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rvitinn; ea hugsjnamaurinn

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Wikipedia article




'rvitinn ea; hugsjnamaurinn' (The Idiot, or, the Visionary) is a novel by ttar M. Norfjr, published by Nhil in 2010. It is illustrated by Inga Birgisdttir. It has been characterised as 'a meditation on the first decade of the 21st century in novella form, a 'bildungsroman' with close ties to Voltaire's 'Candide'.'ttar M. Norfjr', Icelandic Literature Center, http://www.islit.is/en/promotion-and-translations/icelandic-literature/interviews-with-icelandic-authors/nr/1620.

Form



The novella is a third-person narrative, and is an often allegorical satire of Western politics in the first decade of the twenty-first century, particularly the so-called 'War on Terror'. It is ostentatiously a tissue of literary and philosophical references, which are catalogued in a long series of endnotes (pp. 13748). Many of the characters are based on real philosophers or literary characters, and the wording of the text often alludes to other works. Besides 'Candide', one of the single most direct sources for the novel is the Icelandic folkstory 'Bkolla'.

The novella is divided into thirty short chapters, each beginning with a short summary of the chapter's contents, echoing the conventions of eighteenth-century novels. Eleven begin with an illustration.

Summary



The protagonist is a boy known originally only as 'strkur Karlsson' ('the boy Karl's son', where 'Karl' can itself simply mean 'man'), though different characters bestow various names upon him. Strkur Karlsson grows up in Iceland in a place called Engisstaur, which ostensibly means 'meadow place' but can also be understood as 'no-place'. He is noted for his good-hearted innocence. Wishing to prove himself to his teacher Miss Jnlnd, he sets out from home aiming to become an author and bring about world peace.

Reaching Reykjavk, strkur Karlsson meets Alfri (whose name means 'all-wise' but might perhaps better be glossed 'know-it-all', and is inspired by 'Candide's Professor Pangloss). Alfri is a noisy, pretentious, xenophobic racist enamoured of Classical culture who convinces the protagonist that the way to bring about world peace is to join the invasion of Iraq. The two fly to Copenhagen (where 'inter alia' they meet Konstantn Konstantnus). Alfri reveals that he is not intending to go to Iraq himself and thrusts strkur Karlsson through the checkin. During his journey, the protagonist meets an Iraqi student, feminist, and activist called Scheherazade (but whom the protagonist always calls the 'arabska prinsessan' ['Arabian princess']) and the two fall in love.

Arriving in Iraq, strkur Karlsson is immediately sent on a mission with a US army unit whose leader is called the King of Hearts; he finds himself participating in the slaughter and rape of innocent Iraqis, and visits the Abu Ghraib prison. At the end of his tour of duty, he finds Scheherazade and she helps him to recover, telling him stories. Strkur Karlsson gives his passport to Scheherazade's brother to enable him to fulfil his dream of going to England to become a Shakespearian actor. Modelling their relationship on that of Peter Abelard and Hlose d'Argenteuil, strkur Karlsson and Scheherazade have a daughter whom they call Astrolabe. Their marital bliss is destroyed one night when Scheherazade runs out of stories and strkur Karlsson's old army unit bursts in, killing Scheherazade and Astrolabe and arresting the protagonist. He escapes, flees into the desert, and wanders lost and suicidal.

Strkur Karlsson is rescued by Alfri (who has been sent to find him) and the King of Hearts (who has become a hippy called Genesis). The three become lost in the desert but are rescued by some bedouins who lead them into Afghanistan. Strkur Karlsson makes particular friends with a would-be writer called Djim. Refusing to wear Bedouin clothing to protect himself from the sun, Alfri goes mad and dies on the way. The group is attacked by three Al-Qaida fighters, who eventually kill everyone apart from Djim and strkur Karlsson. The Al-Qaida fighters are in turn attacked by US forces, who kill them and arrest strkur Karlsson and Djim as terrorists, before flying the two to Greenland, via the Netherlands and Iceland, for torture. Djim is killed in Greenland and strkur Karlsson removed to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

Strkur Karlsson is tortured at Guantanamo Bay, eventually learning to invent terrorist plots to please his captors. After meeting Khalid El-Masri, he is visited by God and convinces God to help him escape. God swaps strkur Karlsson's body temporarily with a beetle's, allowing him to fly to Havana. In Havana, strkur Karlsson falls into drinking and womanising before a sex-worker called Pythia takes pity on him an invokes the Olympian gods to restore his mental well-being. Strkur Karlsson begins to write again, composing a poem (in fact borrowed by ttar from the oeuvre of Steinn Steinarr). He bumps into Alfri, who turns out not to be dead and likewise to have been captured and interned in Guantanamo Bay. The two determine to escape to Miami. En route, their captain, Harry Morgan, mentions that he had previously given passage to Scheherazade and Astrolabe and that they were heading to England. The ship sinks, but strkur Karlsson and Alfri manage to swim to Miami.

After meeting Ronald McDonald and getting arrested at the airport, the protagonist and Alfri manage to fly to England; while they are travelling, the Financial crisis of 200708 breaks. They tour the UK attending every Shakespeare play in search of Sheherazade's brother, eventually finding him and his sister performing 'Othello' at the Barbican Centre. Reunited with his family (who in fact survived the American attack and tried to find strkur Karlsson in Cuba), strkur Karlsson takes them back to Iceland, where Alfri finds himself increasingly marginalised on account of his racism. Strkur Karlsson's family return to Engisstaur to find his parents dead. They settle there and he writes 'rvitinn; ea hugsjnamaurinn'.

Reviews



* 'rviti ttars og skkir furins', 'DV', 22 March 2010, http://www.dv.is/folk/2010/3/22/orviti-ottars-og-skakir-fodurins/

* 'Fvitinn, Ofvitinn, rvitinn og ttar M. Norfjr: Strkur Karlsson heldur t heim', 'Morgunblai', 3 March 2010, http://www.mbl.is/greinasafn/grein/1324420/

References



Category:2010 novels

Category:Icelandic novels

Category:Novels set in Iceland

Category:Icelandic-language novels

Category:Icelandic books

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