Opplysning

I finally picked up a book that I had bought back in January. It's called The Cultural Construction of Norden, and after having read just the introductory chapter I feel like I have reached a whole new understanding of how and why the Scandinavian countries are different from the rest of the world. The authors of the book base the difference in the pragmatic way that Enlightenment thought was received. I'm so glad I've been reading my Holberg this past year, since the Enlightenment is such a key period in the development of Nordic cultural identity.

The question of cultural constructs (of identity, of nation, etc.) has really been on my mind this past week. I was grappling with it one insomniac early morning when I banged out four pages of the introduction to my book (the first real start on the project), and it was at the center of the inspiring lecture by Julia Kristeva (yes, really!) that I attended on Friday. Kristeva was trying to argue for an effective response to fundamentalism (of all kinds) based on particularly European traditions of multi-lingualism, which creates an inherent self-questioning. Somehow this tradition needs to be harnessed, according to Kristeva, in order to counteract the totalitarian discourses of fundamentalism.

So it's a good thing that I'm working on an incredibly mindless knitting project:

Acres of plain stockinette and garter stitch in unbleached linen. If I have learned anything in this year of knitting sweaters, it's that I really enjoy the plainest possible knitting. It's not that I can't do the fancy stuff. I know that I can. I just don't find it very enjoyable, and get much more satisfaction out of knitting things that are quick and easy. I do included stranded knitting in the "easy" category, despite the fact that I've only done one stranded sweater and 1 1/2 stranded stockings this year:
Hmm. I think I'd better get that second sock finished before ski season starts!

I think the reason I like easy knitting is that it allows me to think about other things (like identity construction) in a meditative way.

Random Roundup: three things I found on the blogs I frequent that really appeal to me:

1. I found this really subtle and elegant home tour on Apartment Therapy. This is just the kind of subdued, eclectic, and quirky interior that I wish I could pull together. I love that the person who lives there suggesting making a list of the words that describe your design style/aspirations, then trying to pare that list down to just two words, and using those as a guiding principle.
   
2. I also found lots to like in Soule Mama's home tour on Indie Fixx for almost opposite reasons. It's much funkier and more colorful, but still edited and carefully thought out. It's more stuff than I want in my life, but I really like the functionality of each little corner.
3. Med pinner reminded me of a Norwegian artist whose work I had first seen in a lecture last fall, Kari, Steilhaug. She works a lot with knitting in her art, sometimes using and unraveling bales of used handknit sweaters, sometimes knitting covers for boulders, and sometimes, as in her recent piece, "De ufullendte," in this year's Statens Høstutstilling, compiling other people's unfinished objects and the stories behind them.

Unfortunately, all this aesthetic and intellectual input has quite literally made my brain hurt. I've had a headache since Friday morning. Three days (I'm writing this on Sunday morning, even though Blogger thinks it's still only Saturday) is a bit much. It sucks.