Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.08.2011, Blaðsíða 28

Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.08.2011, Blaðsíða 28
28 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 12 — 2011 breakfast brunch lunch dinner drinks snacks gata food & drink reykjavík´s best kept secret kitchen hours sun-thu: 11:00-23:30 fri-sat: 10:00-00:00 laugavegur 3 www.gata.is tel: +354 5270077 At the Grill Market the seasons are in control of the menu with all the freshest ingredients available - from the sea, heaths, lakes, rivers and farms. In our cooking methods we go for the origin of the ingredient and use fire, smoke, wood and charcoal to achieve deep, rich, earthy flavors that we balance out with freshness. The result is an unexpected cuisine where Icelandic tradition and modern times come together. Mon – Wed: 11:30-14:00, 17:00-22:30 Thurs – Fri: 11:30-14:00, 17:00-23:30 Sat: 17:00 – 23:30 | Sun:17:00-22:30 LÆKJARGATA 2A | 571 7777 | GRILLMARKADURINN.IS Before the authorities plugged them up in 2006, there used to be under- ground, public toilets on the corner of Bankastræti and Lækjargata. In his most recent book, Einar Már Guðmundsson recounts how the toilets were once the hub of Reyk- javík’s seedy area, where boozers and drug users mingled and where teenagers procured condoms. The area was commonly known as Bankastræti Núll (“Bankastræti Nil”) or simply Núllið (“The Nil”) as it marks the spot where Austur- stræti turns into Bankastræti and a new house number count begins. ‘Bankastræti Núll’ is also the title au- thor Einar Már Guðmundsson uses for his most recent book, a collection of interconnected essays, stories, poems, quotations and memoirs that attempts to piece together some of the scattered remains of reality after Iceland’s bubble burst in 2008. It is written in a simi- lar vein to his preceding book, ‘Hvíta Bókin’ (“The White Book,” 2009), which first appeared as a series of political es- says in newspaper Morgunblaðið in the wake of the collapse. Although Einar Már is better known for his prose fic- tion, most notably the Nordic Council Prize winning novel ‘Angels of the Uni- verse’ (1993), his last two publications reflect his re-engagement in politics as an outspoken critic of the neo-liberal policies that precipitated the financial crisis. ‘Bankastræti Núll’ opens with the narrator’s lament: the current politi- cal situation has stifled his ability to write poems to his lover. Although he foresees a future where “reality wakes up” and poets can once again sing the praises of love and nature, the resound- ing sound of social injustice presently overwhelms him and beckons him to first engage in the struggle against the free reign of the stock exchange, priva- tisation and greed. Just as natural resources have been privatised, so the arts have been ap- propriated by big business and made to serve its interests. The comedian John Cleese became the main com- mercial spokesperson for Kaupthing bank, and hundreds of Icelandic artists came together to act in a Landsbanki advertisement under the direction and patronage of Björgólfur Guðmunds- son, former billionaire and banking mogul. Einar Már further interprets one of Kaupthing’s mottos, “kaupthinking,” as cleverly constructed doublethink, ‘to think so as to buy’ or ‘to buy so as to think,’ which could have been sent to the Venice Biennale had it been la- belled art. Einar Már is no less critical of cer- tain forms of popular contemporary literature, most notably crime fiction. He shows how crime novels have come to reinforce neo-liberal values by em- phasising the singularity of criminal actions, evildoers, and lone detectives while avoiding systemic analysis. It be- comes apparent that the poet cannot write poetry and the novelist cannot write novels, not because they must leave their armchairs and desktops to join the revolution but because the forms have been corrupted. Reality has been turned on its head and churns out its own fictions: “In fact, it is no longer necessary to write novels in Iceland these days, because they happen in real life. Iceland is like a reality show, with live broadcasts of erupting volca- noes and a financial crisis that trans- forms bank directors into wanted men.” Thus Einar Már leaves off the tra- ditional novel in search of new literary forms, which he hopes will more thor- oughly encompass and make sense of a fragmented social reality rife with contradictions. He questions how his own generation, which welcomed the student revolution of 1968, the Beatles and radical left politics could later en- dorse Iceland’s transition toward reck- less capitalism. He delves into the past and weaves together fragments of various, mostly non-fictional, accounts of seemingly random events in his life which nonetheless coalesce into a nar- rative about the elliptic yet steady rise of neo-liberal ideology in Iceland. Although digressive and playful, ‘Bankastræti Núll’ remains an earnest effort to retrieve lost connections be- tween past and present, politics and poetry, prosperity and poverty. Ice- land’s economic collapse was not an isolated event but part of a global sys- tem that now binds Iceland and Haiti closer together as captives of the IMF. Moreover, the persistent division be- tween the sciences and the arts and an ever-increasing specialisation of labour only heightens our sense of fragmenta- tion and alienation. Einar Már’s medium reflects his message: just as a more integrated and long-term approach is needed in poli- tics so ‘Bankastræti Núll’ combines var- ious literary genres to create a multifac- eted narrative. It does not read simply as a political manifesto but as an exper- iment in narrative building that strings together various stories, legends, ideas, personal memoirs, poems and quota- tions. It is a convergence of form that finds its social counterpart at the inter- section of Lækjargata and Bankastræti, where the Prime Minister’s office still stands next to the remains of the old public toilets and across from where Útvegsbankinn (“The Fisheries Bank”) once stood before its scandalous col- lapse in 1985, reminding us of the fine line between the most respectable and least respectable members of society. Literature | Society High Streets And Piss Pots An introduction to Einar Már Guðmundsson’s new book ‘Bankastræti Núll’ “The persistent division between the sciences and the arts and an ever-increasing specialisation of labour only heightens our sense of fragmentation and alienation” ALDA KRAVEC ALÍSA KALYANOVA
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