V.S. Naipaul has died | Hacker News Reader

V.S. Naipaul has died

nytimes.com

100 pointsstokedmartin23 comments

I 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 goes. Although I wouldn't exactly say that it is what we should aspire to I did like it in its own way.

[0] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/cruel-a...

One that becomes clear is that V. S. Naipaul is probably the least sympathetic literary figure ever.

He has a lot of competition.

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?

For a distressingly large cohort of writers of note (think Kingsley Amis) and their adoring fans, alas yes.

Is “well-behaved, PC, generic, and boring” really the central alternative to “entirely unsympathetic”?

Frequently, yes. Theoretically, you can have an artist that is well-behaved and interesting. But we don’t get to make that choice and you can’t custom order creativity to take the good bits and leave the bad bits (although crispr gets better and better).

Especially since if you start blocking out the unsympathetic artists early in their career due to being jerks and criminals and whatnot, this would have prevented many of the great artists.

For example a letter in 1968 shows John Lennon as a wife beater amongst other deplorable things [0]. Stopping him at this point would have deprived the world of many creations.

[0] https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lennon-was-a-bully-and-ch...

Would it have deprived the world, or would the world have turned its attention to another artist? What reason do we have to think no one else would’ve stepped into Lennon’s niche?

I think it’s impossible to know, but 50 years later and there’s no Lennon. If you don’t care about art or beauty being uniquely special,it doesn’t matter.

Another 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 shouting, just digging into people's varied stories, and especially their disappointments, and trying to make sense of them.

> 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.

Fun fact: A song from a musical adaptation of Naipaul's novel "A House for Mr. Biswas" was re-adapted and used as the theme for James Bond movies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6EuzGhIyRQ

Does 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.

As a child of the early 90's, I've never heard of this guy. So yes.

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Salinger

Thanks

Well, he did come back to create the game popular TV game show Hollywoo Stars and Celebrities: What Do They Know? Do They Know Things?? Let's Find Out!

"The Nightwatchman's Occurrence Book" remains one of my favourite short stories ever since I read it in high school lit class. A truly curious author.

Naipual=Nepal. He found out where his ancestors originated from and mentioned that during his speech.

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