Lögberg-Heimskringla - 24.09.1982, Síða 8

8-WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 24. SEPTEMBER 1982
'Guerrilla' promotes
and sells own books
Continued from page 2
in its encircling sense of isolation in
an unforgiving land. "A writer
should write about things he knows, ■
has seen or has heard. The Icelandic
community suffered as immigrants.
When they first arrived in Canada
in the late 19th century, they lost
every child under two years of age.
Imagine the rage, the helplessness,
the need to repress their emotions.
And when they moved to Manitoba,
to the area dubbed New Iceland,
they were hit by a smallpox
epidemic, in which corpses had to
put on rooftops in order to protect
them from animals. But the sur-
vivors had to keep going, repressing
the pain and never really
acknowledging it."
Out of such ancestral memories
emerged Valgardson's art, the view
of life removed from mere tempests
in tea-pots, from air-conditioned big
citíes. It might be said that his world
is restricted and his themes narrow,
but Valgardson is quick to disagree.
"I tell my students in my creative
writing classes to write about a
world, not the world. Every writer
'must take two journeys: first into
the lives of others, then into oneself.
The second is more difficult; some
people quit writing because they
can't accept the facts they unearth,
for example the possibility of
criminal behavior which they've
repressed. It's most important to be
honest; otherwise, what one writes
becomes slick and superficial. If I'm
not in touch with my own feelings
of envy or hatred, how can I write
about a character who feels those
emotions?"
Started as painter
Valgardson, who started out as a
painter and says he "misses having
the time to satisfy the visual part of
my creative urges," also advises
budding writers to take up drawing.
"The problem with most students is
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that they can't see how things are
put together. I tell them to go down-
town, stand on a street corner for six
hours and observe people."
He also keeps what he calls a
"dream diary," usually jotting
down details immediately upon
awakening, though he claims he can
recall dreams even six years later.
His novel Gentle Sinners which,
unlike many of his stories, is a reaf-
firmation of life in its tale of a young
boy finding a sense of worth, in fact
emerged from a dream. "It was a
gift from my unconscious, though it
took me three years to find the
dramatic form."
Indeed Valgardson is an uncom-
promising, painstakingly slow
writer. Bldodflowers, for example,
went through "40 comprehensive
. drafts" before he was satisfied with
it. Oddly enough, the first drafts of
some stories were written in a
Missouri laundromat, the only place
he could be free from teaching
pressures.
Teaching, though, is ameliorated
by a great deal of satisfaction — "five
of of my students this spring had
books accepted for publication."
His problem is to find time to in-
dulge in his favorite pastime of
mountain-climbing and to complete
his new novel, Crazy Times, a
detective story set in Iowa City. And
with his marriage of 22 years having
dissolved recently, he lives "an
isolated, reclusive sort of life. If I
could just live on my writing," he
says with a sigh.
Then he adds: "I was a member of
this year's Governor-General's fic-
tion awards jury. I read 84 books,
many so astoundingly good that I
said: 'Look where Canadian litera-
ture has arrived!" Not the least of
that burgeoning vanguard, lighting
his guerrilla brush fires, is W.D.
Valgardson.
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