65° - 01.09.1967, Blaðsíða 36

not, and her eleven year old daughter speeds up
her “getting ready for school” preparations,
knowing that school will really be held and most
everyone will be there.
It could happen.
(This article appeared in Vikan in 1965.)
ICELANDERS Continued from page 24
to the fact that mental illness is looked upon as
a crime or the work of the devil, but by no means
as any other illness.
49. Reykjavikans’ keys to happiness are a)
good health b) a good spouse, and well-fed, well-
dressed, well-behaved children c) a comfortable
home to live in, and d) good economic security.
It seems to the researcher that Icelandic society
today is characterized by one word: Materialism.
Despite all talk about the literary spirit in Ice-
land, Icelanders are intelligent people, well-in-
formed and industrious, but far from being in-
tellectual.
It would not be so bad if materialism were the
only large problem here; what is worse is the
absence of stratification within the society. A
laborer feels the same pressure on him to own
his house, his own car, buy his wife dresses, go
to Mallorca every other year, etc. as, say, the
well-to-do-businessman. This creates tremendous
tensions and worries within the society simply
because the laborer has to do more in order to
fulfill the pressure exerted on him. This, the re-
searcher believes, is the greatest problem in Ice-
land today: everything has to be standardized,
and there is little room for individual freedom
in this super-egoistic society. This problem is
believed to be the most destructive force in family
compositions and marital relations, and must be
coped with very soon.
On the researcher’s return to the United States
this autumn, the above-mentioned data will be
fed into a computor and analyzed, but the results
will probably not be published until next year in
their finished form. Since this study was made
only of Reykjavik, it cannot be said that it re-
presents the country in total, hence the researcher’s
future plans to conduct a similar study in the
countryside where the results will undoubtedly,
hopefully, be different.
HORSE Continued from page 28
immediately heartily ashamed of himself for
having done so. Not that Faxi-Bleikur faltered
in the least, let alone changed course, at the blow.
He just twitched his ears slightly, incredulously,
as if to say — ‘What, you strike me! Can it be
possible?’ — then mended his pace to a still
sharper trot ■— in the wrong direction.
Though Jon would probably not admit it, even
to himself, at this point he must have realised
that he was up against a will stronger than his
own. All he knew was that he was aware of an
overwhelming reluctance to dominate and com-
mand; a deeply rooted respect for the independ-
ence of a self-sufficient, autonomous personality.
Had he read Gulliver’s Travel he might have re-
called Swift’s noble race of horses, with their
base, ignoble human servants; but perhaps it is as
well for his self-esteem that he had not. However,
it became clear to him that so long as he con-
tinued to ride this horse, their relationship would
involve either a continual moral battle, or com-
plete humiliation.
He telephoned from the Ski-hotel, the horse
waiting patiently outside while he did so, and
then proceeded on his way to Hveragerdi, where
he sold Faxi-Bleikur for a song to a passing
farmer from near Selfoss.
When Sigga came to fetch him in the car, he
told her that he made up his mind to buy a speed-
boat.
JUPITER Continued from page 31
I close this report prematurely for the follow-
ing reason: It has just occurred to me that
through our marvellous IED machines and our
Psychical Research efforts, even my own unique
though half-completed experiences on Earth could
be programmed into any other Jupiterian em-
missary to Earth.
By Jupiter, my antennae almost ache with ad-
miration for our greatness!
Respectfully,
B. U. G.
The wind the wind the mighty wind,
It blew the girl’s dress high,
But God was just
And sent some dust
Into the young man’s eye.
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