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Professors find Norwegian winter sports thrive, especially climbing. But what's the point?
Landscape from Riesengebirge by Caspar David Friedrich. Copyright (c) State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. From the exhibition "Den besjälade naturen" at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, ended January 10, 2010.
Sweden always considered sports to be a threat to culture (and to the working class although some sports such as alpinism were considered aristocratic by inheritance).
In Norway, on the other hand, sports - especially winter sports - is identical to culture and and a fundemental part of the community.
Culture, but "pointless" popular culture according to a 849-page thesis by Norway’s leading intellectual Rune Slagstad, currently professor at Høgskolen i Oslo.
Norway currently show three main trends in sports, according to Slagstad:
1. Traditional mobile outdoor trekking.
2. Competitional athletics, captured in the urban arenas.
3. A post-modern attraction to extreme and adventure sports in nature.
This third trend is a combination of a romantic-aesthetic perception of nature with a performance sport mentality - a revival of the Fridtjof Nansen spirit (it's a Norwegian thing).
The solid cred of Norges klatreforbund is an example of the significance of this trend, Slagstad says in his work (Sporten) - En idéhistorisk studie, at Pax Forlag, Oslo 2008.
Swedish colleague Jan Lindroth, professor emeritus in sports history at Stockholms universitet, concludes Norway is well ahead of Sweden here (notwithstanding the mountains are in Norway...).
And skiing, Norway's contribution to the world of sports, thrives with a sharp professional elite and a wide base of amateurs throughout society. This is the final conclusion in his essay today in Svenska Dagbladet.
Not flattering, but perhaps accurate.
And yes, Norway seem to roam more of those people. The only disturbing part of all the NRK prodcutions shown in SVT is the haughty Norwegians. Where is the Janteloven when you need it?
Well, you romantic-aesthetic suckers, take this:
”Parafras på Toteninsel” ("with the rock peacefully purified of intrusive messages", one reviewer wrote) by Swedish Christopher Rådlund living in Oslo. From an exhibition at Galleri Futura in Stockholm ending January 10, 2010, paraphrasing Die Toteninsel by Arnold Böcklin - a piece of art with a long list of followers including the Arnold Böcklin himself.
Swedish writer Willy Kyrklund (1921-2009) use this piece to in passing examine the motives of the alpinist in his novel Solange (1951):
What is life - a struggle to survive or to dance?
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