Dear W.:
In a new hotel -- a big, modern affair (just like being in New York) right on the water (boats anchored right outside the entrance) and just a 3-minute walk to Dramaten, where I'll be spending the next two evenings.
Last night, my last night at the Mälardrottningen, I had a few late, closing-time beers in the upstairs bar with Heidi and Jonas, who works in the hotel kitchen. Jonas was already off-duty, and several beers ahead of me, so he was already talking, how shall I say, freely. Here's this Swedish guy, mid-twenties, one arm covered in tatoos, but otherwise fairly clean-cut looking, though with a definite edge to his demeanor, and he's going on in an extended, thickly-accented anti-Sweden diatribe! He derides Swedish socialism for being nearly communistic. The extreme homogeneousness of the society holds you back. You can't advance if you have special abilities, or at least, it's hard to do so. And if you try, you're looked on as weird, too ambitious, even arrogant. He says he can't wait to leave Sweden, because Swedish society operates under the presumption that all men are equal, when in fact they are not. A hilarious exchange:
ME: Well, all of what you're saying is very interesting . . .
JONAS (indignant): It's not interesting. It SUCKS!
Gotta run. Seven o'clock curtain -- Backanterna, The Bacchae, that is. Can't wait!
Love, Stan
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