Hello
Gentle Reader
The
Scandal that left the Swedish Academy in ruin last year is now entering its
final stages of closure. The remaining smoldering hot spots have either been
extinguished or are in the process of being extinguished. There is no denying
that the past year had seen the once magnanimous and secretive royal institution,
pushed to the brink of obliteration and implosion. Member vacancy rates were unprecedentedly
high, to the point the academy could no longer hold a quorum, which resulted in
Royal intervention and an amendment to the statutes, including the statute that
membership was for life.
The
scandal, however, was a public affair, which tantalized and entertained the
public with both disgust and intrigue. The usual graceful and silent veneer of
the secretive eighteen members, quickly dissolved, showcasing how human they
were in their publicly advertised faults. Each new day brought a new chapter in
the ensuing chaos of the scandal. Alliances were formed and allegiances were
broken. Two former members are often considered the sacrificial offerings to the
scandal:
Katarina
Frostenson, whose husband originally caused the foundation to crumble, due to
allegations and accusations of sexual assault and nonconsensual sex, which
allegedly the Swedish Academy was aware of, and did nothing to dissuade or
stop. The allegations grew more intertwined with the academy as the assaults allegedly
took place on Swedish Academy owned property, and that Katarina Frostenson had
leaked future laureate(s) and Nobel Prize winners to her husband, Jean-Claude
Arnault. Further issues grew, with the fact that the Swedish Academy had been
funding the Forum, a cultural club owned and operated by Jean-Claude Arnault
and Katarina Frostenson, which has been called a severe ethical violation and
conflict of interest. Needless to say, Jean-Claude Arnault was formally charged
with sexual assault and was convicted of two counts, whereby he is serving his
sentence in prison. Katarina Frostenson, however, bitterly refused to rescind
her seat, until after she had received financial compensation from the academy
as a whole, despite the fact, via two different external investigations had
proven she had broken the statute of secrecy on multiple occasions. She has
since resigned from her chair, earlier this year.
Sara
Danius, was the former Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, when the
scandal first broke out. As the public face and voice of the Swedish Academy,
it was her responsibility to be the media relations representative of the
academy as it wished to assure the public the issue was being handled
internally and would be resolved without complications. Sadly, by the spring of
two-thousand and eighteen, the scandal had erupted and no internal governance
was in place to contain the contamination which had spewed forth. Sara Danius,
as Permanent Secretary, was immediately met with mutiny by members of the
Swedish Academy: Horace Engdahl, Sture Allen, and Goran Malmqvist, who publicly
denounced and decried her as a failure in her position; and from there the dogs
of war had been released. As the scandal grew increasingly out of control, and
the academy was pushed to the brink of obliteration, it became apparent that
the two warring sides needed to compromise. It was agreed, that Katarina
Frostenson was to recuse herself from the academy’s work (not formally resign)
and Sara Danius would relinquish her position as Permanent Secretary. Danius
not only relinquished her position but also formally recused herself from the
academy’s work, at which point Anders Olsson became the pro-tempo Permanent Secretary.
Now
almost year later, Sara Danius has decided to also formally resign from the
Swedish Academy. The decision has not been made entirely clear, but it has been
reported that Anders Olsson will soon be stepping down as the Permanent
Secretary of the Swedish Academy due to age, and Sara Danius had shown an
interest in reclaiming the position she formally held. The academy is said to have
declined. Danius accepted the motion as is and has decided to formally resign
from the academy, which also includes financial easement.
The
Swedish Academy now has three seats sitting vacant:
Chair
No. 7 – Formally held by Sara Danius
Chair
No. 9 – Formally held by Jayne Svenungsson
Chair
No. 13 – Formally held by Sara Stridsberg
Chair
No. 18 – Is currently elected to: Tua Forsström – though her induction does not
take place until December 20th of this year.
In
a statement, Anders Olsson has said all three remaining vacant seats will be
filled by women.
It
is sad to see Sara Danius’s role with the Swedish Academy so quickly dismissed
and painted over. As Permanent Secretary Sara Danius relished and thrived in
the role of media relations, though the decision to choose Bob Dylan as a Nobel
Laureate (though not her decision to make singularly), was controversial and
not appreciated by the literary community. Yet, her handling of the situation
was impeccable, though often challenging. In the end, Sara Danius’s role and
function within the Swedish Academy has expired, and she will move on to other
ventures. When asked about the current reputation of the academy, she had said
it will most likely take ten years for it to regain its full integrity back, as
the damage has rippled and been viewed globally.
This
my Dear Gentle Readers, certainly must mark the closing chapter(s) of the
Swedish Academy crisis and scandal. Though a torrid and dirty affair to watch,
it was like a slow train wreck one could not help but continue to watch, with
almost sadistic guilty pleasure. The scandal showed the internal workings of
the Swedish Academy—or lack thereof—with frank and brutal honesty, as the
academy severely lacked formal policies, procedures, and governance practices with
regards to transparency. For all its glitz and glamour, there existed at the
heart of the matter a dark and disturbing and even rotting festering fiendish
culture of silence and explicit corruption, which denied all attempts at change
or transparency, out of fears it would be exposed.
In
the end it was exposed, with no winner to be crowned, and the world was deprived of its Nobel Prize for Literature for a year.
Thank-you
For Reading Gentle Reader
Take
Care
And
As Always
Stay
Well Read
M.
Mary
For Further
Reading—
The Economic Time: "A Year after quitting as permanent secretary. Sara Danius steps down from Swedish Academy,"
Vt.se: "Sara Danius ville tillbaka – fick nej,"
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