Tag: Stockholm

The trilogy and the tragedy

Back in September of 2008, the first of the Trilogy (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) provided us with a perfect literary escape: exotic, foreign yet so close to home. She managed to play with fire and rose from the grave to finally “kick the hornet’s nest”.

What a catharsis! You look at the two columns, fiction and non-fiction, the choice is clear: who wants to read about “Too big to fail”, “Crash of the titans” “On the brink” etc.. Our heroine got juice: she could ride the motorcycle,

hack into a database and defend herself in the subway.

Sort of Charles Bronson (Death Wish)  reincarnated.

The trilogy acquaints us with an alternative and fascinating life style. It is an euro-exotic escape, at least for the entire three installments.

Stocks were up, stocks were down.

Our character was shot down, bandaged up and got in shape to stand trial against the system, or more likely, a rogue group using the system to keep her down.

Hollywood was thriving during the earlier Great Depression.

This time around, it plays safe with the return of Superman, Spider Man, Batman and Iron Man.

Except that, this time around, the audience won’t sit still and wait to download the movies.

The audience (User-generated content) is filming real events (and should Superman fly by, he will get on video as well).

Street protests in Iran, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya , shot by I-phones,

gave us front-seat view.

No, the trilogy has nothing to do with the tragedy surrounding us still.

But somehow, it resonates and connects the millions of us, who read the books, and viewed the films. It’s as if finally the adults can show their kids that “hey, I am hooked on something too” ( since you got your Harry Potter series.)

Most of us, in our life time, might not get to Stockholm. But this gives us a chance to hear , see and feel the winter chill of a Nordic street. And perhaps, for the first time, felt connected with those Icelanders, who despite similar distance from New York Stock Exchange, have been affected in a big way by securitization and CDO’s.

Just like Asian stocks today. The event in Tripoli triggered a $100/barrel of oil, which forced a lot of automobiles in China and elsewhere to stay idle in their designated garages. If the “Girl with a dragon tattoo” is finally translated into Mandarin, I am sure many will find the time to read and feel fascinated.

At least, in fiction, the ending seems to tidy up.

Unlike our common tragedy called life.

Under-utilized imagination

The-girl-with-a-dragon-tatoo series got me hooked. I know it’s cold  in Stockholm. And I know he did not produce tangible products from the factory, such as sweet or swatch.

But he offered readers an emotional experience (getting out of mundane existence, stepping into character and experiencing triumph and tragedy unavailable to us otherwise).  The author did not live to enjoy his success, which is a tragedy in and of itself.

We despise those who cooked up sub-prime collateral obligation. But we wasted a lot of brain power which could get us out of our dilemma. I am hopeful that someone is building a better Twitter, a faster YouTube, and a more efficient Netflix.

On LinkedIn, the Innovation group has experienced phenomenal growth. It is to show that we want to connect with like-minded creative people.

If you want to generate energy, join a Samba group. We don’t get much results by exercising alone. The same way when it comes to exercising our imagination.

One person’s zany idea might trigger another’s bankable invention (the Orange Revolution).

Last Saturday, I sat with a few people who at one time in their career achieved sales success.

These sales veterans wanted to brainstorm some ideas. I remembered the excitement and anticipation among the group.

Multiply that experience by nth time. Then we might get  that gene pool to work. Each of us already is a miracle (at conception). Now, we need idea incubation (Edison and his team, not Edison the lone inventor).

And maybe, a star is born. It doesn’t cost much to exercise our imagination. It’s already there as nature’s gift. Some of us capitalize and monetize it better than others. In the case  of the-girl-with-a-dragon-tatoo trilogy, the author did not live to see his characters alive on the screen. God rest his soul. His characters are so real to the million who bought those books. Who said imagination is cheap? It is just under-utilized.