(På engelska, så utländska läsare också kan förundras över komediklubben
Svenska Akademien... --AE)
A new UPDATE on the Swedish Academy mess:
The Royal Court issued a press release this week, which says that the King
(Carl XIV Gustaf) intends to amend the statutes of the Academy in two ways: 1)
Make it possible for a member to leave the Academy, 2) and that a member who
hasn't participated in the Academy's work for two years shall be considered
having left.
Presently one member has written a formal letter of resignation (Klas
Östergren), and two members haven't participated the last two years (Kerstin
Ekman, Lotta Lotass; JUST IN: Lotass says she'll write a formal letter of
resignation to be on the safe side). Four have for the time being left working
for the Academy (Kjell Espmark, Peter Englund, Katarina Frostenson and Sara
Danius). Whether they will formally resign is yet unclear - the new temporary
Permanent Secretary Anders Olsson says he'll try to convince them to come back
(except Frostenson I suppose). One member, Sara Stridsberg, is considering her
membership. She has been a strong ally of former PermSec Danius.
The statutes amendents haven't been published or instated yet, but when that
happens the Academy needs to fill at least three chairs and in the longer run
and the worst case up to eight chairs (if Stridsberg leaves). In the work
around the statutes the King has had several meetings with Academy members and
have had the president of the Swedish Supreme Court as well as the president of
the Mid-Sweden Appeals Court as advisers. Their legal opinion is that since a
King founded the Academy (in 1786) the present holder of the same office "owns
the statutes" and can amend them, and most likely the King has listened to what
the Academy wants to change.
The Swedish King has only ceremonial powers (opening the Riksdag, receiving
ambassadors etc) but it is interesting that this is one of very few decisions
of real importance that he has made.
It is quite clear if you follow the Swedish papers that former PermSec Danius
has very strong support in the eyes of public opinion, seen as a person who
tried to reform the Academy and act and now becomes a scapegoat. And Horace
Engdahl is seen as the Big Villain, after the article in Expressen claiming
that Danius has been the "worst secretary ever" ("No way!" people say). The
Nobel Foundation has issued an open letter saying that they are very concerned
about the crisis in the Academy. 350 writers have signed a statement about
having lost confidence in the Academy (among the undersigned are sf/f authors
Karin Tidbeck and Catharina Wrååk /aka Jo Salmson/). 160 academics and
researchers in the fields of literature, language and drama have issued a
similar statement.
People in general, incl celebrities and the Minister of Culture, have a
campaign of support for Danius by wearing a pussy-knot blouse. There are
hundreds of pictures on social media with people wearing this piece of cloth,
which has been a signature for Danius, using the hashtag #knytblus (Swedish for
pussy-knot blouse) or #knytblusforsara.
Statistics I saw somewhere on the Net, by now more than a week old, say that
Swedish papers then have had 2500+ articles about the Academy crisis and
foreign press has had 3500+ articles (leaders here are US and German press).
You can probably double that by now. And to that comes TV news spots, radio and
of course pods, Social Media etc.
Most of the articles see the crisis as one about sexual harassments by this
guy Jean-Claude Arnault, but the formal crisis within the Academy has been one
of lost confidence, economic irregularities (a member receiving grants to her
company, against the rules), leaks of Nobel prize winners (also against the
rules, of course) and the resulting Civil War between different fractions in
the Academy. The sexual harassments was however the factor starting the
snowball rolling and is very visibly in the background. Police investigations
are going on about that issue, though some accusations have been dropped due to
reaching the statutes of limitation. Investigations about economic
irregularities dealing with Arnault & Frostenson (husband and wife, and she's
been an Academy member) will probably also commence, concerning tax and
accounting breaches for the cultural events club they have run.
Now we are waiting for:
* The amendments to the statutes.
* What new members that will enter the Academy (and who, of those not yet
formally leaving, will come back).
* The continued debate - will Horace Engdahl get the hint and resign, for
instance? Another one with pieces of human bones in his cupboard is former
PermSec Sture Allén who was warned about the sexual harassments in 1996 - the
woman behind was recently interviewed in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper - but
thought "it didn't seem important".
* How the important work about selecting the next Nobel Prize winner will
proceed. Usually the spring is an intense period for this. About 200
nominations have normally been received, which during spring is boiled down to
a long list of 20, and at summer's start a short list of five. With the status
of the Academy seriously damaged and membership cut down (11 at present)
that'll be interesting...
(The Academy also has other important work: many grants and other awards,
publishing the Swedish Academy's Dictionary - the gold standard - and
continuing the massive Swedish Academy's Word Book - a work going on for 150+
years and now with 2+ mill words -, managing the Nobel library, etc.)
Two personal notes: I met a friend recently on the opening of an exhibition
and he told me that a former girlfriend of his had met Mr Arnault in the early
1990's and had also been subject to his groping and sexual suggestions. This is
second-hand info but since it's in-line with what many others have said it's
likely to be true. It's clear that the behaviour of this guy has been
widespreadly known for a very long time! (And yet Horace Engdahl lobbied to
give him a Royal medal and a government artist life grant, descibing him as a
"real gentleman" and an "ideal for other men". Gee!)
Also, last Wednesday I went to a lecture (by the comics artist and poet Nina
Hemmingsson) arranged by the Academy. They have such events about once a month
and I've been to a few earlier, held in their magnificent and big main hall
where the Nobel Prize is announced. It was an interesting lecture - but only
about 20 people attended! Usually, the hall is from 2/3 to 100% filled. I
wonder if it was some sort of public protest against the Academy, not to attend?
Spring has finally arrived to Stockholm with the sun shining in full force -
but dark clouds still linger over the Swedish Academy.
--Ahrvid
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