Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.06.2015, Page 8

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On May 30, poet and novel-ist Bragi Ólafsson finally commented on a con-troversial book he had written, entitled ‘Bög-
glapóststofan’ (“Parcel Post Office”), in
an interview with Reykjavík Vikublað.
In fact, it was the first time the former
Sugarcubes bass player had spoken pub-
licly about the book, even though it had
been published in December of 2014.
What do you call a bass player
who writes books?
One of Iceland's most respected authors.
His novels ‘Gæludýrin’ (“The Pets”) and
‘Sendiherrann’ (“The Ambassador”) are
widely considered among the very finest
written in Icelandic this century (they
are also available in English). But in the
interview he pretty much renounced his
latest book, saying: "This is just a prod-
uct I am selling," and "I do not even con-
sider it, if one is to get formal, as a part of
my oeuvre."
I once had an oeuvre, but a doctor
removed it.
The controversy around the book began
a month before the interview, when the
webzine Druslubækur & doðrantar cri-
tiqued it harshly. The critique came as
a surprise to most since few people had
actually heard of the book. They were
not hard on the book itself and, in fact,
fans of Bragi Ólafsson would like it if
they could read it. The problem is that
the book was a stealth publication.
Were the pages completely black
and the book built to not show up
on radar?
The book was standard, if fairly short at
less than 80 pages. It had not been sent
to stores but had been given to a select
group of 300 people as a Christmas gift.
And when the critique appeared, the
book had not been sent to the National
Library, as required by law. Though once
its existence became public knowledge,
four copies were sent to the National
Library. The webzine sarcastically cred-
ited underworld contacts and likened
the book to Soviet Union-era samizdat.
What kind of subject matter
would require that kind of se-
crecy? Sex? Violence? Illegal uses
of moist towelettes?
The controversy is in who bought his
product and turned it into a book. It was
a Christmas gift distributed by the very
unpopular financial management com-
pany Gamma to its 300 top customers.
No one would have minded very much
if a chocolate factory had commissioned
the book for Iceland's greatest chocohol-
ics. Gamma itself seems aware of public
opinion, and has gone to some lengths
to show itself in a good light, support-
ing various organisations and events,
such as chess tournaments and the Ice-
landic Symphony, opening a public art
gallery, and now publishing a book. All
good things, but hard not to see mainly
as a public relations effort.
How does Gamma manage financ-
es so unpopularly? Do they turn
Islamic State's oil wealth into
dead puppies?
Probably not. They manage various
funds worth in total about 45 billion
Icelandic krónur (300 million Euros),
and there are various speculations
about whose money it is, but the com-
pany keeps it secret. The root of their
unpopularity is their wide-scale buying
of property in Iceland, which they then
rent out. Gamma has been accused of
driving up the price of renting and buy-
ing apartments in the city.
Are they slumlords, sending biker
gangs to terrorize old ladies so
that their homes can be sold to
cocaine-sniffing yuppies?
Not that either. But they have become
a symbol of the broken hopes follow-
ing the 2009 Kitchenware Revolution.
Those who protested in January of 2009
may have had different kinds of ideas
about how Icelandic society should
change, but none of them thought fi-
nancial management companies would
become major landlords. Though per-
haps the reason why Gamma became a
symbol is that their name is very close to
the word "gammar," which translates to
“vultures.”
Poor vultures, no one likes them.
They perform an important role
in the ecosystem.
In a way, so does Gamma. Due to finan-
cial restrictions that the government
enacted following the financial crash
in 2008, those who own large amounts
of Icelandic krónur are not allowed to
change them into foreign currencies.
Gamma invests those krónur in real es-
tate. They are certainly not the only fac-
tor in rising housing costs, but they are
certainly no help to people looking to
find a home.
Hopefully Bragi Ólafsson re-
ceived enough money to buy a
home of his own.
Author Hermann Stefánsson wrote that
his friend and colleague had received
"almost nothing" for his work. During
the financial bubble years preceding the
crash, Icelandic authors, like other art-
ists, received some money from since
discredited financial institutions. But
unlike, for instance, painters or sculp-
tors, writers received only a few thou-
sand euros for their work. It is one thing
for an artist's work to be used for public
relations, but an artist's name should be
worth more than "almost nothing."
8 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 7 — 2015
So What's This Literary Scandal
I Keep Hearing About?
Words by Kári Tulinius @Kattullus
Illustration by Lóa Hjálmtýsdóttir
I C E L A N D 4 D U M M I E S
Literature | Scandal
OPEN 7-21
BREAKFAST,
LUNCH & DINNER
T EMPL AR A SUND 3 , 101 RE Y K JAV ÍK , T EL : 5711822, W W W.BERGSSON. IS
By Gabríel Benjamin
NEWS
IN
BRIEF
Continues Over...
Something unthinkable hap-
pened in May: three quarters of the
people who clicked "attending" on a
Facebook event actually showed up!
In this case, it was a demonstration
that saw 5,000 individuals protest
outside of parliament, calling for
the dissolution of the government
because it had, according to the event
description, “caused permanent, irre-
versible damage to the nation.” Since
then, just less than 3,000 signatures
have been collected for a petition
urging President Ólafur Ragnar
Grímsson to use his powers to call for
a new election.
And do you know what underdog
would benefit the most from that
happening? The Pirate Party, that’s
who. The latest Gallup poll estimates
that the Pirates would secure 34.1%
of the popular vote if elections were
held today, which is the greatest
support they’ve ever enjoyed, and
it’s actually more than share the two
government parties have combined.
Meanwhile, the same poll showed the
Progressive Party only enjoyed 8.9%
support, which is the lowest they’ve
had since Prime Minister Sigmundur
Davíð Gunnlaugsson took the helm
in 2009.
Said stalwart Prime Minister,
however, believed this overwhelm-
ing public dissatisfaction with his
party and government was due to
“a rift between perception and
reality” on the part of the voters. He
assured the nation that the country
was actually doing well, but nobody
was paying proper attention. In other
words, we totes need to, like, lighten
up and chill out.