Background

There’s a lot to be said about a poor kid, rising to a level of international renown for his writing ability and novel style. That’s the first part of Knut Hamsun’s story. During a poor childhood in rural Norway, his loftiest position seemed to be an apprentice shoemaker. After a move to Oslo, he struggled to get by and moved to America for a stint as a roaming worker before his return home. That’s when he put his struggles to live as a writer in to the first modern Norwegian novel Hunger. A book whose style, depth of personal feeling and internal monologue served to inspire writers from Franz Kafka and Ernest Hemingway to Herman Hesse and William Faulkner.

So far, pretty good right? If you stop reading there, I wouldn’t blame you. But I ought to let you know the other side of the coin.

As his writing gained more success and he developed a greater fame, he pushed more and more for people to appreciate their inner life and abandon the modern trappings and distractions. For Hamsun the modern world was such a rip off that he longed to return to the land as a farmer and developed a whole sense of literature broadly called “Blut und Boden” (Or “Blood and Soil”) in the novel that was cited as the primary driver of his Nobel Prize: Growth of the Soil.

That might not seem too bad, until you recognize that “Blut und Boden” became a rallying cry of a little fringe political party in Germany. And when that fringe party went mainstream under their leader–Adolf Hitler–Hamsun’s works took on a much more aggressive tone. And while that might be bad…it got worse. When the Nazis took over Norway with the Quisling Regime, Hamsun was honored. (Some claim he was senile, others that he simply tried to get in good with powerful people to help his homeland, but giving away your Nobel prize to the propagandist villainizing an entire religion and justifying genocide…well…that’s problematic disgusting. So…congrats, I guess?

Works

I chose to follow the literary influential work of Hunger rather than subject myself to more pseudo-facsist posturing than I already endure as an American citizen. While you can see the seeds of grossness already in the offing, you also see a painful portrayal of mental illness and alienation that would make Sartre proud. The stream of consciousness game is strong with Hamsun, and the frequency with which his unnamed protagonist veers wildly between “I am a legend about to ascend to the firmament!” and “I am the most disgusting filth ever to creep upon the earth!” felt uncomfortably familiar to my BPD addled psyche.

“Hope flames up again in me. As yet, nothing is lost. On the contrary, I might, for that matter, yet win all. And my brain began to spin a romance about a great council in heaven where it had just been resolved that I should win. Aye, win ten shillings for a story!”†

“The farther away I got, the more gladsome, aye, delighted I became, that I had conquered this strong temptation. The consciousness that I was yet pure and honorable rose to my head–filled me with a splendid sense of having principle, character, of being a shining white beacon in a muddy, human sea amidst floating wreck…. Brand one’s soul with the first little scar? Set the first black mark against one’s honor? Call one’s self a blaguard to one’s on face and needs must cast one’s eyes down before one’s self? NEVER!”

“I railed at myself for my poverty; called myself abusive names; invented furious designations, rich, rough nuggets in a vein of abuse with which I overwhelmed myself.”

Message

In an effort to capture a bit of those early years that influenced the wider world and those later years that ended up enabling pretty hideous stuff, I’m going to go for one of the stupidest messages in all of my reading: Modern life is hard and painful. (Way to go Knut…I never would have recognized that part of life without your help)

Position: #2 Right Back

Hamsun might be the hardest person to label in this entire exercise. After all, there were parts I really liked and parts that were so repetitive I was frustrated.. Add into that the whole Nazi apologist part of it…how much do I need to account for that?

The stream of consciousness makes me feel like he’s a midfielder. The wild runs make me think of a winger. The grumpy responses to minor inconveniences evokes a brutal center back. For the first time I got input on the situation from my brothers who said they thought it sounded like a pioneer in total football…who then went off the deep end after retiring.

I think that does a pretty good job of capturing it. So in looking for a positional fit I opted for Right Back where he can (in a total football style) make wild runs AND be grumpy and physical. At times the play will run through him and owe a lot to him…but he’s not so essential that you HAVE to make him the star. To add on to my brothers’ point, I decided to imagine him at the end of his career, having clearly lost several steps into, ya know, fascist apologizing and declining from what I might give as a neutral rating (79) to a severe decline (the worst in FIFA games tends to be between 10-15 points…so I dropped him to 66).

PHEW That was a lot to process for what is ultimately a silly vanity project that no one cares about but me…but that’s vanity for you.

If you disagree join the conversation and call me out (unless you’re defending the prize hand off to Goebbles which…no).

Next Time: The Rapid Fire Evaluation of 2026’s winner