Grand Détour - International Edition

Just back from still sunny Gothenburg, after the Book Fair... For those of you from a larger country, or larger language area, I can tell you that this is something quite special. Just the fact that everyone is there. The scenes and sub scenes. All of Swedish and Swedish-speaking cultural life converge for one weekend in one big hall. Children are pushed there by cultural parents, and become intrigued by the mass of comic books. Teenagers get free tickets from school librarians. Like I did. Big eyes. Still remember the intellectual shootout between my friend Rasmus and the Objectivists.

So, I come back, for some reason or another, year after year. This year, nearly all the usual suspects were there (didn't see the objectivists though). So I prepared myself for a freaky blast from the past reality show. Old teachers, from gymnasium and university, people of the past, as well as the international authors in the lobby and all possible and impossible kind of celebrities, on the floor and not to mention in the bars at night.

It is funny... last time I wrote about the political hangover metaphor... and before that about Margot Wallströms blog. Now, she is using it herself, and puts up the rhetorical question "Should I stay or should I go?" (a small reminder of that the music taste of leading eurocrats is changing... Don't know why but I have this vision of future summits where the top politicians of this continent, and beyond, will dance to Arctic Monkeys or... Promoe? That is what will happen, sisters and brothers...) Some Swedes are urging her to come back to lead the reconstruction of the Social Democrats, but she has fans from other parts of the Union, that want her to stay.

And cheers for Bulgaria and Romania today!