/lit/ - Literature

To clarify: I don't mean the Sagas or Eddic poetry, I'm looking for more contemporary writing

I just picked up a random short story collection from a college library. Loved them. I think they were all written in the fifties give or take, but they were timeless almost fable like.

>>20707235
Do you remember the name of the collection? Would love to check it out

>>20707202
>It looks like such an ideal place to write
when I went to iceland they told me one in every 10 icelander publishes a book in their lifetime. I don't know if that's true or if they have a loose definition of the terms "book" and "publish", but at least it sounds like there should be a non-trivial body of contemporary literature.

>>20707242
Here we go

>>20707273
Thank you!

>>20707251
Pretty extraordinary statistic if true, even if their population is 360,000

As a teen I thought Independent People was boring but Iceland's Bell had me hooked from the start.

>>20707308
You’re welcome
Found the editor’s obituary just now. What an amazing life

https://cla.umn.edu/gnsd/news/memoriam-evelyn-firchow

>>20707217
>I'm looking for more contemporary writing
don't bother. Also, Reykjavik sucks fat balls.

>>20707381
You suck balls

>>20707426
you barely even know that god-awful city and its vain people.

>>20707437
>vain people.
Wow. Why are they vain you think? Tell us the story. How long did you live there? Where you from originally?

There is no "must-read" contemporary Icelandic literature. Just tell me exactly what you are looking for and I'll point you to the right pile. You want aesthetics and crypto-Hamsun? Read Gunnar Gunnarsson. You want mystic pontification about the environment? read Andri Snær. You want crime novels? Well, like all the other Nordics we have an ungodly amount of that, but just stick with the most popular one; Arnald Indriðasson. You want inaccurate "realist" retellings of the past? That's Einar Kárasson.

>>20707472
I'm a rural Icelander

Nothing comes to mind as essential life changing stuff but the Icelandic tradition as a whole is high quality.
When I pick up any recent book that was popular in Iceland (except the crime stories) at the airport I tend to find something with some interesting ideas at least. If I pick up similarly popular best sellers from the anglolands they tend to be shit.
Everything is just done better and you will never understand any of it since the best stuff relies on references to roots you don't have. The rest of the world needs to accept their role as inferior so we can all move forward.
https://youtu.be/KTGLiV6QwZA

for me, it’s sjon

>>20707494
I was hoping for a bit more background on your thoughts.
Rurals have always been at odds with city folk. I’m a rural who’s had to live among them for far too long now. Sometimes they’re quite vain, sometimes it’s not that.

As an Icelandophile, I'm so excited for this thread! Sorry to hear our rural Icelandic friend is so down on his homeland, and in particular the capital city. I happen to love Reykjavik, and in my seven visits there (including two that were for over a month) have only rarely encountered someone shitty.

I haven't read anything of Laxness's that I didn't really like. I think he's really solid, as you'd hope from a Nobel laureate.

I just finished Summer Light, and then Comes the Night by Jón Kalman Stefánsson. I liked it a lot -- it's very much in the "literary fiction" genre, and is funny, insightful, and has a nice helping of Iceland-specific observations that were really interesting to an outside like me.

My experience of novels in the popular noir genre is that they're really just what you'd expect in similar genres from other places -- middling quality at best. Jar City (originally Mýrin) was one I could barely finish...it wasn't awful, but just too hamhanded, like so much other detective procedural stuff that I've read.

I wish I had more recommendations to give, but since you've excluded the sagas, that eliminates 90% of the Icelandic lit I've read. I've also been working to learn Icelandic, and have some books of short stories that are educational in nature, not really lit for its own sake.

>>20707523
It's even worse here since Reykjavík is THE city in the country. Reyklings tend to think the country revolves around them.
I also just think the city looks ugly, like the OP pic. It looks like a tacky stain on the landscape with its funky house designs. Reminds me of kindergarten for some reason. And downtown has literally just turned into a massive tourist trap.

>>20707563
Do you really think there's nothing worthwhile in contemporary Icelandic lit?

>>20707523
Not him but I moved to the country as a young boy. They all seemed retarded at the time compared to the city kids. After the internet it slowly changed and now I think the country kids have surpassed the ones in the city. I predict a global exodus from cities, the premises behind making populations denser and wanting your kids to go to the city for education and opportunities aren't valid anymore.
For the rural kids that have real communities (despite their dysfunction) the internet is a net useful education tool. For the city kids it seems like a net negative, reinforcing psychological issues that already existed, moving the sense of community to online groups and all that shit.

>>20707572
What's worthwhile? I certainly haven't read anything contemporary that I've liked. If you mean contemporary as in books by authors who are currently alive. If not, then Gunnar Gunnarsson was pretty good

>>20707580
I don't think currently alive would be necessary -- let's just say about the last 100 years? Since OP asked for "not sagas", that might be recent enough.

I'll check out Gunnar, thanks. Do you think the fact that he wrote in Danish makes his work less "Icelandic"?

Just realized I forgot about Sjón...his From the Mouth of the Whale was great, I thought.

The best stuff is old. Folktales I was told as a kid like Búkolla and that weird one about balloon-cows or whatever.
In a random old book from the local library I found serious accounts of monsters being spotted just outside town. Old church records said my great-great-great grandma was taught her midwife skills by elves.

>>20707597
>Do you think the fact that he wrote in Danish makes his work less "Icelandic"?
I don't see how that would be the case. He was Icelandic and all his stories that I've read all take place in Iceland and he translated his books to Icelandic himself as well as translate some sagas to danish.

>>20707619
Thanks, I appreciate the response. I've been wondering about how Icelandic/Danish writing fits into the country's literary tradition...in particular whether it would strike Icelanders as being sort of "foreign". Obviously there's a lot of variation in how comfortable people are with the Danish language.

>>20707638
Danish was considered fancy like French to English and Danish words were sneaking in. That fashion died out after independence and Danish influence was actively purged by the pure Aryan fathers of the nation, who were educated by Danish Jews.
The Anglos wanted our strategic location without looking like baddies so they gave us a fishing fleet and let us be Nazis as long as we didn't call ourselves Nazis. That changed over time and around 2012 we had to cover up our last beloved swastika.

>>20707638
we used to be a Danish colony So I don't really see how they're that foreign. We've always been almost psychically linked with the other nordics. As for our literary tradition, which I'm not really sure what means anymore, I don't know. I think ours just started in the 1800s

>>20707715
Hey, I just had brunch in that building less than a month ago.

Sorry to hear that you're a horrible racist, but I appreciate the historical perspective anyway.

>>20707739
I'm just trying to put things in terms anglos can understand. The pressure from anglos to stop the ebil nazis is now reaching the laws that maintained the language until now, the subject you raised. Anglo propaganda forced us to remove that beautiful piece of history in the picture. Anglo brainwashing about le colonialism is now causing serious discussion in the senate about removing the artifacts that remind us of Danish kings. Didn't even occur to the evil nationalists to destroy these reminders of history that enrich our lives despite them being Danish. Some crazy cat ladies recently stole an artifact close to me and soldered it into a garbage can because anglo propaganda convinced them the word "white" is racist.

>>20707779
>Some crazy cat ladies recently stole an artifact close to me and soldered it into a garbage
Jesús, ekki minna mig á það.

The same consolidation of riches that caused the consolidation of knowledge that gave us the Sagas also over a longer period reduced the ability of the Icelandic families to maintain and write such things.
Gottskálk grimmi Nikulásson represents the transition from a scholarly nation to peasants. He used his knowledge passed down to him to destroy everyone that opposed him, the remains of the old elite families wiped out in a misguided attempt to stop the plebs from taking power. Which they did shortly after, there was one Catholic bishop after him and then the reformation which burned everything left.
In the 1800s romantic nationalism arrived as a savior, revived the old traditions and gave the people ideas of independence and maintaining the language willfully. It's the same romantic nationalism that lead to Israel, modern Hebrew and Hitler.

>>20707779
>>20707817
I thought it was kind of funny, honestly.

>>20707779
Naziism is a recent aberration of a bestial psychosis. Kingdoms and empires of old didn’t mind new peoples. Religion meant more to these people than skin tone. Swastikas aren’t beautiful, they’ve become symbols of irrational mass murderers.
White pride isn’t what you’re on about, it’s white supremacy. You’re as tainted with foreign ideas as the neoliberals

>>20707494
fuck off, hick
how can you even read and write

>>20707860
>completely deranged ramblings of a brainwashed retard regurgitating the same tired brainwashing every human being on the planet has heard 6 million times
>White pride isn’t what you’re on about
You will never have the slightest clue what I'm on about. How could I ever expect someone as deranged as you to ever grasp even a word I'm saying on any subject? You have it all figured out, you know exactly what I'm doing and saying, not because you tried to understand me but because a third party told you beforehand.

>>20707896
Ramblings of someone who knows history and sociopolitical topics.
No third persons. Naziism isn’t the same as regular nationalism. It’s a feverish genocidal version.

>>20707916
Because of the conditioned associations it triggers as a result of media brainwashing you can't get past the word I chose with tongue in cheek. You're retarded, no hint of reading comprehension beyond direct triggered associations. The eternal American in a nutshell.

>>20707935
>There were tongue-in-cheek accents, you foreigner
Yawn.

>>20707916
>romanticism or romantic nationalism isn't the same as nazis
Tell that to the people dismantling the laws protecting our language because they're "nazi".
>>20707959
>I am an illiterate brainwashed retard and proud! USA! USA!

>>20707959
Let's work from the assumption that your interpretations of what I said have any relationship to anything I was thinking. You could have still said something interesting in your replies, explored some ideas. Instead you did exactly what you always do, regurgitated the approved standard view with no thoughts of your own added and got mad that it would even occur to anyone to suggest anything different.

>>20707848
the stupidity of it may be funny. But its the fact that they didn't see it as a joke that raises my bile.

Wow, OP here, back again. Thanks for all your input and the smatterings of literary suggestions amidst a bunch of political discussion.

This has me very interested in your country, and I'm astonished and glad we've got some Icelanders here despite your tiny population.

I only visited Iceland once for a week and greatly enjoyed my time there, but I'm a dumb Canadian, so what do I know besides your financial crisis, and the fact that your apparent median income is insanely high, and that food is ridiculously expensive over there.

Are there specific books on Icelandic history that you think would be prudent to read? Or, if you have the time, I'd love to hear from you more: what's the general climate in Iceland like these days? How progressive really are you? Do you actually enjoy eating hákarl?

Sorry for the bad humour, I'm genuinely just curious. Any and all thoughts will be welcome, your country genuinely intrigues me to a huge degree, and I'm clamouring for more thoughts/opinions from y'all.

>>20707997
Being very progressive is the defining distinction. There is not a romantic sense of a recent past to return to, the romanticism is about the Sagas and the original settlers who were pioneers not stuck in tradition.
The corporate fueled nonsense and spread of globalism coming from the anglos right now is not progressive, it's regressive. It's not helping anyone grow.

>>20707997
Well, our elite is certainly very progressive just like everywhere else in the west. Suggesting anything other than our current system or progressive Democracy makes anyone feel scared and uncomfortable. One thing I think has been very consistent is that we are incredibly naive.
>>20708070
>who were pioneers not stuck in tradition.
nice romanticism shitlib.

>>20707860
>Kingdoms and empires of old didn’t mind new peoples.
lol
>Religion meant more to these people than skin tone.
yes and religion was also tied to ancestry, atleast in proto-history
>Swastikas aren’t beautiful, they’ve become symbols of irrational mass murderers.
but not the hammer and cycle because, y'know, they were actually the good boys.

How true is your hakuna matata motto "Þetta Reddast"?

And also can anyone edify me more on this ostensible "Nazi past" that Iceland has? It's absolutely not taught this way in North America, we learned you were passive in WWII and allowed "peaceful occupation" of your country by the Allies.

>>20708119
>nice romanticism shitlib.
It's the optimal amount of romanticism for survival. You learn from the past but don't get stuck in it. You maintain basics like the language partly because it's a foundation you know works. It's not pure worship of how things were done just to be like the past, it's practical romanticism.

>>20708149
I have no idea how or when that became our "motto" but I'm pretty sure the tourist industry had something to do with it.
As for the nazi past, it's no secret, atleast to me, that prior and during ww2 that we had a substantial natsoc party(or movement rather). There's a pretty good book called Icelandic Nazis that talks about this stuff but I don't think it's been translated to english. I can tell you from just my personal wisdom that our scout union was founded by actual nazis one of which my grandmother was friends with. You can see their influence mainly in the fact that a lot of the scout songs are actually sung to the melody of German folk songs like "im wald im grunen walden" and their oath/pledge used to mention being loyal to your homeland but it's been redacted now.
Our government was never nazi though.

>>20708139
Believe it or not, there are more than a few people on the left who dislike both swastikas and the hammer and sickle.

>>20707202
Try Sagas or Eddic poetry

>>20708210
Nobody is, or has ever been, "stuck in the past." that's just progressive jargon in an attempt to psychoanalyze their enemies. The Settlers were just as religious and traditional as the neighbors they left behind. They just didn't want to live under a King. The whorship of ancestors and gods, which was practiced by these people, is not as crude as you like to describe it. I'd suggest reading The Ancient City.

>>20708249
Already read a lot of them but hey, okay.

OP again, this has been more than interesting, thanks all.

Just so this doesn't veer too far off course, if anyone has any more Icelandic literature to recommend, please do, even if it is from the Sagas or the Eddas, or what have you.

Very fascinating to hear about your country, hope it's alright with the janitors and mods if you just continue to do so, alongside literary remarks.

>>20708149
The logo is just a clever logo for a boat company representing both a boat propeller and the old symbol that has been found here. It was removed because of the nazi meme.
The media tends to paint a picture of a far left socialist utopia but when you trace how the benefits they use as evidence came to be they usually rely on ignored factors these same propagandists are trying to condition you to hate like strict border policies, protective tariffs and national unity partly achieved through romantic nationalist propaganda. Even the labor unions rest on social cohesion, thinking these things can exist in a society that considers the citizens as replaceable worker units you can import from anywhere is very naive.

>>20708253
You may have read a lot of them, but have you read the Saga of Grettir? That's probably my favorite one.

>>20707202
From the lone experience I have with Icelandic literature, I don't recommend the Volsung Saga.
>Snorri married Ðorri and begat Morri
>Morri boned Ðroþrir and they begat Nirþ
>Nirþ talked to the goddess and she told him some inane bullshit
>Oh yeah he killed a dragon
>100 more pages of genealogical crap no one cares about
>Finis

>>20708261
>Even the labor unions rest on social cohesion
I don't know, what with the whole Efling debacle. But that might just be a sign of the times catching up with us. Everything in America eventually seeps into its imperial territories.

>>20708252
>Nobody is, or has ever been, "stuck in the past."
Almost everyone on the planet is. The most common American versions of Christianity are examples traps that have nothing to offer except getting stuck in nonsense ideas about the past.
The real purpose of a functioning tradition is to help you progress and those people that progressed to a new land embodied a tradition stretching back further than Óðinn.
>The whorship of ancestors and gods, which was practiced by these people, is not as crude as you like to describe it.
When did I describe it at all?

>>20708284
I'm saying the unions being functional and delivering the successes foreign media points at rests on social cohesion. I generally hate the unions when it comes to specifics, corrupt bullshit but historically so far they have done an amazing job compared to the rest of the world.

>>20708286
>Almost everyone on the planet is.
No, they are not. Knowledge or consciousness/reflection about the past does not mean one is "stuck in it"
>The real purpose of a functioning tradition is to help you progress
progress to what?
>and those people that progressed to a new land embodied a tradition stretching back further than Óðinn.
a lot of them just didn't want to pay tribute to the king. Some were outlaws and criminals.
>When did I describe it at all?
I feel like you implied it when you talked about being "stuck in the past" considering a lot of the life of ancient people revolved around revering the dead ancestors and feeding them as if they were still alive. That and maintaining the family's sacred fire.

>>20707202
https://www.amazon.com/Bjork/dp/1582342261

>>20708139
It’s a blanket statement, but it’s generally true that the makeup of peasants matters little as long as they work, produce grain, soldiers and pay their taxes. The Austrian empire spoke many languages if you’ll recall.
Religion was more controlled when most remained illiterate and just followed their church leaders. Faith is just duty after all. When people started to read, we got the reformation, the reignited witch hunts, antisemitism and Free Masonry, the Enlightenment. We still like reading around here, don’t we? Any serous monarchist-bro doesn’t.

And no, the symbol of the workers party have become associated with that other repressive state project. The USSR was like the kingdom’s of old though. Of course liberal fascism wants to paint it as literally Hitler X 10.
I’m tired of you people citing Stalin though. He’s not the face of the commune/community no matter how much you try to make him out to be.
>the good boys
The people of the Russia drove the nazis back and they’re doing it again. I like them.

>>20708320
you're a repulsive person by the way. i wish many hardships for you, but not the kind that make you stronger. just that break you.

>>20708320
I don't think it's as simple as saying "when people started to read".
Most of it just comes down to incompetent governance and the rise of revolutionaries, literacy just made it easier to communicate with many more peasants at once but even then, it wasn't really the peasants that killed Louis, it was the Burghers. They then proceeded to conscript them to fight against the reactionary governments. So monarchists are fine with reading.

>I’m tired of you people citing Stalin though. He’s not the face of the commune/community no matter how much you try to make him out to be.
I'm sure he's not the official mascot. The point is rather that Stalin, much like Hitler and democracy, could only ever have appeared under socialism. But I'm more interested in criticizing progressivism itself.
>The USSR was like the kingdom’s of old though.
lol
lmao even.

>>20708342
>I don’t like that you know things I don’t want people knowing!
I hope you grow up someday. Or someone takes you out before you shoot too many innocents

>>20708320
>>20708380
Also, the reformation came way before literacy started skyrocketing.

>>20708314
>Knowledge or consciousness/reflection about the past does not mean one is "stuck in it"
And I made a clear distinction between the two. Many try to imitate a past they don't understand instead of using the knowledge gained to create a future.
>progress to what?
A future. Something that works and is created instead of imitated.
>a lot of them just didn't want to pay tribute to the king. Some were outlaws and criminals.
The "criminal" fits the pattern the best. Ingólfur Arnarson is named the wolf of the king.
>I feel like you implied
But I'm not. What's foremost in my mind is the burgers mindlessly following rituals they don't grasp on any level. If you want to get into personal beliefs I sincerely believe people can divine parts of the future from sheep guts and I'm also Christian, both beliefs are based on being open to the lessons of the past and tempering them with reason. Starting with respect for the "ancestors" and then applying what they say critically. If their gifts are effective to give me power over the world then I'm honoring them more than getting stuck in surface level veneration.

>>20708380
Yes, of course it’s generalizations we’re speaking with. Read what though? States employ various kinds of censorship to mold their troops/citizenry. You can’t bring god and king back without seriously impairing the minds of the flock

You’re all wrong on the second points. Progressives hold a direct link with fascism. The DNC are historically the party of racism and conditional democracy, not genuine democracy.
And yeah, Stalin was like a king, a tsar. Some tsars were good, some bad, some tough, some easily toppled. Notice how China is basically run by the Mandarins under a different name? Same in Russia

>>20708407
>A future
what future?
>The "criminal" fits the pattern the best. Ingólfur Arnarson is named the wolf of the king.
I'm not sure what you are getting at but Ingólfr also literally took his home/gods with him and let them decide where to settle, the high-chief poles or whatever they are called in english.
>being open to the lessons of the past and tempering them with reason
ok sure
>Starting with respect for the "ancestors" and then applying what they say critically
you see, premoderns didn't really do that. They might have chided their hearth-god if he didn't deliver blessings but that's it, he was still the heart of the family and that of the ancestors. Also, if you are a Christian shouldn't you not be asking for favors from God or honoring him so long as he gives you power? Isn't that sinful?

>>20708394
After the printing press people started to read stuff more. Chiefly the Bible. All of a sudden people were bible scholars and we get Luther and Calvin etc.

>>20707202
>>20707997
Almost any Icelandic literature worth anything is either old or yet untranslated. Íslenzk Menning by Sigurður Nordal is by far the best book on Icelandic history and culture, but I don't think it's been translated.
>>20708149
True as can be. You have no idea how easy it is to get things done here. Everyone is on the same page and willing to do you a favour.

>>20708472
>premoderns didn't really do that
Retards never did that. Pioneers always did.
You're an example of the former. Little to no engagement of the meaning of any of the things handed down to you which is the highest form of disrespect to the people that worked to give you these things. Just a mindless animal acting based on conditioning. Which would be fine if the conditioning came from the elites of the nation instead of foreign international megacorporations. Plebs are needed but you're not my pleb anymore, you're owned by foreign demons.

>>20708462
>States employ various kinds of censorship to mold their troops/citizenry.
like today and all time.
>You can’t bring god and king back without seriously impairing the minds of the flock
I'm not a Christian if that's what you are wondering nor am I impaired. People generally just follow what they are taught, nothing has changed in that respect. Revolutionaries would rather incite the crowd to their deaths for their own selfish needs. Their own will-to-power.

You're last paragraph is just "not real democracy"
Do you seriously believe one thing did not lead to the other? Do you seriously think the state will ever go away?

i don't know what this board thinks of sjon but i liked the blue fox

>>20708473
Literacy still didn't rise, and Calvin and Luther were both employed by the church before they started preaching. Not to mention, the reformation only got actual traction when the elite started to take interest.

>>20708507
I think you are just getting angry now. But your idea of "pioneers" is surface-level. Premoderns just don't have anything in common with us moderns. You are applying your own presentist view on them. And what foreign international megacorporations are you talking about?

>>20708551
>things never happened, nothing ever changed, nobody ever presented any new ideas or did anything new
>foreign international megacorporations are you talking about?
That you sincerely have no clue is a reminder how brainwashed you are. Who produces the media you consume? You completely independently arrived at the same cynical conclusions being transparently shilled by the established powers for profit? For example, where do your assumptions about what I was implying come from? You didn't even ask for clarification, you just assumed the lens given to you by media programming was accurate and worked from that assumption even after getting multiple clarifications that should have adjusted your perspective.
If you're only brainwashed by 4chins or shit like that doesn't make it any better or the origins any different.

>>20707563
>Reyklings tend to think the country revolves around them.
Because it does. It's our taxes, our population that supports the rest of the country.

>>20708587
Only because you leech of the rural areas, but that's normal.

Hermes Dalios kept pet fighting wolves in the heavens. They were so excited about the Trojan war they managed to escape while the gods were busy and caused the bronze age collapse. When the world recovered and order was restored they retreated to the edges of the world ready to return and feast on every collapse.

>>20708583
I'm not saying that things never happened. Things are always happening. What I'm saying is that your view of the past is idealistic and wrong.
What media are you talking about? Netflix? What media gave you the assumed truism of people being "stuck in the past"? Or the idea of there being "pioneers" who "progressed" societies and that that term applies to the tax evaders escaping to Iceland?

>>20708604
>You're leeching off of my sheep! Overpriced lamb is the economic backbone of this country!
Back to your turf hut, buddy. The check from Skógrækt will come in ten days.

>>20708644
It's more that we pay an extreme amount in taxes that go into sustaining many things such as healthcare which is extremely concentrated in Reykjavik. If anything, that warren is a huge cost to the nation. Maybe it's the sulfuric water or something.

>>20708644
Also, say what you want about me but leave Gísli out of this.

>>20708659
Jesus, man, that's not at all how economies work.

>>20708629
>What I'm saying is that your view of the past is idealistic and wrong.
Your retarded ideas about my view of the past are idealistic and wrong. Either try to understand the posts or don't. So far you don't and it's not my problem when you don't even try.
Moving to a new, uninhabited place is a very literal and explicit example of progress.
>what media
I already covered that. Why not even try to understand what's written? What's your actual problem? You cut your dick off because the media told you or something?
I'm not describing anything hard to grasp that isn't obvious from history. Retards like you that understand nothing don't do anything because they're rightfully terrified of trying. People don't cross the ocean without confident understanding of the world. Pioneers that know how to use what they're given do that, braindead plebs like you stay in the same place farming the same beans for thousands of years.

>>20708669
You present yourself as hip and cool so brainwashed retards throw money at you. That's how real economies work, who needs actual lamb or potatoes.

>>20708669
Hey man, If my town could have just one(1) permanent doctor, which we pay for in tax, like it used to have before everyone wanted to hop into the IQ shredder, then that'd be great.

>>20708679
I am trying to understand but you seem adamant at being incomprehensible and hostile to criticism.
>Moving to a new, uninhabited place is a very literal and explicit example of progress.
How?
>I already covered that.
No you didn't! I do not have anything in common with the mainstream media. Maybe we should start over.

>>20708659
>we pay an extreme amount in taxes
You pay the same amount as everyone else, and in return get huge amounts of subsidies for meat and tree-planting. Half the farmers in this country are leeches living off a couple of saplings in the middle of nowhere. They're not what makes this country tick.

>>20708679
All I'm saying is that those people who sailed to Iceland were very much acting within their tradition. Not saying it's bad. They weren't "progressive" that term didn't mean anything to them.

>>20708737
I'm not sure what specific thing makes this country tick. shitty apps? But the point is that a lot of the taxes we pay go into sustaining the infrastructure of Reykjavík, most notably, the healthcare system.

>>20708508
>like today
Yeah
>I’m not a Christian
I was only referring to the larping monarchists I brought up, in case any of them read me. Revolutionaries want freedom. We’ve always wanted this. Ever since states were first enforced. The epic of Gilgamesh is a piece of statist propaganda. Attila the Hun was a proto-socialist gathering up deserters to reclaim our nomadic ancestry. It isn’t selfishness alone that drives this tradition of rejecting the city life (Rural Icelander. You still there?) with its noise, pollution, disease, conscription and taxation.
Merely voting isn’t democracy.
One thing leads to another. And despite the cycles of history, it never actually repeats.

>>20708534
Yes, the invention of the printing press gave rise to more literacy. Not widespread, but more books and more people exposed to the new translations of the old latin Catholic book

>>20708727
>How
How many posts do I have to make to spoonfeed you the simplest basics? I just said how. If you're confused then clarify where the confusion lies. You don't know what the word progress means?
The dictionary definition is about physically moving to a destination. When it encounters resistance then we say it's retarded. Progress is the thing that's retarded by retards like you.
>>20708746
>They weren't "progressive" that term didn't mean anything to them.
You're caught up in a strong conditioned association you dislike. If I had made sure to convey the exact same meaning without ever relating it to the word "progressive" you wouldn't have said anything. What could possibly be the cause for that if not media conditioning?

>>20708764
What makes this country tick is tourism, innovation(nýsköpun), finance, fishing, and a rising housing market. All of which are provided for by Reykjavík

>>20708791
>Revolutionaries want freedom.
lol
> We’ve always wanted this.
lmao
>Ever since states were first enforced
States were never "first enforced". We live in an uninterrupted state of nature, that social relation between free and follower/unfree. There never was any spontaneous ordering of state. Its origins most likely lie in the family.
> Attila the Hun was a proto-socialist
You've lost me. goodbye, I'm not returning to this thread
>(Rural Icelander. You still there?)
you were talking to him.
I'll repeat. The reformation only got real traction when the elite took an interest.

>>20708791
>It isn’t selfishness alone
If it was it would be more respectable and selfishness leads to organization. The people that killed the kings were suicidal retards motivated by things like petty resentment. They didn't help anyone or want to and the Romanovs are saints.

>>20707251
>>20707308
Interesting . maybe there is book writing culture in Iceland because of hard climate people were forced to share knowledge a lot so they started writing books?

Very few western countries have a popular name that's equivalent to Attila. People don't tend to name children after their boogeymen. The most trusted generals of Atli were mercenaries, the wolves of Hermes.

>>20708797
You didn't say how. You are clutching on to a meaningless arbitrary term
>>20708801
Tourism sucks, Fishing is mostly done in not-reykjavík, have fun with your housing, just please stop building the ugliest housing imaginable. Other than tourism Reykjavík doesn't provide much. That's not the reason why I don't like it though. I don't like it because it's ugly, and I find the people there are generally dull and arrogant. Too many autists.

>>20708869
It's more to do with the fact that we not only have a rich literary history, by which the nation defines itself, but also because for the longest time it's been a pastime of peasants to make poetry. Almost every farmer and retiree in this country has left behind them a ferskeytla or ten, and many end up writing whole books of them to publish, largely for friends and family. I'd wager that along with ancestry-books (ættartal), autobiographies and regional histories, poetry is the most popular form of books to be published in Iceland.

>>20708885
>meaningless arbitrary term
Abstract not meaningless. I think you want to say something like you can progress to a goal that's not desirable and that's true which is expressed in Iceland getting hit hard by fads, good or bad due to their distinct "progressive" attitudes. That Icelandic culture is susceptible to fads is not saying the latest fad is inherently connected to Icelandic culture.
The people that landed in Iceland progressed to a goal I consider desirable which makes them pioneers in that context, they expanded their ability to survive in the world for them and their descendants.

>>20708885
Reykjavík isn't the attraction the tourists come for either. Soon half will be under lava and the issue will solve itself.

>>20708932
I'll take that. However I don't think there is any connection to the Iceland of today and that of the settlers. Culturally, ideologically, it's not the same in any meaningful way shape, or form. It's like just as the ancient family relied on the burning of its sacred flame for its existence, that old Icelandic flame must have been gone out somewhere down the line and was never rekindled, in fact it probably couldn't be. This is why I think our "literary tradition" actually started in the 1800s. We simply don't have anything in common with the settlers.

>>20708817
Ahistorical

>the reformation
Not the point

>>20708831
LOL

>>20708988
OBJECTION!

>>20707559
>the capital city
It's the only city. You can just say city.

>>20708979
The 1800s tradition is dead too. The current tradition is degenerate socialist boomer tradition started by the old Sovietphiles.

>>20708979
>I don't think there is any connection to the Iceland of today and that of the settlers
I used to agree totally and what I did say here was the culture was shaped by romanticizing the settlers as pioneers, I didn't say it was the same tradition as them.
Over the years I've been moving more to thinking remnants of things lost do have undercurrent that shape society more than it seems on the surface. It's not that long since we were cavemen and basically everything that happened in between influenced us now. Things that pop into my mind apparently randomly are an expression of everything before. Some people in history have a greater influence on me than others and in some cases the more influential are not necessarily the ones I know the names of.
We do have some connection to the settlers besides the romanticism. There is an ember of that sacred flame there.

>>20708997
It doesn’t object. Facts are facts, and yours is a bit outdated

>>20709068
The influence of those you can name is easier to isolate than those you can't, without the label it's harder to notice the influence and frame it as external to your identity. There is a spooky corollary, you can better influence people if they don't know your name and you manage to avoid being placed in clearly defined categories. If you know the true name of a demon it doesn't have power over you.

>>20709093
Not so. The state has always been and had its origins in the family. There was no point at which it poofed into existence.

They all said Atlantis was an allegory about idealism and I believed them until the elves in the rocks in my yard told me the truth. Since Atlantis is real I guess idealism is too.

>>20709346
Grundað og álftaflað

>>20709244
Families never acted like states.
Psh. If this is supposed to be the rural Icelander, you make a strong case against yourself only to have me defend your lifestyle.
Conserva-bums. I swear.

>>20709964
Patriarchs of powerful families become small kings. Republics are formed as federations of powerful families.

>>20710041
That’s a fairytale. Strictly metaphorical. Conglomerated sedentary tribes form, and eventually elders senility gets pushed aside by foolish strongmen. Your book is outdated.
>Powerful families
Didn’t exist without a whole cartload of steps.

We have multiple fucking Icelanders here and they can't be bothered to make more book recs, just argue over their bullshit theories of history. Nice showing, krakkar.

>>20710072
>That’s a fairytale.
I live it and I didn't reference any book, what I had in mind was ancient Greece and the Icelandic þing.
>foolish strongmen
braindead commie propaganda

>>20710072
>That’s a fairytale. Strictly metaphorical.
t. hasn't read the Sagas
>>20710108
We've already told you there's nothing good in the modern era, and recommended Gunnarsson and Nordal otherwise. Þjóðsögur Jóns Árnasonar are good too.

>>20710108
Just watch youtube bro.
https://youtu.be/fSiXHAi7qRY

>>20710130
What I have in mind is ancient history and more recent and contemporary tribal civilizations. You’re not living “it”, you’re living your experience.
Kings are well known for being fools. I was taking a jab at their disregard for the older ways they surely lived at various places and times. That you make cracks about “commies” is pretty funny daddy-worship there.

>>20710787
You don't have anything in mind. There's no mind there and no hint of reason. Just mindless appeals to current popular consensus that's also based on nothing. We're telling you how our state formed in both iterations and how the state power structures we observe emerging in our societies naturally are already like pseudo-states. Instead of considering the facts in this specific case where most of the history is relatively reliably verifiable you start telling us how your delusional theories based on nothing but propaganda are more relevant than reality.

>>20710898
You forget >>20708988