Why did he start collecting flies?
I started collecting insects as a child, but when I reached my teens I stopped because girls would run away when they found out about my hobby. Now married and living on my little island, I went back.
And why flies?
There are already a lot of people who are dedicated to butterflies, dragonflies or beetles, and I wanted to be the main expert on my subject and I got it, I am the main expert on syrphids, flower flies, and also they seem to me beautiful and interesting.
Flies are very necessary.
I collect pollinators, essential, but the reason is not to save the world but to be happy, and collecting flies makes me happy.
happy?
The syrphids are like words that teach me to read the landscape. You can read the landscape just like you read a book. Swedish is my first language, biodiversity is my second. My island is my garden, where I have everything that is wild, every day I discover new species. And I love the poetry of waiting.
Do you like waiting for the surprise?
As a child I ran after butterflies, but from the age of 30 I decided to wait by the flowers, it was a kind of meditation that taught me to stop thinking, which is what I did in my job, and learn to wait.
What were you writing about?
On the environment, a somewhat arduous and unsuccessful subject. Interestingly, recognition came to me with The Art of Collecting Flies, which was a bestseller in Sweden and was translated into twelve languages.
It is amazing and beautiful.
From there I was able to make a living writing the books I wanted and how I wanted: I appreciate slowness in a world that is very fast.
Are you slow?
Yes, my intellect is not fast, I have to think. For me, collecting was a way to escape from this crazy, fast, rushed society. When I turn off the computer and go out into the field I enter another world: life is there. It is not a philosophy but a way of being in the world.
His is a mini world.
Of 15 square km. The world is too big and difficult to understand, but when you take a step back and look at the small things it is easier to get a picture of the world.
He moved to his island at the age of 27. Because?
I need boundaries, I used to travel too much, I needed to live in a smaller world. Stockholm is a big city and I missed nature, the diversity of species is above all joy.
What did you understand by traveling?
Between the ages of 21 and 23 I traveled all over the world and discovered that I didn't like it, sometimes you do it to have something to talk about, and I could have talked for days about how much I missed home. Now that I travel to literary festivals, I like to leave and come back.
What kind of collector are you?
I am able to control my passion to continue living with my family. All collectors, especially entomologists, know that it is dangerous; many times their wives can't stand an individual who looks for insects all day and says names in Latin.
Tell me about the things that matter.
I'm old enough to realize that as long as you're healthy and surrounded by the people you love, success doesn't matter anymore. When I was young I wanted to be a famous writer, not anymore. And the intrinsic happiness found in nature seems fundamental to me, without it I am unhappy.
What secrets has he revealed to her?
I have learned everything from nature, and there is still so much to discover! I can see the biggest things in the smallest things, when I study flies I see the whole universe, they are their reflection.
Tell me about happiness.
It has to do with forgetting, with leaving the mind blank and suddenly the explosion of joy to see that small and strange insect coming towards me. Happiness for me is being here and now every day.
He wrote The Art of Collecting Flies 20 years ago.
Yes, and today we continue to talk about it, and I find this a miracle of nature.
How long has he waited behind a bush for a syrphid to appear?
A week, many hours forgetting everything, even myself. I like to wait, you never know what will present itself on a sunny day.
A relaxation
Life is a sad story, we know how it ends, so to live a good life you have to forget certain things; partly being an entomologist is like being an alcoholic, another way of trying to forget, but it's much better to watch flies than to drink to forget, especially the next day.
