torstaina, marraskuuta 22, 2007

Finnish Eyes

Avustan satunnaisesti kanadalaista Thrilling Detective -sivustoa, jolla luetellaan ja esitellään kaikki maailman fiktiiviset yksityisetsivät. Lähetin monta vuotta sitten heille tämmöisen listan, mutta en usko, että yksikään meni läpi - tarkkaan tutkien kukaan ei ole yksityisetsivä, paitsi Harri Kuusan eli Wesley Nicolin aivan sekopäisen Nikkeliä ihmislihaan -kirjan Richard Rauta. Täytyykin lähettää pätkä uudestaan Kanadaan. [Edit: korjasin Kontra-asian ja editoin tekstejä muutenkin. Joitain kielioppivirheitä.]

Pertti Pasila
Pertti Pasila was one of the rare criminal adventurers in the early Finnish pulp fiction. Pasila is an ex-convict and a con man. He seduces rich ladies and takes their money, but there's also some moral inside him. Pasila appeared in many short stories from 1939 on in the leading Finnish pulp magazine, Seikkailujen Maailma (World of Adventures), and the stories about him were written by Eino Liekki, which is clearly a pseudonym (Liekki means flame in English).

Mikko Jarmo
Mikko Jarmo was one of the first Finnish private eyes. He was clearly modeled on some American hardboiled eyes, even though he's not very tough himself. His name - two first names - too indicates influence of American hardboiled stuff. Jarmo helps police occasionally and with his cases he moves in high society, in the world of consuls and professors. Mikko Jarmo appeared at least in three short stories in Seikkailujen Maailma (World of Adventures) 1942. Seikkailujen Maailma is famous for publishing American pulp fiction. The adventures of Mikko Jarmo were written by Jaakko Ensio, about whom there's no information, but the name seems to be pseudonym (it also has two first names).

Richard Rauta
Richard Rauta is a tough private eye in Harri Kuusa's only novel, Nikkeliä ihmislihaan (1963; translates as Nickel into the Human Flesh), published under the pseudonym Wesley Nicol. Kuusa was one of the really tough pulp writers in Finland; his work began to appear in the early sixties in such magazines as Seikkailujen Maailma (World of Adventures). He wrote in many genres, exotic adventures, western and hardboiled crime. Kuusa disappeared when Seikkailujen Maailma ceased existing. The American protagonist of his only novel shows how the Finnish writers and readers wanted heroes with the Finnish background: Rauta is a Finnish word meaning 'iron'.
Nikkeliä ihmislihaan. Kanervan kirjapaino 1963.

Jerry Cotton
Jerry Cotton was at first a German invention, an American spy in the Nick Carter tradition. George Nader portrayed him in the German movies made in the sixties and a magazine carrying the name Jerry Cotton was published for nearly thirty decades. Whether the magazine is still being published in Germany, I don't know.
But when Jerry Cotton came to Finland in the sixties, he got somewhat different proportions. The books written by Finnish authors are more parodic and include a huge amount of hilarious word-play. The last Finnish Jerry Cotton was published in the end of the year 1999; it's called Jerry Cotton 2000.
The Jerry Cotton books have been a starting point for many Finnish authors, namely Juha Ruusuvuori, who has become a serious writer of historical adventures, and Simo Hämäläinen, who has written some very popular comic novels about the Finnish countryside. Tapani Bagge, who served as an editor of the Finnish Jerry Cotton magazine, has written many books for children and teenagers. Kari Nenonen has since published couple of promising horror novels. Librarian and former Leftist journalist Jouko Raivio also wrote Jerry Cotton.
The popularity of Jerry Cotton in Finland is shown in that the punk rock band Kontra translated The Kinks's "Jack the Idiot Dunce" as "Jerry Cotton". The words go: "Who drives in a red Jaguar? Yeah yeah Jerry Cotton!" (The letter J is pronounced like the letter Y in the beginning of the word, as in "year" or Yuri Gagarin.)

Usko Kyykkä
Usko Kyykkä is a parodic invention of Juha Ruusuvuori and Jukka Parkkari, who wrote and published the Kyykkä stories in Pahkasika (Warthog), a wildly humorous magazine that resembles both the American underground comics and Mad. Kyykkä is an agent of Suopo, the Finnish Intelligence Agency or the security police (now it's Supo).
Ruusuvuori wrote also Jerry Cotton and later on became a serious novelist of historical adventures.
Suopon agentin Usko Kyykän seikkailut. Pirkanmaan Graafinen Kustannus 1984. (The Adventures of the Suopo Agent Usko Kyykkä)
Usko Kyykkä ja Shanghai-Lili. Banana Press 1987. (Usko Kyykkä and Shanghai-Lili)

Rex King
Rex King works in the CIA London office. His adventures in the two published novels are in the light, slightly pornographic vein of, say, Richard S. Prather and some Nick Carters. Rex King, whose full name is Reginald Kingsbury, goes on a rampage around the world and faces black agents trained in China. The two novels attributed to Veijo Kainulainen are over-written and not very funny, but they clearly show how the James Bond -style stuff tried to creep into the Finnish literature and, in the end, without succeeding.
Viskin maku on pehmeä. Finnbooks 1966. (The Flavour of Whiskey is Smooth)
Ässät pelataan lopussa. Finnbooks 1967. (You Play the Aces in the End)

4 kommenttia:

Tuomas Kilpi kirjoitti...

Kiehtovaa, mutta "Jerry Cotton" ei ollut Ratsian vaan Kontran biisi. Voisiko Harri Kuusa olla Unohdettu Kirjailija (tm)?

Juri kirjoitti...

Aivan, totta kai Kontran. Harri Kuusa on bona fide Unohdettu Kirjailija, minulta on hänen myöhempi novellituotantonsa vielä tutkimatta.

Anonyymi kirjoitti...

Eikös palkittu oululainen dekkaristi Ari Paulowkin kirjoittanut Cottoneita? Hänhän on Reijo Mäen kanssa kovaksikeitetyn dekkarin kärkinimiä suomessa nykyisin.

Juri kirjoitti...

Kyllä hän kirjoitti (ja ehkä kirjoittaa vieläkin, en ole varma), mutta uudelle, nykyiselle kustantajalle, joten häntä ei kai välttämättä voisi pitää "aitona" cottonistina (sikäli kuin sellaista asiaa on, kun kerran koko tuote on alun perinkin aikamoinen sekasotku). Tuosta puuttuu muitakin nimiä, Pentti Pesä ja Juhani Salomaa ainakin sekä lukuisia muita.