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Holiday destinations.
On a whim the other day I picked up a copy of Scan magazine; it's a publication about Scandinavian culture distributed in Britain and other English-speaking lands in order to promote Scandinavian tourism. Now if I were given the 'attract people to Scandinavia' brief, my thoughts would immediately turn to things that people would be interested in - vikings, and scantily-clad girls cavorting in Icelandic hot springs - and keep darned quiet about anything which might be considered wierd, boring or just downright depressing. But no! To my delight, whichever (doubtless Nordic) copy editor put the magazine together obviously decided that people might not be interested in bikini-clad blondes and might instead be interested in, well, the wierd, the boring and downright depressing. Or "culture", as some bright spark has optimistically christened it.
So we have tourism features like:
The Depression Museum
Sweden's largest museum devoted to Scandinavias historical association with clinical depression, the Miseryhüs in Goteborg holds the famous noose wing, a massive gallery of grainy, black-and-white photographs of popular bridges, railway crossings and isolated lakes, and the biggest collection of brightly-coloured pills outside Russia. Entry is free to the unemployed, disabled and the unfit to breed.
The Miseryhüs is easy to find as it stands right next to Sweden's largest distillery - the Alkehälle - and straight over the road from a massive clock which shows just how many weeks it's been since the sun last came up.
and
The Müüstrek
Enjoy this three-month long celebration of the annual Moose migration in northern Finland - with nothing to do but watch the stately progression of the moose across the tundra whilst drinking heavily. Locals make much of the trek, which is widely agreed to be the most exciting thing which happens to them all year. Ideal for children of five and over.
All this and not a single mention of Shako Paul City. Do they want to attract people to their countries or not?
So we have tourism features like:
The Depression Museum
Sweden's largest museum devoted to Scandinavias historical association with clinical depression, the Miseryhüs in Goteborg holds the famous noose wing, a massive gallery of grainy, black-and-white photographs of popular bridges, railway crossings and isolated lakes, and the biggest collection of brightly-coloured pills outside Russia. Entry is free to the unemployed, disabled and the unfit to breed.
The Miseryhüs is easy to find as it stands right next to Sweden's largest distillery - the Alkehälle - and straight over the road from a massive clock which shows just how many weeks it's been since the sun last came up.
and
The Müüstrek
Enjoy this three-month long celebration of the annual Moose migration in northern Finland - with nothing to do but watch the stately progression of the moose across the tundra whilst drinking heavily. Locals make much of the trek, which is widely agreed to be the most exciting thing which happens to them all year. Ideal for children of five and over.
All this and not a single mention of Shako Paul City. Do they want to attract people to their countries or not?
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Moose don't work that way, though!
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One of these days I'll finish writing The David with the Dragon Tattoo, a gripping tale of serial killing, alcoholism, joyless and mechanical casual sex, and tax evasion on a remote Swedish island.
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I've been to Stockholm and I adore the place. It's a city practially built on a fricking archipelago. How awesome is that?
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