The New Illiterati
Two thousand krónur’s worth of freedom
Your language is somebody else’s property. Not only does it get dealt with in grammar books, by officials making official rules for how things can and cannot be – but everytime anybody gets a good idea for a phrasing, a metaphor, a pun or a pickup line sooner than later someone is going to... »
Warning: You don’t need poetry
Anyone who gets a rudimentary education in the western world, or at least in the places I know anything about, is taught that poetry is like vitamins – it’s good for you. It’ll enlighten your mind, make you more aware of your emotions, your sensibilities, the entire scope of your inner life. It is... »
Hay-grinder of the greenpeace-kitten earth-channels of the desert-asphalt sugar-free beach-found transparent salt-Coke
When modernism in poetry shocked its way through Europe in the beginning of the last century, people’s main concern was how the hell to understand it. The modernists would often build image upon image in ways that many readers found antagonizing – like oh so much posturing – and it was made new rather... »
Mayday in Helsinki
Pictures from April 30th and May 1st in Helsinki. The march on April 30th was a student march, mostly protesting new capitalist legislature, that’ll make foreigners pay tuition and centralizes power within the universities, and makes them better serve the markets. Those that understand Icelandic can see the same pictures with more text here.... »
Focus on Iceland: The fanatic self-image
Yesterday I gave a speech at an Iceland conference in Helsinki. Amongst other speakers were Friðrik Andersen, bank manager at the Nordic Investment Bank, and Pekka Mäkinen, regional director for Icelandair in Finland. I gave the speech in swedish, but for easier writing I composed it in english and then translated it. The text... »
Hnefi eða vitstola orð
Poetry Video shown at a festival in Akureyri last friday. It’s in Icelandic, but there are visuals you might enjoy anyway. The title translates as “Fist or senseless words”. »
Icelandic art makes me feel nothing at all
They tell me that Iceland, and in particular Reykjavík, is too small an environment to foster a critical arts debate, since the feeling of being able to speak freely is a luxury given only through a certain remove, a certain distance which is not to be found in the Icelandic arts world (and moving... »
Stanza literature-bar in Malmö
I went to Malmö, Sweden, at the end of March to read at Stanza literature-bar. The event took place at Inkonst art-happening-house, and amongst other participants was multilingual poet Cia Rinner, the grand old king of Swedish concrete, Bengt Emil Johnson, his wonderfully performative wife, Kerstin Ståhl, and the poetry/arts group 3 Advokater, with... »
Malmö, Tallinn, Helsinki, Akureyri etc.
This coming thursday I will be reading in Malmö, Sweden, along with finn-swedish poet Cia Rinne and the nestor of swedish concrete poetry, Bengt Emil Johnson, as well as the poetrygroup 3 Advokater. Malmö Litteraturbar Stanza – Inkonst.com 26.03.2009 – at 8 pm In spirit and likeness I will be in Akureyri, Iceland, on... »
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