is the swedish equivalent of the word 'fire.'and you guessed it right. this is a homage to stieg larsson's second installment to what i have aptly called the 'salander saga.'
the second book, which is called 'the girl who played with fire,' pretty much covered salander's tragic beginnings - how her father tortured her mother physically and psychologically, how her long term exposure to violence and disorder lead to 'all that evil,' which ultimately resulted to her being a ward of the state.
the first three paragraphs were actually written at least two months ago. i had the courage to go back to this 'post' again today, june 12th 2012.
for some reason i could not bring myself to write any more than what i have about larsson's opus. i am unsure why. perhaps it is because of my conviction that when i write about a book that i have read or give my piece about a literary material i have come across with means that it is all done. it has been finished.
and that was what i have probably been avoiding for over two months now.
then i realized that i still have the third book to write about. which makes it all the more depressing. i have created some sort of affinity with lisbeth - why she distanced herself from everyone else, especially to those she is most vulnerable with or most vulnerable to. i suppose it is this uncharted or unrecorded human response or instinct of hers that makes her do that.
that is something that i have not 'seen' or 'read' in any work of fiction in the last few years.
where do you get a protagonist who is both as indestructible as a thought made of steel, as resolute as any well thought of, well-written computer code, as volatile as the last known element on the periodic table. only in this novel.
only in this trilogy. only in this heart breaking treatment of possibly the best character ever to surface in the literary universe.
but one thing that is true about lisbeth is that she is elemental. as elemental as anything could get. as a matter of fact, she is sublime. as if her character or her persona transcends all forms of matter without any indication of changing its form.
more to come in the next few days.
that is if i can bring myself to gather what sadness and anguish i can recall about her.
