Riku Korhonen
Milla Paloniemi
Kreetta Onkeli
Juha Kulmala
Juhani Brander
Ville Hytönen
Antti Nylén
Kirsti Ellilä
Marjo Isopahkala
M. G. Soikkeli
Petri Salin
Timo Hännikäinen
Timo Harju
Reetta Niemelä
Ropponen & Deviatkina
Esa Hirvonen
Kari Hukkila
Antti Jaatinen
Roope Lipasti
Heikki Nevala
Tommi Parkko
Marisha Rasi-Koskinen
Iida Rauma
Timo Hännikäinen
Timo Hännikäinen (b. 1979) is a Helsinki writer and editor. His previous essay collection Reactionary Credo (Taantumuksellisen uskontunnustus, 2007) provoked discussion with its insistence on the torpedoing of consumer society and the responsibility of people from all walks of life to put an end to consumerism. Hännikäinen has also published two collections of poems, A Monument of a Competing Type (Kilpailevan lajin muistomerkki, Savukeidas 2005) and I Sit Opposite (Istun vastapäätä, WSOY 2002). He edits the cultural journal Kerberos.
Timo Hännikäinen: Without
Without is essay writing at its best. It well written, thought-provoking, and extraordinarily stimulating reading in the boldness of its topic, its honesty, and its political incorrectness.
– Joni Pyysalo, Suomen Kuvalehti magazine
Hännikäinen’s settling of accounts will speak to the vast majority of men, all of us who have ever struck out with the ladies. Without is a peephole into the desires and disappointments of the common man, and at its most raw what so few are able to clothe with words intelligently.
– Seppo K. Niiranen, KirjaIN literary magazine
Hopefully the humor of the theme will not cover up the fact that Without makes Timo Hännikäinen unquestionably one of the leading essayists of a certain country.
– Aleksi Ahtola, Kansan Uutiset weekly
Without is such a successful work that it makes you want to bounce a bit and read excerpts to the neighbors.
– Tarja Pulli, Parnasso literary magazine
Sex is as obligatory as death and taxes. Society is thoroughly eroticized, and the mating games of Western cultures have left the rejected on the sidelines.
Timo Hännikäinen’s tract on sexual politics examines the present day as heir to the sexual revolution of the 1960s. That revolution established a ruthless sexual competition where some make love every day, some just a few times in their lives, and others not at all. Those who don’t have sex are the displaced persons of sexual liberalism, unable to achieve the sensual pleasure pushed by the media.
“The sexually displaced, even more completely than the unemployed, lack any means of resistance. Sex can only be used as an object of power by those who are sexually desirable, like the Athenian women in Lysistrata. What form would civil disobedience or terrorism by those deprived of sex take? Would they threaten to castrate themselves publicly if government funded bordellos weren’t created?”
In this collection of essays, Hännikäinen places himself in the middle of an examination of deprivation and sexual frustration in the 21st century.
Original name: Ilman
Publisher: Savukeidas 2009
201 pages
Hardcover 110 x 165 mm
ISBN 978-952-5500-40-0
Cover design: Ville Hytönen
Burning Bridge Literary Agency 2009—2013
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