Niels Barfoed

September 29, 2023

AI Summary

5 min read

Niels Barfoed, 92 years old, has lived in Copenhagen’s Nyhavn for more than five decades. As a journalist, author, and critic, he has spent a lifetime observing and writing about the human condition. But the most defining relationship of his life was not one he chose as an adult. At age eight, on a beach in Asserbo in the summer of 1939, he met another Copenhagen boy named Claus. That boy was Claus Rifbjerg, who would grow up to become one of Denmark’s most celebrated novelists. Their friendship lasted more than 40 years, survived Rifbjerg repeatedly using Barfoed as a character in his books—including the classic The Chronic Unforgiveness, where the characters Janus and Tore are based on the two friends—and ended bitterly in the 1990s, before Rifbjerg’s death in 2015. The friendship was, as Barfoed puts it, “for good or bad, defining for both of them.”

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Introduction and Guest Presentation** - Sørine introduces the theme of life force and the podcast's focus on inner strength, then presents guest Niels Barfoed, a 92-year-old writer and journalist.
2 (04:51) **Daily Drive and Purpose in Old Age** - Niels explains the necessity of having tasks and a reason to get up each day.
3 (06:33) **Practical Thoughts on Death** - Niels discusses how thinking about death becomes a practical concern rather than a grand philosophical one.
4 (08:37) **The Mood of Mortality and Privilege** - Niels explores the mood of being the "last guard" and the privilege of having loved ones, contrasted with the massive death in war zones like Ukraine.
5 (13:12) **Life Force as Passive Regeneration** - Niels defines life force not as active striving but as a passive experience of "coming to oneself" and being regenerated.
6 (19:22) **Youth Friendship with Claus Rifbjerg** - The conversation moves to Niels's youth and his intense friendship with Claus Rifbjerg.
7 (23:15) **Why Relationships Turn Destructive** - Niels analyzes how life force between two people can turn into its opposite.

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Show Notes

For ugens gæst, den 92-årige forfatter og journalist Niels Barfoed, er definitionen på livskraft at mærke, hvordan hans krop igen kommer til kræfter efter et sygdomsforløb. Sørine og ham kommer også ind på Niels Barfoeds livslange forhold til barndomsvennen Klaus Rifbjerg, der sluttede i uvenskab og uden forsoning, da Rifbjerg døde i 2015.