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| Karl Ove Knausgaard. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian |
Karl Ove
Knausgaard, who detailed his own life in the six-volume
autobiographical novel My Struggle has taken on a new challenge: the
Norwegian writer will become the sixth contributor to the Future Library, which
collects works by contemporary authors that will remain unread until 2114.
The Future
Library was created by Scottish artist Katie Paterson. It currently consists of 1,000 spruce trees
that were planted in Oslo’s Nordmarka forest in 2014. After a century, they
will be cut down and turned into paper.
The manuscripts by participating authors including Margaret Atwood,
David Mitchell and Elif Shafak, will finally be printed on this paper.
Knausgaard
is the first Norwegian writer to contribute to the project. Paterson called him “one of the most
exceptional authors of the 21st century”
.
The author
praised the Future Library in turn: “It’s such a brilliant idea, I like
the thought that you will have readers who are still not born – it’s like
sending a little ship from our time to them. I like that it will be opened in
100 years and I like the slowness of the forest growing, that everything is
connected. It’s such a wonderful green artwork.”
Knausgaard has
already started writing his manuscript, but will not reveal any details.
Turkish
author Shafak has described the experience of writing for Future Library as
“like writing a letter now and leaving it in a river. You don’t know where it
will go or who will read it – you just believe in the flow of time.”
Atwood, the
first author to contribute, has remarked “how strange it is to think of
my own voice – silent by then for a long time – suddenly being awakened after
100 years”.
Knausgaard will
formally deliver his manuscript in the forest on 23 May 2020. A specially
designed, wood-lined room is to be opened in Oslo’s Deichman central library to
hold the manuscripts.
From The Guardian (edited)
