Einar Kárason is amused
“Each day, you experience something new, think of something that has never occurred to you before,” says the indefatigable Einar Kárason of his newest work, titled I Am Amused.
Throughout his prolific career, Einar Kárason has stayed a raconteur at heart. His oeuvre lists close to twenty books – novels, biographies and travelogues – and contains the stories of countless, variously bizarre characters, ranging from the clan chieftains of the ancient Icelandic Commonwealth to plain modern Icelanders.
However, in his newest book, Mér er skemmt (I Am Amused),the author turns the spotlight on himself. In a series of autobiographical chapters, the author expounds on diverse parts of his life and career, such as his school years and idiosyncratic dealings with the film industry, not to mention the four most significant cats of his life.
We were curious: How has Einar kept at it? How does an author keep from running out of steam over the years?
“Each day of your life, you experience something new, think of something that's never occurred to you before,” he replies. “That way the world stays fresh and chock-full of story material – there's much more than you could ever hope to write down.”
The book also dwells on Einar's duties for the Icelandic Writers' Union through the years, where he was by turns a board member, vice president and president. Do the demands and drudgery of such responsibilities affect a writer's creativity? Einar maintains a sunny view of the subject:
“As mentioned in the book, I drew a whole lot of inspiration from those jobs. I found it enormously stimulating to sit through meetings – and the more uninspiring and vacant they were, the better. It's strange, but maybe looking at everything around you as potential story material scrambles your head that way.”
And the cats? What is it about writers and cats?
“Cats are pure poeticism. They're fur-wrapped poetry. Looking at a cat is a very creative enterprise, seeing the ambiguous glint in their yellow eyes. Whoever manages to get to the bottom of it will end up writing the book that will make all further babble redundant.”