Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.02.2012, Blaðsíða 4

Dear Bart Cameron,

I will attach "Laxness in Naples". The old
bard is still on the move.

Best regards,
Niels Hav
http://www.othervoicespoetry.org/vol41/
hav/bio.html
Laxness in Naples
In Naples I chanced upon Halldór Laxness.
It was strange,
because he had died that spring. He smiled,
delighted
beneath his newly-trimmed moustache and
walked quickly through
the spacious room, an unostentatious res-
taurant
with white tableclothes near Piazza Garib-
aldi.
He seemed in good health, dressed in light
pants
and a plaid tweed jacket, just like the photos
from Iceland in the fifties. He sat down at a
table occupied
by a woman and a man, and the three of
them spoke spiritedly
to each other in Italian, while the waiter
served wine
and various courses for them; first pasta,
then fish, bread and salad.
Halldór Laxness ate with gusto,
his laughter braying, and he waw engaged in
the conversation.
That pleased me, I had heard he’d grown se-
nile and,
besides, he was dead.
When their meal was almost over, I felt like
going over to say hello, tell him how glad I
was
to see him hale and well. But I lacked the
words,
and perhaps he wouldn’t like being recog-
nized
in a strange country, now that he was dead.
Instead I listened intensely to their conver-
sation,
when suddenly I managed to catch an utterly
clear reply: “The God of humans is of vary-
ing greatness,
just like they are,” Laxness said. “Small peo-
ple have small gods,
and the small-minded look in vain
for Him in a microscope.” He laughed heart-
ily.
In the end the two Italians got up from the
table.
The woman gave a little speech, while she
brought out a parcel,
the size of a book and gave it to Halldór Lax-
ness.
He opened the parcel with great care.
It turned out to contain a pair or socks, pos-
sibly silk.
Haldór Laxness was moved, tears welled in
his eyes,
and he said something in a soft slurred voice.
I couldn’t
make out every word, but his Italian was
beautiful,
and I understood him to say: “Thank you,
that is a good gift. And it’s not even
my birthday!”

© Niels Hav
Transleted by P.K. Brask & Patrick Friesen
Dear Niels Hav,

Thank you! This is just beautiful, it really is.
Enjoy your meal and send more!
Hey Grapevine!
Like the great Gil Scott-Heron once said: I’m
new here. Been around a couple of months
now and quite enjoying it. Like most of the
music, been able to make friends at the bars
and clubs although I often wish there was
one quiet bar there where you could talk to
people instead of nodding your head at them
over the loud music and I got a nice place to
stay. Complaints are the regular, everything
is expensive and people can be cold, but it’s
nothing I can’t deal with. I’ve a feeling this
winter will be good for me. I even love all the
snow!
You guys have been a great resource ever
since I first thought about coming. I might
even have gotten the idea from reading an
article of yours for all I know. I like the news
and the music coverage along with the va-
riety of articles even though not all of it is
interesting to me. There is one thing that I
think you’re lacking however and this is ME!
I would love to contribute to your fine publi-
cation. What do I do? How do I go on about
it? Do I get paid?
Also it would be great if you could make
me letter of the month so I can go eat that
banquet. Btw what is up with Bakkus? Its
been closed the last few times Ive gone by
there.
El Scorcho
Dear El,
thank you so very much for your letter, and
your kind words. It’s cool to know we might
have inspired you to come over, lord knows
we need more people over here. Lots and
lots more people, so we can one day win the
Olympics and Eurovision (strength in num-
bers and all that).
Also, it’s great that you want to contribute!
If it’s one thing we can always use more of,
it’s writers, photographers illustrators and
people that can make that’s worth printing or
publishing on-line. You don’t specify whether
you’re a writer or videographer or whatnot (if
you’re good at making videos you should defi-
nitely be in touch—we would love featuring
more video content!) but the answers are sort
of the same for everyone. Read on:
Firstly, you need to contact our fancy new
Managing Editor, Anna Andersen, by email-
ing anna@grapevine.is. Tell her you want to
contribute. She gets lots of emails, so it’s a
good idea to keep your missives brief and to
the point (preferably containing one or more
direct questions that can be answered (with-
out needing to be inferred first)).
If you’re interested in writing something,
why not include an idea for a story in your
letter, along with a brief explanation of how
you would execute it and how much space you
would need (this is called ‘a pitch’). Includ-
ing a writing sample isn’t a bad idea; if noth-
ing else make sure your pitch letter is sort of
properly spelled and mostly coherent. If you
can’t write a proper email when applying for
a writing job... well...
If your idea is good and we can read through
your letter without wanting to tear our eyes
out, we will in turn send your our submis-
sion guidelines (mostly stuff about format-
ting and spelling). We will also assign you a
rough wordcount and a deadline to work with
(and offer help with any resources you might
need to accomplish whatever it is you want to
accomplish).
We pay all of our contributors as much as
we can, which unfortunately doesn’t amount
to a lot. Do not expect to make a living free-
lancing for the Grapevine. Think of it more
as extra beer money. First time submissions
generally get paid less (and if we wind up not
printing your article for whatever reason, we
will pay you a small ‘kill fee’—don’t worry,
we’ll publish almost anything unless it’s like
total BS. Sometimes we might even print that
too because FUN!).

If you’re not a writer (but like a photographer
or whatever), you should still send us an
email. Tell us what you want to accomplish,
send samples of your work and be cool. We
will get back to you.
As for Bakkus: it’s moved to Laugavegur!
OK ONE LOVE FROM TEAM GRAPEVINE!
Say your piece, voice your
opinion, send your letters to:
letters@grapevine.is
Sour
grapes
& stuff
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MOST AWESOME LETTER
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There's prize for all your MOST AWESOME LETTERS. And
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GRAPEVINE T-SHIRT, featuring the majestic G that adorns our cover.
So you should make sure to keep writing us fun and/or interesting letters
This new Grapevine tee surely is the SHIzNIT (whatever that means)! It was designed by our
very own art director man, HöRðUR KRISTbjöRNSSON, and it’s good for posing in front
of a mirror, impressing folks with your impeccable taste or picking up men or women of all
ages (no minors). DON’T PANIC if your letter wasn’t picked AWESOME LETTER. You can
still get a tee for a low, low price over our website, WWW.GRAPEVINE.IS
Now, if you're in the market for free goodies next month, write us some sort of letter. Give us
your worst: LETTERS@GRAPEVINE.IS
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