The man of culture is the new victim

Nina Lykke has always believed that it will go to hell with the writing. As novel after novel has been successful, she is just waiting for disaster – which has made her increasingly outspoken. In the new book “We are not here to have fun”, she takes on a white male writer in his 50s, a so-called man of culture.

— He is the only one that everyone can get involved with. He is the new victim, because now everyone stands and screams about their wounds – apart from the white man, because no one wants to listen to him, she explains.

In Norway, the man of culture as a concept has not been discussed significantly in the media, says Nina Lykke when she visits Stockholm. But everything in the novel has happened for real, she admits, which, given some twisted scenes, may seem surprising.

— Reality is twisted, much more than what can be written in a book. But I don’t think anyone has recognized themselves so far. I’m not looking for a specific person, but to portray the spirit of the times, she says.

Understand the men of culture

The book is about Knut, a divorced 57-year-old writer who has never been able to follow up the success of “The Famous Book” – and when he tries to write about a Pakistani gay man to raise his gaze, it is called cultural appropriation.

He lives alone and longs to return to his ex-wife. Nina Lykke repeatedly writes about divorces – in “No and again no”, Jan leaves his wife for a colleague 15 years younger but regrets it. Nina Lykke divorced herself young, something she can still feel sad about. But overall, divorces usually hit men harder, she claims.

— It should be the men who want to get married, because they are the ones who get the benefits of being married, more than the women, who get completely worn out by it!

Not all white men feel at the top of the power pyramid, argues Nina Lykke and summarizes: men commit suicide more often, die earlier and are more depressed. With black humor, she sinks her teeth into their anxiety – but doesn’t feel mean.

– It’s me I’m writing about too, I live inside him and think what it’s like to be a man. What’s it like to have a dick, when it doesn’t behave? I’ve always wondered that.

Men also do not dare to discuss the anxiety of losing hair or their potency, because it is “not considered masculine” – while the women are happy to shout that “we need to talk more about periods”, says Nina Lykke and laughs out loud. She got her sense of humor from her parents, and with her father she also shares an irritation with everything from people who put their feet on the seat to cyclists who take a left turn at red lights.

— I feel like a grumpy old man. There is so much disturbing in public, she says, rolling her eyes.

“More aggressive sexuality”

In the book, Nina Lykke mocks everything from the lied cultural life to sloppily dressed writers. Knut is also hanged in a novel by a young girl who calls him a dirty old man and a slob. But Nina Lykke does not give much to such books’ pretensions to reality.

— To make reality readable, you have to do violence to it and certain people around you, and maybe yourself. If I were to write everything I thought, life would probably be over. For example, we can think quite sharp things about our friends, but if we write it, the friendship is over, she says, adding:

— Although if someone had really written everything they thought, I would have said, hats off!

Soon Knut also realizes that it is impossible to defend himself against the “reality writer” – even though he has a completely different experience of the situation. Nina Lykke believes that the problem is that men have a “fundamentally different” sexuality than women.

— It is more aggressive and one-eyed. When they first want something, the desire is so strong, they are in a “cock fog” and then it becomes easy for them to ignore the fact that the woman might not be completely on board, she argues.

According to Nina Lykke, that both sexes are “equally horny” is a myth that was cultivated during the sexual revolution, and which men like to believe in order to get laid more.

— Men think that women are more powerful than we are because we can decide when to fuck, they think that we are queens who can pick and choose. They don’t see how scared we can be when they come and take one on the ass, she says.

See women of culture

But on the other hand, Nina Lykke also portrays the man’s impossible situation: if he does not get an erection, he is mocked, but getting it at an inappropriate time is also wrong. And anyone who is labeled as a dirty old man is almost disenfranchised, she emphasizes.

— The more you defend yourself, the more you get entangled. We have to be aware of that situation, because people have been so afraid of being on the wrong side of history and protecting someone who commits abuse that they instead don’t protect anyone at all.

Nina Lykke believes that metoo was necessary to tear down old hierarchies of power. But she also believes that, in the worst case, the movement has led to grotesque punishments and pure acts of revenge. Now she thinks it’s time for the “women of culture” to be scrutinized.

— We often say to the man of culture “yikes, mean”, but Mick Jagger can’t go outside the house without 14 women standing there. As long as you have children with him, you don’t have to do much else in life. We also need to talk about that.

“Someone has thought I was a bit mean, but I don’t really care because I don’t think I am. People who think I’m mean probably don’t like my books and I can’t calibrate myself according to them. Then it disappears what I am. So I just keep going,” says Nina Lykke.