With constant death threats looming over his head, Stieg Larsson walked up the stairs on November 4th, 2004 to deliver the manuscript for his fourth book when he collapsed and passed away from a heart attack. The Millennium Trilogy expressed Stieg Larsson's past experiences views, and being anti-authoritarian. He posed a threat to politicians and authoritarians because of his views, opinions, and how he communicated them to the world. Stieg Larsson devoted himself to his cause and the facts were well researched; he was always aware he could write better the next time. He was a humble writer who strived to accomplish more and more.
He gave up what would have been a safe lifestyle for a risky and elusive life. All these sacrifices were to bring about change in politics and in an authoritarian government. Despite all these hardships, Stieg Larsson fought fiercely for what he believed in. He stood alone, relied on his own strength for far-left politics, equal distribution of power, and money. Overall, his life gave him many opportunities and hardships. Each event gave him more experience as a writer and confidence to write about authoritarian governments, neo-Nazis, and right-wing extremism.
Stieg Larsson applied himself to exposing authoritarian governments, right-wing extremism, and neo-Nazism all his life. His experiences and views throughout his life influenced his writing and the series. "...Larsson participated in rallies against the Vietnam War and became involved in a revolutionary communist group, through which he briefly edited a Trotskyist journal...He soon began to also pen articles... that investigated and exposed fascism... In 1991 he cowrote (with Anna-Lena Lodenius) a book on the subject... Four years later, in response to the rising tide of neo-Nazism in Sweden, he helped establish the Expo Foundation-an organization dedicated to studying racist and anti-democratic tendencies in society in an effort to counteract them-and he served as editor in chief of its Expo magazine... became a frequent target of death threats."(Joan Acocella, The New Yorker) Larsson was thorough in investigating and gathering information on his topics. He had spent almost his whole life hearing, writing, or reading about the social issues such as right-wing extremism, neo-Nazis, being anti-authoritarian. He inherited this interest from his grandfather who raised him. One could argue his political views are just personal, biased opinions, but "right-wing extremism" defines as a group that has committed genocide and oppression against "lower-ranking groups of the social hierarchy". This group believes if a person belongs to a certain group, race, or religion, than their worth as a human being, and their future, becomes predetermined. This type of thinking undermines the many basic laws of humans. We base each other on what values we hold and how we hold ourselves; how we treat each other and ourselves.
He wrote the Millennium trilogy showing right-wing extremism and an authoritarian social hierarchy's effects on a society and became a celebrated author because of it. When people with government power and standing take advantage of the common people with little to no power. Stieg Larsson dedicated his life to his writing and to Expo. "Stieg Larsson has come through many experiences. Larsson's anti-authoritarian writings won him and Expo many enemies. The printers and distributors of the magazine had their windows smashed. Larsson received death threats. He took precautions. He allowed no photographs." (Joan Acocella, The New Yorker). Stieg Larsson had always had some statements viewed by others as controversial. By others, he is the model left-wing extremist. He wanted the hierarchy created by right-extremists gone and wanted everything distributed the same- it's definition for "far-left politics". "The fate of his grandfather deeply affected and shaped Stieg's character. He wanted to protect equal rights and fight for democracy and freedom of speech in order to prevent history, and what happened to his grand father, from repeating itself." (Stieg Larsson Biography). His grandfather had strong anti-fascist beliefs and was Stieg Larsson's main role model in life. They both felt everybody needed an equal distribution of wealth and power in the country. Inspired from his Grandfather, he wrote until he died in 2004. He dedicated forty-eight years of his life, since he got a typewriter for his 12th birthday to the faithful day when he climbed the stairs.
Stieg Larsson was a humble man who never really wanted anything more than to live and write. He did not focus on luxuries and dreams of the future; he stuck with the modest amount of belongings he had: "...Larsson is said to have been a happy man, who lived the life he wanted. He smoked three packs a day, subsisted on hamburgers, and often worked around the clock. He consumed popular novels, especially crime fiction, by the cartload. And then, in 2001, in a move that no one has been able to explain satisfactorily-and about which, for a long time, he told almost no one-he began writing crime fiction." (Joan Acocella, The New Yorker). He was constantly under threat from political enemies because of the two different views of the government. He and his partner, Eva Gabrielsson rarely went out in public, for fear of safety, and didn't allow photographs in public. Still, he worked from dawn to dusk to stay happy and to share his ideals into his writings which, after his death, would be globally renowned. He rarely became shaken- he stayed fiercely determined to keep writing through difficult times and remained happy on what few earnings he received at the time. "The magazine nevertheless succeeded in upsetting the people Larsson was writing about. Right-wing extremism, a legacy in part from World War II, when some Swedes secretly supported the Nazis, was especially virulent [harmful in it's effects] in Sweden in the '90s." (Charles McGrath). Right-wing extremism and authoritarian government existed long before World War II and still exists today. Even if it was just a small push to get people aware of authoritarian government and far-right extremism, Stieg Larsson made sure to catch reader's attention with the people included in the articles and stories he wrote. He also wrote against some people from his own country that still supported the Nazis, also known as "neo-Nazis". They were the new generation of Nazis, holding the same beliefs/mindsets of men before and after World War II. Because some of his fellow Swedes supported the opposing views, there was no one to really lean on or trust.
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Acocella, Joan. "Man of Mystery." The New Yorker. 2013.
, Anna Westerstahl , Cecilia Ovesdotter, . "Corporations, Crime, and Gender Construction." Scandanavian Studies. 2014. volume 81
Cunningham, John. "Stieg Larsson (Swedish Writer and Activist)." [Online] Available http://www.britannica.com/. 2014.
Crimezine. "Crimezine investigates Stieg Larsson...." [Online] Available http://crimezine.wordpress.com/. 2013.
McGrath, Charles. "The Afterlife of Stieg Larsson." The New York Times. 2010.
