Keep writing!
I’m sitting in Dalsland and looking out over a bright yellow rapeseed field. I’ve just opened a document with the script I’m now the editor, and I realize that I’m now working in the publishing industry for real. It’s strange but also a very nice feeling! The basis for part of my daily work is now words and images. It’s a somewhat surreal feeling.
A while ago I watched a film by Stefan Jarl about the director Bo Widerberg. Tommy Berggren said at one point in the film that “It’s lucky we have art!”. I agree. In our utility society, where consumption seems to be the only thing that counts, art is needed. In all forms. I can sometimes end up pessimistic and wonder what I and others are doing, what is the use of what we create? Is another book really needed among all the books? Will anyone be happier because I’m painting another watercolor? One more watercolor among all the thousands of watercolors that are painted. The painting rarely makes a dent in the coffers and it hardly sets the social machinery in motion.
But then I will think of the works of art and books that live in me. They are all part of me and my person! The Process by Kafka, The Grass of the Nights by Patrik Modiano, The Summer Book by Tove Jansson, Art by Giacometti, paintings by Åke Göransson, poetry by Kristina Lugn, music by Ludovico Einaudi, etc. My life would be so much poorer without all these books, poetry, music, and artwork.
Then it turns around! I realize that we must create new art, and write new books, new poetry, and new music. The world is not made better by another car model, another household appliance, or another layer of makeup. It is fleeting and may bring happiness for the moment, but when, for example, I read the novel The three homeless by Dan Andersson from 1918, I realize once again how deeply enriching art can be. It is over a hundred years since it was written, but the characters are still alive today. They still breathe, suffer, and worry in 2023. I am with them in the forests of Finnmarken.
Therefore, we must continue to create. Because among a hundred books there is perhaps one that will make a deep impression on me. The book that will stay with me and that I want to return to. The book deepens existence and gives meaning to life. If nothing else, art can provide balance in a fast and superficial world that flickers by in the flow of the screens.
So: keep writing and I’ll keep working on the script in front of me. It is probably the best thing we can do for the world today.
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Mattias Kvick is an author and illustrator
