Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.09.2010, Blaðsíða 38

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 14 — 2010
Poetry | Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl
Literature | Review
Anything an author does (or says) is viable to
be used as evidence against (or for) her (or
him). Their actions and words are common-
ly seen as shedding an invaluable light on
the work they’ve given the world—and to a certain extent
this is of course true. It’s hard to understand the poetry
of Ezra Pound if one refuses to see his (personal) fascist
tendencies—they may not detract from the poetry, per
se, but they do belong to it, they do inform it, enliven it.
Lifestyles and opinions impregnate the poetry of po-
ets from Jack Spicer to Emily Dickinson to Li Po to Ger-
trude Stein to Sylvia Plath to William Carlos Williams, Tor
Ulven, Ingeborg Bachman and Pablo Neruda. We could
for instance ask ourselves what would’ve become of Al-
len Ginsberg had he succeeded with his original plan of
becoming a lawyer—or had he just been hetero? What
would an Indian summer of peyote abuse have done to
someone like TS Eliot? Where would the Flarf poets be
if they were pastoral hermits deprived of Wi-Fi’s and
iPhones? What would a Margaret Atwood sound like, if
she had the opinions of an F.T. Marinetti?
We live in times of continuously repeated 15 min-
utes of fame for everybody—we’re all bloggers, tweet-
ers, facebookers, tumblrs, flickrers; exceedingly sophis-
ticated self-promoters, and we’re all famous ALL THE
TIME. This is a well-known and well-documented fact
(“nauseamus igitur”). And in this system of self-promo-
tion no one is as suspect as he or she who actually has
something to promote. Celebrity Tweeters, like British
author and comedian Stephen Fry, can’t possibly tweet
without a hidden agenda of also peddling their crap, no
matter that their crap sold out weeks ago and actually
sounds kinda interesting. It’s still suspect. We know this
and they know this.
Most authors (or artists /entertainers in general) live
in a universe where they’re forced to admit that even
though they might be irrelevant small potatoes today,
their Twitter feed, their emails, their scribbled grocery
lists and the rate of their production of used-condoms
and /or bastard children might be used to “devise their
literary intentions” if luck (good or bad) would happen
to make them famous. And if they happen to become
VERY famous, the devising will be maniacally thorough
and the exegeses increasingly inspired.
This, as you may imagine, is a recipe for paranoia
and permanently suspended intellectual animation for
all partakers, which is why so many contemporary au-
thors stay silent on matters concerning anything under
the sun: you know you’re just gonna use it against them.
Most authors are even scared witless of writing their
own books. It doesn’t mean that the boos will be bad—
but the myth that neurosis is a helpful tool for increasing
creativity is about as true as poets having to be alcohol-
ics to write interesting poetry. That is to say, it’s mostly a
funny anecdote—a part of 20th century mythmaking and
image-related careerisms. Not only was it never true, as
an idea it’s also totally passé.
Self-doubt? Yes. – Paranoid delusions? No, not re-
ally.
As everyone knows, the founding document of Ice-
landic thought is the Elder Edda—a curiously repetitious
ode about the importance of never seeming stupid. In
Auden’s translation: “The ignorant booby had best be
silent / When he moves among other men, / No one
will know what a nit-wit he is / Until he begins to talk;
/ No one knows less what a nit-wit he is / Than the
man who talks too much […]Wise is he not who is never
silent, / Mouthing meaningless words: / A glib tongue
that goes on chattering / Sings to its own harm […] Of
his knowledge a man should never boast, / Rather be
sparing of speech / When to his house a wiser comes:
/ Seldom do those who are silent / Make mistakes;
mother wit / Is ever a faithful friend” and so forth.
These are the verses etched in the wretched souls of
Icelandic poets—and poets worldwide. For us, the bitch-
es of Icelandic tradition, that’s where it all began. With
a clear and concise precept: Booby, behave! Booby, be
still!
And Booby, be sure to be quiet.
Quiet, you Ignorant Booby!
We haven't read the English translation of Jón Kalman's book yet
(except for Marc), but the Icelandic version was great.
So check it out if you get a chance.
Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s first work in Eng-
lish translation, ‘Heaven and Hell’ (‘Him-
naríki og helvíti’, Bjartur, October 2007),
was released on September 2 by MacLe-
hose Press (an imprint of Quercus). This is a
rough gem of a novel which reads almost as
fluid and poetic as the very ocean on which
it unfolds. Set sometime at the turn of the
last century in a Westfjords’ fishing village,
Heaven and Hell chronicles three coming-
of-age days and nights in an unnamed boy’s
life. Yet, this is certainly no young man’s av-
erage journey into adulthood; Jón Kalman
is addressing the very nature of existence.
The sea as a metaphor for the tran-
sience of life is almost expected in Icelandic
literature—and certainly plentiful among the
old classics of world literature (Melville and
Hemingway come to mind)—yet, somehow,
Jón Kalman pulls it off with his own unique
voice: rugged, folklore-imbued, but with a
poet’s sensitive touch. Stern has called the
German translation an absolute treasure of
a book. Die Welt said, “Upon reading the
last sentence in this unexpected, beauti-
ful novel, the reader will be struck in silent
awe.”
The novel is not driven by plot, but by
the sheer will of Jón Kalman’s poetic prose.
It may take the reader a while to find the
rhythm of the work, with its unusual punc-
tuation and unexpected switching of tens-
es, yet slowly but surely one gets drawn into
this simple and surprising world:
“They had seen every crack and crevice
in the mountains many kilometres from the
boat and the sky arched over them like the
roof of a church, the roof that protects us.
The six men had been silent, humble and
thankful of their existence. But it isn’t natu-
ral for a person to feel thankful or humble
for too long: some had started thinking
about tobacco and forgotten eternal life.”
The story opens with the boy and his
friend Bárður returning to the isolated fish-
ermen’s huts on the coast where they wait
for calm weather to head out for the catch.
Bárður passes his time enrapt in a transla-
tion of Milton’s Paradise Lost. He and the
boy are the two youngest and least expe-
rienced of their six-man, six-oared crew;
but by the time the men are four hours from
the shore and setting their fishing lines, the
wind has picked up and it begins to snow.
Bárður suddenly realises that he has for-
gotten his waterproof. What seems at first
seems a mere inconvenience becomes
the only thing between life and death. Ice
begins to form on the sails and Bárður is
soaked through to the skin. Despite the
boy’s desperate efforts to save his friend,
Bárður is doomed.
Back on land, incensed by the indiffer-
ence of the other fisherman (who appear
more concerned with salting and gutting
the catch), the boy sets out for the village
in the middle of the snowstorm. His goal is
to return Bárður’s book to its rightful owner.
For the boy, it is the poetry of John Milton
that has killed his friend. It is almost as if un-
til he returns this book, Bárður’s spirit can-
not rest. The boy soon begins questioning
his own existence and resolves to join his
friend in the afterlife, only to come to realise
that there may well be other things worth
living for:
“It is easy to let oneself be covered in
snow, easy to die, but let’s not forget that
the night and the snowfall deceive, the boy
thinks he lies down far from all human habi-
tation, in the wilderness, but is then perhaps
on a slope above a little farm…”
Although mostly written in the third per-
son, there is a strange, yet compelling Oth-
er, a group of omniscient narrators—possi-
bly gods or the spirits of the ancestors—who
call themselves “We Are Nearly Darkness”.
These voices intermittently interject with
philosophical comments and reflections on
the boy’s actions. As a narrative device this
might well have pushed the credibility of the
novel over the edge, but here it works well;
in fact, it lends the work a whiff of ancient
Icelandic magic.
Jón Kalman, who won the Icelandic
Prize for Literature in 2005 for his short story
collection, ‘Sumarljós og svo kemur nóttin’
(‘Summer Light, Enter Night’), is strongly
influenced by poetics. Not surprisingly, be-
fore turning his hand to fiction, he published
three poetry collections. Originally planned
as a stand-alone novel, ‘Heaven And Hell’ is
now part of a trilogy, the second of which,
‘Harmur englanna’ (‘The Sorrow of An-
gels’), was released last year in Icelandic
and has already met with praise.
‘Heaven And Hell’ is a universal tale of
man’s fragility amidst the gargantuan power
of nature, about the enduring strength of
friendship and the individual will to survive.
This is a moving, timeless, intense novel de-
serving of all the attention it gets.
Opinion | The internets
The good people behind the IceWeb 2010 conference called
us up the other day and asked us to write something about it
in our paper so you, our readers, might take an interest in par-
ticipating. While we really like the internet, we couldn’t seem to
find time to make the article. So we invited one of IceWeb’s or-
ganisers, Brian Suda, to write us a short article explaining why
he thinks everybody should go. This is what he came up with:
As Iceland positions itself as a technological hub with cheap
power and talented individuals, it need opportunities to
show-off and bring influential movers-and-shakers from
abroad. Over the last five years, Iceland has played host
three times to the IceWeb conference, an international web
technology conference. In good times and in bad, SVEF (The
Icelandic Web Industry Association - www.svef.is) has been
bringing high calibre speakers to come and talk on a wide
range of web related topics, from marketing and branding to
new technologies and exciting developments.
Einar Þór Gústafsson, current chairman of SVEF, planned
the first IceWeb conference in 2006 as part of a school group
project in a project management course at the continuing
education program at the University of Iceland. Having some
experience organising events while living in New York City,
he wanted to bring in experts to an international conference
focusing on web design and development.
Since Iceland sits nicely between North America and Eu-
rope, it’s easy to entice some of the world’s best technologists
to visit. “Over the years, we have managed to invite speakers
such as Kathy Sierra. The largest draw for her, and many of
the other speakers, is the opportunity to visit an exotic place,
see the nature, ride some Icelandic horses and enjoy the
nightlife.” says Einar.
October is a busy time in Reykjavík as it shows itself off
to the world. The IceWeb takes place the 7th-8th of October
sandwiched between the “You are in Control” conference
and Iceland Airwaves.
If Iceland wants to be part of the 21st Century technologi-
cal revolution, then it needs to step-up and learn about new
advances, then innovate. “Going overseas for a conference
is very expensive and it’s difficult to convince your boss to
spend a few hundred thousand krónur on tickets, flights, ho-
tels, per diem etc.” Einar explains.
This year Julien Smith will grace us with his presence.
He’s a dot com maven working hard to advance the com-
munity. His recent book, Trust Agents, was lucky #13 on the
New York Times bestseller list. It focuses on how to use your
social networks to build your brand's influence, reputation
and profits.
After the collapse, Iceland needs to rebuild its social
capital with the rest of the world. It burned more than a few
bridges with both IceSave and then Eyjafjallajökull. Wheth-
er it’s in your home life or international relations, influence
counts. Iceland needs to rebuild its trust and Julien is coming
to help us learn more.
But there is much more to the Web than just LIKE but-
tons! As we troll Facebook for last weekend’s pictures, we
forget about all the time and effort that has gone into all the
tiny snippets of text. Do you get more clicks if you say “Click
Here for More Info” or “To see more info, click here”? There
are people who specialise in the tedious world of micro-copy.
Really. Relly Annett-Baker is one such person. I have been
assured that everything I think I know about smart, short,
witty copy is wrong, but that’s OK, she’s come to set me
straight. Now if we could only get her to sit down with some
of Iceland’s politicians, then we might seem quite so confus-
ing to the foreign press!
If there is anything that you know for certain, it’s that you
never know enough. Having opportunities to educate, ad-
vance and innovate are paramount in this fast-paced chang-
ing world. Everyone should take advantage of these opportu-
nities and learn what the next wave, trend and innovation will
be and be sure to make Iceland its home.
Learn The Internets, Dammit!
The IceWeb conference could help with that
Heaven and Hell
by Jón Kalman Stefánsson
MacLehose Press
MARC VINCENz
BRIAN SuDA
Bankastræti 14, 2nd floor - tel. 511 1221
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