5 highlights from the Sven lindqvist's writing

• ”Advertising is lethal”, 1957

”Advertising is lethal”. Illustration: Bonniers

A sharp, small pamphlet, which was far ahead of its time and is just as provocative today as it was then. Is advertising the capitalist society's response to communist state propaganda? Sven Lindqvist argue for it on its essäistiska way, with observations and analyses rooted in personal experience. The newly married couple Were to decorate a home from scratch and are greeted everywhere by the advertising for the expensive sofas. But you have to have a sofa? ”I didn't want to be forced to earn money to pay off on a sofa. I didn't want to sell the life to buy a sofa.”

• ”the Myth of Wu Tao-tzu”, 1967

A modern classic. Illustration: Bonniers

A modern classic that represents a hub for the entire oeuvre. The search for truth and meaning, both in art and in society, is the book's driving force. Lindqvist interweaves social criticism, reportage, and cultural critique in a vagabondessä that, for many, been an eye-opener to a larger world of thought. In India, he of the bottomless pit of poverty. In China tracks he is the myth of the artist which goes into their own works of art and stays there. This is the book where Sven Lindqvist becomes aware of ”the masses 'misery', on the imperial history, and of global inequality.

• ”Bench press”, 1988

Illustration: Bonniers

the Book that convinced even professionals to buy gym membership. Sven Lindqvist describes how his view of the body change when he begins lifting weights, from the exalted spiritual skepticism to an intellectual embracing of the more ancient body image. When the 1980s bodybuilderikon Arnold Schwarzenegger visiting Sweden and tells us how terrific many eggs he eats every day, depicted the meeting, both wide-eyed and humorous of lindqvist's pen – an unexpected and funny clash of cultures between the american grandiosity and american caution.

But the ”Bench press” is not just about strength training. When the author is on the back and lower the barbell towards the chest, he dreams himself away, towards the new places in the world.

• ”Exterminate every single bastard”, 1992

”Exterminate every single bastard”. Photo: Bonniers

A mixture of travel diary, biography, drömmerier, meditation and historical investigation. The theme is provaktivt: that the genocide and racist violence are in the heart of western civilization. ”Exterminate all the brutes” is the mad general Kurtz notorious words in Joseph Conrad's novel ”heart of Darkness”. In the debated book tracks Sven Lindqvist racism the history of roots and explains how they received their nourishment from the colonial economic history.

Förintelsetanken originated not with Hitler, " says Sven Lindqvist, but is a common european property as the nazis advanced. The book created a great day and was internationally acclaimed.

• ”Terra nullius, 2005

”Terra nullius”. Photo: Bonniers

A continuation of the ”Exterminate every single bastard” which takes the reader on a journey through the Australian landscape and history. ”Terra nullius” meaning ”empty land” – the notion that the australian continent was not inhabited, which was the british conquistadors excuse to steal aboriginal land. In the book, travels, Sven Lindqvist, to places where the Kurtz motto ”exterminate every single bastard” has materialized. He is running 1 200 miles through the australian desert and going to places all over the world, where indigenous tribes have been subjected to similar large-scale markstölder and genocide.