🐉 Notes from Reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

(major spoilers ahead)

The mystery is set up as if it’s a whodunit — island cut off from the mainland at the time of the murder with finite suspects. But really only one suspect ever makes sense. The crimes are sexual in nature and perpetrated towards women, so the suspect can only be a man. There is only one male suspect of an age or physicality capable of pulling off the crimes.

The book goes way too hard on the shock and torture porn. Making the killer a serial rapist, murderer, and animal abuser with his own torture chamber almost pushes the novel into parody territory. It undermines the statement the book wants to make about the reality of violence towards women in Sweden.

The novel is a middle-aged man’s wish-fulfillment fantasy. Let’s look at Mikael Blomqvist’s life by the end of the book:

  • He has an ongoing, no-strings-attached sexual relationship with his best friend.
  • He has a summer fling with a schoolteacher.
  • He has a third sexual relationship with a young, badass, punk-rock hacker chick.
  • He is an expert sailor.
  • He owns an expensive flat in Stockholm and a custom-designed vacation cabin in the woods.
  • He solves a decades-old murder mystery, then gets to play savior to a wealthy family by not ratting them out.
  • He is the CEO of a counterculture investigative magazine with a wealthy and benevolent benefactor.
  • He is considered a martyr for journalistic ethics.
  • He uncovers Sweden’s financial crime conspiracy of the century.
  • He is a best-selling author and media darling.
  • He is father to a mature, self-reliant teenage daughter who loves and worships him despite his abandonment of her.

Despite all of the book’s flaws, I still found it riveting and enjoyed my time reading it. I think I’m going to avoid the sequels, at least for now.

💭 Some Thoughts, 2023-09-05

  1. Mookie Betts is killing it this season. To my recollection, it’s the first time “best shape of his life” claims have translated to greater on-field results. #sports
  2. The road tolls from driving between Pennsylvania and Minnesota are brutal.
  3. I think autonomous vehicles will almost entirely eliminate road fatalities in the future, but so can trains and bicycles, and we already have the technology for those. #urbanism
  4. Autonomous and electric vehicles are progressive evolutions away from human-operated, petrol vehicles. The issue I take is with corporations and their executives who advocate against public transit and urbanist policies to enlarge their markets. Elon Musk even admitted his Southern California Hyperloop tunnel was merely a stunt to get legislators to cancel plans for a high-speed rail. #urbanism
  5. If you want to get a sense of a place’s culture, go to a local fair/festival. #unsolicited advice
  6. One of the best indicators of a good museum is the quality of its gift shop.
  7. Private beaches should not be a thing. Shoreline highways should not be a thing. Design cities so rivers and lakes can be enjoyed by everyone. #urbanism

🛫 Reasons to Travel

  1. to expose yourself to a new culture
  2. to eat new foods
  3. to push yourself out of your comfort zone
  4. to learn the geography of the world firsthand
  5. to meet new people
  6. to learn a new language
  7. to reconnect with friends and family
  8. to contextualize history, art, and literature
  9. to experience new ways of living
  10. to pursue an interest

📕 Notes from Reading Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Horowitz has quite the résumé. He wrote for Poirot, created two successful TV shows (Foyle’s War and Midsomer Murders), was selected by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate to write two Sherlock Holmes novels, was selected by the Ian Fleming estate to write three James Bond novels, and wrote a bestselling teen spy series (Alex Rider).

(spoilers ahead)

The problem with doing the story within a story is that the reader will prefer one story to the other.

I guessed the Ryeland mystery correctly. I did not figure out the Pünd mystery, but I thought it worked wonderfully.

Pünd comes across as an imitation of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot with none of the charm or personality. I imagine this was intentionally done considering the picture Horowitz paints of Alan Conway.

Despite Ryeland’s disapproval of Conway’s use of anagrams and Easter eggs, I quite enjoyed them (outside of the distasteful origin of Pünd’s name, but again, that’s the point). I don’t think they “cheapen the writing” at all. The more little puzzles, the better. It only becomes a problem when Easter eggs and references are employed in lieu of a good story (cough Disney cough).

Horowitz’s ability to write a classic whodunit reminiscent of the Golden Age of murder mysteries and a modern mystery crime thriller all in the same book is very impressive. I prefer the puzzle-solving of a classic whodunit to the theatrics of a modern thriller.

🔗 Link Dump, 2023-08-16

  1. How to learn two languages at once. [🔗 popsci.com]
  2. How I take notes. [🔗 honest-broker.com]
  3. A quickstart guide to privacy. [🔗 hai.haus]
  4. Every construction machine explained in 15 minutes. [⏯ youtube.com]
  5. An open-source, plant-friendly phone. [🔗 paxo.fr]
  6. This movie plus this other movie equals… [🔗 moviemaths.com]
  7. A blog post with every HTML element. [🔗 patrickweaver.net]
  8. Spurious correlations. [🔗 tylervigen.com]

💭 Some Thoughts, 2023-08-15

  1. People underestimate how dope BRT is when done right. #urbanism
  2. The Halloween season shouldn’t start until October. Likewise, Christmas shouldn’t start until after Thanksgiving. People begin decorating earlier and earlier every year, and I will not stand for it.
  3. I thought it was bad when I put a hold on the ebook for Crook Manifesto and found myself 58th in line. Yesterday I put a hold on The Wager, and I’m currently 121st in line. #books and media
  4. I’m reading Magpie Murders and decided to look up the author’s bio. Not only is Horowitz far more prolific than I realized, but he also wrote a few episodes of Poirot, one of my all-time favorite shows. #books and media
  5. I find the background sounds feature on iPhone immensely useful and something I wish I had known about sooner. #web and tech
  6. The number one amateur Korean prospect Hyun-Seok Jang decided to forgo the KBO draft to sign with the Dodgers. What a coup. Hopefully, the fireballer bypasses the complex league and begins his career in A-ball next season. #sports