thursday.

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Now that I have your attention, let's talk about my new writing project! I thought I was done with the 1920's, being mostly done with Lest They Leave, but turns out that was all one big lie! I just needed a different angle on it. No more France. No more "Roaring" Twenties or Silly Years. Welcome to the mostly depressive, bleak landscape that is Denmark in the inter-war years, both the 20's and the 30's.

Denmark in the 20's was marked by a big political unrest, record-high unemployment, distrust towards the state of the world and revolt against old norms, as well as the financial crises and crashes that were part of everyday life in these years after the great losses suffered in WWI. While some tendencies were introduced from the US (first car factory opened in 1924, jazz became a big part of the Danish music scene) and mass production made it easier and cheaper to buy clothes that followed trends from Paris, mostly the 20's in Denmark are remembered as the decade where we ate a lot of porridge, because that was all we could afford. Kind of grey, kind of dreary. We didn't roar much.

Well, the scene in my new story is set in 1925, cars are beginning to be a more normalized sight in the streets, there's just been a round of elections that put the first Social-Democratic state minister in position, though he won't last long. Women have begun joining the workforce, though mainly in factories and in housekeeping. This is the world my main character, Anna, is living in. Despite the general sexism of the era, she has managed to finish an apprenticeship in photography and is working as an assistent in her family friend, Jacob Bjerre's studio in inner Aarhus, though she dreams of getting her own studio and rise above the rank of "assistent". Among the locals, she's somewhat of a curiosity, being a woman in this field, and even more so since she's 30 and still unmarried. While some suspect, no one has confirmed that she's actually a lesbian with a wide trail of former dalliances behind her, unable to create the conditions for a lasting relationship.

All this changes, when the Academy for the Fine Arts in Copenhagen announce a photo competition where a twenty photo long series can earn you a prize of 20,000 kroner. Anna figures that if she could win that prize, she could finally open her own studio across town. However, she can't decide on a subject for her series and is almost too late to finish her contribution, when she one day meets the upper-class Garçonne girl, Lilly, who immediately inspires her and she uninvited approaches her on the street and asks whether she can photograph her. Lilly, who just breezes through life, refusing to care about much, is intrigued by the idea and accepts, refusing any compensation or contracts for it.

The next month, they spend a lot of time at night in Bjerre's studio, taking pictures and getting to know each other and if you haven't guesses where this leads, you don't know me at all. Yadda yadda, they fall in love, Lilly begins introducing Anna to her upper-class world that Anna portrays through her lens as part of her series. The plan is that I want these two to have a happy ending, even if I don't think Anna wins the competition. How exactly their happy ending will come about, I don't know yet.

We'll see. Lots of options!



I've amassed a small stack of books on the 1920's, in the US, France and in Denmark that I plan to begin reading over the next week. I have the classics, an introduction to Fitzgerald and the Jazz Age + The Great Gatsby which I will read parts of, it's of course a very American portrait of the 20's which doesn't fit the Danish situation, but I do imagine the upper-classes in Denmark probably had a more similar experience to that than the working and middle-classes did. Two books relating to Paris in the 20's, one being Hemingway's memoir, A Moveable Feast and the other an essay collection with writings from American expats living in Paris in that decade, with a focus on the food they ate! Very exciting! Finally, I have a book on Copenhagen in the 20's which is relatively new and a collection of short stories from magazines by period-relevant writer, Hans Kirk, where at least a handful are from the 1920's which should give me a feeling for the language, the dialogue and the mood of Denmark in those days. All in all, very exciting. I feel like my research game is strong right now.



And to end this entry on a just as strong note as it began, have another video!

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