An exploratory collection of essays from the period between 2002 and 2009, about topics like tolerance, tenderness, religion, politics, music, the need to be well-dressed, the obscene and melancholy enjoyment, exaggeration, death, beauty, utopia, terror, torture, truth, alcohol in general, Scottish malt whisky in particular. Through in depth looks at authorships by writers like Nikanor Teratologen, Svein Jarvoll, Gaétan Soucy, Mircea Cartarescu and Louis-Ferdinand Céline he explores the boundaries of human thinking and experience. There are also essays about Joy Division, Joel-Peter Witkin and Gwen Stefani.
The collection also contain the Sæterbakken-lecture that the writer held at the Literature House in Oslo on May 9th of 2009; "To write is expressing like a crime, what was stated as law."
Stig Sæterbakken (1966-2012) was one of Norway's most critically acclaimed authors. His books have been compared to works by artists such as Beckett, Bernhard and Polanski. Sæterbakken's novels often explore the inner life and morality of human beings. A darkness looms in his stories, and yet they are written in a brilliant language.
