The Wide World

Charming tale by one of the great stylistic innovators in Danish

Af : Henning Mørch Sørensen

In the late 1980s the Århus writer Louis Jensen broke the sound barrier of children's literature with an explosive and extremely original tale of fantasy, which ran to 4 volumes: Krystalmanden, Tusindfuglen, Hjerterejsen and Det grønne spor, 1986‑1989 (The Man of Crystal, The Millebird, The Voyage of the Heart and The Green Trail). This feature made him an obvious choice for The Ministry of Culture's Children's Book Prize, which he was awarded in 1989.

Last year, in his book Karl Kluges Dobbelte Skattejagt (Karl Kluge's Double Treasure Hunt), Louis Jensen added another few roads to his own strange map of the fantastic element in life, which is so deeply entrenched in the realism, which Jensen also presents. The story of Karl Kluge is both a basically thrilling 'boys' book' with mystery and the deciphering of treasure maps, as well as a cyclical journey into metamorphosis, love, and the labyrinths of the mind. The treasure hunt theme ‑which for Jensen is ultimately always about finding oneself ‑ is also present in his latest work Plus‑Four og Katten‑Skatten (Plus‑Four and Katten‑Skatten).

On the surface this looks like an intermediate book in low gear ‑ targeted primarily but not exclusively, at the 5 to 8 year‑old age group ‑simple and easy to read. But the style of the author ‑ and in Jensen's case one is tempted to equate the man with the style ‑ is full of understatement, humour and a finely tuned sense for stylistic pointers, which add up to a small work of universal everyday art.

Plus‑Four is a somewhat timid dog, which lives a quiet secure life with 'a very old man and a very old woman'. He lives in close harmony with the ways of nature, which he experiences from his scat on a chair in the house, and it is from here that he spies a 'windswept' dog one day, as it lands briefly in a nearby chestnut tree. Plus-Four cautiously ventures forth to rescue the stranded dog, who only just manages to say "That was a tough ride" before it is swept away again.

Along with the fantasies, which have been evoked by the old man reading aloud, this incident kindles PlusFour's desire to get to know 'the wide world'. In his own secure neighbourhood he meets Katten‑ Skatten, apparently a more daring creature. Together the two embark on a number of projects (as treasure hunters, detectives, hole diggers and builders of winter lairs), each of which develops in a manner at odds with the prescribed roles for such ventures.

And the attention is not so much focused on the result of each 'game', but rather on the preliminaries to and the preparations for the great conquests of the surrounding world. And this is where Jensen excels, with his own hearty sense of situational and comic dialogue, which gradually approaches the absurd as the fantasies are hit on one after another, but without ever jeopardising the narrator's fundamental loyalty to the two creatures. They find no treasures and solve no mysteries, but they do find themselves ‑ and each other.

In the last chapter of the book the 'windswept' dog reappears in the chestnut tree. This time Plus‑Four fully overcomes his fear, and after a dangerous climb manages to rescue the dog. And the story‑line is thus brought to a close, whilst at the same time pointing to the opening of a new one. For now the dog is to relate its story of what it has experienced in the air.

Jensen's fantastic universe which unsurpassably conveys the infinitely large in the infinitesimally small has been cleansed of the fantasy‑overflow, which has dominated much of the international children's media in the last decade, from Star Wars to Ninja Turtles. In contrast Jensen starts by exploring the world as it is through his simple and undramatic preoccupation with existence. And this creates a gently vibrating resonance throughout this almost transparent tale of friendship between two animals, told in a form which has direct links via Milne's Winnie‑the‑Pooh to the works of Hans Christian Andersen ‑ one of Louis Jensen's proclaimed models ‑whose story of the Nightingale is finely woven into the plot as a subtle Leitmotif in the chapter where the two friends start digging a hole down to China, but instead find the handle of a teacup, which might have belonged to the emperor of China.

Henning Mørch Sørensen is a literary critic.

This article was published in Danish Children’s Literature no 2.

Oversat af Vivien Andersen