On the next level, exactly halfway down the pyramid, are the armed forces. Two cannon, their barrels pointed diagonally outward; an officer with saber raised; and two regular soldiers frozen in an attacking pose. The services represented are the infantry and artillery and they are wearing American uniforms. At the rear of this image and the two previous ones are Gothic pillars supporting the platforms. The backdrop consists of large glass windows.
The next level, the second-widest and penultimate one, represents a large dining table, where rich bourgeois sit together, glasses raised, and they have turned as if to greet the person looking at the poster. They are all in high spirits, but one has fallen asleep on the table. The tablecloth is messy and the whole scene gives the impression of unrestrained gluttony.
And then the bottom level, the base that holds up the whole pyramid. There you have the workers, bearing everything on their shoulders. Industrial workers, blacksmiths, children, women, farmers, and old people crowded together. There is a tremendous sense of concentrated power in the picture. To the left side you can see a red flag, flapping violently. The people nearest the flag have their eyes raised to the levels above. One is looking at the military and clenches his fist. Another looks at the dining table. A third, a woman, can just make out the feet of the diners. But none of them sees higher than that. In the front, to the right of the picture, is a child lying down. It is not hard to see that it is starved, perhaps dead. Further over stands a man who is lifting a shovel. He looks up at the pyramid, but it is difficult to say what exactly he has fixed his eyes upon.
* * *
—
Oskar buys the poster and pins it up in the kitchen. The text is in English, but the image is so clear that he doesn’t need to read the text.
* * *
—
We rule you, We fool you, We shoot at you, We eat for you, We work for all—and finally We feed all.
* * *
—
Often they sit and look at the poster. Not just because they spend a lot of time in the kitchen every day and the poster is there on the wall above the kitchen sofa and it is hard not to see it. They sit and they look at it and every time they notice something new, some new detail, some new combination. And the illustrations provoke thoughts and discussions. The propaganda poster becomes a textbook, because that is how they use it. At the same time, it represents a challenge and a call to action. That is the meaning Elvira reads into it one day, and she says that she feels it would only take one more person to stand underneath the bottom level for there to be enough power to topple the whole pyramid and bring it to the ground. Then they sit for a long time and laugh and talk about the chaos that would ensue. How the one who fell asleep at the dining table would have a shock when he woke up. How bottles and glasses would be smashed over the priests and the soldiers. How the cannon would explode and tear apart the sack of money. How the skirts of the female diners would ride all the way up their thighs and how those who had propped up the pyramid for so long would be able to stretch their shoulders and their backs.
“Imagine all the cracking when everyone straightens out their backs. It would sound like thunder.”
But their one persistent thought about the poster is the feeling that those who are sustaining the whole structure seem so amazingly real to them. Once, when Oskar is lying in bed, he says that they are out there in the kitchen, supporting and supporting and supporting.
* * *
—
On April 24, 1949, the Social Democrats celebrate their sixtieth anniversary. A large celebration is held in the Stockholm Concert Hall. August Söderman’s “Swedish Festival Music” is performed on a stage filled with flowers. The festivities reach a climax during the demonstrations on May 1, which are entirely given over to the anniversary.
Oskar and Elvira get up early. They set out at half past eight and it is warm and still. They leave the town and follow a gravel path into the forest. Once they are under the trees, in the shade, it is cooler and they walk side by side, quickly, to keep themselves warm. The ground is dry and there is a crackling underfoot. They walk in silence and follow the gravel path up the gently sloping ridge, for four kilometers, until the path merges into a clear-cut in the wood. There are three large stacks of stripped and unsorted pinewood there. The air is heavy with the smell of resin and they lean against one of the piles, careful not to get their clothes sticky. Then they close their eyes and turn toward the sun.
They stand there for a long time, silent and with their eyes shut, listening to the sighing of the forest.
* * *
—
In the afternoon they join the march, in the last third of the procession. The demonstrators are walking six abreast and both Oskar and Elvira are singing along. During the course of the demonstration they sing all the verses of “The Internationale” twice over and hum along to the tune of “The Sons of Labor.” Both take care to stay in their line of six and they make sure to keep in step at all times.
In the People’s Park the local chairman, a sixty-year-old metalworker, makes a speech. He sticks to the topic of the jubilee throughout and quotes Axel Danielsson, Branting, and Ernst Wigforss. The only specifically political questions he raises have to do with house construction and the continued and expanded building of homes for the elderly. He talks about collective laundries and closes with a mention of the congress, which will establish the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions that same autumn in London.
He is speaking from the bandstand and has a strong voice. Oskar and Elvira are almost at the front by the podium, standing there motionless, looking up and taking in every word.
That evening, as they sit in the kitchen and talk about the demonstration, Oskar suddenly points at the poster on the wall.
“But if you look at this picture, compare it to our situation today, you can see how little is being achieved.”
“You can’t say that, surely.”
“I can. Because in some strange way it’s as if what is happening is that some of those standing and bearing the weight down at the bottom suddenly get to climb up to the dining table, while their place as bearers is taken by some others. And then it’s as if those at the top, the kings and the priests, are leaning forward and showing their faces, so that those down there, who are holding it all up, can see them. But the pyramid is still a pyramid. I mean, those doing the supporting get new clothes, eat different food, but they’re still left way down there, waving their flags, and those up at the top are still right up there.”
“But it’s not as though they can still do whatever they want.”
“Agreed, but all the same they’re still up there at the top.”
“How do you mean, ‘up there’?”
“Well. They don’t earn any less just because we get a bit more. And they don’t get to decide any less just because we decide more, if indeed we do.”
“But how would the government get anything done then? And they genuinely do.”
“I don’t know. But the ones up there are up there. Where would we be standing in the picture?”
“Down at the bottom, where else?”
“For how long?”
“It takes time. These things don’t happen overnight. One can’t expect that.”
“No. I understand that.”
“Don’t you believe me?”
“The point isn’t whether I believe you or not, is it? It’s how things are.”
“Yes.”
“And that is the way it is.”
“What do you mean?”
“That the ones up there are up there. And we’re here. Standing at the bottom and raising our heads up behind the sofa.”
“Surely not everyone hangs their poster behind a sofa?”
“No.”
“I’m not sure I really understand what you mean.”
&n
bsp; “What I mean is, the only thing that’s really happened is that now we see things for what they are. Other than that, nothing has changed.”
“I don’t agree. Just look at how we live!”
“Fair enough. But a pyramid that reflects the situation in Sweden today wouldn’t look any different. It simply wouldn’t. Just slightly different clothes. And planes instead of cannon.”
“They’ve still got cannon, haven’t they?”
“These days it’s more and more planes.”
“That doesn’t make it any better.”
“No. But the pyramid is still the same and that was printed in 1911. It says so down in the corner.”
“I’ve seen that.”
“So something’s wrong. And things are not exactly moving fast.”
“Obviously not.”
“Is that so obvious? It feels as if it’s all slowing down.”
“What should we do, then?”
“Become communists, maybe.”
“Will that make it happen any faster?”
“It should do. They’re more direct, after all.”
“But there aren’t enough of them.”
“That can change.”
“I don’t think it will.”
“But it might well.”
* * *
—
And the poster seems so real to them, and Oskar looks at those who support and support and support.
* * *
—
“Domö ought to have that poster.”
“The conservative leader? Why?”
“It wouldn’t do any harm.”
“You think so?”
“Yes.”
“But he’s stepping down now, isn’t he?”
“Is he?”
“I think so. I read it somewhere.”
“Who’s replacing him?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they don’t even know themselves.”
“No. Maybe not.”
Then they go to bed and the poster hangs over the sofa.
* * *
—
One night, one of the yellow drawing pins in the right-hand corner of the poster comes loose. When Oskar sees it in the morning, he thinks that at least this pyramid has finally collapsed. To see if Elvira notices, he turns it upside down on the wall. She only sees it that evening and they laugh and they put it back the right way up together.
* * *
—
Oskar is now sixty-one years old. He is starting to feel tired in the mornings and on Sundays he likes to sleep until eleven. From time to time he thinks he may be ill, but he never goes and gets himself examined. Sometimes the two of them will sit and talk about the fact that they are getting old and then occasionally they both feel very frightened at the thought of being left alone. They never say so to each other, but each is gripped by a sudden anxiety that they will be the one who survives the other. Both of them harbor this fear, which grows stronger and more pervasive with each passing day. But they never speak of it. Only rarely do they talk about old age.
* * *
—
At the same time, around 1950, Oskar increasingly longs to spend more time in the countryside. His thoughts are not detailed or clear-cut but there is always water in the scenes of nature he conjures up in his mind. They vary between small rivers and the seashore, forest lakes and torrents. But the water is always there, without his knowing exactly why.
And as his thoughts begin to dwell on nature and water, he also feels hopeful that he will live to a great age.
* * *
—
He does not know why, but one day he is suddenly certain that he will be allowed to grow old. And it makes him happy and the images of nature crop up in his mind increasingly often.
On Sundays he prefers to sleep rather than go out. He lies in his bed and sees the images in his mind. Only on rare occasions, such as on the first day of May, do they go out into the forest.
* * *
—
One Thursday, Oskar is asked if he would like to stop working and retire. He is surprised, but after a few seconds he answers with an emphatic no.
“No. Not yet, not unless I have to.”
And just once, that same evening, as he is sitting on a chair in the kitchen, untying one of his shoelaces, he stops what he is doing and thinks that it might have been nice after all.
But he wants to go on working for a few more years. And he feels deep inside that if he were not so sure that he would live to become old, then he would stop work as soon as he could.
THE DEVELOPING PROCESS IN PHOTOGRAPHY
One day in August in 1958, Oskar is sitting by his radio, listening to Lennart Hyland report on the unbelievable atmosphere as Richard Dahl skims over the bar at 2.12 meters. He only just clears it and the bar trembles and for a few seconds there is total silence on this day during the European Athletics Championships. But once it is clear that the bar will not fall, a fearsome racket breaks out in Stockholm Olympic Stadium and Oskar can hear his neighbors in the upstairs apartment stamp on the floor and bang their fists on the table. Oskar feels his heart pounding inside his ribs and he is overwhelmed with joy that Richard Dahl has surpassed himself. It does not cross his mind that this means a gold medal for Sweden, and likely the only one. Then he gets up and measures out a rough 212 centimeters on one wall of the kitchen. He is amazed when he sees the result.
* * *
—
In the course of 1958, Oskar has read a lot about sports in the newspapers and listened to a great deal on the radio. Many reports said that it was unlikely this century would ever again see such a year for sporting events in Sweden. There were the European Athletics Championships and a soccer World Cup with Sweden as the runner-up, and Oskar once saw the left back Sven Axbom in the street.
But Oskar is not particularly interested. Sometimes he is enthralled by the atmosphere, by success and adversity, but often he does not even know the rules of the different sports. He is also capable of laughing at himself, like the time when he realizes that relay races do not work as he had thought, which was that the runners turn around and sprint back again at every baton handover.
One of the first World Cup matches is between Sweden and Hungary. It is an evenly poised and exciting game with Sweden leading 2–1 in the middle of the second half. Then the Hungarians start to apply more pressure and begin to dominate. Lennart Hyland gets excited. After the Hungarians have laid siege to the Swedish goal for a long time, their inside left aims a hard and well-placed shot at goal with his instep. Kalle Svensson has to stretch as far as he can to tip the ball around the right-hand goalpost. Just as the Hungarians get ready to take their corner and Oskar is on tenterhooks, he clamps his jaws shut and feels one of his upper canines crumble…He sticks his thumb into his mouth and pushes half of the tooth out onto the tablecloth. He feels a shooting pain and realizes that the nerve is exposed.
* * *
—
The next day he goes to a dentist, who knocks out the rest of the tooth and kills the nerve. At the same time, he examines Oskar’s other teeth and after a while says that Oskar’s teeth are coming loose in both his upper and lower jaws and that the condition is too far advanced for it to be corrected without surgery. The dentist tells him what that would cost and Oskar replies that it is impossible. When he then asks how long he is likely to keep his teeth, the dentist answers that in all likelihood he will lose them quite quickly. Then, when Oskar leaves, he is given a brochure that describes what it is like to have dentures. Oskar sits down at the kitchen table and studies the brochure intently. He tries to imagine wearing a dental plate and feels uncomfortable at the thought. He puts aside the brochure and knows that he will never wear false teeth. He would rather go toothless. For the rest of the day he feels very unhappy at the thoug
ht that his body is starting to fall apart.
That evening he gets undressed, pulls the kitchen curtains shut, and sits naked on a chair in the middle of the room. Then he carefully examines his body. He pinches his skin, scratches it with the nail of his index finger. He stretches and clenches his toes and tries to bend in different directions. He checks his pulse on his carotid artery. He blocks one ear at a time while he listens for sounds from the apartments next door.
When he has finished his examination, he realizes to his surprise that he has been sitting naked on the chair for more than an hour. He finds it hard to believe that so much time has passed. He puts on his nightshirt and goes to bed. He lies there with his mental images, and on this particular evening he sees a greenish-blue ocean that is perfectly calm, and he tries to conjure up a string of memories. He falls asleep picturing all this.
* * *
—
A few years earlier a total eclipse of the sun is visible in the country. There is great excitement, because it is not going to recur in the foreseeable future. It has therefore been turned into a sacred moment, lasting less than a minute. Like everybody else, Oskar prepares himself for the day. Well in advance he makes sure that he has a piece of blackened glass through which he can watch the moon’s disc gliding in front of the sun. With growing interest, he follows the discussions of the meteorologists as to whether the eclipse will take place behind thick cloud cover or whether it will be possible to see it.
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