"Baboon
- Are you ready to see the truth? "
With a short story collection Baboon has Naja Marie Aidt written out of halvfemserlitteraturen and into the new millennium. However, remains her novels just as crude and provocative, while suggestive, as they always have been. Her portrayal of situations of human life, good and bad, has made her famous works, and she has been enriched with a myriad of prices. Finally, she received the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2008 for just Baboon. [1]
Naja Marie Aidt has been a central part of the minimalist literature which emerged in the 1990s, it called halvfemserlitteraturen. But with Baboon she is moving into new roads, and into the new society in the 21st century. Society has changed radically, and for example, sex and porn gone from being censored and forbidden to be a big part of our everyday image, in the form of advertising, television, movies and music. Issues to be debated, which is also reflected in future literature. This is also seen in the baboon, where sex plays a role in virtually all of the stories. But this is not the only "problem" is being discussed; children's upbringing and how children are being treated are also discussed. This is for example the case of Torben and Maria.
Torben and Maria is the fifth novel in the baboon. The story is about Maria and her son, Torben, as she has with her ex, Mount. First day in the story is a normal day for Maria and Torben. They have a dinner agreement with Bear, and waiting for him, they go around the pedestrian precinct. When Bear finally emerging out onto the DSB restaurant. They begin to discuss the mountain and are deeply divided. It ends with Mary returns home with Torben, while Bear is home to the mountain to buy hashish. There is now a leap in time and it is Torbens two-year birthday. Bear has a birthday gift from the mountain: a snow globe, and Torben are really pleased it. Maria may not like the principle of the mountain have purchased a gift for Torben, and therefore she throws the ball out of the window.
It is difficult to determine who the narrator is Torben and Mary; it is a mixture of the narrator and the mountain. When the mountain is telling, he shows a great degree of control over Maria and Torben, although he is not a part of their lives more. "I know so much about you now. And do not worry about Torben. I do not care. He is nothing special. I never think that he is mine. For he is yours, Maria. "[2] This quote emphasizes not only how the mountain observing Maria from a distance, but also how he disclaims all responsibility to their common Sun Maria got Torben already when she was 17 years, and one can clearly mark on her parenting techniques that she is young. In addition, she lacked support in the form of a man. Maria suggests Torben and often leaves his frustrations go beyond him. She both bitches and kick him and hit him on the way also mentally. Secretly, Torben is a cloud person, but when the other kids in kindergarten gets too close he will be aggressive and strike. This could indicate that Torben grow up and become just as Mary's mother, Maria itself, so violent of pure powerlessness. When people come too close to react both Torben and Maria with physical violence in pure desperation at not being able to handle the situation in other ways. It is clear where Maria has this violent kind of upbringing, from her mother: "You must beat him in the ass, so he will not have brands," says her mother. "Otherwise you get the crèche at the neck." [3] This quotation leads us to wonder if Maria even been violently treated as a child. When Mary throws the glass ball, the gift from the mountain, out of the window shows that she does not want contact with the mountain more. He has betrayed her, just as she certainly was as a child. They say that the first years of a child's life, have enormous importance for how the child develops through life. If Mary as a child even been suggested that explains why she believes it is right to be violent against Torben. Another reason may be that Torben is the only connection she has returned to the mountain. She is angry at the mountain and thus leaves his frustrations go beyond Torben. Although Maria rejects mountain action, she still has a great longing for what she had before. "We went up and down the pedestrian street for hours. And I had nulre your hair while you sit with your back against my stomach on the bench down by the fountain "[4] This tells the mountain on his and Maria's relationship when they were still together. Mount explains later that he has no problem with that they are not together anymore, they have had their time together. But Maria has a need for these times and the confidence it created. This is already visible at the beginning of the story when she walks down the pedestrian street and sits on the exact same bench by the fountain, together with Torben. And in this way she creates, as mentioned earlier, a connection to the mountains and their time together through Torben. Parsing Mon Montagne words that tell it appears that he also is aware of Maria's situation: "You go in the ring, Maria, and it amuses me to follow you: pedestrian, anger, bitch ..." [5] The mountain is here referring to how Mary, true to form, take a walk down the pedestrian street and then becomes angry at her situation. These frustrations followed by violence against Torben, and so it continues day after day. But it is not only Mary's life goes in circles, even violence are rife in the family going in circles.
Baboon is a wake-up call for all of us Danes. Novelettes dealing with themes such as lust, adultery, violence against children and flirting with homosexuality. All stories exhibit some of the ugliest sides of human nature. Because of this direct, provocative and crude way Naja Marie Aidt produces the situation, the reader is just aware that there is something wrong in the society we live in. We are forced as a reader to see the bitter truth of our contemporary eyes. This way lies Naja Marie Aidt up to a further discussion of our society and the radical turn it has taken. There will undoubtedly be several prizes to Naja Marie Aidt in the future for her direct writing style and honesty about our community.
[1] http://www.esbbib.dk/fokus_paa_/litteratur/tidligere_anmeldelser/naja_marie_aidt_faar_nordisk_raads_litteraturpris
[2] Baboon by Naja Marie Aidt, Gyldendal 2006 p.67 L.13-16
[3] Baboon by Naja Marie Aidt, Gyldendal 2006 p.65 L.23-25
[4] Baboon by Naja Marie Aidt, Gyldendal 2006 p.67 L.6-9
[5] Baboon by Naja Marie Aidt, Gyldendal 2006 p.67 L.22-23
