A Criticism Of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy

See also Three Criticisms Of Stieg Larsson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

Lisbeth Salander is convinced that there is a connection between Zalachenko and Bjurman and therefore sets out to find evidence for such a connection because she has no such evidence as yet in which case why is she so convinced that there is a connection? This is a contradiction. We, the readers, do not initially notice the contradiction because we already know that there is a connection between Zala and Bjurman and we expect Salander to be on the trail but she has to have something to start with. Knowing that Zala is involved with prostitution, knowing that prostitution involves bikers and learning that Bjurman has met someone who then met a biker, she might start to hypothesize a connection between Zala and Bjurman but at that stage it would only be a hypothesis. In terms of the plot, she has to mention a (possible) Zala-Bjurman connection to Dag in order to set in motion the murders of Bjurman, Dag and Mia.

Two Cars

Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played With Fire (London, 2010.

Blomkvist drives to Gosseberga in a hired car, later retrieved by the police, whereas Salander drives there in a borrowed Milton Security car which is neither retrieved nor even mentioned again. On arrival, she:

"...parked behind a barn in a clump of trees about a hundred metres north of the driveway." (p. 534)

When Blomkvist arrived later, he:

"...parked next to a barn on a forest road a hundred metres to the north... He found fresh tyre tracks in the mud and decided that another car had been parked in the same place earlier, but he did not stop to consider what that might mean." (p. 568)

Why should he have considered it? But we need to. Was the Milton Security car stolen between her and his arrivals?

Chronology In Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy

Stieg Larsson, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (London, 2008).

"'Mikael Blomkvist was born on 18 January, 1960, which makes him forty-three years old.'" (p. 44)

This chapter, CHAPTER 2, like CHAPTER 1, is dated:

"Friday, 20.xii" (p. 29)

- so it is set in 2003.

CHAPTER 10 is dated:

"Thursday, 9.i - Friday, 31,i" (p. 165)

It follows that Blomkvist's forty-fourth birthday falls during this chapter although it is not mentioned.

EPILOGUE: FINAL AUDIT is dated:

"27.xi - 30.xii" (p. 513)

Thus, the novel ends on the second last day of 2004.

Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played With Fire (London, 2010).

CHAPTER 1 is dated:

"Thursday, 16.xii - Friday, 17.xii" (p. 7)

This is December, 2005. It follows that Blomkvist is now forty-five and, in just over a month, will be forty-six.

CHAPTER 2 is dated:

"Friday 17.xii" (p. 30)

In this chapter, Blomkvist says:

"'I'm going to be forty-five any day now.'" (p. 35)

Inconsistency.

Roseland

I think that any screen adaptation of a novel should be a serial.

Ian Fleming, From Russia, With Love (London, 1964):

PART ONE: THE PLAN, pp. 7-77.

CHAPTERs 1-10, about Bond's enemies in Russia.

 

PART TWO: THE EXECUTION, pp. 78-208.

CHAPTERs 11-28, beginning with Bond waking up and ending with his apparent death above the words, "THE END"

 

CHAPTER 1, "ROSELAND," CHAPTER 2, "THE SLAUGHTERER," and CHAPTER 3, "POST-GRADUATE STUDIES," summarize the life and career of Donovan Grant, Chief Executioner of SMERSH, and would make a good film, "Roseland," to precede dramatizations of subsequent chapters.

Problems

 Testing:

I had better give notice here that, since "Blogger" changed, I have been having problems with posting. Currently, if I click to create a new post on any of my other blogs, the screen changes to allow me to create a post on this, the Poul Anderson Appreciation, blog, not on the blog where I want to post. If this situation persists, then I will not, for example, be able to transfer articles to the Poul Anderson: Contributor Articles blog. I have, of course, gone onto a "Help" page and tried to communicate the problem but am not sure whether my message has been sent and, in any case, based on past experience, do not expect any reply. I am taking this opportunity to inform blog readers that there are problems just in case the problems get worse and I become unable to post here as well. I will switch the lap top off for a while and switch back on again later for what that is worth.

Two Spies In Green Hats

"...he took off his hat, a narrow-brimmed, dark-green English felt hat..."

-Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest (London, 2007), CHAPTER 5, p. 195.

 

Thus, two fictional spies wear a green hat, one in THRUSH, the other in Swedish Internal Security.

 

Did Larsson have this UNCLE film in mind?

Chandos, Mansel And Others

Nine novels by Dornford Yates are narrated by Richard Chandos and seven of them also feature Jonathan Mansel.

Gale Warning, narrated by John Bagot, features both Chandos and Mansel.

Shoal Water, narrated by Jeremy Solon, features Mansel.

Three other thrillers by Yates, She Painted Her Face, Safe Custody and Storm Music, feature neither Chandos nor Mansel but are connected in other ways

Mansel is in the Berry Books and elsewhere as "Jonah."