Books |
Finnish Nightmares: An Irreverent Guide to Life’s Awkward Moments
Karoliina Korhonen
By
Published: Jan 08, 2020
Category:
Humor
In 2000, I married a Finn. (In point of fact, she was from Minnesota, which is almost the same thing.) Most of her family was second-generation Finnish, and if she had to self-identify, she would have described herself as a Finn.
It is fair to say that my wife was a mystery to me in 2000. And that would continue for years. The extreme sense of privacy. The caution around others. The formality. The distress at the prospect of physical contact.
A joke is illustrative: “An introverted Finn looks at his shoes when talking to you. An extroverted Finn looks at your shoes.”
Some years ago, Karoliina Korhonen invented a character named Matti and began making cartoons about him. Matti is, like his creator, a Finn. His religion is “peace, quiet and personal space.” He gives them to others, hoping to get them back in return. He’s silent, but not sullen. When someone is angry, he blames himself.
Think: a Finnish Jules Feiffer character.
He wants to leave his apartment — but a neighbor is in the hallway.
The bus shelter is crowded — there’s one person standing there.
For a batch of cartoons that shouldn’t be funny but do make you laugh, click here. And then give in and buy the book. For a coffee table. As a present. Because, face it, there’s a bit of Finn in all of us. [To buy the book from Amazon, click here. For the Kindle edition, click here.]
Along the way, something funny happened in the real world: Matti went viral in China. Like: majorly trending. The Chinese have little privacy and personal space, but they dream of it — and because Matti has privacy and personal space, they regarded him as a hero. Chinese fans began describing themselves as “spiritually Finnish.”
You’re next.
