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Petya K. Grady's avatar

"I want to be casually upended and destroyed by the books that I read."

i love that sentiment. just read sarah chihaya's 'bibliophobia' in which she writes about her LIFE RUINER - the book that shook her so profoundly that completely changed her (and, for a while, ruined books for her because nothing compared in force, magnitude or connection). i felt so jealous because i don't think i have had that experience yet.

this book sounds wonderful, i love sad and bleak. and i love iceland. i will definitely look for it.

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Martha's avatar

I am in awe of how romantic you manage to make this book sound! I personally love this section;

"Bjartur is dumb, and harsh, and naive, but he is only a pawn in a much larger game. He is a sacrificial lamb to a societal push to rip civil society apart. It is possible that he even knows that he is a martyr. But he wants to be a martyr, because he believes that this is his cause — even though he has had no say in defining society’s idea of independence. It is not in his interest to question things too far, or to bite the hands of the owners that dangle the threat of debt over his head. And yes, sure, there are rumors of new theories in cities such as Reykjavik over how society should be collectively organized, but why would he bother? After all, he does not need other people. He does not need society, or God, or even the fairies of Icelandic myths. His world is one where, as Laxness writes, "Sensible people don't like things to happen."

because it is so true - Bjartur is an idiot, but this idiocy is not born from him alone, it is a response, to a wider message and a large shift in humanity and society. I think that clicks about half way through the novel, after you've gotten all the inital shock out the way of how Bjartur only wants to eat fish forever and ever and live in squalor, that Bjartur's belief of independent hedonism is just a response to the systems that we are made to live under. And then it becomes a different book almost entirely, one that is almost sad, in the way it suggests that how we're living is ridiculous, it's making people sadder, making them punish their children to eat the same fish forever (lol) in the name of a concept that does not mean anything once you're 10 feet under. And he gets there in the end, imo, by the end of the novel. But it is so painful to watch him work it out; and perhaps that is just a fable for us. Would it be worth it to live a life so obsessed with being an island, fiercely independent, only to realise when you're nearing the end that it doesn't amount to what you were told it would. A life interconnected with other humans isn't as horrific as we are told it is, and really it's frankly all that matters, but you can't go back and change it if you've spent your whole life make yourself an island!!

You should read The Colony by Audrey Magee - I saw Petya recc Clear which is good! But I think The Colony is a more fleshed out version of it, with a bit more philosophy about what community and humanity means, which I think you'd enjoy.

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