Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation

by Andri Snær Magnason

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment

289 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2006

About the author

Andri Snær Magnason is an Icelandic writer, born in Reykjavik on July 14, 1973. An award winning author published in 40 languages. His most recent book is On Time and Water - a book seeking to explore the issue of time and climate change through language, mythology and memoir. Andri has written novels, poetry, plays, short stories, essays and he has directed documentary films. His novel LoveStar was chosen as “Novel of the year” by Icelandic booksellers, it received the DV Literary Award, The Philip K. Dick special citation Award of 2013 and won the french Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire as best foreign Sci-Fi in France 2016. His children’s book, The Story of the Blue Planet, was the first children’s book to receive the Icelandic Literary Prize and has been published or performed in 35 countries. His first book of poetry was a runaway best seller published by the Bonus supermarket chain in Iceland. The Story of the Blue Planet received the Janusz Korczak Honorary Award 2000 and the West Nordic Children’s Book Prize 2002 and the Green Earth Honor Award 2013 and the UKLA Award 2014. The play from the story was performed on the main stage of YPT in Toronto in 2005 and 2013. He has been active in the fight for preserving the delicate nature of Iceland, his book Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation takes on these issues. Dreamland has been made into a feature-length documentary film. Andri Magnason is the winner of the Kairos Award of 2010 granted by the Alfred Toepfer institute in Hamburg. His most recent documentary films are The Hero's Journey to the Third Pole - a bipolar musical documentary with elephants and Apausalypse, available on the website of Emergence Magazine.

Andri Snær Magnason lives in Reykjavík. He is married with four children.
His work has been published to more than 40 languages.

Reviews

[Kári Þorkelsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Góð umfjöllun sem veitir sýn í í tíðarandann fyrir hrun og hryllir mig að sjá hve lítið hefur breyst á þessu skítaskeri.

[Anneli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. It is possible to hear the author screaming at the pages at some moments.

[Arthur Farestveit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ég er 26 ára og var að klára þessa bók. Ég hafði auðvitað lítinn skilning á því sem var að gerast á sínum tíma en ég man að allir í kringum mig voru ánægðir með komu álversins. Ég trúi því ekki að virkjunin hafi verið reist.

[Védís Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Virkilega gott perspektív um álrómantík og verðmætablindu - bókin stenst tímans tönn (því miður?).

[Richard B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant on many levels. It is not only an environmental treatise that is relevant not only to Icelanders, but to any country or culture experiencing the exploitation of they natural resources for the benefit of corporations and shareholders. It is also a fascinating look at the psyche of a nation coming out of colonization (by the Danes) and the routes and choices they think they have to take to be considered seriously on the international stage (and whether this is important). This really should be a must read for all but a really important text for anyone interested in the global environmental future.

[HimarBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pues he aquí un libro muy diferente a los que suelo leer, aunque siendo un apasionado de Islandia, no podía faltar a esta lectura.
Es un ejemplo de como un libro puede cambiar la mentalidad de todo un país y de como puede llevarles por un camino totalmente diferente al que se preveía.
Es una crítica devastadora a como los líderes islandeses querían vender la hermosura de su naturaleza a las contaminantes industrias de aluminio en pos del
"crecimiento económico" El análisis que hace el autor es muy profundo y en mi opinión, sublime, ya que nos hace reflexionar de como muchas veces nos quedamos en la superficie, en la capacidad de manipulación de nuestros líderes y en como muchas veces no contrastamos sino que aceptamos lo que los medios de comunicación nos venden... en como la dependencia es un antagonismo de la libertad, especialmente cuando aquella está sujeta a las grandes corporaciones y como juegan con el miedo a un futuro peor para imponer sus intereses.
Es cierto que es un libro en clave islandesa, como obviamente es, y que si no conoces el país o no has estado nunca, puede perderse cierta profundidad en las reflexiones a las que nos invita, pero creo por otro lado, que puede ser extrapolable a cualquier lugar del mundo.
Termino con una de muchas frases potentes del libro: el crecimiento económico nos habla de lo rápido que puede correr un atleta pero no nos dice si vivirá hasta los 40.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book discusses the governmental development plan for aluminum smelting to expand the Icelandic purest and untouched nature under the guise of green sustainable energy, providing 2000 jobs and high quality living standards with “A LOWERST ENERGY PRICES package” and a fate of internationally significant nature sites depending on the tiny group of motivated people. Overwhelm how exactly the same language are still widely used by the lobbyists of controversial construction projects all over the world 15 years after the book published.

[Judit · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Ignorance is strength. Education is heavy industry.”

Good book about the environmental impacts of modern industry, with neo-colonial comparisons, and some healthy does of skepticism about the absolute mandate of infinite exponential growth in the economy.
It is a bit older, so some of the info is probably outdated, but the core message: doubt your government, and multinational companies who act like they know what is good for you better than you do.

[Carolyne Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was part of my 'Icelandic' reading--Magnason makes so much sense. Everyone should read him, not just Icelanders or their visitors. It was an absolute best-seller in Iceland, so maybe they are already acting on his ideas--I hope so.

[Jóhann Páll Ástvaldsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Það er langt síðan bók hefur fengið mig jafn mikið til að hugsa. Út frá hverri einustu efnisgrein spruttu þrjár til fjórar hugsanir, pælingar og hugmyndir. Misgóðar en sumar hafa reynst mér vel á þessu ári sem ég tók til að lesa hana, í tveimur rykkjum. Takk fyrir það!

[Nadine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muss man lesen.

[Jannis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strong opinion and exceptional writing

[Barnar Breki · Rating 4 out of 5]

acab

[Vinesh Senan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not worth reading as the subject line is not captivating but the material is solid and great but it needs a rework

[Zhen]

Some info might be outdated but still feels relevant as of 2024.

[Aaron (Typographical Era) · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Andri Snaer Magnason’s Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation arrived on Icelandic bookstore shelves back in 2006, it sparked an intense debate over what, if anything, the tiny island nation should do to harness the power of its untapped clean energy sources. For years the government seemed determined, hell-bent even, to jump on any chance to destroy the country’s breathtaking natural beauty, clean environment, local fisheries, and the habitat of endangered wildlife so that hydroelectric plants and aluminum producing factories could be constructed. Their argument, that taking such drastic measures would be the only way to ensure the country’s future prosperity, was a devastatingly simple one, and it managed to elude any major widespread mainstream opposition. That is, until Magnason’s book arrived.

Flash forward to now. Iceland holds the distinction of being the world’s largest electricity producer per person. There are three aluminum plants currently in operation and combined they produce 400,000 metric tons of the material per year (mtpy). Still on the table for debate are proposed expansions which hope to raise the number to over 1,500,000 mtpy. Any way you look at it, both numbers basically translate into A LOT of Coke cans that are just waiting to rot in landfills across the entire planet, but let’s get back to the question of that untapped energy for a moment.

READ MORE:
http://www.typographicalera.com/dream...

[Cenhner Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Primero lo primero: qué tapa más horrible que le pusieron a esta edición. Es un libro sobre cómo la industria afecta la naturaleza islandesa y me ponen esta acuarela pedorra que parece salida de nota de la Para Ti sobre calambres menstruales.

Ahora, sobre el contenido. Yo quería que me ENCANTASE el libro. Pero terminó siendo un discurso reiterativo ultra zurdo, típico de hippie denunciante sin alternativas que ofrecer. Parte de una base lógica y re sabida: la creación de nuevas industrias (en el caso de Islandia, de aluminio) implica una mayor demanda energética, lo que implica crear diques y presas a cuatro manos, destruyendo la naturaleza tal como la conocemos.
Magnason, además, plantea una particularidad que nosotros, sudacas patasucias muertos de hambre no podemos ni insinuar: si la sociedad islandesa está funcionando lo más bien tal como está, ¿para qué queremos más plantas fundidoras de aluminio?
Ojo, todo el planteo que él hace tiene toda la razón del mundo. Pasa que se queda atascado sin dar ninguna opción. O sea, ok, no hagamos más plantas de aluminio. No podes pretender vivir puramente de la exportación del pescado, porque eventualmente la población te aumenta, y mientras no tengas la política china de controlar la cantidad de criaturas por familia, el pescado no te va a salvar de por vida.
La traducción es bastante mala, la puntuación es horrenda (no hay una puta comilla cerrada), pero hay unas fotos a color con paisajes islandeses para caerse de culo.

Una decepción, pero siempre me gusta leer sobre Islandia.

[Gunnar Hjalmarsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ég las Draumalandið á meðan ég var í tjilli í Aberdeen. Ég nennti því auðveldlega enda skemmtilegt og nokkuð "spennandi" lesning og kom auðvitað gallharður náttúrukarl út úr lesningunni. Áhrif mikil og helst þessi:
a. Langaði til að taka dag í að týna upp rusl í nágrenninu (nóg var nú af því, Skotar eru helv sóðar, jafnvel meiri en Íslendingar) en nennti því auðvitað ekki enda bara viku í Aberdeen.
b. Þeir sem bera ábyrgð á Kárahnjúkavirkjun eru geðveikir landráðamenn og myndu rotna í helvíti til eilífðarnóns ef það væri eitthvað helvíti.
c. Andri Snær á að taka alla stjórn þjóðarinnar í sínar hendur og við lifum hamingjusöm það sem eftir er.

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did read the translated German Version. A good inside view into the economic/ business / political system, using Island as an example. Not focussing on solutions, but excellent in the way of "make the reader re-think". Albeit published in 2006, still up to date...

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply moving about environmental concerns, philosophical and political but full of humour and amusing observations about present day Iceland and in the mean time putting it in a global perspective.

[Eduardo Santiago]

Abandoned @ p.90. There's much good in it... but it's just too preachy and long-winded for me right now. I'm not learning anything from it, and other books beckon.

[YZ]

Some things seem to be lost in translation, for me.

[Rúnar · Rating 5 out of 5]

frábær bók!

[Bjarney Halldórsdóttir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Að mínu mati bók sem ágætt er að lesa aftur. Margar hugmyndir sem hann kemur með sem komið hafa fram.

[Pieter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book. Mandatory for anyone caring for Icelandic nature

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Icelandic best seller is an eye- opening read for everyone concerned about the preservation of wild, beautiful places. You will never look a disposable aluminum can the same way again.

[Klavdija · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought-provoking, and an essential read for those who think that capital is the end meaning of all (it's not).

[Sölvi · Rating 5 out of 5]

áhugaverð bók og fróðleg mjög. love you andri snær