Review: On Time and Water by Andri Snaer Magnason
I read a lot of books about the state of the world today. Some have a strong theme running through them, driving a central idea. Others don’t. The thematic works are like a work day, ordered and scheduled. The other books are more like a weekend, unplanned, open to interruption and deviation. I rather like days, and books, like that.
On Time and Water is definitely a weekend book. We are treated to grand-parents memories, personal recollections, glaciers, slide shows, and interviews with the Dalai Lama.
Please forgive me if I’m making the book sound like a jumble, it really isn’t. At least no more so than any of our lives which are also made up of dinners, trips, work, play and laughter. The existential and the everyday jostle for supremacy in all our lives. We are all both remarkable and mundane.
Magnason is a leading Icelandic writer and his feet are planted firmly on the volcanic soil of his homeland. Although a young country in its present independent state, Iceland has a deep cultural past expressed in centuries-old stories. These tales bridge the generations and provide inspiration to contemporary Icelandic artists. This connection to the past gives Icelanders a unique perspective, they understand their lives to be informed by the past and also the threshold to the future. Magnason has personalised this world view to write of the experiences of his parents and grandparents, his children and his as yet unborn grandchildren. He places himself in a stream of time, not a place. He illustrates this with a “who do you know” exercise that is worth taking on. My grandfather was born in 1905, 55 years before me. I saw him regularly when I was growing up. My grandson was born in 2015 and can expect to live until he is 85 which will be in 2100. I already know people whose lives span nearly 200 years. If great-grandchildren come along, that span will increase again. All of us can do this exercise and think deeply about the lives, experiences, changes and knowledge that informs our own lives.
The modern world presents itself as a never-ending stream of novelty. News, scandals, trends, gadgets, celebrities, must-haves and memes. Constant novelty demands endless waste. Jokes and stories disappear into the air, but obsolete gadgets, unfashionable fashion and last year’s styles all end up in the waste and ultimately in holes in the ground, leaking, polluting and festering. It doesn’t have to be this way and it never was in the past. Access to the past reveals that people treated material things in a completely different way. Gazing ahead into the future allows us to reflect on our contemporary folly and how future generations will have to clean up the mess we are leaving.
This wisdom is universal, not just Icelandic and Magnason illustrates this perfectly with the accounts of his interviews with the Dalai Lama. Magnason acknowledges that his own background and that of the refugee-Tibetan Dalai Lama are very, very different. But they find much in common across a broad range of topics. We see these truths set across a broad span of time and also an expanse of space, at least as far from Iceland to India.
What are these truths? They are the same as they have ever been. We must listen to and draw on the wisdom of those older than us. We must love and honour the futures of those younger than us. We must not be profligate with the resources available. Cooperation will make things better for everyone.
This is a book written with love. Love for family and place, for ancestors and those starting out in life. Love for a mother planet who nurtures us. We aren’t little machines, we are sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. Magnason’s deeply wise book reminds us of this truth and challenges us to live by it.
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