The Dog Lady Blog

As I was finishing up the first of Stieg's trilogy, this part on the bottom of page 393 and the top of 394 really hit home.  I mentioned to a friend that I'd like to read it to the court this coming Tuesday (yes, yet another journey through the hell known as small town collusion...).  My friend said, "Don't bother. They'd never understand it."  Annie, you are probably right.

from "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", by Stieg Larsson:

"...Normally seven minutes of another person's company was enough to give her a headache, so she set things up to live as a recluse.  She was perfectly content as long as people left her in peace.  Unfortunately society was not very smart or understanding; she had to protect herself from social authorities, child welfare authorities, guardianship authorities, tax authorities, police, curators, psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers, and bouncers, who (apart from the guys watcing the door at Kvarnen, who by this time knew who she was) would never let her into the bar even though she was twenty-five.  There was a whole army of people who seemed not to have anything better to do that to try to disrupt her life, and, if they were given the opportunity, to correct the way she had chosen to live it.

It did no good to cry, she had learned early on. She had also learned that every time she tried to make someone aware of something in her life, the situation got worse.  Consequently it was up to her to solve her problems by herself, using whatever methods she deemed necessary.  Something that Advokat Bjurman had found out the hard way."


Spooky-close.