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Peter Nilson (1937-1998) |
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Swedish writer and astronomer, whose work moved between poetry and science, modern cosmological theories and fiction. Peter Nilson became first known as a popularizer of science, but he also wrote novels following the tradition of magic realism. "The great, cosmic story is different from all the tales we can make up on the earth," Nilson has said. "We do not know anything about its end, we cannot even imagine how it is going to end. A tragedy, comedy? – or perhaps something else." Nilson's books have been translated into some 13 languages. "The dream of flight spans many emotions, many different hopes and expectations about a different existence. The eagle flies freely over the forests, the lark rises so high into the air that the atmosphere seems to embrace her. In a time when every long journey was a painful atonement for one's sins, it probably meant a lot to be able to dream about the freedom of the eagle and the lark, about not having to experience every bump in the road or thinkabout the cramped and crowded carriage. But within this dream of a free life there was always yet another thought about the ultimateand total freedom: to be able to discard all of life's material things and yet still live." (from 'Winged Man and Flying Ships: Of Medieval Flying Journeys and Eternal Dreams of Flight' by Peter Nilson, translated by Steve Hartman; The Georgia Review, Vol. 50, No. 2, Summer 1996, p. 294) Peter Nilson was born in Näsby, Småland, but at the age of ten
his
family moved to Möcklehut, where he grew up. His father
Herman worked as a miller, carpenter and farmer. After finishing
elementary school Nilson helped at the farm, but at the same time had
dreams of becoming an astronomer and a writer. He undertook
correspondence courses and graduted in 1959 from a secondary school.
After doing his military service, he entered the University of Uppsala,
where he studied astronomy, physics, mathematics, esthetics, and
history of learning. From 1964 Nilson worked at Astronomiska
Observatoriet, where he wrote his doctoral thesis, General
Catalogue of Galaxies (1973), an acclaimed a classification of 12
921 galaxies. In the mid-1970s, he was made a senior lecturer at the
University of Uppsala. In
1969 Nilson married Margareta Gustafsson; they had
one daughter. After a successful career as a scientist and
researcher, Nilson devoted himself from 1977 entirely to literature. He
published historical and science fiction novels, columns, and essays,
which gained a wide audience from the 1980s. He also contributed to
newspapers and magazines, including Göteborgs-Posten and Metro.
Besides popularizing astronomy, Nilson posed the questions of
why we are
here, who we really are, and what are the limits of our knowledge. On
radio, from 1971 to 1992, he introduced the world of the stars to the general public in the
program Svar i dag.
where listeners would phone in ask the
panel of experts for their views on certain issues. He contributed with
the essay 'Det skapande kosmos' to På väg mot en världsbild?: en
antologi om begreppet liv (1972), edited by Per Ragnar. Nilson was
awarded
the Harry Martinson
Prize in 1986, and in 1993 he was elected member of The Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences. Peter Nilson died of cerebral haemorrhage on March
8, 1998. Before his death, Nilson completed the essay Ljuden
från kosmos
(2000), in which he examined the ancient analogy
between music and cosmos. "Musiken är som stjärnhimlen: den lockar oss
att fantisera över oerhörda ting och spana ut över den jordiska
tillvarons gränser." Uupptäcken av universum (1975), Nilson's first collection of essays, dealt among others Johannes Kepler, Goethe's theory of colors, and Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game, which inspired Nilson to approach reality as if there were a conscious coordination behind everything. In 1982 Nilson published his first science fiction novel, Arken: berättelsen on en färd till tidens ände (The Ark: The Story of a Journey to the End of Time), a visionary history from the birth of earth to the end of the universe. The protagonist is Benjamin, a man who cannot die. During a nap in the madhouse, he is swallowed by an artifical fish. Benjamin wanders through counties and centuries, eventually heading for stars. In Avgrundsboken (The Book of the Abyss) Nilson combined legend and religion with science fiction, when the improbable main character, Queen of Sheba, is followed in her journeys through space and time. Nilson had already started to compose the story, a large novel, in his teens. Usually, the central characters in Nilson's stories are drifters, who are too restless to settle down. Trollkarlen (1979), set in the late Middle Ages, was inspired by Albrecht Dürer's drawings. The protagonist is an adventurer and magician, Bernward Bienewitz, who is drawn into a game of evil powers which he is not able to control. In the character of Bernward, and his unsatiable appetite for knowledge, Nilson has also described himself. "I hans vidlyftiga själ rörde sig tankar om allt mellan jordens medelpunkt och primum mobile, allt mellan argumentum ontologicum and statskonstens principer, allt mellan biets flykt och ekvinoktiernas omlopp. . . . Han var en av dessa oemotståndliga människor som blir upprymda och lyckliga över att tala on outgrundliga tid." Guldspiken (1985), set in the 19th-century, was partly based on lives of real people. The protagonist, Elias, is an orphan and a misfit, plagued by religious visions. He works at a mill, drinks, and finally escapes to the sea. Back in Sweden he decides to start a new life, and moves to America. After years of wandering he finds gold with the help of ghosts and returns to home as a rich man. On the other level the novel is a story of rebel against God – all of Elias's journeys are just a way fight against his fate to become a preacher. Nilson often set his tales of individual aspirations and fates
against his large cosmic visions. His later works include Rymdväktaren
(1995, The Space Guard), which the author himself regarded as a
music novel disguised as a science fiction novel. Nilson also refers to Dante's Divina Commedia. Its sequel Nyaga
(1996) – Rymdväktaren and Nyaga form together Projekt Nyaga
–
was a blend of science fiction story and philosophical essay
with the idea that reality is a program. Several of Philip K. Dick's
novels in the 1960s examined the nature of reality, but it was in 1999,
when Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski released the science-fiction
film Matrix,
the idea that reality is a computer simulation became a part of popular
culture. The computer scientist and physicist Edward Fredkin
argued that reality is software program run by a cosmic compurer, whose
nature remains unknown to us because it lies beyond reality. (How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies In Cybernetics Literature And Informatics by N. Kathleen Hayles, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1999, p. 233) In Nilson's story unknown cosmic powers are revealed by young scientists, Peter
Lorentzen ("Danny") and
Diana Emerson ("Ninni"). After a series of earth-shattering
catastrophes God-like alien createrus
give people a glimpse of the secrets of the universe: the evolution of
humankind to another level and the creation of a cosmic quantum
computer. A virtual God is created. One of the characters, Cardinal
Abdel Maguid Salim says: "Vetenskapen vet ingenting om vad verkligheten
är. Även en fysiker måste arbeta med samma intuitiva föreställning som
teologer eller filosofer." (Science knows nothing about what reality
is. Even a physicist has to work within the same intuitive framework as
theologians and philosophers.) Nilson's themes has been compared to those
of Carl Sagan's in Contact (1985), in which a message from alien intelligence contains instructions for building a Machine. From the beginning of his writing career, Nilson refused to restrict himself to disciplinary boundaries. He examined in several works how myths
and science together have influenced our world view. The approach
drew from the notion that there exist myths that have preserved
the memory of celestion phenomena from prehistorical times. Stjärnvägar
(1991), about how the modern world view sees the universe, was
based on texts published earlier in the magazines Dagens Industri
och Sköna Hem. Nilson returned to its themes in two other essay books, the Rymdljus (1992, Space Light) and Solvindar (1993, Solar Winds). Together with Stjärnvägar they formed a trilogy of the worldpicture of out times. Solvindar was nominated for the August Prize in the category of nonfiction. In Den gamla byn (1997) Nilson focused on his birth region in Småland and its history. Most of his books Nilson wrote in Tierps, Uppland, where he lived with his family in an old parsonage from the 18th century. For further reading: På jakt efter verkligheten by Erik Hjalmar Linder (1986); 'I litteraturkrisens spår' by Peter Luthersson, in Den Svenska Litteraturen, Vol. VI (1990); Författaren själv. ett biografiskt lexikon av och om 1189 samtida svenska författare, ed. by Bo Heurling (1993); Hur jag blev författare, pub. by Norstedts förlag (1997); Svenska samtidsförfattare 1, pub. by Bibliotekstjänst (1997); 'Till minnet av Peter Nilson' by Gunnar Welin, in Astronomisk tidsskrift 2 (1998); Vem är vem i svensk litteratur by Agneta and Lars-Erik Blomqvist (1999); Samtal med författare by Lennart Lindskog (2000); 'Ett numinöst och programmerat kosmos: religion och naturvetenskap i Peter Nilsons Projekt Nyaga' by Mathias Persson, in Lychnos: Årsbok för idé- och lärdomshistoria (2004); 'Vid tänkandets gränser. Om Peter Nilsons essäistik' by Emma Eldelin, in Samlaren: tidskrift för svensk litteraturvetenskaplig forskning, Vol. 129 (2008); 'An Amateur's Raid in a World of Specialists?: The Swedish Essay in Contemporary Public Debate' by Emma Eldelin, in Culture Unbound. Journal of Current Cultural Research, Volume 2 (2010); '"Mitt i evigheten". Gestaltningen av den moderna naturvetenskapens kosmos i Peter Nilsons Stjärnvägar' by Daniel Helsing, in Samlaren: tidskrift för svensk litteraturvetenskaplig forskning, Vol. 134 (2013); Glaspärlespelaren: nya världar, etik och androcentrism i Peter Nilsons science fiction-romaner by Britt Johanne Farstad (2013) Selected works:
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