swedish: Ändå

[foxcowboy]

Hello!

Swedish crime novels enthusiast here with little knowledge of the language. Currently reading a book by Arne Dahl, thanks to online dictionaries! Have a question regarding ändå though.

In the book, one of the characters wakes up from a coma and tries to gather her memories. She says:

"Armarna.
Nej nej. Inte armarna.
Fast jo. Ändå. Det var rationellt. Kunde göras rationellt. Slag
på armarna, hur hårda de än var, placerade väldigt få människor i koma. Kniv däremot."

I am not sure about what she's actually trying to make sense of here. She first suspects her arms could be the reason of her physical condition. With "fast jo" I believe she thinks that it could really be about the arms. But then with "ändå" she changes her mind? I'm slightly confused - if it means "still" as most dictionaries say, would it mean she's changed her mind again? Or does it mean "no matter what" in this context?

Any ideas would be much appreciated!

 

[MattiasNYC]

I think your confusion is justified. I find some authors write like this stylistically, as if they're creating characters that can't really speak properly. In a sense that's perhaps correct since humans often don't speak properly even in their native language, and by "properly" I mean logically coherent.

So any way, I agree with you and the thinking seems to flow back and forth between "it was punches" and "it couldn't have been punches"... I'd translate it as:

"The arms.
No no. Not the arms.
Though, yes. Still. It was rational. Could be made rational. Punches on the arms, no matter how hard, placed few people in a coma. A knife on the other hand."

That's what it looks like to me. Could you tell us what's being said or written before and after? Right now it just looks like a person's unclear thoughts, which maybe is appropriate in this case. But could you copy/paste a bit more?

PS: I agree with the word meaning "still".