The books by the Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag combine printed, digital paintings and written text in a fascinating way. Stålenhag uses this visual-textual narrative form, which was the most fitting term I could come up with, to show us an alternative world where science-fiction is an everyday phenomenon. Sometimes these impossible buildings, devices, and vehicles, the many robots or all the unexpected side-effects of technologies that apparently approach magic are part of peoples’ everyday problems, sometimes they are part of the solution, but the science-fiction is always present in exciting and unnerving ways. Be it cooling towers that look out over sleepy residential areas or the omnipresent and bizarre industrial wast that leads to brutal accidents, absurd sects, and disrupted lives – de characters in these tales have to organize their existence around the science-fiction. These stories took me by surprise, and I could not help myself but to want to share them with you!¹

De tales that Simon Stålenhag tells with his paintings and words are as versatile as they are compelling. You can read this books as simply good stories, but you can also look under the proverbial hood and discover between the lines and brush strokes a number of underlying themes about growing up, dealing with trauma, the climate crises, the dark sides of capitalism, the impact of bigotry, and the loss of innocence in a harsh world.² The treatment of these themes is aided by the fact that almost all of these books at least partly take place in the eighties and nineties. Even for people who were already alive back then this era is merely a memory, however familiar. And by playing with our present ideas of that time, Stålenhag found an effective canvas for the adventures he aims to bring to live.

This blog is also available in Dutch.

Xenostalgia

In discussions on these books, people often emphasize the science-fiction elements and the nostalgia that drenches the pages. Simon Stålenhag himself uses the term xenostalgia to describe his work.³ That is to say, he creates worlds which have never existed, but that still make us feel nostalgic. Especially when we read about memories that we never experienced. These memories are not always comfortable, though. One could say that Stålenhag’s imagination has brought forth dystopian pasts, which sometimes stretch into an alternative present and ditto futures.⁴ That the miraculous technology from these stories did not enhance the character’s lives, can also bring about nostalgia for all those older optimistic ideas about the future which are increasingly unlikely.⁵ But notably because of this, I doubt whether ‘nostalgia’ is actually the most fitting description here.

Naturally I do not want to thread on the toes of those folks who actually get paid to think about fiction! And the authors I cite are obviously right: Stålenhag’s oeuvre is science-fiction and there is an unmistakable atmosphere of nostalgia throughout these stories. But I think that those books stand out the most because if the dreamscapes that are presented through words and images, as well as the ever-present melancholy. Because the landscapes we get to see, both literally and figuratively, have always just experienced the relevant big events. And what is left is a vision of how the world used to be, but marred by gruesome and/or remarkable vicissitudes that the human mind preferably thinks up at night. And what happens to the characters is almost invariably melancholic. Deteriorated friendships, divorced parents, people who were not what you expected them to be – speficially when times got tough – and the decline of our shared interconnectedness under the hegemony of hyper capitalism and the governments captured thereby. And this melancholy is also present in the dreamscapes we saw earlier. Everywhere in these vistas, a grim modernity reigns supreme and there is nowhere to escape the large towers with the prying lights that pierce everything, the lost souls wandering without purpose, or all the other bleak monuments to human exploitation.

It is therefore perhaps a morbid irony that Stålenhag had to see his own works being fed to a current dystopian technology which granted the companies behind them with great influence through their market power; the ubiquitous chatbots.⁶ But the fact that the artistic wonders created by Stålenhag were at first supported by crowdfunding, indicates that people still come together – even if they have little to spare – to try and preserve that which is creative and beautiful in a world were the bottom line is increasingly dominant.⁷

Five Excursions in Xenostalgia

As with the oeuvre of David Mitchell, which we explored a few months back, my ranking here is relative. All these books are excellent and thought-provoking, and they offer readers – including, perhaps one day, yourself! – entertainment, enrichment, and many other benefits that start with ‘en’!

5. Sunset at Zero Point: When you dwell too much in your own head to worry about old mistakes, missed opportunities, and what could have been if you acted just a bit differently – had been wired just a bit differently – present and past, time and space, sometimes seem to collide. The two characters of Sunset at Zero Point grew up next to a quarantine zone where, because of an experiment gone wrong, time and the world literally exist in different periods at the same moment. And this is, unsurprisingly, thematically relevant! Because we follow these people throughout the decades while they try to figure out themselves and their relationship to each other. But always they are pulled back to the promise of the abandoned quarantine zone, where the usual demands of daily life and societal expectations are irrelevant – at least for a short while. And this book has perhaps the most heart-warming ending I have encountered this year. And yes, there is a cat involved!

4. Tales from the Loop: This strong debut work takes place within a silently decayed countryside in an alternative version of the eighties wherein the government has installed a large underground particle accelerator. We follow the childhood of a boy who lives in a village above that so-called Loop. And his melancholic and intriguing adventures are as fascinating as they are familiar. Abandoned robots and the mostly deserted but always alluring facilities of the private company that runs the Loop – because of course the operation of this public infrastructure has been privatized! – are alternated with the everyday trials and tribulations of being young, like trying to make and keep friends or parents that always find a reason to argue.

3. Things from the Flood: In this majestic sequel to Tales from the Loop, the parents of the main character did indeed eventually divorce and now him and his mother are evacuated because there is a curious liquid which bubbles up from the ground and can with some certainty be connected to the Loop. In their new town, they move in with a man who lacks imagination and who will try to play the role of step father. But water is patient and even further away from the Loop life turns out to be far from normal. This book is even more melancholic than its predecessor. As the Loop has now been decommissioned, the robots that once were employed there are trying to make their own way in the world – including a novel religion which appears to be based on worshiping textiles and feathers – and younger children use the discarded machines as props in their imaginary play.

2. The Electric State: This is perhaps the most famous work by Simon Stålenhag and so far the only one that has been translated in my native Dutch.⁸ Instead of Sweden, where the other books by Stålenhag take place, we are now in the United States of America. In an alternative version of the year 1997 we follow Michelle, a young survivor who wants to find her missing brother and to that end, accompanied by an amiable little robot, she tries to find her way through a world which is just not right. There are some of the expected amenities, like shops and traffic jams, but most landscapes are desolate and littered with the silent, cyclopedic wreckage of what appears to be a past war. Most people have become part of a higher consciousness, or so it seems, that was created through the gadgets that once helped them find a digital escape from their routine concerns and everyday worries. Underneath this all, The Electric State is primarily an exploration of trauma. Both with people of good will and people might have once been of good will, we gain insight in how their reactions to the tragedies that they experienced have eventually molded them.

1. The Labyrinth: In this book the characteristic illustrations and written text is perhaps most experly combined from all the works that Simon Stålenhag has published to date. Not only do the images illuminate the story and immerse you into the telling, but when you have finished the book you can flip back and view a number of the drawings in a completely new light. This has also to do with the fact that this tale, that tells about a blended family which has to find its bearings in a post-apocalyptic society, is just so good: it is intriguing, moving, and thrilling, while there are interesting and topical themes explored and elaborated upon. Including the importance of our shared humanity and what we owe to each other as a result, but which we so often manage to rationalize away. With the best arguments we time and again make the world a little bit colder. If you want to give one book by this author a shot, I cannot recommend The Labyrinth enough.

Conclusion: Cozy Dystopias

This blog on the oeuvre of Simon Stålenhag may present something of a roller coaster to the reader. With my initial analysis of the underlying themes of his works you probably got the impression that reading them would mostly bring you sadness. While my subsequent discussion of the books themselves emphasizes the warmth that can be found therein. As such, these works fit with a genre that one could call cozy dystopias.⁹ In these kinds of stories, the chilling circumstances and macabre societies quite paradoxically bring people together and leads to them getting to know themselves better. Another book that exemplifies this kind of storytelling is Blackfish City van Sam J. Miller. And if we broaden our horizons to inlude video games, we should also mention Cloudpunk and Caravan Sandwitch noemen.¹⁰ It is therefore no coincidence that I already plan to dedicate a future blog to specifically these pieces of art!

The melancholy and cosiness that we encountered in the foregoing, are excellently foregrounded in one of the adaptations of Stålenhags work. That is the eponymous TV-series which takes Tales from the Loop as its main inspiration.¹¹ These eight episodes understand the spirit of the tales from that book and many of the scenes will be recognizable for those who studied the original illustrations. But perhaps most strikingly, this TV-series deftly captures that these are stories about people. And despite their circumstances, which may appear as extraordinary to us, the adventures, dilemmas and emotions the characters experience are as universally human as our most melancholic dreams.

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References

1. The following are the English editions that I have read/viewed in the wherein that they are discussed below: Simon Stålenhag, Sunset at Zero Point (London: Simon & Schuster, 2025); Simon Stålenhag, Tales from the Loop (London: Simon & Schuster, 2015); Simon Stålenhag, Things from the Flood (London: Simon & Schuster, 2016); Simon Stålenhag, The Electric State (London: Simon & Schuster, 2018); Simon Stålenhag, The Labyrinth (London: Simon & Schuster, 2020).
2. Chang Hasheminezhad-Li, “Landscapes of Harm: Environmental Crime and the Passive Witness in Children’s Graphic Narratives. Encyclopaideia 2026, 30 (74), p. 61-71.
3. Paola van de Velde, “Dwalen in Droomwereld”, De Telegraaf November 2^nd 2021, Cultuur, p. 13.
4. Jagoda Mytych, “The Dystopian Past and the Disappointment with the Swedish Welfare State in Simon Stålenhag’s Narrative Art Books”, Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia 2025, 37 (1), p. 48-60.
5. Stefano Ascari, “Megastructures and Nostalgia for the Future: A Conversation with Simon Stålenhag”, Histories of Postwar Architecture 2018, 1 (3), p. 117-130.
6. Laurens Verhagen, “Kunstenaars Starten Rechtszaak: Kunstmatige Intelligentie Maakt Inbreuk op Auteursrecht”, deVolkskrant January 17^th 2023, Ten eerste, p. 2.
7. Roderik Six, “The Electric State”, Knack Magazine October 3^d 2018, p. 47.
8. This translation was undertaken by Hans Kloos, see: Marjolijn de Cocq, “Dystopische Roadtrip Met Robot”, Het Parool March 15^th 2025, Boeken, p. 49.
9. This term has already gained currency on the worldwide web for a while, but I could not find a proper source that could reliably be cited. For a discussion of similar literature, see:: Roger Luckhurst, “Cosy Catastrophes”, in: C. Edwards (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to British Utopian Literature and Culture since 1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026), p. 37-54.
10. Sam J. Miller, Blackfish City (New York: Harper Collins, 2018); Lucas Brouwers, “Cloudpunk”, NRC Handelsblad July 4^th 2020, Het Blad, p. 10; Cécile Chaigneau, “Jeux Vidéo: Le Montpelliérain Plug in Digital Rachète”, La Tribune March 12^th 2025, Régions, p. 89.
11. Anke Meijer, “Sciencefiction die meer over Mensen dan Robots Gaat”, NRC Handelsblad April 9^th 2020, De Gids, p. 19; Thijs Schrik, “On Demand: Ook Uitgekomen in Week 14”, NRC Handelsblad April 3^d 2020, De Gids, p. 20. In addition to Tales from the Loop there was also a film adaptation for The Electric State, see: Marjolijn de Cocq, “Dystopische Roadtrip Met Robot”, p. 49.