Words without Truth
The Novels of Svend Åge Madsen
by Jakob Brønnum
(Translated by Søren Jensen)
Svend Åge Madsen never actually writes about himself. For that [ce1]purpose his consciousness of the abolition of language as a carrier of truth by modern language philosophy is too essential to his work[ce2]. And in its wake the abolition of absolutes, such as life/death, lies/truth, time/nothingness, both within language philosophy and in Madsen’s work.
Still – or maybe [ce3]‘hence’ – he could not resist naming [ce4]after himself his [ce5]greatly planned novel Syv aldres galskab, which came out in 1994 and which is his latest principal work. If one translates the title into English, it would read "Seven Ages Madnes" – and all these English misspellings of his name he has met in his time.
Language is exactly what constitutes the philosophical problem for Svend Åge Madsen in that text. In the hymn in the Gospel according to John – and in the text that in paraphrases, i.e. [ce6]Genesis – it is language that creates what it speaks of. In Svend Åge Madsen’s vision of disintegration it has lost its function, and truth is therefore impossible.
Syv aldres galskab is also about (the lack of) truth on another level. In the [ce7]16-hundreds a visionary printer, Hans Hanssøn Skonning, has a revelation of what he thinks to be paradise. But we and the young Tobias Skonning in a later age know better. For it is the society of our days[ce8] that the printer has seen.
The novel is theMadsen’s first real [ce9]brick since Tugt og utugt i mellemtiden (1976) and it has weight and [ce10]width [ce11]as Umberto Eco’s "The Name of the Rose".
This second principal work of his also has to do with the relationship between now and then – from the point of view that liberation, whether it is materieal as in Syv aldres galskab or emotional as in Tugt og utugt i mellemtiden, is an illusion.
One could also view Tugt og utugt i mellemtiden as a long struggle with the traditional shape of the novel, while the writer takes advantage of the form to tell a good and very complex story about discipline and immorality.[ce12]
The science fiction novel Se dagens lys[ce13](1980) takes the consequences of the inexpedient way in which we have arranged ourselves, in the labour market of our time, where an actual family life is given low priority. In the universe of the novel nothing would be more natural than us being assigned a new partner each day. Our needs are fulfilled, and all the trouble is avoided. Naturally, one day the main character of the novel falls in love and refuses to follow the system.[ce14]
[ce1]Der er ikke tale om noget formål
[ce2]Godt
[ce3]Bliver nok nødt til at sætte hence i anførselstegn
[ce4]Frækt at flytte præpositionen derop, men det går måske…
[ce5]Ikke idiomatisk
[ce6]Skabelsesberetningen er ikke hele Genesis
[ce7]17th century er at foretrække på engelsk
[ce8]fast udtryk, ental
[ce9]Det kommer til at lyde meget slang’et og sløset
[ce10]Grov glosefejl
[ce11]Som i sammenligning? Like eller as – eller omskrivningSwan 326
[ce12]Godt
[ce13]Alle titler er uoversatte…?
[ce14]Rigtig godt!