“The Organ-Play of Life” and the Whistling of the Almighty

The Organist and Pastor Jón Prímus in a Taoist Light

Abstract

The organist in Halldór Laxness’s The Atom Station (1948) and pastor Jón Prímus in Under the Glacier (1968) are both fictional characters who are under the influence of Taoism. In various ways, the organist and pastor Jón Prímus live in the spirit of the Taoist sages; they are hermits and ascetics who live according to Tao Te Ching’s message of virtuous inactivity. Their view of nature conforms to Taoist ideas about the eternal process of the world within which all beings are transformed. The organist’s speech about the “immortal flowers” has a counterpart in Taoist ideas of nature and pastor Jón Prímus’s opinion that the Almighty can be located “anywhere at all, in anything at all” refers to Tao Te Ching’s idea of the term “dao”. Influences from Taoism can also be seen in the organist’s anarchic ideas which often involve a radical critique of bourgeois morality. Pastor Jón Prímus’s ideal of peace and harmony has a counterpart in Taoism and Tao Te Ching’s message against war and greed. The organist and pastor Jón Prímus both speak for their political cause in The Atom Station and Under the Glacier, but they preach their vision of life primarily through unwavering tolerance and the Taoist idea of virtue without virtue.