Talk:Astrid Lindgren

Copyright

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Link

First occurence of subject's name shouldn't be a link, audio or otherwise, but this link probably should be preserved in the article. Rlquall 12:32, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

Asteroid

The article says Astrid said that maybe people should call her Astreoid Lindgren instead. She said that when the asteroid 3204 Lindgren was named after her. Not the satellites. I think. Kricke 15:28, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

Translated into 85 languages?

From where have we gotten this number? I wouldn't call this a reliable source, but.... And this Site claimes she's been translated into 91 langauges. Nakerlund (talk) 12:04, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

The official FAQ has the number of languages up to ninetyfour. It seems a fairly reliable source (which is already in use here). It's maintained in part by the Lindgren estate Saltkråkan, and in part by the Astrid Lindgren's Näs foundation situated where Lindgren grew up (they host a museum, a knowledge centre, and a resource library, among other things). --LordEniac (talk) 20:45, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Unfortunately there are problems with that list. Needless to say, it is in their interest to claim as many languages as possible and several of the "languages" they claim are not recognised as languages by linguists. Some are not considered languages by anyone.

• Croatian is a language and Croatian is spoken on Krk but Krk-Croatian is not a language by any definition.
• British English and American English are different standards, but they are not two languages.
• German is listed four times, although German is still universally considered one language.
• There are differences in the Frisian language and I could even understand an argument about the Frisian in Germany and in Friesland being different, but the three Frisian "languages" listed are all part of the same dialect group.
• Sorani and Kurmanji are different, but they are both Kurdish.
• Älvdalska and Pitebondska would be hard for me to understand, but they are still seen as Swedish.
• Transpiranto is a joke language, a parody on Esperanto.

All in all, the list is completely unreliable and not valid as a source for any claims on number of languages into which Lindgren has been translated.JdeJ (talk) 20:59, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

You're right about the possibility of subjectiveness in that list, and I agree with most of your specific objections too. Though, I think to just change "were translated into 94[1] languages" to "were translated into 94[1] languages/dialects" and be rid of the linguistic issues altogether could be a decent solution.

IMHO the quantification of languages is indeed a fairly hairy business.

interjection. This provides some support for counting translations instead (as we do since November 2009). Furthermore, every new translation costs money and thus indicates some continuing appeal. ... -P64

I'm swedish and my grandmother was from just outside Lycksele (Tannsele) and she would (when asked) speak the local dialect, and I could only catch about one word out of ten, whereas for example Norwegian is quite easy to follow, and even Dutch is easier, but still considered another language. It's the same with old natives of Gotland, and some other local dialects like dalmål (perhaps the same as "älvdalska"). In short - if a translation was needed, I think it should count (*here*), evenso if it was a translation to pig latin. --LordEniac (talk) 12:23, 9 July 2009 (UTC)

If we count it (*here*) then we wouldn't be counting like Guinness. I doubt L._Ron_Hubbard really is the author translated into most languages, but Guinness is a less biased source than Lindgren's own site.

... L.Ron may be, or Mary Baker Eddy may be, or Marx & Engels, or Lenin, if the relevant supporting organization funded enough non-commercial translations. ...

I couldn't find any more reliable source for the number of languages Lindgren is translated, but I found a list of the most translated authors, in which Lindgren is 25th at 1849 translations.--Nakerlund (talk) 14:28, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

I replaced the number of languages she was translated into with a relative number of translations. I cut the number of countries her books have been sold in because of the citation needed and vague phrasing while I was at it. Hope this is ok with everyone--Nakerlund (talk) 14:49, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

(continued) Good.

We need a source Pippi Longstocking's 60 languages. The Good Article in Swedish wikipedia does list 42 relevant first editions in 40 languages, sv:Pippi Långstrump (bok)#Titlar (endast urval).

Talk:Pippi Longstocking (book)#Editions. --P64 (talk) 20:22, 5 August 2013 (UTC)

Most popular books?

This article says that Pippi and Karlsson are the most popular characters. How do we know this? According to the Swedish Wikipedia page she has 14 different book series, which are all very popular in her home-country. Which one has sold the most copies? The longest book series is the Emil i Lönneberga series, which has twelve books, more than Karlsson and Pippi combined. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.225.221.172 (talk) 12:50, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

The problem is that her books have different cults in different countries. In the former Soviet Union, Karlsson is a national icon, inspiring everything from lapel pins to a full opera, while Pippi is virtually unknown. This is why the no POV is such a good policy: Otherwise edit wars between Pippi and Karlsson partisans might rend the harmony of this article, much as these disputes have lead to battles within my own household. Even though it should be clear to any sane person that Karlsson is the best EVAH, I hope other editors will keep this conflict in mind. --Woland (talk) 18:55, 30 July 2009 (UTC)

Pippi Longstocking is much the most widely held by WorldCat libraries (External link WorldCat) and two other Pippis are easily second and third. Interpretation is dicey first because the distribution of WorldCat libraries is unknown, second because titles in different languages are inconsistently counted as editions of the same book. Both points are more important here than elsewhere, first because English is not the first language, second because some are very widely translated. Because interpretation is dicey, we wikipeditors tend to report a bare fact such as underlined above. It can be misleading.

Lindgren received the Andersen Medal --won the "Little Nobel Prize"-- in 1958 for se:Rasmus på luffen (Stockholm: Rabén & Sjögren, 1956), which we cover only indirectly in the film article Rasmus på luffen. Evidently --from the Swedish article and Google Translate-- the book was preceded by a radio drama and a film.

Evidently this is Rasmus and the Vagabond (NY: Viking, 1960), which ranks only #15 in WorldCat libraries. Karlsson-on-the-Roof is #20, the last one listed.[1]

By the way, a glance at WorldCat Formats and editions of Rasmus and the vagabond shows me this book is exceptionally well identified across multiple languages and a glance at Lindgren's Top 20 suggests this is generally true for her works, despite my general observation above. --P64 (talk) 17:52, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Political Views during the Third Reich ?

Was she a Nazi ? Was she leftist, i think this is a very importnt part of this article, why is it missing ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.32.109.48 (talk) 10:02, 29 May 2010 (UTC)

She was very political and wasn't afraid of raising her voice in issues but she was not necessarily associated to any particular party. She was a social democrat in her early years and took very strong stance against racism, nazism and Hitler. In the 70s and 80s however she became very critical to the taxation system of the social democrats, and she was a very strong reason why they lost the election in 1976. She was also very active in children's and animal rights movements, and help pass many laws in those issues. -- Henriok (talk) 01:36, 14 August 2010 (UTC)

She was almost 70 years old in 1976, yet section "Politics" merely says she remained Social Democrat for the rest of her life, as an aside to coverage of that election. The section needs to lead with some general statement. For instance, she was a social democrat all of her life and supported the Social Democrats (Sweden) party thruout, or post-war, or whatever such we know to be true.

We say this SD/Workers Party and the SDLeft/Communist/Left Party split in 1917 (stimulated by the Russian Revolution?). She was then ten.

Of the "very strong stance against racism, nazism and Hitler" per User:Henriok, whatever is well-known and uncontroversial among Swedish editors, or can be documented, should be stated here, near the top of a generally chronological section. --"stance" if strong stance or very strong stance is unsupportable. (The Right Livelihood should be documented here because we use a quotation.)

--P64 (talk) 17:12, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

I agree that the most important part of anybody's biography who lived during Hitler's reign is whether they ever espoused a view which could be interpreted as being in alignment with Nazism. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.232.191.16 (talk) 20:53, 23 October 2014 (UTC)

Works

1. I renamed this section (was "Bibliography"), provided subsection headings for the two sublists (in place of lame prose headers), divided the latter (now 5.2 "Other books translated into English") in two columns, and moved images to accommodate the new right-hand column. If the entries in sec 5.1 "Best-known books" do get much longer, as with provision of two dates each (below), then more attention to images layout will be needed. I did the minimum to accommodate two-column sec 5.2.
2. From the end of the latter list I deleted one entry, Kajsa Kavat, which may belong in its alphabetical place. It does appear below as the title of a film. Is it the title of an English-language edition?
3. Neither the prose nor the list of works gives much attention to genre --novels, picture books, etc-- nor any attention to illustrations. Did she self-illustrate anything? work with any illustrators?
4. By the way, we say "Lindgren was almost blind a few years before her death" and put her in Category:Blind writers. If she does belong in the cat, the article needs to say more about that.
5. At least for 5.1 "Best-known books", dates should be provided. I suggest two dates, for first SE-language and EN-language editions.
6. I provided {{infobox writer}} fields Period and Genre. Someone who knows her career should complete or correct as appropriate.

--P64 (talk) 18:25, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

4. almost blind. Specifically, did she continue to write for publication when blind in some sense that is important for a writer? --P64 (talk) 17:09, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps not. Apparently a schoolteacher in Sweden teaches that she stopped because of failing eyesight.[2] --evidently, material for teaching English language to Swedish schoolchildren-- "The last one [of more than 40 books] was Ronja–the robber's daughter, published in 1986. After that Astrid had really bad eyesight and she spend a lot of time answering letters." Afterward, TASK 6 asks "What book was the last one Astrid wrote and why was it the last one?"

--P64 (talk) 22:39, 5 August 2013 (UTC)

"Agneta's English" is the website of a non-notable individual There appears to be no reliable source to confirm that loss of eyesight was important or notable for Lindgren's authorship. I'm removing this category until appropriate references have been presented.

Peter ^Isotalo 17:41, 17 January 2015 (UTC)