Barnabok (Childs' book) was published in 1952 and may be considered as the first masterpiece of Lars Gyllensten. Gyllensten is a truly academic writer who has elaborated different values and perceptions of life in his different pieces. Above all, he estimate the priciple of "unfaithfulness", ie he is assuming different attitudes in his various books, he is a constructor and explorer of ideas. Initially, he was applauded but later his unfaithfulness was less associated to openness and more to a lack of principles (and in the 60s ideology became more important again). This relativism of Gyllensten was inspired by logical empirism of Vienna and Cambridgephilosophy. He also share basic ideas with Kierkegaard and existentialism. Barnabok is started in an artificial children's language and explores naivety. In the final scene the main character kills his girlfriends baby - he fails the attitude he was trying out.
Usually I enjoy clever constructions but so far it has been more fun/interesting to read about the talanted author (who has a chair of his own in the Swedish Academy, but didn't take part the last 15 years or so) than to read the results of his work. Although I am tempted to go on with the thesis and the anti-thesis in this trilogy where Barnabok corresponds to the synthesis.
