Helena Granström
Helena granström is a writer and debater who captured our interest through her way of depicting the diversity and uniqueness of the forest. The desire to know how it all fits together seems to be the driving force behind her writing and in the following pages we are proud to present a new set of connections spawned from a conversation we had with this intriguing intellect.
Text: Hinsides Magazine 2022
Photos: Emil Ahlman
Hello and welcome to Hinsides magazine! Please introduce yourself and reveal what kind of activities that you are engaged in this particular day?
I’m at home in the kitchen of my house outside Gnesta, waiting for my son Leopard Man to finish a dispute between LEGO-Captain America, Black Panther and Baron Zema so that we can have lunch.
Today you are most commonly known as a writer, but you also have a master’s degree in theoretical physics. How do these two areas of interest interact in your life? If you had to choose between writing only poetry and prose or scientifically academic texts, what would you choose and why? Does it feel like you’ve ever had to choose between these two fields when it comes to your career?
I left my doctoral service at the University back in 2009 so I’ve most definitely made a choice. Since then I’ve only been approaching physics and mathematics from the angles of aesthetics and, to some degree, popular science. During a certain period of time, before I quit my duties at the academy, I did work simultaneously with writing prose and conduct scientific research but I did find those two activities to be too alike to be clearly separated from each other. They both occupy your subconscious extensively. At least according to my experience.
If you were to make a poetic description of your relation to literature versus mathematics, what would such a description look like and what would these descriptions tell about yourself and your personal qualities?
I don´t think that I ever would try to do that kind of description, really. Probably that says something about me and my personal qualities?
In your book ”Betydelsen av kärlek” (The Meaning of Love) you describe how the implications of quantum physics can create a similar existential anxiety and insecurity in an individual as thoughts and ideas about love or the lack of it. How would you describe the purpose of that book, and what reactions has it caused?
The basic theme in that particular book questions if there´s such a thing as true mutuality? A mutual, ”human to human”, relationship where the notion of the other isn´t just a projection of ones own wishes, perceptions and desires, but where instead a real connection could take place. To me, it was interesting to investigate this possibility by writing about the contra-intuitive result of quantum physics. Especially Hugh Everetts ideas about parallell worlds. One of the characters in the book is a woman who writes letters to the protagonist and she is suffering from internalizing the profound consequences of these theories on a personal level. Something that proves to be deeply horrifying and most probably something that the minds behind these theories never did themselves in the same way.
Photo by Sofia Runarson
You´ve also written the preface to the Swedish edition of Michel Houellebecq’s ”Consumption to death”. How did you get that assignment and what do you think of him as a writer and public debater? Has he in any way inspired you and your own way of writing?
I was asked by the publisher and thought that it would be a both stimulating and challenging task. I’ve written about the works of Houellebecq previously in other contexts, like in relation to the idea of the soul´s presense in the sexual body, and I think that he´s a brilliant writer who has raised many comforting thoughts about writing. That you never have to worry about unicity, being one example. If you write sincerely and engaged about what appears as obvious to you, then your own personal shortcomings and peculiarities will affect the material enough to make it fairly unique and, in the best of worlds, even interesting for someone else to read.
Houellebecqs has endured harsh criticism which implies him to be both Islamophobic and a sexist. What do you think about that criticism and how do you relate to the political arena? Which questions engage you the most and why? Which of the issues you have discussed in public do you find most sensitive based on the readers’ reactions?
I’m pretty uninterested in politics when it comes to political parties and everyday politics. I put more interest in what aspects of human communities and internship that we as a society perceive as political and what we exclude from this field. I’ve discussed a number of questions that I believe are controversial in the public eye, most recently abortion, but the strongest reactions I’ve experienced thus far would be questions connected to gender identity and transgender rights. Judged by the answers I’ve received in the papers I write in. I’m not on social media so the reactions I get is, thankfully, these ones if any.
How do you relate to the concepts of being a leader of opinion and public educator? Do you have a specific agenda, personal or universal, that you start from when you write? How do you reflect upon the idea that so-called intellectuals hold a position where they can educate other people and thus influence politics and social development?
I wouldn’t say that I’ve got any explicit agenda but I do have an interest in examining those values that are so deeply rooted in our culture that they tend to be taken for granted and not defended or argued for. I wish that I had more trust in intellectual influence over politics and debate, and if I would allow myself to be a little bit frank here; I’m not sure how many of todays intellectuals, and especially the ones that writes in the cultural section, that really fit the description of being an intellectual. There are some, of course, whom I value a lot but it’s not their voices that affects the development of our society the most.
For us with an interest in the special type of ”counter-culture” that evolved within the extreme metal scene in the early nineties, the connection between this phenomenon and the title of ”Det som en gång var” (What Once Was) do not pass unnoticed. Whose idea was it to use this title, and how did the thoughts go?
There are no extreme metal references in the title that I´m aware of. You´ll have to ask Marcus Elmestad who came up with the original idea to this project; to document endangered places that are threatened by mining or logging. His idea was to pre-empt the loss of these on an aesthetic level by portraying them with an expression borrowed from historical photography, and the original plan was for me to write a kind of extended captions, but they soon grew into a book.
In this book you express sorrow over how modern man has lost contact with nature. You also seem to criticize the idea that problems caused by industrialization can be solved with the help of new technology. You write, among other things, that the argument for the existence of wolfes is that there is wolfes and thus occupy a position that, at least apparently, wants to return to and preserve a system that we humans have already put ourselves above and out of order. Another perspective on the issue argues that extinction of species and life forms are natural steps in an ongoing development that can not be stopped. How do you view the question of man’s relationship to nature and technological development today? Has your view changed in any way, and how do you view the future in the light of this question?
The idea of an unstoppable technological development is in itself a point of view that I perceive as being culturally central and worthy of closer examination. The thought that this development should keep on moving unrestrainedly in the same direction, with evolved VR-tech, AI, and advanced DNA editing is to me no less terrifying than if it should be held back by, for instance, climate change. In this sense, my position has remained quite firm during the last fifteen years or so.
“och han skall torka alla tårar från deras ögon. Döden skall inte finnas mer, och ingen sorg och ingen klagan och ingen smärta skall finnas mer. Ty det som en gång var är borta.”
-Uppenbarelseboken 21:4 B2000
Quote equals Marcus Elmestads explanation of where the title to ”Det som en gång var” came from.
Nature seems to be one of your obvious inspirational sources but what else is there that inspires you? Are there any other writers, poets, musicians or artists worth mentioning in this context?
I seldom think in terms of inspiration, but every now and then I come across separate thoughts, that awaken something in me that I want to delve into on a deeper level. Often in a non-fiction form, and writers who inspired me strongly during my early twenties, when I read most intensively, are Sherry Turkle, Paul Shephard and Derrick Jensen, to name a few.
What does your writing process looks like? Does it differ from time to time or do you have a special routine or model that helps you to get through?
I often start with an empty page and then see what happens. Usually I’m able to find some sort of basic skeleton of scenes and thoughts quite early on in the process that I later fill out piece by piece. The method used is to get through the most demanding part as quick as possible, the creative phase, and then try to fool oneself that the rest is just technicalities. Which it rarely is, of course.
What, in your opinion, makes a great writer, and how would you describe your own main assets as a writer?
The answer of the first question is, I think, the ability to live with uncertainty. Including doubt whether this writing that you put all your time and effort into has any meaning at all. When it comes to revealing my assets as a writer it´s easier to mention my main obstacles, which is lousy self-confidence and bad patience.
Tell us about your proudest moment as a writer so far, and what goals have not yet been achieved? What are you working on right now?
Every time I got a letter from a reader who expresses that my writing has meant something to them it gives me the feeling that I´ve not just wasted my time. And that´s as much as you can hope for as a writer, I guess? Right now I´m in the middle of my summer vacation together with my kids but I do have a pair of reviews and an essay that I´m working on with low intensity. My latest book, Königsberg, were released just a couple of months ago, and I´m not quite ready to start something new just yet.
Ok, to wrap things up it would be interesting to hear what you think of the state of the literary field today and what foreseeing prognosis that you can spot on the horizon? Will books become a ”dead format” in the future or is it more likely that we will experience som kind of renaissance further on? What kind of advices would you give to someone who wants to be a writer?
I´m too conservative to be a good futurologist, I´m afraid. The physical book will at least have one reader left until further notice! Advice to someone who wants to be a writer is not that easy to give either, but knowledge should never be underestimated. Not in this context either. With this said, I´m still not certain if there´s truth in the assumtion that you have to read a lot to be a good writer. There´s a good quote from Schopenhauer, that our friend Michel Houellebecq frequently uses, that says:
”The first - and practically the only - condition for good stylistic manner is to have something to say.”
You’ve just read the mere part of an interview made by Hinsides Magazine, July 2022.The conversation as a whole is printed in the third issue of this Magazine together with a lot of other interesting content. Place your order here: