I don't know if one in English normally refer to Hitler’s book as “My Struggle” or its original German name “Mein Kampf”, but at least in Mr. Knausgårds original Norwegian book name “Min Kamp” the reference is very clear.
Originally, he wanted the book titled "Argentina" because his whole memoir was about the daily minutiae, dealing with the responsibilities to his wife, family, children, society, professional courtesies and liberal sensibilities of Scandinavian society en-route to an inexhaustible march to growing old and useless with an nagging sense of not accomplishing anything in particular, like being caught up with life never to have taken a trip to Argentina.
One of his good friend when talking about this, mentioned that it'd be more appropriate for him to title the book then "My Struggle". (Everyday mundane life is a battle field. Inside, we are all more neurotic than we all present to other people? Retreating to a refuge as Peronist regime is more a fantasy when our personal Stalingrad already happened, when what is inevitable and predictable: standing on the Berlin Furtherbunker stage when the curtain falls.)
His editor initially said that it'd be impossible. But after a few weeks, recanted his decision and went ahead with the book title.
In English it is generally referred to (in my experience) as 'Mein Kampf'. In fact, until learning about Mr. Knausgårds book recently I assumed Hitler's translated to 'My Life'.
Perhaps he is trying to reclaim this pattern of words from its association with Hitler? Or maybe he is being deliberately provocative or perhaps ignorant?
There are many ways to interpret the title. The books deals with the author's problematic relationship to his father. He has said that Hitler inspires the same horror as his father did to him when he was a child.
It's acceptable (or at least “not wrong”) to use “aa” for å (and “oe” for ø/ö, “ae” for æ/ä).
While ‘å’ was made an official letter in Norwegian in 1917, it's still common to see “aa” spellings of names, and “aa” and “å” spellings are considered equivalent (fun when sorting, since ‘å’ is the last letter of the Norwegian alphabet).
I'm surprised that this turned out to be such a vile thing to bring up, judging by how it has been recieved. I always had the impression that places like HN were quick to point out linguistic and grammatical issues, even when they might be viewed as pedantic. And even when the issue that is brought up is subjective, or otherwise based on (linguistic) ideology - like what might be the case in this case. Like for example use of gender-neutral pronouns, which seems to go contrary to normal use, but has some compelling arguments going for them. And although I might be wrong in my assertion that the author shouldn't refer to someone by such a spelling, am I really so pig-headed and obnoxious that I should be punished so harshly, vote-wise? I am not really whining about down votes (they can't be taken back, anyway), but asking if someone should be down voted so much for simply being wrong about something? And being wrong without being willfully ignorant or lazy (like, to give a bland but current example, people who refuse to vaccinate their children in spite of monumental evidence compelling them to do so).
Or is perhaps the issue that the linguistic side-track is about a non-English language, on an English speaking site, and so is judged to be too off topic? In that case all I can say is that is completely on me if only that initial mention was enough to be too off topic. But it is only partly on me when considering the whole discussion, since discussions take on a life on their own. Especially when they turn out to be somewhat controversial. :)
[+] [-] runarb|11 years ago|reply
I don't know if one in English normally refer to Hitler’s book as “My Struggle” or its original German name “Mein Kampf”, but at least in Mr. Knausgårds original Norwegian book name “Min Kamp” the reference is very clear.
[+] [-] noname123|11 years ago|reply
One of his good friend when talking about this, mentioned that it'd be more appropriate for him to title the book then "My Struggle". (Everyday mundane life is a battle field. Inside, we are all more neurotic than we all present to other people? Retreating to a refuge as Peronist regime is more a fantasy when our personal Stalingrad already happened, when what is inevitable and predictable: standing on the Berlin Furtherbunker stage when the curtain falls.)
His editor initially said that it'd be impossible. But after a few weeks, recanted his decision and went ahead with the book title.
[+] [-] jimmcslim|11 years ago|reply
Perhaps he is trying to reclaim this pattern of words from its association with Hitler? Or maybe he is being deliberately provocative or perhaps ignorant?
[+] [-] unicornporn|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dewie2|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ehamberg|11 years ago|reply
While ‘å’ was made an official letter in Norwegian in 1917, it's still common to see “aa” spellings of names, and “aa” and “å” spellings are considered equivalent (fun when sorting, since ‘å’ is the last letter of the Norwegian alphabet).
[+] [-] Dewie2|11 years ago|reply
Or is perhaps the issue that the linguistic side-track is about a non-English language, on an English speaking site, and so is judged to be too off topic? In that case all I can say is that is completely on me if only that initial mention was enough to be too off topic. But it is only partly on me when considering the whole discussion, since discussions take on a life on their own. Especially when they turn out to be somewhat controversial. :)