Re: My Saga, Part 1

I would point out what these readers are describing are their readings of Knausgard's text, not what the text "is" or "does". It is not noteworthy that there are a variety of reading experiences of a text and different meanings made from it some of which are essentially incommensurable. What is perplexing is that people who read and write for a living at Slate and Salon don't seem to grasp this obvious fact. This fact is illustrated when we look at the collection of these responses without feeling compelled to adjudicate among them, when we read these comments to recognize the variety of readings and meanings that are made by various readers . Our error is to make claims about "all of us" or that the author or the text "is" simply because we experience him or it in our particular way. Our engagement with the text is not the text; this as they say is a category error.

By all means make "impassioned defenses" or dismissive critiques, but realize these are being made of your readings, not "the text". And, what's the problem with reading a shopping list interspersed with moments of insight and anxiety? I do it every time I go shopping.

Not outraged, not enthralled... just bored to death.

This guy's writing is lame, tedious, tendentious and narcissistic.

I don't understand the Times' fixation on boring writing by famous middle-aged white guys. Let's have some new writers, fresh perspectives... and writing that's lively and insightful, not boring and dull.

To me, a Dane, I loved thinking about the difference in how the new country was met, viking age versus 2015. :) Yes, it was his experience, and others would have other kinds of experiences, but Ove's experience was no less good or valid. I really loved the articles. :)

This was by far a joyous moment to see that N.Y. T. had given knausgaard this unique and bleak assignment and he had eeked every ounce of suspense wonder awkward cultural collision Scandinavian selfdenial and all absurd points in between towards an inconclusion thatcould only be both humorous and so familiar. Everyone else was just insulted and that only beard more validity to the premise. Congratulations!

My home town is spelled "St. John's" not Saint John's. :)

Nice that you sent this man on this trip. But was it necessary to publish what he wrote about it?

I want to see Knausgaard's bowling score sheet.

I wonder if these pieces would have been published in the New York Times Magazine, or what their reception would have been from the public, if they had been submitted by an unknown author or anonymously by Mr. Knausgaard.

We all try to live lives full of highlights. When we watch sports we want home-runs, touchdowns, slam-dunks. Movies show the highlights of a protagonist's full life in 90 minutes.

in comparison, our own lives appear dull, because they are mostly made up of the time between highlights.

Knausgaard's genius is in showing us that those "dull" moments are not dull, that by focusing on the superficially "important" stuff, we may be missing out on most of life itself. He shows us that our brains are fully functional during these times, whether we're thinking about bowling or judging strangers.

Our emotions too are fully functional - the frustration of a clogged toilet and the relief upon fixing it are palpable, and the way we react to such matters, the way we judge strangers, is just as much part of who we are as the brief moments of heroism or failure that typically define us.

I am reminded of the first reactions to Ulysses. People asked why it was necessary to portray all the mental states that weren't relevant to any story. But Joyce knew that by doing so, he was portraying human existence more honestly than had been done before.
Knausgaard is not Joyce, nor does he pretend to be, but he is, in a different sense, showing us a new way to portray experiences - honest and unedited - in which the characters are more like real people.

Recently Norwegian TV showed a 7-hour train journey and a 7-day ferry journey, live and unedited, to huge audiences. They're on to something!

Feverishly waiting for part II.

When I travel in a foreign country, I make every attempt to follow their laws. I may not agree with them, but I am a guest in their country. I can't respect someone who doesn't respect my country's laws. I live in a tourist area, known for it's pristine beauty. Whenever I go out hiking I return with trash, that visitors, often foreign, have decided to leave by the trail. I wonder is this man goes to friends houses and dumps his butts on their carpets.

This was far less a travelogue or anthropological journey, as the cover blurb suggested, than one person's commentary while being in a few different places. (I stopped short of using the terms insight and observation.) In fact, the author does no real traveling. It's not a journey of geography. I've to find what kind of journey this is. That said, Knausgaard has a compelling style and ability to describe in a relate-able style the awkwardnesses we all experience from time to time. Despite having read it through, what I found off-putting about this, however, was the disdain and disregard exhibited by both writer and photographer. The photo of the window in the Detroit hotel room, littered with cigarette butts in the sill, and the passage about smoking in the rental car, speak volumes about both people. I suppose they are practicing their brand of individualism, which I find sad because it comes without consideration for and at the expense of others.

Karl Ove is the opposite of self-important. His wry humor is mostly at his own expense, which makes him likeable. But his "My Struggle" and his NYTimes travel piece are both extended selfies. Despite being professedly shy, he is disarmingly self-exposing. And he is good at putting his awkwardest feelings into words. That's why we read him. Great writer? Don't know, don't care.

I did not feel compelled to read every single word.

Re: "he shows us what's it's like to be human and that's heroic in its own way"...please, let's not trivialize what it means to be heroic.

Wondered what his fee was? Beyond what the NY Times might usually pay?

I'm reading My STruggle right now by Knausgaard. His writing is unlike anything else I've ever read. I find it fascinating in its attention to the details of mundane living: the visual descriptions alone are so cinematic that it's like he's writing a very detailed screenplay, but one in which you also hear the thoughts of the characters. It's this cycling back and forth between very precise descriptions of the outer world, and very precise observation of the inner world, without any romanticizing of either. Karl Ove is a "confessional" writer, in that he shows you the most unattractive parts of himself, as well as the insightful parts of himself: he admits that he's got terrible credit, etc. And he often comes up with truly original insights: I copied into my journal the part about the irony of American individuality. We say we honor the individual, but actually our physical environment and our media environment are remarkably uniform no matter which part of the States we live in. And the tragedy of Detroit--the disposability of its workers, in fact of a whole city--is a frightening corollary to this, as KOK pointed out.

Knausgaard's Saga is to travel writing as Martin Parr's Boring Postcards is to travel photography, a terrifying voyage into a world that we inhabit, but never see. In both works it is the combination and volume of banality that makes us truly want to travel, to escapem toa place far from our unseen prison.

Huh. I just thought it was funny.

“He’s a modern person on a pointless journey and dealing with all of the mundanities of modern life, like overflowing toilets and lost paperwork,” replied Jessica Brent, a reader in New Jersey. “But he is an artist and makes meaning and beauty out of it. He shows us what it means to be human, and that’s heroic in its own way.”

Human and heroic? Surely you jest.

what did the editor hope to achieve in commissioning this work?
once this part was turned in, why did the editor publish it?

I'm here to comment on the comments about Knausgaard commenting about Newfoundland and the USA.

It's simple, slightly dark humor of the mundane. And it works. Can't wait for Part 2.

Stay at Wildberry Country Lodge in the St Anthony /L'anse aux Meadows area next time you visit.. Read Trip Advisor or Lonely Planet ! facebook page wildnorth2

I'm sorry to see such negativity here; probably from folks who claimed to like such goofy works as "Where'd You Go Bernadette?"