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Finn Carling (1925-2004) |
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Prolific Norwegian novelist, poet, playwright and critic. Finn Carling's career as a writer spanned over 50 years. In his works Carling dealt with the themes of estrangement and isolation. He also published documentary accounts of groups feared or ignored by society – the blind, homosexuals, the terminally ill. "Jeg er betatt av kvinnelige forfattere, av deres rikdom og nærhet til detaljer. De skriver så man kjenner duften og smaken på deres ord. Virginia Woolf, Nadine Gordimer, Doris Lessing – herregud som jeg misunner dem denne evnen . . ." (Carling in Aftenposten Morgen 16/9 1988) Finn Carling was born in Oslo into an upper-middle-class family, the
son of Bjarne Carling (1890-1967) and Sigrid Schultz (1988-1962). Both
of his parents struggled with problems of their own; his mother
had suicidal tendencies. Carling spent his growing
years in the pleasant suburb of Smested, about 24 kilometers from the
city center. At the age of seven he entered a small private school,
which followed the principles of Rudolf Steiner. There he learned to
read and write. Carling was then educated at home. Among his favorite books in his youth
was Rosamund Lehmann's Dusty Answer, a story about
loneliness, dreams, and young love. The author was 20 when she wrote the work. "My life, I told my friend, did not differ from the lives of other people,
although my childhood, of course, had in some ways been different from that of a
physically normal boy, since I could not walk until the age of fifteen, but had to crawl
on my knees to get around." (Kilden og muren, 1958; trans. And Yet We Are Human, 1962) In his childhood Carling created a fantasy world, a
source for inspiration in his writings, where he explored the relationship between reality and fantasy. He studied psychology at the University of Oslo but never got his degree – from early on, he had a passion for writing. In 1962-64 he studied sociology on a grant at Howard University in America. As a writer Carling made his debut in 1949 with Broen, an experimental work which consisted of two short stories, and the one-act play Glasskulen. Carling's other dramas include Gitrene (1966), based on the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac (in this version, the former is an old lion and the latter is a director of a zoo), Slangen (1970), and Skudd (1971). Carling's lifelong struggle with his affliction – he was born with
cerebral palsy – is seen in his novels, especially in the theme of
human isolation and in his essays about society's outsiders, the
elderly, and misfits. Reflecting his own experiences, he wrote: "I
also learned that the cripple must be careful not to act differently
from what people expect him to do. Above all they expect the cripple to
be crippled; to be disabled and helpless; to be inferior to themselves,
and they will become easily suspicious and inseure if the crippe falls
short of these expectations." (And Yet We Are Human) In spite of his severe disability Carling was known among his friends
for his strength and good humor. He was a sought-after lecturer and he made several travels to Africa. After publishing poems, articles, and plays Carling again turned his interest to the novel and themes of illusion, fantasy, and myth. The provocative Norwegian writer Jens Bjørneboe (1920-1976) criticized Carling, a prominent figure of modernism, that in Desertøren (1956) he ignored action, the basis of a story, and focused instead on words and thoughts. Kometene (1964) was about a family whose members spend their isolated lives like comets in cold space, never coming near each other. A death in the family causes the first signs of a change in the regular course of life. In Gjesten (1970) Carling dropped his experiments with narrative technique and told about a small family, a father and his daughter and son. In the center of the story is the daughter who grows from a child into a young woman during a few summer days. Inside this simple frame the author spins a net of dreams, anticipations, and hidden meanings. The protagonist of Brevene (1980) is an ordinary woman, Gertrud Angell, who suddenly starts to behave strangely and finally is shut up in a mental hospital. Her change is depicted through the eyes of her husband and other members of the family. Their reactions reveal more about themselves than Gertrud's crisis. Commission (1991) is one of Carling's best-known works in the English-speaking world. In the story a nameless writer staying in Corsica tries to solve the mystery of Sebastian, a depressive and a playboy. During this search he meets people close to him, among them a brother engaged on animal experiments. The writer – in the text 'one' – tries to help a dog that has been tormented by children and could be an embodiment of Sebastian himself. "A rage one has never felt before is almost bursting one apart. A rage against violence and injustice. In a world like ours, why hasn't one felt it before? Was it such feelings that drove Sebastian in his fight against oppression." In Dagbok til en død (1998, Diary for a Dead Husband), Beatrice, a dutiful middle-aged woman, goes through a period of introspection after her husband's death of a heart attack. In this process Beatrice discovers a wide gap between her own dreams and what her friends and children expect from her. Beatrice has lived in the shadow of her domineering husband, and her diary becomes a vehicle for self-awareness and a freedom that she had not known existed. "First time a tap began to leak or the car refused to start, I was helplessly alone. Not lonely. You took care of practical matters in the forty years we were married. You were married." The story is carefully structured, and written in almost minimalist style, which marked Carling's work in general. In 1992 Carling was awarded Humanistpriset and in 1999 he received the Norwegian Council for Cultural Affairs prize. Carling died in Oslo on March 12, 2004. He was married three times; first to Åse Weidemann; then to Kitty (“Noffi”) Ringnes. His third wife was Anne Dahl Koren; they lived with their son Jørgen in a house build beside his childhood home in Smested. Anne Carling's first fictional work, Ensøster er en søster er en søster, came out in 1997. ----Robert Turner smiled. But my dear chap, he said, in the first place we have our agreement about utter frankness, and in the second we are experienced men who know about most things in life, who know indeed that the lust of the flesh sometimes leads to the destruction of the body. I've seen especially among my artist friends how a wild life in youth has led to an early death in the madhouse. I was once shown a brain that had belonged to one of our most gifted illustrators who unfortunately ended his days like this, and it had become as smooth as a plum and so shrunken that it could have lain in a child's hand. Naturally I can't disclose his name to you - can merely say that he was quite close to me at one period. But your illness hasn't progressed so far in any case, for, from what I can judge, your sanity is still intact. (Special thanks to Nigel Hunter who gave the idea for this page, helped with the biography of Finn Carling and selected the quotation above.) For further reading: "Dichtung ist keine Kunst, sondern eine Einladung": Finn Carling über Literatur und die Aufgabe eines Künstlers by Janine Klein (2008); 'Carling, Finn,' in Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, Vol. 1, ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999); Litterære skygger: norsk fantastisk litteratur, ed. by Torgeir Haugen (1998); 'Finn Carling: A Personal Introduction' by Louis Muinzer, World Literature Today, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Spring, 1996); A History of Norwegian Literature, edited by Hans S. Naess (1993); Menneske og struktur: en analyse av Finn Carlings "Marginalene" by Vivi Bjelke (1988); "Seg selv kan man da ikke miste!": en analyse av Finn Carling: Marginalene og fiendene, med hovedvekt på avvikerproblematikken by Elisabeth Dybvik (1984); Finn Carling's "Skyggen": en studie av en modernistisk roman by Johannes Eide (1970); Det kjærlighetsløse menneske": en presentasjon av Finn Carlings dikting fram til "Gitrene" by Terje Ramsøy-Halle (1970); Et speil for oss selv: menneskesyn og virkelighetsoppfatning i norsk etterkrigsprosa by Leif Longum (1968) Selected works:
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