctured by Pippi Longstocking (reflectionsoramirroroflife.wordpress.com)
- Pippi at Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre (mommyfactor.net)
Rohini
SuperTramP
blueangelwolf
January 22, 2013 at 10:29
As a child Pippi was my super-heroin
SuperTramP
January 22, 2013 at 10:36
lucky you! you must have read the whole series then.
pheonixfounder
January 22, 2013 at 14:48
Thanks for mentioning my article!
Ajay
February 21, 2013 at 23:01
SPOILER ALERT! Don’t read if you haven’t read the book.Great approach to this book. I didn’t even nciote the first name./last name changes, so I guess they didn’t bother me.I think Lisbeth was able to sleep with Mikael for two reasons: she had her revenge and because she really had a detached opinion of herself. Not exactly low self-esteem but an ability to step outside herself and keep things that happened to her separate from who she was. Do you know what I mean?I read this book in August and still haven’t written the review because It’s such a complicated book with disturbing themes that you can’t talk about without giving away the story..-= Beth Fb4s last blog .. =-.
SuperTramP
February 22, 2013 at 04:35
Agreed. Great interpretation, but my thought was that perhaps that was the one innocent and spontaneous relationship in the plot…