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The Atom Station
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Wikipedia article
'The Atom Station' is a novel by Icelandic author Halldr Laxness, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955. The initial print run sold out on the day it was published, for the first time in Icelandic history.'Atmstin', 'jviljinn', 69 (March 23rd, 1948), 1.
Plot summary
Ugla, an unrefined girl from the countryside, moves from an outlying area of Northern Iceland to the capital city of Reykjavk in order to work for Bi rland, a member of parliament, and to learn how to play the organ. Shes met with a world thats completely foreign to her: politicians and the military move freely about the city, and she views city residents as spoiled, snobbish and arrogant. In contrast, she comes from a rural area where the Icelandic Sagas of the Middle Ages constitute the majority of what people discuss and ponder and are viewed as more important than reality. These historical backgrounds are certainly important and provide crucial patterns. The prime minister subsequently carries out secret dealings with the Americans and sells the country. Ugla, however, also confronts other current issues, above all in the organ players house. There, she comes in contact with communist and anarchist mindsets and likewise protests the construction of an atom station in Iceland. After a short relationship with Bi rland, Ugla decides to return to the selfconscious policeman, who is the father of her recently born child.
Cast
In Eystridalur
* Ugla Falsdttir, her mother and father
* The priest
At the home of Bi rland
* Bi rland
* Bi's wife
* Bi's cook and her daughter
* Their children: Arngrmur (Landaljmi), Gun (Aldinbl, 'Fruit-Blood'), rur (Gullhrtur, 'gold ram'), rgunnur (Daggeisli)
* Visiting politicians: the Prime Minister, li fgra, other politicians, and Americans
At the Organist's house
* Organistinn (The Organist)
* The Organist's mother
* Kleopatra
* benjamn the atom-poet (a god) (mafa F.F.F.)
* briljantn the atom-poet (a god) (mafa F.F.F.)
* Tv hundru sund naglbtar ('Two hundred thousand pliers') (mafa F.F.F.)
* Lgreglumaur feiminn ('The Selfconscious Policeman')
* Lgreglumaur feiminn ('The Unselfconscious Policeman')
Background
'The Atom Station' was written in 1946 and 1947 and published in 1948.
The setting of the novel was based on the British and subsequent American occupation of Iceland during World War II and on the urbanization and monetization of the Icelandic economy caused by this situation. Many people in Iceland thought Iceland's independence was threatened by the United States' request in 1946 to establish a military base in Keflavk for 99 years, as well as the pressure on Iceland to join NATO. Laxness thought that the occupation was a threat to Icelandic life because in the event of an atomic war Iceland would become a target due to the military base. He was also critical of the fact that Icelandic jurisdiction was not applicable to the area within the military base. These fears are based on the impression left by the two atomic bombs which had been recently dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Laxness began writing the novel shortly after these events. The Icelandic Parliament (the Althing) did finally agree to the United States' requests, provoking the 1949 anti-NATO riot in Iceland.
While many of the characters in the novel can be understood as satires of real figures in Icelandic business and politics (or otherwise modeled on Laxness's friends and acquaintances), the work is too sophisticated simply to be read as a 'roman clef'.Peter Hallberg, 'Halldr Laxness' (Twayne, 1971), pp. 163--64. According to Laxness's biographer Hannes Hlmsteinn Gissurarson:'Segir Atmstina eiga sr fyrirmynd tkkneskri bk', 'Morgunblai', 22.10.2004, http://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2004/10/22/segir_atomstodina_eiga_ser_fyrirmynd_i_tekkneskri_b/.
* One model for the main character, Ugla, was Arnheiur Sigurardttir.
* The Organist was inspired primarily by Laxness's friends Erlendur Gumundsson Unuhsi (to whom the book is dedicated) and rur Sigtryggsson.
* The main models for Bi rland would mainly be Gumundur Vilhjlmsson, the chairman of Eimskip, and Plmi Hannesson, rector of Menntasklinn Reykjavk.
* The Prime Minister is based on lafur Thors (and the novel, amongst other things, a transparent attack on lafur).
* Landaljmi is based on Thor Vilhjlmsson.
* The god Briljantn is based on Ragnar Frmann Kristjnsson
* Klepatra's model is Gumunda Sigurardttir.
* Tv hundru sund naglbtar (Two Hundred Thousand Pliers) is a combination of Sigurjn Ptursson and Jhann . Jsefsson.
Reception
Early Icelandic reviewers read the book primarily as a satire on the politics of the day; it has traditionally been seen as one of Laxness's weaker works, though it has long been read as Iceland's first urban novel, foreshadowing the prominence of Reykjavk in more recent literature.strur Eysteinsson and fhildur Dagsdttir, 'Icelandic Prose Literature, 1940--2000', in 'A History of Icelandic Literature', ed. by Daisy Nejmann, History of Scandinavian literatures, 5 (University of Nebraska Press: 2007), pp. 404--70 (p. 411). However, more recent critics have seen it as offering more enduring theological,John Macqueen, Theology and 'The Atom Station', in A'fmliskvejur heiman og handan. Til Halldrs Kiljans Laxness sextugs', ed. by Jakob Benediktsson, Sigurur rarinsson, Kristjn Karlsson, and Tmas Gumundsson (Reykjavk: Helgafell, 1962), pp. 8083. philosophicalrmann Jakobsson, 'Nietzsche Grjtaorpinu: siferi manns og heims Atmstinni', Andvari, 127 (2002), 127--42. http://timarit.is/view_page_init.jsp?gegnirId=000503386. and political commentary: Giuliano D'Amico, for example, argues that 'neither with the Americans nor with the Soviets, the characters of 'Atmstin' seem to advocate for a Third Europe that ... resembles the third space articulated by postcolonial theory'.
Laxness endured political persecution for the novel: the Alingi withdrew his state writer's stipend; he was prosecuted for describing an abortion; and 'Icelandic and American authorities even started investigating his periods of residence in America, with the hope of finding some fiscal irregularities and ruining him'. He also struggled to get the novel translated.
Influence and adaptations
'Atmstin' has been characterised as 'what many readers and critics gradually came to think of as the exemplary Reykjavk novel', focusing on urban Icelandic life for the first time.strur Eysteinsson and fhildur Dagsdttir, 'Icelandic Prose Literature, 1940--1980', in 'A History of Icelandic Literature', ed. by Daisy Nejmann, History of Scandinavian literatures, 5 (University of Nebraska Press: 2007), pp. 404--70 (p. 411). .
Laxness dubbed one of his characters, benjamn, an 'atmskld' ('atom-poet'), as a derogatory reference to modernist poets. The name came to be applied to a real group of poets, the Atom Poets.Eysteinn orvaldsson, 'Icelandic Poetry Since 1940', in 'A History of Icelandic Literature', ed. by Daisy Nejmann, History of Scandinavian literatures, 5 (University of Nebraska Press: 2007), pp. 471-- (p. 474). .
The book was adapted as a film by orsteinn Jnsson in 1984.Atmstin (1984) - IMDb Through the film, the book has been seen to have continued resonances in twenty-first-century Iceland: 'the powerful imagery is coincidentally linked to the 2009 protests ... following the Icelandic banking crisis'.Helga rey Jnsdttir, 'Atomic Station', in 'World Film Locations: Reykjavk', ed. by Jez Connolly and Caroline Whelan (Bristol: Intellect Books, 2012), pp. 14-15 (14).
See also
* GIUK gap
References
Sources
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Category:1948 novels
Category:Icelandic novels
Category:Novels by Halldr Laxness
Category:Novels set in Iceland
Category:Icelandic-language novels
Category:Icelandic books
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