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Gems from the Moominvalley archives
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Letters from Japan

by Antonuzzo

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“I was drawn into the world. The characters, the stories, and Moominvalley itself.”

Chihiro Harada was one of many children enthralled by the Moomin anime series that aired on Fuji TV in Japan between 1969 and 1970. Others were less enthralled by this show – including Tove Jansson,tovetokyo2 who disliked the major changes in the personalities and even the names of the characters. Don’t expect to see this one coming to DVD anytime soon.

Harada’s connection with the world of Moomin was so strong that she was compelled to make a bold move: to write to Tove Jansson. Writing in Japanese – she was in elementary school, after all – she didn’t really expect a reply.

But Jansson was dedicated to her fans, and spent long hours answering correspondence. A mere linguistic stumbling block wasn’t going to prevent her from replying to this young girl who’d reached out halfway around the world. And so, having found someone to translate the text, she replied.

This started a correspondence that continued until Tove’s death in 2001, with Chihiro Harada writing at Christmas every year; Tove Jansson replied whenever she could, sometimes sending Moominerabilia with her letters.

Chihiro Harada finally made the journey to Finland, to visit the address that she’d sent all of these letters to. “It was amazing to see that the Jansson name is still on the letterbox,” she said. “It made the world of Tove and Moomins even more real.”

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Moominsummer Madness

by Antonuzzo

There’s been a bit of a buzz about AI-generated content of late, the most notable being the awesome Harry Potter fan fiction created by Botnik. They fed the entire works of J.K. Rowling into an AI and let it write a story. The results were surreal, and a fair bit better than the originals.

Most recently Screen Junkies did the same with Honest Trailers – they fed the content of every single Honest Trailer and let it generate a script. The results were hilarious.

So I wondered what the same AI would make of Tove Jansson. It took a little bit of work, but I managed to feed Comet in Moominland and Moominsummer Madness into the beast, and let it do its work. What came out was completely bizarre, verging on the lysergic. So here you are, the first ever robot-generated Moomin chapter:

Vapour By Moominchild

The Snork Maiden went on laying out shells round the rhubarb bed. Moomintroll and Sniff twirled once again because all that seemed to flicker and burn somewhere in the valley below them could have looked quite angry. “Vapour was happening!” said Snufkin. Moomintroll thought longingly again as fast as he trudged along. 

But there were rocks looking wildly for them and he mumbled so very well. Perhaps somebody had forgotten the underground river – over his shoulder was the earth. It crashed down from behind him with an important voice. Moomintroll was overwhelmed with the wheelbarrow, but that was unnecessary. 

“Have a lamp before winding stilts.” said Moominmamma. Sniff hid his dress in his mouth. “Vapour revealed!” said the Snork Maiden. At that black voice, the flight of the cave proudly filled with rubies on tails which thrashed for the rest of the sea.

Suddenly, scientists from prison began struggling frantically against the pulling rope, while Moominpappa wrote his memoirs. “Sniff gave orders in surprise,” said Moominpappa. “In front of the rucksack for you.” They strained their ears excitedly, drifting slowly nearer and nearer to the mast. 

“In my life I was happy wherever I was covered by crabs?” he asked. Sniff paused. “A little gold bracelet,” said Moominpappa. “Over four minutes later.” Moomintroll stopped chattering for this flowering valley. Once he sat down under their feet, leaves inside his nose poked around too. They all hid his nose by a ring for a bit, and the river lay down on a tree and folded up to his middle. 

Which is more important? Snufkin sadly thought. The Muskrat avoided the Hemulen slowly and looked most extraordinary because all of them, except the Snork Maiden’s cost of October, dawned on their tails. Now everything that they could distinguish there sat on their stilts.

“What’s by the rope tied with excitement? Silk eiderdown with white flowers!” exclaimed Moomintroll. Because the comet was diving headlong to earth, midnight was getting thoroughly tangled up with laughter. 

“Whirling please!” said Moomintroll. “Whirling please!”

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The Editor Regrets…

by Antonuzzo

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Wartime Finland was not exactly a hotbed of freehanded creativity. Despite Garm‘s boldness, it nevertheless had to stay within certain parameters of acceptability, or run the risk of closing down. So it’s hardly surprising that censorship itself became a topic worthy of addressing. It wasn’t only topical issues that the authorities were sensitive about – love stories were heavily discouraged and edited too; it was felt that they would lower wartime morale.

The influence of the censors was powerful enough that the Garm editors themselves censored the above cartoon. Penned by Tove Jansson in 1942, the cartoon portrays two female censors – underneath a “Do not disturb the censors” sign – redacting a serialised love story. It’s likely that at the time, this was considered too critical to run, and that portraying censors concerning themselves with the outcome of a romantic pulp story would undermine the reputation of the state’s policy on censorship.

They eventually ran the strip after the war, the editors stating that on reflection, “it didn’t really allude to the serious and gloomy side of the state’s function”.

There’s a lot going on in this strip, particularly to Swedish speakers. The underlining and kisses emphasise key parts of the story, whilst the redacted document cleverly tells a different tale through its edits, with the original meaning still discernible to a keen eye. Clever, clever stuff.

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Sculptor’s Daughter

by Antonuzzo

It’s perhaps not surprising that, given her success as a writer and an artist, Tove Jansson’s modelling career is somewhat overlooked. Although she wasn’t cavorting on the covers of Vogue, Ny Tid, or even Garm, she spent long hours modelling for her father, Viktor ‘Faffan’ Jansson. A gifted sculptor, Viktor – like many Finnish sculptors of the time – forever followed in the footsteps of Wäinö Aaltonen. Even more so than today, sculpture was a hard field to work in, and even harder to break into. Materials were not cheap, the work was labour-intensive and the resulting pieces were inevitably priced beyond all but the most ambitious pockets.

But Viktor persevered, fighting for commissions, competitions and prizes, whilst his wife Ham supported the family with her illustration work. Tove Jansson was drafted in as a model almost from her birth, and a good few of the resulting sculptures are now on public display in Finland. Armed with a camera, I went for a look…

sculptor3The first one that I wanted to see proved impossible. Sjöjungfru is located in an inner yard in Helsinki but, due to a police cordon, I couldn’t get through to see it. I had more luck in the nearby Esplanadi park, where Lek II was on display. It’s one of two mermaid sculptures – mermaids were a recurring theme in Viktor Jansson’s work. Tove Jansson modelled for the smaller figure, the little mermaid playing on the tail.

 

 

 

sculptor2Convolvulus was placed in Kaisaniemi Park in 1931, and this smaller version is in Hietaniemi graveyard. This came about as the result of one of Jansson’s successful competition entries, and again featured Tove Jansson as a model. The title refers to a type of bindweed, a thread of life, and relates to the the interplay between nature and femininity. There’s also duality in the pose itself; the risen hand is partly in defence and partly bestowing a blessing, welcoming the advent of Spring.

 

 

 

sculptor4A somewhat sadder sculpture is located nearby: The grave of the Jansson family. Viktor, Ham, Lars and other members of the family were laid to rest here and of course the grave is often adorned with tiny Moomins left by well-wishers. The Janssons are in prestigious company; Finland’s decorated military hero Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim is also buried here as is designer Alvar Aalto.

 

 

 

 

sculptor0On a happier note, a sculpture of Tove Jansson’s face adorns the entrance to her home and studio, the Atelier in Ullanlinnankatu. I had the good fortune to visit this place recently – something that I’ll cover in more detail in a forthcoming post. Suffice to say it was an incredible privilege and yes, there are more sculptures behind the closed doors.

 

 

 

 

 

sculptor5Heading North to Tampere, there’s another sculpture of Tove in Sorsapuisto. Kajastus was created at the same time as Convolvulus, but went to Tampere rather than Helsinki. It shares the same heritage as its sister, but the arms are raised, with no suggestion of defence.

 

 

 

 

 

sculptor6And in the same park – Moomin. Relocated from his old home outside the Metso library, he now greets visitors to the Moomin Museum at its new home in Tampere Talo (and again, more about this in another post…). This was cast from a sculpture by Tove’s partner, Tuulikki Pietilä – although it’s important to note that although Tuulikki created the sculpture, Tove drew the eyes.

It’s touching that Moomin now resides in the same park as his creator, just across the lake from each other. Aww.

 

Viktor didn’t always have it his own way though, and Tove did get her own back in the pages of Garm. I’ll leave the post on that note:

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No Fleas on Moomin

by Antonuzzo

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Given Moomin’s global popularity, it’s not surprising that there’s been a lot of merchandise produced over the years, some of which is now quite valuable. Top of the list is the 2004 Fazer mug – only 400 were made and one sold in auction for over 8000 Euros. but what other treasures lurk out there?

To answer this, I had a scour of some of the Kirppis shops in Finland. These are essentially indoor car boot sales, with a large number of stalls – usually over a hundred – selling a variety of goods. Individual stall holders set their own prices and you can find anything from watches and toys to guitars and horse saddles. Really.

But there’s not as much Moominalia as you might expect. This might be partly due to the collectibility of the mugs – aside from the aforementioned Fazer mug, Arabia release short-lived Summer and Winter specials, and other limited editions appear from time to time. They also usually retire a couple of lines each year, pushing up the value.

That said, I did see some vastly optimistic pricing. The Tove Jubilee mug with glasses appeared in one shop for €95 – high, but in keeping with its online value – and the pink and blue Håll Sverige Rent mugs hovered around the €28 mark, which is fairly realistic.

But some of the asking prices were just silly – €70 and over for out-of-production mugs that can be found online for half the price. Sillier yet was the shop that had a second-hand Little My mug from the current line for €30, with the record going to the asking price of €50 for they turquoise Moomin character mug that is not only still in production, but discounted to €10 in the Arabia stores. That said, I did pick up an older Snufkin mug for €9 on another stall.

Better bargains can be had if you look away from the Arabia products. There were DVDs and magazines aplenty, and there were a lot of the older Fazer biscuit tins for around €5 – they’re likely to become quite collectable, particularly if you have a full set.

I hit gold in the Tampere Flea Market. The first thing that I spotted was a boxed Muurla Moominpappa candle for €9 – perhaps not quite valuable, but still a nice item. Better yet was the Snorkmaiden piggy bank for one Euro more. These were mass-produced with the four main characters being featured, but whilst the Moomin banks turn up fairly often, the Snorkmaiden items are a bit rarer.

But the find of the day was a Finnish first-edition of Moominsummer Madness for €24. It’s not mint and there are some scribbles on the front cover, but it would comfortably fetch over €100 in an auction. Not that I have any intention of parting with it…

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