Welcome to Modern Finnish Writers!
The database includes the authors’ personal details and introduces their work. The sources selected for further reading are mainly web-based, but there are references to other documents as well. Some texts on these web pages have been especially written for the database by the authors. The English pages are not identical to the Finnish and Swedish ones, as they mainly focus on authors whose work has been translated into English.
We hope you enjoy your visit!
|
This section is only in Finnish!
|
|
Amina spent a lot of time in Hopeavuori library. There was a grand collection of careful reproductions of the world's most important works. Hopeavuori had had a good selection of literature for a long time, but Sarto had enhanced it almost passionately. Amina had heard some impure servant whisper ironically that, sure, Sarto had feelings, but only for books.
Amina aimed to read everything that clarified the thinking of the pure. She wanted to know what the pure were really like. There was a lot of literature, and interpreters were also plentiful. Sarto himself liked to discuss with Amina and sometimes got carried away with a serious presentation of basic principles. Deliberating seemed to a profound passion of the nearly pure; they didn't settle for the apparent, but tried to understand the real human essence and meaning of life. It was on that basis that Sarto too had built his line of action and administrative model.
The library also contained stories which sometimes fascinated Amina. Sarto didn't think Amina should read them, least of all with empathy, but rather keeping her distance to the text. The stories affected feelings; they were for ignorant and childish people.
"Impure feelings cloud reason and lead to false conclusions," Sarto explained early one morning. He hadn't yet started his ruler's reception, so he was sitting in the library reading when Amina entered.
"But are human senses reliable? Is reason even?" Amina asked.
"Of course our senses are limited, but reason purified of feelings is dependable," Sarto assured her. "The main thing is to become liberated from hopes and fears. Then you can draw clear conclusions".
"But maybe reason, even at its best, is not enough," Amina said.
Pursuing the wind (2000)
Translated by Britt & Philip Gaut
|