Analysing Moominpappa at Sea in English, German and Japanese
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- Опубликовано: 17 июл 2024
- Today we have a video essay about Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson. Featuring discussion about the English, German and Japanese translations and touching on The Summer Book and Nordic sea-culture as well.
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For trying to interpret the Groke, a character that is perpetually observing and shunned from interacting with the object of their gaze makes me think of how the author might conceptualise the reader of their story, and how the knowledge of an audiece impacts the writing process.
Incredible analysis.
First of all; I'm so happy I've ran into your analysis of the Moomin-books.
I'm a huge Moomin-fan, but I have had difficulty connecting with the Moomin-fandom online because, well, frankly I'm a bit of a book purist. I love the books. I've read and re-read and listened and re-listened to them in Swedish and I've read them in english to see how the translators handled Tove's wonderful language (Portch was sloppy and sometimes outright bad. Thomas Warburton (who, point of interested, also translated Orwells 1984 into swedish) did a good job with some misses (why would you translate "nöjespark", the swedish word for amusement park to "pleasure garden"?) and Kingsley Hart was okay as well, although he too ignored some sentences and did some misses in my opinion). So yeah, the books for me is were it's at, while most of the Moomin-fandom I've ran into online are fans of the english dub of the 90's anime. Nothing wrong with that, it's just that I prefer the books.
So it's nice to see some videos on that subject, and you do give an interesting take and analysis on them, so thank you so much for that.
Now, unto the book. Moominpappa at Sea was never my favourite of the books. It is by far the longest and hardest to get through with its slow tempo, gloomy atmosphere and it lacks a lot of the humour or joie de vivre that the other books have. While at the same time, it might be the most interesting and fascinating of the books. With many of my favourites of Janssons poetic and philosophical quotes coming from this one (and there are still some funny moments, just not as many as in the other books).
One thing I always found in it, that you didn't talk about as much so I think I can add, is the big meditation of the role of the Father. What is the purpose of a father? What are they suppose to do?
The original title is just "Pappan och Havet", which is best translated to "The Dad (or Daddy) and the Sea". Not Moominpappa specifically, but a Dad (Compare the title to Hemingways "The Old Man and the Sea", that has the swedish title Den Gamle (The Old One) och Havet (and the Sea)).
Even the opening lines in the original, which just so happens to be one of my favourite opening lines to a book ever, are "En obestämd eftermiddag i slutet av augusti gick en pappa omkring i sin trädgård och kände sig onödig." Which, translated to english, means "One unspecified afternoon at the end of august a Dad walk around in his garden and felt unnecessary". It's not Moominpappa specifically who feels "onödig", it's *A* Dad. Which, if I remember the translation correctly, is one of the things Kinglsey missed.
While we're on the subject, this is another of the books main themes to me. The Dad, aka Moominpappa, is feeling unnecessary. In Kinglseys translation he feels "at a loss", which I don't think captures the same sense of feeling. Kingsleys Moominpappa is lost, directionless, since he doesn't know what to do since everythings been done or is being done by others and wants to find a purpose. The german translation here seems closer, as you say, with Moominvater feeling überflüssig, or superfluous, (Or överflödig as we would say in Sweden). Being at a loss is still with an incentive to move, you just don't know in which direction. But feeling unnecessary or superfluous, well... Then you just feel left out.
What Moominpappa wants and craves is meaning. And sadly, he forces (although not in a violent way) his family to play along in his mid-life crisis. He wants a purpose and, as a father, he figures that purpose is to protect his family. And also to do something important. And running a lighthouse is an important task. Ask any sailor how important and reassuring the sight of a light-house is.
Now, Tove Jansson was very interested in philosophy. In fact, the first Moomin-figure ever drawn was made in anger after she and her brother had had a heated argument about Immanuel Kant. And the Moomin-books were written in a time when Existansalism was the big philosophical thing with philosophers like Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Satré where well-known names and even Nobel Prize winners. And the main issue existentialism was dealing with was "what's the meaning in a meaningless world?" A theme that does slip in a lot in Pappa at Sea.
The most telling part for me is a part you quoted, when Moominpappa is lecturing the sea. "it's your job to look after this island. You should protect and comfort it instead of behaving as you do."
It is one of my favourite parts of the book because Moomin-pappa is berating the sea for acting, well, like he himself has done. It's kind of like that scene in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 when Yondu berates Rocket Racoon ending with the lines "I know who you are boy, because you're me." It's been a while since I've read the book, but if I recall correctly, that scene is at the end of the book when Pappa has gained some insight into his behaviour and so knows what a dad is suppose to do. It is his job to comfort and protect, but in order to do that he put his family at great discomfort and some danger, because he didn't feel like he was doing that.
It is an interesting take on the father-role in deed, and I could go on for long, but there's just one last piece of the puzzle I wanted to add; You mentioned Toves reallife mother, Signe, who probably was the person who influenced her the most and was the inspiration for Moominmamma. But Tove also had a very formative and important, if not always smooth, mildly put complicated, relationship with her father, Viktor "Faffan" Jansson, who was the inspiration for Moominpappa. Now, Faffan and Pappan are different creatures, it's not a 1:1 metaphor, but Tove drew a lot of inspirations from her own dad when creating the Moomin patriarch. And as many have viewed November as being Tove dealing with the death of her mother, so many (me included) views at Sea as dealing with the feelings she had of her father, who passed away seven years before the book was published. It is even dedicated "Till en pappa", "To a dad". And I always took that to mean that it was dedicated to Faffan.
Sorry for the long post. Like I said, it's not often I find a place to talk about the Moomin *books*, so this was a chance for me to ramble. Once again, great video. Love your insights and interesting to hear about the other translations and what they focused on (since my japanese is limited to a few common words and mein ganzes deutsch habe ich aus dem fernsehen gelernt). Hope you'll cover all the other moomin-books someday. I'll be looking forward to it.
Just finished the book and i agree with this take! Really well put :)
@@isac901 Thank you :)
Very insightful analysis. I haven't read the books since I was a child. I was extremely obsessed with the Groke and filled my room with plasticine models of her. Later in life I have been diagnosed with autism. I think that goes someway to explaining my obsession. I felt sorry for her with her loneliness and outsider status because I related to her. She is a very good depiction of what autism can feel like. Over the years I have often felt a sense of sorrow or even hurt that she is never portrayed with the others in artwork. I understood her more than any of the other characters. I will certainly be reading this book again
This is a fantastic video! Since I don’t currently have any access to any of the Moomins books, the videos you have made have helped me sort of live vicariously through you. I also appreciate how you are able to interpret the stories in multiple languages in such an educational way!
Despite never watching the Moomins as a younger child, the Moomins represents a sort of childhood liberty and nostalgia, a sort of escapism (though this is mainly derived from the 90s animated series).
The Groke symbolises negative loneliness that is not chosen by oneself, and depression. Which is why The Groke becomes more warm after Moomin reaches out to her.
I just finished moominpappa at sea and HAD to look if there was some analysis because its such a deep, mysterious, melancholy book, which its a surprise if you think that is for children and the first stories werent so hard to read, so yeah i stumbled on this video and im so glad! I really liked to know about tove's other book where we can get a glimpse of her life, honestly for me tove is so interesting, when im reading the moomins i want to know what she was thinking while writing. Finished moominpappa at sea only made me feel sad and confused but so curious to understand the story.
Nice vid. thanks for making and sharing
7:11, i shouldn’t be laughing, but I am
Amazing Work
Amazing video essays! Really, good work
i think the the Groke symbolizes loneliness
𝕡𝕣𝕠𝕞𝕠𝕤𝕞 😌