Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.08.2017, Page 29

tory, before a new period, the period
we’re in now, began]. I feel very lucky
that I found a medium to present my
ideas—it was poetry. The book did re-
ally well, so the obvious thing for me
to do was write another book of po-
etry. But I did a children’s book. Which
also did very well, and it proved to be
the best way for the particular idea I
expressed in it. I was expected to do
another book for children, but instead
I found the best place for the next idea
would be a sci-fi dystopian novel. So the
original idea can take you to different
places, and not necessarily ones you
expect.
In facing the
challenges writers
deal with in getting
published today,
has using different
types of mediums
been useful? There
are constant stories
in the media about
how fewer writers are
being published, and
fewer books read.
There is even a decline
in public literacy. How
is it to be a writer
today?
The smartphone has
stolen our attention.
I remember how you
wou ld see sad men
standing in front of slot
machines for hours. And
I was even at the brink
of praising that kind of devotion, to
stand in front of the machine hours on
end. But it wasn’t devotion, the people
were mesmerised, hypnotised. And the
smartphone works the same way. The
Facebook and Twitter-newsfeeds are
conceived in the same way as the reels
of a slot machine. They keep you con-
stantly occupied. Just at this moment
I can see on my phone there are noti-
fications—three of them! And I have
to find out what they are. These activi-
ties, or addictions as it were, are tak-
ing up at least a third of all of our free
time. Time that used to be, or could
have been, spent reading or finding
other means of entertainment. As an
author, I have an audience making free
stuff for the Zuckerbergs in the form
of tweets and Facebook-statuses. The
market for literature is still there but
it has changed and the
thriller or crime novel
(without taking any-
thing away from that
artform), is too domi-
nant.
Could poets perhaps
shine in this new
dimension of social
media, having the
capacity to be short
and concise?
Poetry will always sur-
vive. Poets are like rats;
even when they aren’t
visible, they are ever
present—close, under-
neath the surface. In
the financial collapse
in 2008, you could re-
ally see how young un-
derground poets were
realizing where we were
heading long before the
media did. And when the curtain was
drawn back, there it was: a very differ-
ent narrative than had been presented
in the media, and one that brought
truth to light. Poetry usually does this.
It’s like life and life always finds a way.
29The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 15 — 2017
“It was a
street full
of mud and
filth next to a
pond which
had a foul
odor. But then
Tómas Guð-
mundsson
wrote a poem
and suddenly
it had
meaning.”
gpv.is/culture
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and concluding
in Purgatorio
(cleaning aisle).”
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