Towards the end

The Greenlanders were due back to the library, but thanks to Mr. Renewal and his good pal Mr. Online, I now have till 10/30 to finish the book and return Gunnar, Margaret, and all their pals.

Things are looking much better for the scroungy band, the great hunger that lasted several winters is now 8 years ago, and farms are beginning to prosper. Not only that but the book-long fued between Asgeir's family and Ketil's family is stitched up some by marriage between Asgeir's granddaughter (granddottir) and Ketil's last surviving son.

One of my favorite things about the book is all the talk of luck, signs, omens, and things of ill or good portent. We, civilized beings that we are, don't think in such terms any more, or at least, any more than the stifled impulse will allow. I like the conversations between the characters, and the examples of their reasoning. For example:

... . And after he left, a surprising thing happened, and that was that Jon Andres Erlendsson appeared at Gunnar's booth with some men that he knew, all proserous farmers from Vatna Hverfi district, and he asked for Helga Gunnarsdottir in marriage.
Now Gunnar invited the men inside his booth and asked them ot sit down, and the mne, who numbered seven, with Jon Andres, were all men Gunnar had known in Vatna Hverfi district, or else the sons of these men. They were men whose envy of Asgeir had turned into pleasure at the trick that had done Gunnar out of his steading, or so it seemed to Gunnar. Although they sat about smiling, as folk do when there is talk of marriage, their smiles seemed evil and false to Gunnar, and aroused in him a painful sense of shame that he had not especially felt since his removal to Hvalsey Fjord. These were men who had amused themselves by repeating the verses of Ketil the Unlucky against Margret Asgeirsdottir, who had clung tight to Erlend Ketilsson in every case against Gunnary, who had gossiped about the Gunnars Stead folk whenever they could. Now one of them said to Gunnar, "My friend, it is not usual for a man to remain silent when the master of such a steading as Ketils Stead, and all the steadings that go together with it, makes such a proposal."
Gunnar said, "Indeed, I must hold on to my thoughts if I am to make something of them. I had no notion of this."
"But the maiden is well past the ideal marriage age. How many different thoughts can there be of such a case?"
Now Jon Andres Erlendsson said, "A man must come to a reply in his own way, and it seems to me wise to let him do so, rather than to distract him and tempt his annoyance." And so everyone sat about for a little while longer. Gunnar looked at the fellow, and he saw that he had not lost this quality that he had had earlier, when defending himself in the action of Kollgrim's dunking, a quality of smoothness and a charm that had to be likened to something bright--a fire, or a star. If Helga's gaze were to reveal something unsightly about him, Gunnar could not imagine what it would be. And his friends looked to him in all things, it was easy to se that. Gunnary looked away from him, and reminded himself o fthe injuries done to him and his father by this man and Erlend, and even Ketil, if old stories were to be believed. Jon Andres said, "Old man, you are scowling, and thinking of what has gone before, but it seems to me that these things may be laid to rest now, for I am heartily sorry for my father's sins and my own." The other men nodded and smiled in aproval at this speech.
"Nay," said Gunnar, "I am thinking of what is to come, for business remains unfinished that endangers many folk, and it seems to me a sign of unwisdom to let it linger."

Gunnar is talking about Jon Andres' former friend Olfeig who is a menace to all the farmers in that area. Interesting to note too are the comments at the end of incidents and conversations such as this one, which tell us what people thought of events. In this case 'people' thought that Gunnar was foolish to turn Jon Andres down, and reminded themselves that not for nothing he was considered unlucky.

My picture

This is me
Apparently the way I get a picture on my profile is to put on in a post and then find it later.

On Introductions

I am thinking of giving The Greenlanders to my brother, and I pictured in my mind, his reading of it. I felt a tick of anxiety over his formative moments with the book, which brough my mind to my own formative moments with the book.

Beginnings, in writing, to me, are so important. I hate waiting for a book to pick up, and it must be ego, but I look for the author grasping for the loose folds of my shirt, trying to draw me behind the curtain into the world of the book.

My book will grab people with a long ramble. Anyone who has no patience for my rambling wouldn't enjoy my writing anyway. However much I break my sentences into bite sized bits of steak, the whole could not be anything but a ramble.

The times when I cannot write an email, a letter, a journal entry, or any bit of writing to others of more than two sentences, my struggle becomes which of the 360 degrees of life forms my starting point, but once I have the seed, that seed punctures the skin of thought and the words usually flow outward.

On the topic of beginnings, I love this quote from Orson Welles, "whether you have a happy or sad ending depends upon where you stop the story." I would say the same is true of beginnings; where in the story shall the author start?

And in dancing, the start of the dance must be sure, and confident, or the girl does not recover her trust, and I dance more jovially to make the rift less painful. (thinking more) a confident dancer isn't necessarily undone, however, there are chances to start fresh even within a song, it's possible to hang time and then start into the rhythm again.

Less and less

The Greenlanders are now facing lots of misfortune. People have died of sickness and starvation, and there are fewer cows, and not much forage for the sheep and goats. The hunting isn't going well, the wild animals have less to eat and are less plentiful, and there are fewer men to go out and hunt. At this point, I wonder how long the downward slide will continue. I imagine that the end of the book will be, "they all sailed away back to Norway or Iceland and gave it up."

Storytelling

As a testament to Jane Smiley's writing, and the tales in The Greenlanders, yesterday I told my wife about Margaret and Asta, who lived apart from everyone during the summer and had to stay with another family and help out during the winter. We were doing some finishing touches on the 2nd bedroom.

Regarding painting, I'll remember from now on not to use grey primer where I plan to put white paint. The worst of it was I had some white primer I could have used. The grey primer suited the walls fine, which were to recieve a dark periwinkle, but the same grey primer was also put onto the borders around the doors and on the baseboard. 3 coats of paint to cover that grey primer with the white, and in some places I'm not entirely sure it's covered. I'll leave it to the wife to decide.

Grendel and Greenlanders

I now, in addition to Greenlanders, have Grendel from the library. I even started the first 10 pages of Grendel, written by Something Adams. I haven't finished Greenlanders, but at least I'm halfway there, does that count?

One thing I love about Greenlanders is the stories are easy to remember and I could tell them to my children. On second thought, just because they're easy to remember doesn't mean they'll necessarily come to mind and intact. I think I should be caveating easy to remember with the following: for at least an hour.

On writers:
One writer I have consisently enjoyed is Nick Nunziata's writing on chud.com, I happened over there randomly, back when it only had a handful of DVD reviews, most of which were written by him. The Matrix II review stands out in my mind, probably because my bookmark was set there, before I updated and simply put chud.com.

How many other people bookmark a site in a random spot but really only want the main page. my toothpastefordinner bookmark always goes back to the hampster with the incredibly fast heartrate. I kinda wish I'd never seen a picture of the creater of that comic, he looks friendly enough, but now I can't read the poorly drawn napkin comics withouth thinking of his wookie-like features.