

Karl Ove ­Knausgaard’s ‘My Struggle: Book 4’ - magda_wang
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/books/review/jeffrey-eugenides-reviews-my-struggle-by-karl-ove-knausgaard.html

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runarb
Is it just me, or does other also find it strange that he chose to name his
book the same as Hitler’s manifesto (
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle)
)?

I don't know if one in English normally refer to Hitler’s book as “My
Struggle” or its original German name “Mein Kampf”, but at least in Mr.
Knausgårds original Norwegian book name “Min Kamp” the reference is very
clear.

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unicornporn
There are many ways to interpret the title. The books deals with the author's
problematic relationship to his father. He has said that Hitler inspires the
same horror as his father did to him when he was a child.

~~~
orkj
Expanding on this, in book 6 he actually has made room for quite a lot of
pages dedicated to Hitler, Mein Kampf and Hitlers life. To avoid spoilers, I
would say that this also gives context to the choice of the title.

So to answers OPs question. Yes, I find the title strange (it is pretty
controversial). But also, the title is descriptive and relevant (my opinion).

Full disclosure: I am huge fan of Knausgård :)

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Dewie2
His last name is wrong; it's "Knausgård".

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ehamberg
It's acceptable (or at least “not wrong”) to use “aa” for å (and “oe” for ø/ö,
“ae” for æ/ä).

While ‘å’ was made an official letter in Norwegian in 1917, it's still common
to see “aa” spellings of names, and “aa” and “å” spellings are considered
equivalent (fun when sorting, since ‘å’ is the last letter of the Norwegian
alphabet).

~~~
Dewie2
I guess you're right about their use in words in general. I'm not sure you're
right about their use in names in particular.

Firstly, people and places are still named with "aa" rather than "å". They
aren't simply spelled alternatively depending on the mood or the keyboard of
the writer. So it seems that, since they deliberately choose one over the
other, they care whether it is spelled in a certain way.

Secondly, we make a distinction between whether someone is named "Christian"
or "Kristian", for example. According to your logic, it wouldn't matter since
there is no difference except spelling between these two names. But it does.

Do you have any authoritive source (linguistic, or etiquette) that says that
such names can be spelled however the writer feels like?

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Numberwang
This is just stupid. If you start reading English language texts and sites a
bit more you will find it is common for them to substitute our Nordic
characters with various combinations depending on what style they have chosen
to follow.

Usage is authority. Write the way you feel it should be written, read with the
intent of comprehension, nothing more. Relax and move on to more worthwhile
causes.

~~~
dang
> This is just stupid.

Please follow the HN guidelines:

 _When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names.
E.g. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not
3."_

~~~
Numberwang
We are humans communicating not robots. I think the policy i stupid (see
previous sentence for argument.)

