The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: What to Watch For

Photograph by Jean-Baptiste Mondino
via WMagazine

Earlier today, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo made headlines once again with its new "Chasing Salander" app.  The book and movie have taken the world by storm; everyone is talking about it.

Interestingly, I haven't heard much talk about the serious issues that the books bring up--particularly the instances of rape and abuse.  What happens to Lisbeth is horrifying, yet people talk more about her eccentricity, not her problems.  In fact, in the new app "Chasing Salander," the game player takes on the role of a man bent on finding Salander to kill her.  I found this disturbingly odd, considering that the app is being released by the publishers of Stieg Larsson's hit books.  It seems to distract from the main purpose of the trilogy, which I believe centers on women's rights and the victimization of women.  This is really emphasized by the original Swedish title of the novel: Män som hatar kvinnor, or Men Who Hate Women.

In what I consider an objective view of the books, I don't think they are anything amazing from a literary standpoint.  (At least the English translation) is not particularly compelling prose wise.  The language is straightforward and often boring, and the series was in need of a much more discerning editor.  Had it been polished better, I think it could have stood out as an artistic piece and as an important commentary on our times, on top of being the best selling mystery series that it is. 

No doubt part of the reason it was published as it is has something to do with the writer's untimely death.  Stieg Larsson, the man who wrote about the girl with the dragon tattoo, was a Swedish journalist and editor of the magazine Expo.  Much of his work was geared towards combating the growth of right wing extremism--not surprising considering the content of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the background of the Vanger family in that novel.  In all honesty, he kind of reminds me of his main protagonist, Mikael Blomkvist.

The main arc of the trilogy is Lisbeth Salander's story: the legal chains that limit her freedom, the injustice that the legal system carried out against her and the ultimate journey she undertakes--with Blomkvist's help--to find freedom.  The story is not about how she is a "freak," but rather the opposite.  Is she weird? Sure. But her friends rally around her.  So why is it that that's what people talk about when they bring up the movie?

Over the past few weeks, moviegoers have written raving reviews about Rooney Mara's performance, about David Fincher's direction, but they aren't focusing on the content.  Sometimes when we talk about movies, it can be easy to get swept away in "How well did the actors perform?" "Was the screenplay well written?"  "What about the cinematography?"  But we can't forget the most important thing in story telling: the story.  They aren't talking about what happens.  So we must ask ourselves--are we getting the message?

For more coverage of Stieg Larsson's novel, check out my review of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.