In the The Girl… trilogy by Steig Larsson, one of the main characters is named Mikael Blomkvist. In the first book we’re introduced to him and a reference is made to a nickname he has picked up in the media, Kalle Blomkvist, which I think we’re supposed to understand is something of an insult.
Problem is, I don’t speak Swedish, so I don’t know what the insult is. Can anyone enlighten me? What would be a comparable insult in English?
I thought they explained that in the text. As I recall, Kalle Blomkvist is the name of a character in a popular children’s book. I kinda sort of think I remember him being described as an over-ego yet hapless kid detective.
It would be like if his name were Doug Rich and then when he runs afoul of public controversy for insider trading the tabloids started calling him Richie Rich.
Ha, I wanted to ask that too because I don’t remember it being explained in the text, but I Wiki’d Kalle Blomkvist and found out. I still didn’t understand why it bothered him, but the analogy to Richie Rich is perfect and makes sense now.
Btw, I saw The Girl Who Played With Fire the other day and liked it a lot too. Both movies are playing in various theaters here in Chicago. The Music Box even had them as a double-feature last week. I’ve read the first book and plan to get the second book at Borders Saturday. I don’t want to read the 3rd until after I’ve seen the movie this fall.
I think the main reason Mikael was offended was being compared to a kid detective, and as such not taken seriously. The Richie Rich comparison was very good.
Apparently the books about Kalle Blomkvist has been published in English, but he’s called Bill Bergson.
He’s one of Astrid Lindgren’s famous characters and as such very dear to Scandinavian children, though personally I prefer Ronia the Robber’s Daughter, Pippi Longstocking, Madicken and the Brothers Lionheart. In conclusion: Read Astrid Lindgren’s books to your sons and daughters! 
The ‘joke’ is expanded a bit in the second book: Michael Blomkvist is the boy detective who stumbles into a criminal plot by sheer chance as a teenager and Lisbeth Salander’s door has a plaque reading ‘V. Kula’. Pippi Longstocking (orig. Langstrump), the ‘orphaned’ girl who pays for her junk-food guzzling, authority-free lifestyle with a suitcase full of gold, lives at ‘Villa Villekula’.
Of course, both Kalle Blomkvist and Pippi Longstocking are the work of Astrid Lindgren. Larsson’s working himself into the existing popular canon bluntly with Blomkvist and more subtly with Salander.
I just read that part last night about Villa Villekula (finished the book last night too!) but didn’t make the connection that Kalle Blomkvist was a character in Pippi Longstocking. Or if it was spelled out and obvious, I somehow missed it.
Thanks for all the responses. Oh- one other thing- I’ll spoiler it in case it gives away too much (I don’t think it does but just want to be safe). During the climactic scene near the end of “…Played With Fire”,
when Lisbeth is out in the woods with Zala and the blond, and she tosses them her Tungsten Palm and claims the conversation has been broadcast over internet radio, was she bluffing? I believe if anyone could hack the Palm to make it work it would be her, but it might have just been a bluff to get them distracted so she could retaliate. Or, if she was telling the truth it would explain how she could effectively change public opinion of her being the murderer.
Thoughts from anyone who has finished it?
Yes, I believe she was bluffing. No mention of the broadcast was made in the text after that one sentence. But I haven’t red the third book, so grain of salt and all that.
Joe
I believe you meant the thread title to read “Kalle fucking Blomkvist”.
He’s not. He’s a character by Astrid Lindren, the author of Pippi, but not he’s not in the Pippi books.
I loved those Kalle books as a kid and I think he’s actually quite a nice character - but as has already been argued, the problem is more about not being taken seriously.
And I’m so with Ready_for_my_closeup: Astrid Lindgren’s children’s books are fabulous. Especially Ronia.
So many Ronia fans! I’d love to see a fancy Hollywood adaptation, wouldn’t you? The harpies and rumphobs could be CGI, with some stark Nordic forest scenery… delicious shivers down my spine just thinking of it!
Native Swede here
you are right about the reference. Kalle Blomquist is a hapless little detective.
Regarding Ronia the Robber’s Daughter. This has made into a movie, which is still amazing for anyone growing up to it.
Id be happy to make subtitles to it if enough people are interested and willing to make a sneaky download from the internet.
That’s 'zactly what I was coming to post.
I’m pretty sure it was a bluff. The bad guy seemed to think so - he took one look at it and said something to the effect of it being impossible with that phone.
Or Kalle Bastard Blomkvist…
Yeah definitely bluffing. The Palm Tungsten was just a pda, not a phone. It may have had wi-fi connectivity capability- I don’t remember. I had a Tungsten E and still use the next generation pda (now hopelessly out of date), the Palm T|X, and it does have wi-fi and bluetooth, but it’s definitely not a phone. (And they’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hand.)
Carry on.
There were a bunch of Palms called Tungsten. I had a Tungsten T with Bluetooth and a WiFi SD card. I was able to do email, rudimentary web browsing, etc. It also had a built-in microphone for voice memos, so presumably with the right application, it could have transmitted sound. The Tungsten W had built in GPRS, so presumably it could have done the job without access to WiFi.
I dint know that. My bad.
I would be giving away a plot device from the third book explaining why not, but as a plot device in the second novel, when she blunders the approach with her dad, it was one of those couldn’t hurt things. He has a fair grasp of technical matters that if it had been another PDA device or smart phone, it would have worked, but the father was bit quick on the uptake.
Declan
Apart from Ronia and the brothers Lionheart, I’d have to put the Emil books as my favorite.
I’m surprised no one has even mentioned Emil. Should be an automatic when bringing up Astrid Lindgren.
By the way, in the Kalle Blomkvist books. Kalle and his sidekick Anders Bengtsson both have the hots for neighbor Eva-Lotta Lisander.
Lisander…Salander? Coincidence? I don’t think so.