Writing

Writing

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2026

  1. 31 August 2026The ArgumentBut writing!?Writing in school: short reading comprehension answers, no whole stories, and what lots of practice has to do with it. From a letter to Skrivesenteret, August 2026.
  2. 25 August 2026EssayENA map for one readerSicily in June with a guide that exists in no app store — and the Norman king, the Arab geographer and the Athenian actor who kept turning up in it
  3. 7 April 2026The ArgumentHow to get startedI pick a few key episodes in history, and get into that moment as richly as I can.
  4. 7 April 2026EssayENThe anchor strategyCrete, the fog-of-war map, Charlemagne as an anchor, why hooks need a skeleton, and reading by the fireplace. Excerpts about method from a 2026 essay.

2025

  1. 30 December 2025EssayLast issue!Jew clause, Christmas services and a poor parish clerk, lazy boys and drunkards. 24-31 December
  2. 13 November 2025The ArgumentCricket in AustraliaSome kids get it from home, and some don't. It's not enough that some teachers are heroic.
  3. 13 November 2025The ArgumentWhere is the knowledge strategy for adults?Why doesn't Teater Innlandet have a little lecture series on theater history? (Why doesn't NRK????)
  4. 10 October 2025EssayFrom 1885, and just as exciting for itRobin Hood from 1938, a boys' book from 1931, Little Lord Fauntleroy from 1885. About old books and movies for an eleven-year-old, and what rubs off.
  5. 15 September 2025The ArgumentAre you allowed to say this?The most condescending thing you can say about ordinary people is surely that world literature "isn't for them".
  6. 30 July 2025NoteENReading Plato where it happenedThirty days in Athens in the summer of 2025: an 1872 Plato from an auction, a bookbinder, Elektra and Oedipus in Epidaurus, and the dialogues read on the spots where they are set.
  7. 11 June 2025The ArgumentNever heard of Hirsch thereWhat's even the point of lots of fancy theories and PhDs when you don't do the absolute simplest thing possible?
  8. 6 June 2025EssayThe Great Northern WarPeter the Great incognito as a shipbuilder, a fox-tossing Polish king, a Swedish army in Ukraine, Charles XII's vacation in the Ottoman Empire...
  9. 30 May 2025EssayThe theater of fear, first Ugolino in the tower prisona German theater of fear, inspired by Dante who was himself inspired by Greek myths...
  10. 22 May 2025EssayGood ideas for urban development from SwitzerlandHow do we get tourists to take the train? Toy libraries, pedibus and farm tourism
  11. 19 May 2025EssayRette baker for smed, rhyme and rhythmFrom André Bjerke to French tragedies, Wessel and pantomime
  12. 15 May 2025EssayTristan and Isolde - from Wagner to Old German, via Old NorseOpera, medieval romance, children's book and Norwegian folk song: from Wagner to Old German, via Old Norse.
  13. 15 May 2025EssayIt all started with Kirsten FlagstadThe Flagstad festival, a book from the library, a recording from Stockholm on Youtube, and a year later Copenhagen with my son.
  14. 11 May 2025EssayKristofer Janson, historical novels, Jens Munk and the Northwest PassageKristofer Janson's historical novels, Jens Munk and the Northwest Passage.
  15. 11 May 2025EssayInterlude: Rabbit holes and search engineKristofer Janson, Johan Herman Wessel, and amateur history
  16. 23 April 2025EssayStill an atheistMatthew in Greek at Easter, Bondestudentar with no background knowledge, Wergeland's "Mennesket", and the plan for the Old Testament. The Bible as literature, for someone who quit the church at sixteen.
  17. 22 April 2025NoteENThe high school education I never gotFrom «never too late» in June 2020 to «in five years, you'll be five years older no matter what» in 2025: threads about starting late and building the education I never got.
  18. 22 April 2025The ArgumentBring back FjernsynsteateretI would never have paid 800 kr to go to the opera if I didn't know that I liked it.
  19. 22 April 2025NoteENOpera with a ten-year-oldThe Barber of Seville as a first opera, Figaro two weeks later, then L'elisir d'amore with live translation on the couch.
  20. 7 April 2025The ArgumentSubtitles in the theaterIn Athens all the performances are subtitled in English and Greek. We actually do have more than just waffles to offer!
  21. 24 February 2025EssayENThe language learning holy grailParallel texts, Anki verses, the New Testament in Greek, and a method for reading in another language.
  22. 11 February 2025The ArgumentAdult beginnersUneducated rogues, happy amateurs and a study that should have been done: how adults get started with literature, art and music.
  23. 15 January 2025The ArgumentJust trust that it comes togetherFrom "I can't read plays" to twenty plays in one year. The advice that helped: just trust that it comes together. And a play takes two hours.
  24. 13 January 2025The Argument"Am I supposed to prove that drinking makes you happy?"He's completely in love with Erasmus Montanus and likes trying out rhetoric on his schoolmates.
  25. 10 January 2025NoteENHow to read a playFrom «I find it very hard to read and enjoy a play» in April 2024 to twenty plays a year later, and the one piece of advice that helped: be patient, keep reading, it comes together.
  26. 6 January 2025Essay1814 day by day: Here we go!How it all started, the first days

2024

  1. 28 November 2024EssayThe whole world to HamarFirst symphony concert ever, at the movie theater in Lillehammer. About KinoScene, why the ticket is a vote.
  2. 18 November 2024The ArgumentEverything that doesn't surviveThe one play is on my bookshelf, reprinted again and again. The other was only staged once, and has never been republished.
  3. 15 November 2024The ArgumentThe word that was missingI've been playing with the expression "leseambisjon", which apparently doesn't exist on the Internet at all.
  4. 15 August 2024The ArgumentAgainst screens — but what are you for?Only those with high social capital manage to be strict about screens and still fill the house with books.
  5. 1 July 2024EssayOne thing led to anotherFrom a poster on Crete to Greek, Latin, Shakespeare, Racine and opera. It snowballed, one thing led to another.
  6. 13 May 2024EssayFjernsynsteater until 2 a.m.Me, who can't last more than 20 minutes of a Netflix series before I start checking my phone.
  7. 6 May 2024The ArgumentNobody said it existedNever once did a teacher say to me "here's something a bit more literarily advanced that you might want to try".

2020

  1. 6 April 2020EssayENLearning effectively with podcastsWalks, a lecture series of 50 episodes, voice notes, and how the notes are processed days later.

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