Published November 5, 2010

Greetings!

Welcome to yet another issue of The Reykjavík Grapevine! And welcome to winter! It’s here, and it’s staying for a few months, so you better learn to love it real quick. This will make it a lot easier on you.

Oh, you might imagine that any love affair with Icelandic winter will be of the ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ variety. You know, that thing where a hostage falls in love with his or her captor as a means of coping with the reality of being hopelessly trapped.

Patty Hearst is probably the most well known victim of ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. There have been a bunch of films about it, and also the lovable pop group Yo La Tengo made a song about it (hear it on their excellent 1997 LP, ‘I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One’ – a must-own for any self-respecting music lover).

And then there’s always the Icelandic nation’s relationship with its ‘Independence Party’.

You would probably be right in imagining that any love affair with Icelandic winter verges on ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ territory. Still, when it comes to survival and retaining ones sanity, self-deception can be a powerful – and useful – tool. Fake can be just as good, you know.

So this is winter. I love it. I hope you can learn to love it, too. Maybe we can share a cup of hot chocolate at some point over the next months and discuss our mutual love for winter. Who knows?

Thank you! Goodbye!