Give it a Rest Already!

So now the famous unemployed writer Jonas Moody has thrown his hat into the ring and commented about the Vanity Fair article from Michael Lewis, defending the Icelanders from the evil scourge of fluff journalism.    http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/03/reality_check_vanity_fairs_fis.html                                                                                                                                                       The problem is Moody doesn't really do a really good job of countering Lewis' "facts". Actually , I recognized right away that most of the so called factual observations were just Lewis trying to add a little humor to the story.  So to actually rebut them is like trying to tell a  comedian his "facts" are wrong in his monlogue.  Whats the point? But Jonas tries his best and ,well, his best wasn't good enough.  Some examples-

Lewis mentions people hoarding food, Moody says people didn't.  Well I don't know what island Moody is living on but in the beginning of the crisis, people hoarded food.  We all talked about it.  At work, at home.  The annual new years show made fun of it. 

Lewis talks of people blowing up their Range Rovers and says he hears  the "unsettling explosions" of the cars being blown up.  A small bit of hyperbole on Lewis' part here but I can say there have been an unusual number of car fires since the crisis. Coincidence? Who knows? Moody replies "but how a well-timed fireball will make one’s inflated car loan disappear remains a mystery". A mystery? Does Moody not think the insurance companies cover vehicle fires?  I don't understand his response.

Lewis writes "Iceland’s geothermic water is so hot that when municipal work is being done on the cold-water pipes, sometimes people are “boiled alive” in the shower. More hyperbole here but Moody responds to this by stating the water coming out of the shower can never exceed 70°C.  I got news for you Moody, water that temperature will burn you, quite well I might add.

Lewis writes most Icelanders are mousy-haired and lumpy and there are only about 9 surnames in Iceland.  Well I thought they were more redhaired and bulky and there were about 12 surnames but I not going to argue with Lewis because here he is obviously joking. No response was necessary by Moody but I guess he couldn't help himself.

Lewis comments  "Icelanders are among the most inbred human beings on earth — geneticists often use them for research."  Moody responds to this with "Now this is insulting. Icelanders’ DNA shows their roots to be a healthy mix between Nordic Y chromosomes and X chromosomes from the British Isles. The reason genetic-research company deCODE uses Icelandic genes for its research is not because the codes are so homogeneous, but because the population has kept excellent genealogical records dating back thousands of years."  I think Moody has watched too many  Thule beer commercials because there is no way to determine where the Y chomosomes come from.  Researchers use mitochondrial DNA to determine the probable origins of women in Iceland.  Using a myth to attack Lewis was not the best way for Moody to go.

As far a Lewis writing about elves, that is really something Icelanders sometimes like to mention.  It does not infer as Lewis thinks that Icelanders believe in elves, just as talking about sheep balls and brennivín to foreigners who visit in January and February does not infer that this is the daily diet of Icelanders.  The Icelanders just like to mention it.  To show the peculiarity of the culture to those not familiar with it.  Here, like Lewis was doing for most of his article, the Icelanders are joking with you. The mention of elves or sheep balls is not to be taken too seriously.  And neither was Lewis' article.  I wish Moody would have recognized this and just left the article alone instead of making a very poor attempt at trying to discredit it.

GTB

Íslendingar engir hálfvitar

Athugasemdir

[Villi Asgeirsson, 20.3.2009 kl. 11:40]

Excellent genealogical records for thousands of years? We have been living here for just over a thousand. Not all records are excellent. Anything before the 1703 consensus is patchy at best. The only people we really know something about are bishops and other high society figures, and those that received a sentence for whatever was deemed illegal at the time.

We are fairly inbred. All Icelanders are related. You never have to go further than 250 years to find a common ancestor. Still, I think this is a bigger problem in some communities in the Bible Belt.

Not that all this matters. As you say, the article was a joke and at the moment, the joke is on us. Getting all moody and correcting this may backfire. Or not. Do I care?