> “He wanted to be an Englishman,” reports Naipaul’s Oxford tutor, Peter Bayley.
Enough said
V.S. Naipaul has died
11–20 of 27 posts
Re: V.S. Naipaul has died
#12Does anyone else feel that V.S. Naipaul dropped off the radar as soon as he won the Nobel Prize? I heard his name constantly in the 1990s and very early millennium, but after he won the Nobel it feels like there was not only a decline in his output, but in his cultural presence in general.
His output had gone down by the late 70s, he got the Nobel in 2001 at age 68, past the age many people retire. It's not like he collected the prize and Salingered out.
Re: V.S. Naipaul has died
#13Does anyone else feel that V.S. Naipaul dropped off the radar as soon as he won the Nobel Prize? I heard his name constantly in the 1990s and very early millennium, but after he won the Nobel it feels like there was not only a decline in his output, but in his cultural presence in general.
His output had gone down by the late 70s, he got the Nobel in 2001 at age 68, past the age many people retire. It's not like he collected the prize and Salingered out.
What did Salinger do?
Re: V.S. Naipaul has died
#14Another article today (although actually an interview from 1998) with more focus on his work & what it's about: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2018/08/vs-naipau... A sad day. It seems to me that his themes of displacement, and cultural mismatches & how they affect people, keep becoming more important. We do a lot of shouting about these issues now, in the Western world in 2018 I mean; but he was never sho…
> Racial equality and assimilation are attractive but only underline the loss, since to accept assimilation is in a way to accept permanent inferiority.
Interesting. Anyone got details (background and context) on this quote?
Re: V.S. Naipaul has died
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
His output had gone down by the late 70s, he got the Nobel in 2001 at age 68, past the age many people retire. It's not like he collected the prize and Salingered out.
What did Salinger do?
Salinger became a recluse, more or less, because he hated the publicity and attention that came with his literary success.
Re: V.S. Naipaul has died
#16I got interested in V.S. Naipaul after reading this essay-- well technically a book review of a Naipaul biography-- by Christopher Hitchens-- Cruel and Unusual [0]. It explains and summarizes Naipaul's literary significance as well as the fascinating fact that he acted very badly in his personal life. I read his Middle Passage travelogue after that after I read that and it did not disappoint as far as callousness goe…
One that becomes clear is that V. S. Naipaul is probably the least sympathetic literary figure ever.
Good authors write good literature. An adult should not look for more in a writer. Give me Celine, Houellebecq and Naipaul one million times before the well-behaved, PC, generic , boring writer who tend to populate current prizes and recommended lists.
Re: V.S. Naipaul has died
#17Another article today (although actually an interview from 1998) with more focus on his work & what it's about: https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2018/08/vs-naipau... A sad day. It seems to me that his themes of displacement, and cultural mismatches & how they affect people, keep becoming more important. We do a lot of shouting about these issues now, in the Western world in 2018 I mean; but he was never sho…
> Racial equality and assimilation are attractive but only underline the loss, since to accept assimilation is in a way to accept permanent inferiority. Interesting. Anyone got details (background and context) on this quote?
Not this exact quote. But something like this is a theme in many of his books, often applied to himself, and to other people who've moved to western countries (or, into western-derived cultures).
It's also close to a theme of Among the Believers etc, where (to paraphrase crudely!) he comes to view non-arab muslims as being in some sense immigrants to an Arab-centred culture, with some of the same feelings of loss.
Re: V.S. Naipaul has died
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
One that becomes clear is that V. S. Naipaul is probably the least sympathetic literary figure ever.
Good authors write good literature. An adult should not look for more in a writer. Give me Celine, Houellebecq and Naipaul one million times before the well-behaved, PC, generic , boring writer who tend to populate current prizes and recommended lists.
Is it too much to ask that a writer respect women?
Re: V.S. Naipaul has died
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
One that becomes clear is that V. S. Naipaul is probably the least sympathetic literary figure ever.
Good authors write good literature. An adult should not look for more in a writer. Give me Celine, Houellebecq and Naipaul one million times before the well-behaved, PC, generic , boring writer who tend to populate current prizes and recommended lists.
Is “well-behaved, PC, generic, and boring” really the central alternative to “entirely unsympathetic”?