Lögberg-Heimskringla - 29.02.1980, Blaðsíða 4

4
Lögberg-Heimskringla, föstudagur 29 febrúar, 1980
Högbrrg- ^rtmflkrtngla
Published every Friday by
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Haraldur Bessason
Margrét Björgvinsdóttir
T.K. Arnason
Emily Benjaminson
Gordon A. Gislason
STAFANNA BAUGUR
Þeir sem gluggað hafa í Lögberg-Heimskringlu síð'
ustu mánuðina hafa ugglaust veitt því athygli að rit'
stjóri hefur ekki gætt fulls samræmis í stafsetningu.
Fyrir nokkrum árum samþykkti Alþingi fslend-
inga talsverðar. breytingar á íslenskri stafsetningu, og
var þá bókstafurinn SETA nánast sagt úr gildi num
inn. f forníslensku mun þessi stafur hafa verið borinn
fram sem ts eða ds. í seinni alda máli hefur hann aftur
á móti haft sama hljóðgildi og s. Þegar tvö hljóðtákn
hafa sama hljóðgildi, má frá rökfræðilegu sjónarmiði
fella annað þeirra brott. í ofangreindu tilviki var það
selan sem glataði löglegum tðwerurétti sínum í alda-
gamalli baráttu við essið.
„Með lögum skal land byggja”, segir máltækið, og
vissulega er það ekki hlutverk þessa blaðs að andmæla
eða óhlíðnast lögum um íslenska stafsetningu. Hins
vegar gildir hér sem ávallt að „hvað ungur nemur sér
gamall temur.” Er ekki ósennilegt að flestir sem lærðu
sína íslensku stafsetningu áður en setunni var tortímt
með lögum, eigi dálítið bágt með að segja skilið við
hana. Má sjá þess dæmi í íslenskum blöðum. Þótt þau
séu að verulegu leyti setulaus, er þar þó oftast að finna
greinar með eldri stafsetningunni. í slíkum tilvikum
má ætla að höfundar hafi neitað að segja skilið við
foma vinkonu. Hinir sömu eru væntanlega minnugir
æskudaga sinna á skólabekk þegar samviskusamir ís-
lenskukennarar voru að berja setureglurnar inn í höf-
uðin á þeim dag eftir dag, viku eftir viku, mánuð eftir
mánuð. Þetta kunna að hafa verið heldur þurrleg
fræði. Engu að síður miðluðu setureglurnar furðumikl-
um fróðleik um uppruna og skyldleika orða, fróðleik
sem betra var að hafa én án að vera. Þannig hafði set-
an uppeldislegt gildi, sem skýrir að nokkru tryggð
margra við hana.
Fleiri tákn íslenskunnar eiga í vök að verjast en
setan. Það mun hafa komið til tals þegar henni var
byggt út að láta ypsílon einnig róa sinn sjó. Hefði mátt
beita sams konar rökum við þá breytingu, bæði í sókn
og vörn.
Sá sem þessar línur ritar er íhaldssamur um staf-
setningu. Hann harmar brottför setunnar úr íslensku
stafrófi. Er samt þakklátur fyrir það að ypsíloninu
skyldi þyrmt um stund. Ef bæði þessi tákn hyrfu með
stuttu millibili, er hætt við að allt það prentaða mál
sem geymir annaðhvort þessara tákna eða bæði, verði
það óaðgengilegt kynslóðum framtíðarinnar að margur
hiki við lesturinn.
Að síðustu má benda á að bæði seta og ypsílon eru
tignarlegir stafir að yfirbragði. Mörg þeirra orða sem
nú verða að komast af án setunnar minna helst á krúnu
rakað fólk eða stéllausa fugla. Útlit orða í rituðu máli
og prentuðu hefur einhvers konar óræða merkingu,
sem annaðhvort lyftir þeim eða dregur þau niður.
Þannig hafa stafanna baugar fagurfræðilegu hlut-
verki að gegna og því vissara að fara hægt í sakimar
um fækkun þeirra. H.B.
McCurdy’s lceland
A New Photo Album with Foreword
by Halldor Laxness and Text by Magnus Magnusson
A new Photo Album with
Foreword by Halldor Laxness and
Text by Magnus Magnusson.
What is the main purpose of a
camera? To be a “faithful witness”
from the battlefield or disaster area,
from the street or sport arena or
from the shop floor of the factory, in
other words, to be “pure?” Or
should the camera be used to
produce images that are “pictorial”,
artistic, — to seek beauty just as
much as truth? These are wor-
thwhile questions to ponder even at
a time when, in certain quarters,
photography has been
acknowledged as an art in its own
right, and such questions attain new
relevance if we examine
“ICELAND”, this new book of color
photographs by John Chang Mc-
Curdy (Reykjavik, Iceland:
ALMENNA BOKAFELAGID, 140
pp.) edited by Baldvin Tryggvason.
It is natural that early pioneers in
Iceland, and I had a marvelous
opportunity — on clear days, at
least, for the better part of the
summer — to see Western Iceland’s
Snaefellsjokull at a distance. It was
beautiful to look at, serene in its
majesty, rising above all else on the
Borganes Peninsula. Could I
recognize it from McCurdy’s photo
(plate 1) Actually, only the top of
the glacier appears at first. This
evenly shaped mountain is white
with snow, and the white stands out
in relief against the blue of the sea.
But the mass of the glacier, its broad
base, is barely visible in a haze Qr
mist. And the foreground is a mist,
occupying four-fifths of the picture.
In perfect balance, suggestive of
Fuji, the cap of the glacier is framed
effectively in this nearly
monochrome scene. The^
photographer has taken an aerialJ
view of the mountain — from an
airplane — and he and the printer,
deliberate ambiguity on the part of
the photographer, I wondered for a
moment: Does it matter that much
whichever it is? If what I need is
information about the mineral
composition of rocks or their surface
temperature at a given time, I’d
better turn to data provided by
paleontologists and vulcanologists.
If, on the other hand, 1 wish to see
startlingly natural beauty, I’d better
take a closer look at McCurdy’s
pictures! Appearances are
deceptive, and the results of his
rapid camera eye must not only be
perceived visually but also be in-
terpreted with the mind.
Two pictures of Skeidarsandur:
one, a panoramic view, shows a
tenuous line cutting through the
entire picture and deposits from the
small river forming deltas of
sediments of greenish clay (not
pollution, but merely nature’s way
i— by means of water — of tran-
—
photography should have con-
sidered themselves successors to the
realist painters of the period, em-
phasizing the “recording” aspect of
the medium. After all, it was “truth”
they were after! But soon enough
objections were raised: the camera
artists must not be reduced to mere
recorders, of limited creativity, it was
maintained.^With vcirying degree of
success those who favored the
“pure” or the “pictorial” camera
work argued their case: generations
of photographers following the
“greats” — Stieglitz, Steichen,
Strand, Cartier-Bresson, Weston,
Adams, Rothstein, Lange, Porter,
Capa, Ernst Haas, John
Szarkowsky and many others —
have benefited from the work and
discussions of the first generations of
photographers. So has a tremen-
dously gifted young Korean named
John Chang McCurdy.
It so happens that in 1948 I was
working on a farm in Borgarfjordur,
Mondadori, have turned the mist
into an intensely light blue! Is it real
or'ínanipulated? Is it counterfeit or
authentic? Make no mistake about
it: this is modern photography —
art!
If the Snaefellsjokull picture
defines distant equilibrium, the next
presents “close-ups” of moun-
tainous themes from Vest-
mannaeyjar, and here things are
more unsettled, dramatic/ Along the
hollow mountainside, finely grained
snow drifts upward, at an angle, and
in the next picfure seems to continue
with increased speed and force. But
is it, in fact, drifting of powdery
snow? The mountain is called
Eldfell, “fire bill,” and therefore it
must instead be volcanic heat
steaming from the rock, that the
camera — with several seconds’
exposure — registers with these
strange results: hazelike coils, like
snow blowing. Pondering the
possible significance of this
sforming solid rock into microscopic
particles. After the material is
transformed it is gently and
economically transported to a
suitable, if impermanent dumping
place below the fjara, the fore-
shore, and all’of this is done without
the use of gasoline, coal, or atomic
energy! We may experience these
fanlike cascades of green as three-
dimensional creations of a kind that
a painter’s palette could not easily
match.
CAN WE BELIEVE ÍT?
In another picture, of Lan-
deyjasandur, the Eyjafjallajokull
faintly visible in the background, the
Landeyjasandur cuts a diagonal
through the scene, and the sea is lit
up to a natural glare with a track of
geese (?) silhouetted sharply against
the dazzling light. Can we believe it?
Should we trust our own experience
of nature and argue on this picture
that, well, Iceland might very well be.
strange and unique, but this can’t be!