Talk:Halldór Laxness

Max Naylor 08:59, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

• Links:
  • Atómstöðin (1984)
  • Börn náttúrunnar (1991)
  • Kristnihald undir jökli (1989)
  • Salka Valka (1954)
  • Ungfrúin góða og húsið (1999)

i dont know who edited this out, but you are a certified offical grade a 100% coward.

Modern readers might be alarmed by the handful of racist remarks in his books about Africa and black people. There are only one or two sentences in Independent People, and Atom Station, and perhaps others, but they reveal that he was not subject to the modern pressure to avoid offensive terminology. Perhaps the translation of some harmless Icelandic word ended up as 'nigger' in English, or perhaps not. Either way, there is more than a single word that is condescending and prejudiced about the sentences of problem.

Gissurarson Biography

I've removed the following from the article pending verifiability:

...some of them controversial, such as the three volume work by Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson. Laxness’ widow, with public support from many of Iceland's most prominent scholars on literature, sued Gissurarson for plagiarism, accusing him of editing and/or re-prhasing whole passages from her late husband's works and passing them on as his own. Gissurarson, a long-time outspoken conservative, claimed that these allegations were motivated by politics or even personal ill-will. In November 2006, Gissurarson was acquitted on all counts by the Reykjavík District Court.

Can this be properly sourced? Jkelly 02:35, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Which book won the Nobel?

Hi; came here looking to see which book it was he was awarded the Nobel Prize for; it doesn't say in the article or listing, at least not by searching the article for "nobel", and it's not on the Nobel Prize page either.Skookum1 21:54, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

Is it not the case that the Nobel Prize for Literature is awarded not for a specific book but for a lifetime's achievement? --MV Overchurch 23:23, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes, it's a lifetime achievement award, in a sense, unlike some of the other more specific prizes. Probably because it's new and "tacked on" to the original concept of the prizes.

Sure, it's a lifetime achievement award. However, often a specific book is singled out as the "magnum opus" of the author, in Laxness' case it was the book Gerpla, which was considered a modern revival of the Icelandic sagas with all the existential irony of the 20th century.

Independent people is probably most Icelander´s favorite. --68.0.213.208 (talk) 04:40, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

By the way, I would think this article need some reworking, the scope of the article is narrow and one would be mislead to think that Laxness was predominantly a catholic writer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.144.13.213 (talk) 09:53, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Couple of issues:

• The Prize for Literature is neither "new" nor "tacked-on" - it has been around as long as all of the other prizes (except for Economics) and is one of the oldest literary prizes in the world.
• The Nobel is a lifetime achievement award. There was no mention in the Nobel citation of any individual work - saying that Gerpla, for example, is his magnum opus, is original research and has no bearing on his being awarded the Prize.
• Finally, please sign your contributions to the talk pages. Just type four tildes. Irregulargalaxies (talk) 17:40, 24 August 2008 (UTC)

Total overhaul

Hi,

This article needs a complete rewriting, which would be obvious to anyone who know Laxness' work and his life. With all due respect to the pioneers of this article, the present article misses crucial points in Laxness' life, is filled with trivia unrelated to Laxness, and does not cover the literary importance of his work, in Europe and America during his lifetime, and still in Icelandic culture. If there are no protests within the next weeks I could volunteer.

Best regards —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.144.13.213 (talk) 10:02, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

Addendum 2/7/09

I am new to wikipedia and just noticed that the Laxness pages are very anemic.

Recent website on Halldor Laxness now appears to be lost. This is possible in part due to the economic crisis in Iceland.

The website was: http://www2.mbl.is/mm/serefni/laxness/

I would think that recovery of this website for buffing up wikipedia page might be helpful —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.21.235.41 (talk) 15:00, 7 March 2009 (UTC)

Dates of publishing

It is correctly stated in the article that Laxness died in 1998. It therefore seems a little strange that he is claimed to have published three books posthumously. The fact is that these books are reprints and exerpts from formerly published works and should be clearly marked as such. 212.30.253.30 (talk) 17:03, 13 July 2009 (UTC)Þorvaldur Sigurðsson

Photo

In Icelandic wikipedia,there is a good photo of Laxness which is given by a website for promotion of the writer. What is the appropriate license it should give if I upload it? --ZaDiak (talk) 00:50, 13 July 2010 (UTC)