Bad food, terrible lodging, and worse, pretentious poets who take themselves far too seriously than he thinks they deserve. His cynical and disparaging review reflects all the clichés of poetry, and poetry festivals in general. He’s going to move towards an experimental form of literature, and 'review' the events of the festival before it even happens. So with this new overcoat, and an invitation to a poetry festival in Lithuania, he makes a new plan. “One moment Sturla feels there is depth and purpose to his writing but the next…he, the poet, starts to think that he can’t see anything in the production of poetry but emptiness and the surface emotion that still lifes offer: more or less beautiful textures, at best, things better suited to being the subject of a watercolor on the wall of a room.” That one detail shows a great deal about him: he isn’t fitting in with the times. He’s old-fashioned, and decides the cell phone pocket will be perfect for his cigarettes. “In Sturla’s opinion, there is an irony to this that results from a deception the poet himself perpetrates: when it comes down to it, his value is only ever evident from the price tag on the book…”Īnd to make one big step away from the starving artist that he imagines typical poets to be, he goes out and buys a top-notch overcoat, high style and big money. He’s dissatisfied with most of his life, and it’s starting to show: He still writes poetry, but since he’s hit fifty, he wants to do something more. He’s tough, sarcastic, and is finding it hard to even respect himself anymore. This is the world for Sturla Jon, a sucessful poet from Iceland.

Your son calls your career a ‘hobbyhorse’.

Then your Dad starts doing the passive-aggressive thing and slights your work whenever he can. First, there’s the whole stereotype of the cerebral, tortured artist who offers the world little but obscure verses.

The Pets by Bragi Ólafsson