Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.11.2015, Page 26

26 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 17 — 2015LIFE
By Kári Tulinius
To get the most obvious question out
of the way, you need to write. You can
write in any language in the world, but if
you want to take part in Icelandic liter-
ary society, it helps to have translations
into Icelandic, or at least English. What
type of literature you write is not as im-
portant as it perhaps was in the last few
decades of the last century, when real-
ist fiction and poetry were completely
dominant. In recent years, writers have
debuted with anything from excerpts
from their teenage diaries to science
fiction novels. The important part is
to write and then share your writing in
some way.
I have written! Where do I share my
writing?
There are many places. Online you can
make a blog, post on Facebook or send
something to a webzine. In the physi-
cal world it is a bit trickier. There are
two literary magazines you can send
Icelandic language poetry, essays and
fiction to, the quarterly Tímarit Máls og
menningar and the biannual Stína. But
the most fun way to share your writing
is to take part in a reading. If none of
your friends are organizing a reading,
do it yourself and ask other writers to
join you. Plenty of bars and cafés in
Reykjavík are more than happy to host
events like that.
But I'm a recluse who's afraid of
public speaking and have neither
friends nor an internet connection...
In which case you better print out your
writing and mail it to a publisher. Due
to the tininess of Icelandic society,
there are no agents. Writers generally
deal with their publishers themselves.
After you have sent your manuscript
to a publisher you will generally have
to wait a few months for an answer. If
you get rejected, send your manuscript
somewhere else and start writing a new
one. If you do get accepted, then a long
process of editing and rewriting will
take place, and at the end of it you will
have a book published. There are some
publishers that are open to publishing
books in languages other than Icelan-
dic, but most do not.
I want my book out now! The world
can't wait for my genius!
If you are fine with an ebook, then you
can publish your manuscript online.
Otherwise you take your manuscript to
a printing press and pay them to print
it. You will probably have to hire a de-
signer to take care of the layout and
cover, if you do not know how to do
those things yourself. The same goes
for proofreading and editing. This will
all cost a considerable sum of money.
But in the end you will have a book,
which you can sell in bookstores and
deposit to the National Library. And
generally, if it is a good book, Iceland-
ers do not look down on writers who
self-publish. In fact, Gyrðir Elíasson,
Sjón and Einar Már Guðmundsson—the
last three Icelandic writers to have won
the Nordic Council Literature Prize (the
biggest prize Icelandic-language books
can receive)—all started out by self-
publishing. So if you have no patience
for regular publishing, go for it.
So, I’m In Iceland And I Want To
Be A Writer—Where Do I Start?
To celebrate the annual BOOKFLOOD
SEASON, it’s a Very Special 'So What’s This'!
“But Were You Not Amazed?”
'The Summerland' by Guðmundur Kristinsson
By Grayson Del Faro
When I was handed ‘The Summerland:
The Deceased Describe Their Passing
and Reunion in The Other World’ to re-
view, I thought it was a joke (hahaha,
give the new guy this ancient book
to review, hahaha). The cover design
looks like it came straight from the ‘80s:
a painting of a First Nations person in a
war bonnet, poorly superimposed over
a fluorescent rendering of a boat sail-
ing through an open door. Two words
in the subtitle were left randomly un-
capitalised.
The book was still shrink-wrapped
and I wondered how long it had been
sitting around the office. I was startled
to discover it had first been printed in
2010 and reprinted subsequently; the
English translation was released in July
2014. Perhaps I’d fallen into that cliché:
books and their covers. So I checked
my attitude and read it.
The bad news
'The Summerland' appears to be with-
out any kind of structure, meandering
aimlessly through multiple subjects
and approaches. Author Guðmundur
Kristinsson alternates between the first
and third person in reference to him-
self, and random words and passages
are bolded throughout. He describes
the life of one particular English medi-
um, Horace S. Hambling, in the first 50
pages, before launching into a stream
of vignettes on séances and spirits as
reported by various mediums. These
include reports on the afterlife from the
author’s dead son and British soldiers
who occupied Iceland during World
War II, among many others. The book
concludes with a long, episodic narra-
tive description of passing through The
Summerland itself as told by the spirit
of Einar Loftsson; it comes off as quite
similar to John Bunyan’s parable ‘The
Pilgrim’s Progress.’
Guðmundur has written books on
both Spiritualism (the belief and prac-
tice of communicating with spirits) and
Icelandic history, and both passions are
clear throughout the book. His ability
to report history works better in his fa-
vour, however. The strongest section of
the book is that detailing the history of
the British occupation of Iceland, inter-
spersed with reports from beyond by its
now passed airmen. The historical pas-
sages read lightly and clearly.
His prose is clipped and frank, lend-
ing ease to the reader here. At times
this style is endearing in its frankness,
especially when detailing otherwise
wildly farfetched claims such levita-
tion, transfiguration, and conjuring,
but more often falls completely flat.
Between the allegations and the style,
entire paragraphs are dead in the wa-
ter from the first bland sentence: “Al-
though none of Abraham Lincoln’s
biographies state that he was a Spiritu-
alist, it was well-known in his time. His
mother was a physic.”
Serving you Joan of Arc realness
I must admit here that I am not the
staunchest of realists; I have quite
esoteric leanings. I am down with Tarot
readings, aura colours, Numerology,
vibes, and the like. So I don’t say this
lightly. The book is clearly aimed only
at those acquainted with and devoted
to Spiritualism, making no concessions
to any noobs. One is expected to know
the difference between healing and
trance séances, ether and ectoplasm, a
medium’s spirit guide and their special
guardian “doorkeeper.”
A few scenes stand out. Guðmundur
has a séance with the spirit of Abraham
Lincoln, who was convinced to abolish
slavery by a medium telling him of the
future in the voice of a male spirit. A
blind British woman is possessed by
the spirit of Leonardo da Vinci to paint
a portrait of Horace’s favourite spirit
guide, a wildly inaccurate stereotype of
a Sioux native named Moon Trail; it is
then declared “a live-long study [of] da
Vinci” by “specialists at the Tate Gallery
in London.” (I haven't even mentioned
the Engrish-speaking Ming Dynasty
“Chinaman” guide.)
An Icelandic medium visits France
and has a vision of Joan of Arc: “Sitting
behind her was a man, a ‘dead’ man,
who guided and protected her… She
obeyed all his commands. With his help
she was able to achieve a great deal…
which otherwise would have seemed
an impossible task for such a young
girl.” Some sections read like fantasti-
cally revisionist historical fiction. At
one point, a spirit is asked “But were
you not amazed?” about passing on;
he was. I could ask myself the same of
the book. Convinced? Not quite. But
amazed? Absolutely.
The good news
Spoiler alert. The good news is that
the spirit world sounds quite pleasant.
The spirit of the author’s deceased son
visits him years later to talk about his
spirit girlfriend from Akureyri and their
adopted spirit child. Death is described
as quite similar to depictions from car-
toons: a younger, prettier spirit replica
of yourself emerges from the head of
your earthly body until your ethereal
umbilical cord detaches. You awake
in a spirit hospital attended by spirit
doctors and nurses, where you get
dressed and go move into your spirit
life. In Summerland, there are nice jobs,
houses, weather, pets, and even tourist
cruises to spirit islands, all memories of
happiness and fulfilment brought over
from life.
For those interested in Spiritualism
and undaunted by a hearty peppering
of typos and self-published design and
editing flaws, you’ve found your ency-
clopaedia. The book is an undeniable
glut of information on the specifics of
Spiritualism. But sceptics and fence-
sitters are unlikely to be convinced and
would be better advised to start their
New Age edification with something
a little more accessible. Say Eckhart
Tolle, or even Patrick Swayze and Demi
Moore’s 1990 film ‘Ghost,’ for example.