Introduction
While reading, Kallocain struck me by surprise. I
almost needed to check twice if this cold, unrealistic and frankly, boring and
bad, novel was written by the author known for beautiful poetry and semi-autobiographical
novels about inner struggles of a young woman’s mind. But reading it thoroughly
I realized the novel has a lot of deeper meanings to it, not only in the
political sense, but also personally and culturally.
Kallocain is a dystopian novel written by the Swedish author Karin Boye
(1900-1941). The main character is scientist Leo Kall living in Chemistry City
No. 4, in the fictional World State. The state is throughout the book explained
as an organism where all humans have a specific role in order to keep the
system going. Initially Leo is a very obedient “fellow soldier, a happy,
healthy cell in the state organism” (Vowles xvi). Leo has just finished
developing the chemical substance named after himself, Kallocain, a light green
liquid working as a truth serum, making the person having it injected into
their bloodstream revealing all their deepest secrets. Soon Leo Kall is allowed
to experiment on real people, and the results are impressing. More people than
imagined have an inner will to live for something more than the structured,
predetermined life in the World State, which surprises Leo. The results of the
tests are very satisfying to Police Chief Karrek, who takes Leo and his
immediate superior in the laboratory, Edo Rissen, to present, and experiment
with, the substance in the Capital. Soon afterwards the use of Kallocain
becomes obligatory in all legal trials, and the whole mood of the book changes
into panic. Leo himself becomes paranoid with his colleague Rissen and reports
him, causing Rissen to be sentenced to death. The night before the trial Leo’s
wife Linda reveals her inner secrets to him, making him reflect on his own
life, seeing himself as an individual and not a cell in an organism for the
first time.
My analysis
of Kallocain is based upon three
themes I found the most crucial to explain and contextualize the novel: “Totalitarianism”,
“Symbols of Modernity, Democracy and Feminism” and “Family, Marriage and Love”.
The last section is a conclusion with a brief comparison with dystopian
literature today.
Totalitarianism
Kallocain takes
place somewhere during the 21st century, in fact the full title of
the novel in some editions is Kallocain –
a novel from the 21st century. It is a clear description,
definition and critique of a totalitarian future world. Many reflections about
the past in the novel explain the specific time period in which it was written:
Europe in the early 1940’s, and specifically The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany
(Nationalencyklopedin).
The term
fellow soldier used for all citizens
above the age of 7 (when children had to live and be educated by the World
State’s children camp) implies that the novel takes place, and was written,
during a time when a great war was more or less to expect. The rival state of
the Worldstate, the Universal State, is also great power and a totalitarian
power. The tension between the Universal- and the World States could be a
metaphor for Europe during the interwar period, where the two fictional states
could represent The Allies and the Axis Powers, or simply: The Soviet Union and
Nazi Germany.
It is
interesting to see how Boye deliberately rejects all kinds of notions of
geography or settings of the Worldstate. All we know is Earth in the 21st
century. The citizens of the Worldstate are not allowed to know anything about
geographical settings and the other strictly divided areas of the state. When
it comes to Chemistry City No. 4, where Leo Kall lives, only a vague
geographical description is given:
“Concerning the Shoe cities, it was true that some of
them were located as far south as Chemistry City No. 4, but most of them were
far up north, with its severe climate and long, hard, dark winters, which might
cause melancholy in any newcomer (Boye 23).”
This description does not
fit into the placement of Germany, neither of the Soviet Union. Also the names
picked for the characters could be tracked back to different (existing)
nationalities and languages. In my opinion Leo Kall sounds Scandinavian, while
Edo Rissen has a more German/Dutch tone to it, and Kalipso Lavris might be Greek.
Language is in fact also brought up briefly in the novel. The quote below is
from when Leo attends a party to send away young girls to another area of the
Worldstate, and about what issues they will face being replaced.
“But the most difficult, no doubt, was the language.
The common official language within the vast Worldstate had, unfortunately, not
yet become the universal conversational language. In many places dialects were
still in use, entirely unlike each other. (Ibid. 23)”
This reminds me of the
processes of nation-building in Europe during the 19th century, and
especially France, where the school system rejected all different dialects and
forced the whole nation to speak proper French. So, here we can see the
importance of nationalism within the totalitarian state. However, in the 1930’s
and 40’s with the geographical extensions of Nazi Germany, and after the war,
Soviet Russia, the new nationalism instead focused on the exclusion of differences, rather than the inclusion in order to build the totalitarian nation (Eriksson).
The
totalitarian tendencies seen in Kallocain
are also those of exclusion, not so much based on race or language, but, just
as in the Soviet Union, those accused of hostility against the state.
When Leo
Kall experiments with his Kallocain, a group of “lunatics” are revealed,
causing the Kallocain to become the leading method and a standard procedure
during trials and interrogations. Even if the fictional Kallocain is far from
the truth, the usage of it could represent torture in order to force the
(un)true testimony out of people. A recurring subject when interrogating the
lunatics is the name of Reor. A woman
inserted with Kallocain explains further:
“We wish to call forth a new spirit. (…) When you want
to talk about Reor, you must turn to the initiated. He wandered about from
place to place, for in those days it was different with licenses (…). Some only
thought he was peculiar, but others felt they were secure and comfortable with
him, as a small child with its mother. Some forgot him, others never forgot
him, and they told of him to the best of their ability. But only the initiated
would understand (Boye 88-89).”
To me, the explanation
of “the initiated”, or, “the lunatics”
can be seen as a metaphor for early Christianity, with Reor, of course,
representing Jesus, and the existing (totalitarian) power then, the Roman
Empire.
But, the
group (which is not really an organized group, see “Symbols of Modernity,
Democracy and Feminism” below) could also represent any other oppressed group
in a totalitarian state. If referring back to Boyes own life in 1930’s Berlin,
the groups she “belonged” to, for example homosexuals and communists, were
particularly seen as outsiders, just as the initiated in the Worldstate and the
early Christians in the Roman Empire (Lönnroth and Delblanc 37-39).
Symbols of Modernity, Democracy and Feminism
The Kallocain is the
ultimate way for the state to become pure from any hostility from the fellow
soldiers. Towards the end of the novel the number of people reported is
constantly increasing, people are reporting each other; for, if a fellow
soldier has nothing to hide, then a Kallocain-trial will not do any harm.
This is
where the writing becomes more intense and somewhat panicky, and so does Leo’s
inner self. Because there seems to be a fine line between the conscience and
the unconscious when it comes to being injected with Kallocain. Leo Kall
himself has one specific dream he is afraid of having revealed, the dream about
the lunatics’ Desert City. The dream begins with Leo standing at the end of a
long, dangerous road, lined with the ruins of what once used to be a city. In
the middle of all despair he hears voices singing and a woman leads him into a
cellar full of greenery and life:
“The woman who had beckoned me was there and we
embraced. I was saved, and wished to go to sleep from fatigue and relief. (…)
She said, “Will you stay with me?” – “Yes, let me stay!” I replied, and felt
free from all care as a child. Bending down to investigate some moisture on the
ground, I noticed a clear spring running from one side to the other across the
earthen floor, and it filled me with indescribable gratitude. “Did you not know
that this is the spring of life”, said the woman (Boye 144)”.
Earlier on, when Rissen and
Leo experimented on “the lunatics”, and they mentioned the Desert City, Rissen
asked Leo: “Are you sure you don’t envy them their poisoned desert city? (Boye
145)” In fact this dream is the very answer to the question, and, in that case,
if Leo had an urge for something else than the Worldstate, his own unfriendliness
towards the state would be the worst of all. Filled with paranoia, and
convincing himself that it is in fact Rissens idea that had planted in his
head, and not his own; he reports Rissen when Kallocain-usage in legal trials
becomes obligatory. At the examination, Rissen is sentenced to death. After
Linda’s outburst and confession (see Family, Marriage and Love below), Leo
changes his mind about Rissen and tries to save him, but it is too late.
It is
interesting to see how Rissen dies just when Leo comes to his senses about the
Worldstate. Being enemies throughout the novel and two very different men, it
is remarkable how much time they (have to) spend together. Leo Kall spends more
time with Leo Rissen than with his wife. I would like to play with the idea
that the two men are, in fact two extreme versions of the same person. Leo as
the cold, insensitive, lawful person, and Rissen as the softer, skeptical and
kind person; or Leo as the classical male figure, and Rissen with more
traditionally female attributes. It is said that Karin Boye herself had many
inner struggles about her complex identity, which is present in many of her
other works as well (Lönnroth and Delblanc 36). Rissen then symbolically needs
to die, in order to keep Leo alive with new views upon life; he awakens from
the Worldstate-dream and becomes a combination of both individuals.
This view
of the dream as the reality, or both closely connected, can be traced back to
Freud’s ideas about freeing the individual by acknowledging the unconscious,
but also to modernist aesthetic ideas of free expression and the artist/writer’s
own mind as a starting point (Hansson).
The spring
of life can also be seen as a symbol of democracy. When learning about the
past, the fellow soldiers of the Worldstate know that during the “Civilian
Era”, with the great wars and chaos, life was a jungle. In the Desert City,
which is banned for citizens of the Worldstate, the remains of this past anarchy
can be seen. But then, within all this, the spring of life, the hopefulness of
a future democracy can be seen. Or, as Winston Churchill put it, in his speech
just after World War II, in 1947:
“Many
forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and
woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been
said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other
forms that have been tried from time to time. (Cited by Wikiquote)”
Another artistic expression reflecting back to
Karin Boyes other works is the metaphor of the tree for explaining life,
in contrast to death, which a constant battle of her own. (Lönnroth and Deblanc
37-40). A you woman, belonging to the lunatics, expresses:
“”Organization? We don’t want any organization. What
is organic needs no organization. You build from without, we build from within.
You use yourselves as building stones and fall apart outside and in, We are
build from the inside like a tree, and bridges grow between us that are not of
dead material and a dead force. From us life itself issues. In you whatever is
lifeless enters.” (Boye 90)”
The same feeling of nature
in the form of a tree is brought up by Linda in her confession to Leo towards
the end. This is the point where Leo realizes the intrigued group in fact carry
feelings existing in every human being:
“I was a branch that bloomed and I knew nothing about
my root or trunk but I could feel the sap spring from unknown depths (Boye
167)”.
Theses balances, and inner struggles,
represent the contradictions between the dream and reality, the nature and constructed,
the life and death; but also, as mentioned above with Rissen and Leo, the
female- and male attributes. When all nature and sense in the world are
immediately connected to traditional female thinking, the novel should be seen
as a very feminist work throughout. The alternative world explained by the
woman from the initiated and by Linda, can be seen as a gender equal society, a
utopia.
Another
feminist feature could be linked to critique of the futurist artistic movement
mostly present in Italy during the early twentieth century, and therefore
closely linked to fascism. The totalitarian system of the Worldstate as a very hierarchic
power model, and the strength and violence as honorable attributes, and the
complete rejection of knowledge about the past, are clear signs of fascism,
something that Boye, from the radical left, is criticizing from cover to cover.
In this world where physical strength and war is glorified, the women are seen
as less valuable. In Germany, and especially Berlin, during the 1920’s the
culture was blooming and new aesthetic movements rose, the traditional male and
female attributes were slowly approaching some kind of equality, until the Nazi
party came into power (Hansson). Boye herself was in Berlin to see this
specific change, and the turnout of events affected her.
Many
literature studies of Boyes work see her inner struggle between the sexes as
one of the most crucial features in her many autobiographic works on finding
her own identity. When moving to Berlin in 1931 she went into psychoanalysis,
where she found the strength to outlive her bisexuality (Lönnroth and Deblanc
35-40). In the (overly) gender obsessive Sweden of today this equal sign
between “finding” the right inner gender, in order to “become” hetero- homo- or
bisexual is somewhat absurd. But at the time being it was the only possible
view upon sexuality, even for Karin Boye herself. You had to fit into the
framework of being traditionally- female or male.
But, taking
by taking one step back, and looking past the discourse on sexuality in today’s
Sweden, I would probably find the explanation of the struggle between “male”
and “female” inside Leo Kall accurate. On a feminist note, the positive side,
the traditional female expressions of love, nature and common sense, wins in
Leo. With Karin herself these struggles took her life; maybe the male, violent
side of her won, causing her to commit suicide in 1941, shortly after the novel
was written.
Family, Marriage and Love
Family building in the
Worldstate is seen as closely intertwined, if not the same as (hetero-)
sexuality. In every parental room of the house a police-eye and -ear are placed
on the wall to observe all interaction happening. Also the mentioning of
massive propaganda to produce more fellow-soldiers is present throughout the
book. I cannot imagine what kind of propaganda that might imply, but Leo Kall
presents the result of such as follows:
“ Our Worldstate had least of all an aesthetic view on
sex; in the contrary, it was necessary and commendable to create new
fellow-soldiers, and everything was done to let men and women from early
maturity fulfill their duty in that respect. And I too, in the beginning, had
had no objection to someone higher up observing that I was a man (Boye 30).
The notion of the marriage
only to produce children is a reoccurring topic throughout Kallocain. When reflecting upon his own marriage early in the
novel, Leo explains: “Round about us we saw parents separate as soon as their
children were ready for the youth camps – separate and remarry to produce more
children (Boye 11)”. This thought of the family, or mother, as a
child-producing machine makes one think of the Lebensborn-program in Nazi
Germany, where young Aryan women were selected to have children with
SS-soldiers. The babies were then brought up at the Lebensborn centers, or
adopted to German families (Crossland).
In Germany
the willingness to hand over your child was more to serve Hitler as a person,
out of love for his charismatic leadership, than to the state as such
(Hansson). But the ideas behind it are the same, to be a good woman, loyal to
the powers, whether state or person.
When
reflecting back on his, and his wife Linda’s marriage, Leo’s overall impression
is that they lost intimacy, partly because they no longer have the need to
produce more children, and therefore not the need for physical interaction. But
another reason for the two of them not making love anymore is also the coldness
and restriction that Leo feels from Linda. Towards the end of the novel, Linda
reveals her inner secrets of not always wanting to devote her body to the state
and its purposes.
“When Ossu was born I was still a mother fully in the
State’s spirit, one bearing for the state only. When Maryl was born I was
selfish, a greedy beast female, who bore for herself and felt she had the right
over what she had borne. My conscience told me I was wrong, that such thoughts
were not allowed, but no feelings of guilt and shame could erase that
greadyness which had come to life in me (Boye 165).”
After this confession of
hers Leo realizes that the feeling wanting something between individualism and
collectivism is in fact a feeling that can exist in all humans, and not only
within a certain group, such as the lunatics.
Earlier in
the book, the notion of silence and its importance is brought up. A young man,
who had been invited to a gathering of the initiated, explains how the people
would just sit together in silence and how finds it scary, yet inspiring:
“ There is nothing more horrible than to sit in
silence. I have the feeling people look right trough me; as if naked, or worse
than naked. Spiritually naked (Boye 85)”.
The same nakedness is
explained by Leo several times in the book when telling how he feels about
Linda being so quiet, that he feels exposed towards her silence; “I felt
frighteningly transparent (Boye 30).” But when Linda has finished her revealing
talk Leo walks up to her and puts his head in her lap. The intimacy Leo feels
at this point, when they both sit in silence, completely transparent, is his
redefinition of love, before so strictly explained as a child producing necessary
evil. This is when he awakens from his dream and feels “illegal and escapable”
in his newly found communion with Linda (Boye 168).
Dystopias, hegemony and a brighter future – Conclusion
The frame story of Kallocain takes place some 20 years
later than the explained adventures of Leo Kall. Leo is now around 60 years old
and kept as a prisoner in the Universal state, writing down his memories of
this certain eventful period of his life. Throughout the novel some glimpses of
elderly Leo and his thoughts and opinions are seen. This makes Kallocain somewhat warmer and gives it a
sense of deeper meaning then it seems at first glance.
The book
was written during the summer of 1940, less than a year before Karin Boye’s
suicide. Unlike most of her other works, Kallocain
was written down within a very short time period (Vowles xv). When handing
in the manuscript to her publisher she wrote:
“ I know well enough that the novel has its failings
(…) I promise that I shall never write anything so macabre again. In any case,
it was something I had to do (cited by Vowles xv)”
Vowles continues by
explaining how writing Kallocain was pure torture to Boye since “she had never
attempted to hold together so large a book without an ounce of autobiography”
(Vowles xv). A statement that, based on my analysis above, I find incorrect.
However, her personal reflections and references are well hidden, especially
compared to her earlier works. Perhaps that was what frightened her most, that
she could find so many tendencies in her own life and put them into such a
horrifying context.
Kallocain fits perfectly into the classical definition of dystopian fiction in criticizing
the totalitarian regimes (Nationalencyklopedin). But yet today, the dystopian
genre is popular. If the dystopias of the early twentieth century were about
the threat of the totalitarian powers, the dystopian novels of today, the early
21st century, are about terrorism, climate change, consumerism and (nonexistent)
integrity online (Fahl). Dystopian fiction always criticizes the contemporary
times of writing and its issues. To me, the problems brought up in dystopias of
today do not seem “as scary” as the ones in a novel criticizing the Nazi
regime, knowing what happened afterwards. But I would like to be critical to my
present time and link this to Gramsci’s ideas on hegemony, where the liberal
ideas and the capital, and not an obvious dictator, holds the power (Morrow
338-339).
In
dystopian novels the importance of an outsider and different character makes
the reader understand the very problematic nature of our own ways of life. In Kallocain this person could be Rissen or
later Linda. According to Gramsci’s ideas, it then becomes crucial to be this person in real life, in order to
see past the hegemonic powers. Dystopian novels of today reflect upon and criticize
the tendencies of today, such as the liberal hegemony; just like the dystopian
novels of the early twentieth century criticize the totalitarian powers, and
their hegemony.
Leo Kall
himself becomes this critical person in the very end of the novel, and even
though now imprisoned for a long time, he reflects back upon the bravery of
allowing himself to think a bit further than the Worldstate wanted him to.
“ But moments come to me when I sit on my bunk, with
my eyes closed, and I manage to see the stars twinkle and the wind murmur as it
did that night and I cannot, I cannot erase that illusion from my soul that I
still, in spite of all, participate in creating a new world (Boye 191)”.
Crossland, David. “Nazi Program to Breed
Master Race: Lebensborn Children Break Silence.” Der Spiegel International. 7 Nov. 2006. Web. 27 March 2013. (http://www.spiegel.de/international/nazi-program-to-breed-master-race-lebensborn-children-break-silence-a-446978.html)
Eriksson, Inge. “Politics and Aesthetics: Concepts and Schools on
Nationalism.” 27 Feb. 2013. Lecture
Works Cited
Boye, Karin. Kallocain.
Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1966. Print.
Crossland, David. “Nazi Program to Breed
Master Race: Lebensborn Children Break Silence.” Der Spiegel International. 7 Nov. 2006. Web. 27 March 2013. (http://www.spiegel.de/international/nazi-program-to-breed-master-race-lebensborn-children-break-silence-a-446978.html)
Eriksson, Inge. “Politics and Aesthetics: Concepts and Schools on
Nationalism.” 27 Feb. 2013. Lecture
Fahl,
Hanna. “I den nya vågen av dystopisk litteratur frodas framtidstron och
kampviljan.” DN Kultur. 24 Nov. 2012.
Web. 27 March 2013.
(http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/kronikor/hanna-fahl-i-den-nya-vagen-av-dystopisk-litteratur-frodas-framtidstron-och-kampv)
(http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/kronikor/hanna-fahl-i-den-nya-vagen-av-dystopisk-litteratur-frodas-framtidstron-och-kampv)
Hansson, Cecilia. ”Politics and Aesthetics: The
beginning of the 20th century and the emergence of extreme politics.” 5 March.
2013. Lecture.
Lönnroth,
Lars and Sven Delblanc. Den Svenska
Litteraturen: Modernister och arbetardiktare, 1920-1950. Stockholm: BonnierFakta Bokförslag AB. 1989. Print.
Morrow, John. History of Western Political
Thought: A Thematic Introduction. 2nd ed. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2005. Print.
Vowles, Richard B.”Introduction.” Kallocain. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1966.
Print.
Wikiquote. “Winston Churchill.” Web. 27 March. 2013. (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill)
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