How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country | Hacker News Reader

How Finland Rebranded Itself as a Literary Country

theparisreview.org

100 pointsabtaylorxo26 comments

Finland has some interesting literary quirks. My favorite is that it's one of the few places other than the Vatican where you can read the news in Latin, for example:

https://areena.yle.fi/1-1931339

It's an account of the US/North Korea meeting in Singapore. A little out of date on July 18 but still appealing since most other 'news' you can read in Latin happened 2000 years ago.

This is interesting. But why does anyone bother to write news in Latin?

Because they can!

Why not? It's fun to bring old languages back to life.

Also, Latin is a better 'universal language' than many alternatives, in part because it occupied exactly that role for many centuries throughout much of Europe. Something to consider in the EU if Brexit goes through. ;)

English will still be the official language of two EU countries :)

Still be one official language of two EU countries.

Ireland has Irish, and Malta has Maltese; both non-Germanic languages, very different from English.

Oddly, Brexit can solidify the use of English as a common language in the EU, since its general use can now be considered not to give a political advantage to the UK.

(Of course, English is already a default de-facto common language in the EU, but some larger countries can be rather protective of their national language in an official capacity.)

As former Swiss resident, and fluent speaker of three of the national languages, seeing Swiss speak among themselves in English was always kind of ironic. :)

Irish in Ireland is adminstratively mandated, but as a language it is on life support.

There's a particularly pernicious habit here (Ireland) of bleating about the requirement for bilingual versions (Irish always first) of official texts. It serves only to bolster the self-importance of gaeilgoirs (Irish speakers) who have voluntarily made the language part of their identity.

Of course, it is impossible to refute the arguments they put forward for the cultural value of the language... so it goes on.

> This is interesting. But why does anyone bother to write news in Latin?

The University of Helsinki has had a respected Classics department for generations. They do all kinds of mainstream research in the field. The production of news in Latin is just as a fun hobby that happens to be helpful to keeping their scholars’ skills honed.

Off-topic from the OP article, I encourage anyone who knows a Romance language or two to read this. With a little knowledge of current events and a few choice neologisms (methano, Coreae, nuclearibus) it's astounding how much you can understand.

I can kinda read Spanish by virtue of taking it in high school, but I think most of my understanding of that article comes from similar-sounding words:

> armis nuclearibus in paeninsula Coreana

I don’t think you need a Romance language to understand that.

I never thought I'd hear a Finnish accent in Latin, very cool.

It's particularly interesting in that Finnish is non Indo-European. You'd think it would be a IE speaking country, particularly a Romance one, that would be into Latin, but no.

Finland has a huge collection of quirky things, really:

- the allegedly worst musicians: Elekäläiset

- Literature that starts with glorification of collective suicide only to be attempted, failed, called off some pages later. Then rescheduled, and called off again, lather, rinse, repeat.

- the most quirky looking blues-harpists: Sväng

- allegedly Finland remains the only nation without weaponizable satellites

- Finnish music, from classical through to folk, rock, metal and Avant-Garde there's literally everything and anything. Did you know they invented Tango?

- Finland is kind of the opposite of Japan with its many islands when it comes to lakes. There are too many of them to count.

- The language is amazingly versatile and abstract. The Finns also don't like borrowing words from other languages. If there's a word, there's probably a Finnish construct for it that sounds nothing like what you've heard of.

- Home to a certain author famous for pissing off translators for her frivolous approach at above language.

- Finland is, together with Scandinavia, home to an amazing bunch of Eurasian indigenous people

- Finland is home to the creepiest Santa Claus there is. No dispute there.

- Oh, and whatever started on that comp.os.minix newsgroup in 1991 is currently running my entire IT infratructure as well as that of my workplace's.

I could provide sources to all of these claims, but that would be no fun at all, right?

The Finns did not invent tango, which is an Argentinian dance. There is such a thing as Finnish tango, though.

Also a Finnish way of reducing teen pregnancies is a "summer condom song" made every year made by top Finnish artists, sponsored by all the big record labels and the national broadcaster YLE. Most of the biggest selling artists in Finland have appeared in one. The condom song itself is played constantly during the summer in radio, and some of the more catchy ones appear even years later in poppy radio stations and night clubs in Finland.

One example of a recent condom song that became a hit is Kasmir feat. SAARA (that girl from the "Finnish girl speaks 40 pseudolanguages" YouTube video) - Vauvoja. It's annoyingly catchy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYqrcgqmI9Y

Other quirkiness:

- Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world.

- Enough saunas that the whole population could do it at the same time.

- Most heavy metal bands, per population.

- Annual championships in wife-carrying, air-guitar, boot and phone throwing, sauna, cattle calling, swamp soccer, mosquito swatting, ant nest sitting, etc.

- Mämmi: food that looks like diarrhea.

- Candies made of tar.

- Birch branches are used to whip yourself with in sauna.

- New years tradition of throwing melted tin in water. The shape tells of the future.

- Easter tradition of kids dressing up as witches and going trick-or-treating.

- No trespassing laws, so you can roam and camp anywhere (although not too close to anyone's home).

- Finland is a 3rd world country by the original cold war definition (politically non-aligned with either NATO or the Communist block).

> - Annual championships in wife-carrying, air-guitar, boot and phone throwing, sauna, cattle calling, swamp soccer, mosquito swatting, ant nest sitting, etc.

We stopped doing the sauna world championships after one guy died and another ended up in a coma.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Sauna_Championships#2010...

And a tendency to meet at the market square every time somebody mentions the country.

> - Finland has 45 firearms per 100 people (3rd highest in the world) yet is was ranked the safest country in the world.

I wonder what the ratio between hunting and handguns are...

I googled a bit. Officially Finland has 1.5 million firearms. Mainly for hunting and sport. Handguns make up only 0.2 million, which is about 13%.

Most all murders in Finland are done with a knife while drunk.

(The Finnish police, which keeps a database of firearm permits, objected to the mentioned study that Finland is ranked 3rd in the world. The study was updated and now Finland is ranked "only" 8th:

http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/T-Briefing-Pap... )

That statistic is not correct, anyway. It's an outdated estimate by a single entity, with an unsubstantiated claim for a huge number of unregistered weaponry.

More commonly accepted estimates put Finland in line with many other European countries at around 30 firearms per 100 people. Most of those are indeed hunting rifles. (In Finland, like perhaps most other European countries, you need a license to buy or legally own a firearm. A gun license requires an acceptable reason like hunting or sports; notably, self defense is not one for the general public.)

> yet is was ranked the safest country in the world.

Don't trust any statistics you haven't fabricated yourself.

While you are unlikely to be shot in a robbery in Finland there are many categories where Finland is far from being the safest country in the world:

* suicide rate is still very high. e.g. 50% higher than Sweden (despite having gone down a lot in the last 20 years). Is it a safe society were people end up killing themselves?

* murder rate is one of the highest ones in Western Europe. Well, Finland would like belong to Western Europe, although geographically it is far in the East, deep in the vodka belt, which is part of the explanation. Firearms might well be "underrepresented" in the murders, but that doesn't make it any safer for those being murdered.

* drowning rate is high (a combination of too much alcohol and many lakes)

* dying in building fires is more common than in many other countries (again too much alcohol so you cannot leave the bed lit by a cigarette is not a good starting point)

* road traffic is at most mid-range in European comparison. Nothing close to being the safest one.

One Finnish scifi author that I've particularly enjoyed is Hannu Rajaniemi, who has a PhD in Physics and writes excellent speculative novels like The Quantum Thief and The Fractal Prince.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannu_Rajaniemi

And is a YC founder (post-books)

i dont think literature can ever replace actual business. most books that sell are not even literature.

as for the new nokia, maybe the old nokia is also the new one? i have no doubt a lot of people there still know how to make good phones.

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