I'm a big fan of superficially cute things that turn out to be "angry tales of apocalypse," as Frances Wilson puts it. Hers is Moomin, which author and artist Tove Jansson optimized for both ends of that spectrum. In "The dark side of the Moomins" Wilson charts just how not-cute are these weird creatures and the stories they inhabit.
The sixth novel, Moominland Midwinter (1958), written when Jansson was ready to "vomit" over her creation, contains the most devastating account of depression in 20th-century literature. Waking up early during the annual hibernation, Moomintroll finds himself snowed in and utterly alone in an alien world whose pleasure principle has disappeared. From now on in the books, things get darker. Family relations break down completely in Moominpappa at Sea (1965) when Moominpappa, realising that he is a failed artist, drags his family away from Moominvalley to an uninhabited rock in the middle of the sea that is "completely silent and terribly, terribly cold". Here, in his attempt to control the waves, he loses his mind, while a desolate Moominmamma hides inside the mural of Moominvalley that she's painted on the wall and Moomintroll, in love with a seahorse and profoundly depressed, finds a patch of earth on which to sleep. The island, meanwhile, shrinks with unhappiness.
The recent Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley game looked lovely but exemplifies the smoothly painted Moomin of popular culture rather than the harshly inked one you find in Jansson's books (see above).
It would be neat if someone took it the other direction for a change, perhaps. DOOMINS.
Previously:
• Moomin — eccentric comic masterpiece from a legendary children's author
• Discover the Magic of Moomins: Celebrating Tove Jansson's 109th Birthday
• Moomin creator's rare memoir back in print after 40 years
• Official Moomin keycaps
• Animators join forces to reanimate Moomins
