On Lotta Lotass

When the Swedish Academy announced last week that Lotta Lotass had been appointed to seat no. 1, I have to admit my curiosity nearly ran amuck. I had never read anything by her before, though the name sounded familiar. Her family name alone ‘Lotass’ [lynx paw] was enough to leave a scratch, which is pronounced: Xu&rr XU&RR. That no single person by the family name ‘Lotass’ exists in the Swedish public telephone directory, coupled with the fact that the word ‘lotass’ does not exist in the Swedish Academy’s own glossary of Swedish words, is curious - to say the least. Xu&rr XU&RR . Nor is the first name ‘Lotta’ on the Swedish Academy’s list of first names. Otherwise we know that Lotta is a nickname for Charlotta, a feminine diminutive of Charles - Purrr Purrr – and that a ‘lotta’ is a dutiful member of the Swedish Women’s Voluntary Defence Organization, a kind of a local girl scout.

Lo and behold her paw, I think I’ve got it: a poetic Pseudonym At Work. Perfect for Internet publications, with lots of links to what is to come from this particular species of a rare (undomesticated) domestic animal. An illegitimate kitten (born 1964) is to become a legitimate member of the family on 20 December, even though she's unlisted.

To refresh our window, let us recall that this is a beast that still lives in the forests that cover most of Sweden’s inland territory, and in rocky places. It prowls mostly at night like most Internet users. The lynx also likes to climb trees and go out on limbs. Its paws are large enough to serve as snowshoes, which prevent it - unlike its prey - from breaking through the crust. The lynx lives mostly on foxes and deer, and sometimes on sheep and chickens. The female lynx is known to use her claws to fight viciously for her kit n kin, her most powerful links to the future.

So the Swedish Academy is installing a Swedish girl scout to use her lynx paws to work hard, primarily in defence of the Swedish language, in a modern global medium. The Swedish Academy is installing the AUTOR_ETER program, a species of persona non grata to do the dirty work, and catch up.

Having done my homework, a little basic research, I proceeded to google the name “Lotta Lotass” and take a walk to my local bookstore, where I purchased a copy of “Den röda himlen” [The red sky]. There I note (on the back cover flap) that Lotta Lotass was born in 1964 in Borsheden, a small town in western Dalarna, the province most known for its Swedish cultural work horses. Her maternal grandmother’s father, Leonard Karlsson, was a diamond driller for the Grängesberg mining company who disappeared while working in Russia at the outbreak of World War I. He was pronounced non-existent on the 20th of December 1920.

We’ve got less than a year from now to find out for sure whether or not Lotta Lotass really exists. Her installation is planned for the 20th of December 2009 according to a press release from the Academy (6 mars 2009), in Swedish only. Read, and read on. What could be a more legitimate cause to celebrate?