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Vs Naipaul - Trinidad, Tobago / Caribbean - Posted: 21st Apr, 2007 - 2:21am
Posts: 33 - Views: 5392
Author / Controversial writings
VS Naipaul
This is one of the most loved or hated authors in Trinidad and Tobago. He was born and raised in Trinidad and migrated to England in the 50's. Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001 and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990. When he received the Nobel Prize he made mention of England and India but not mention about Trinidad. "His fiction and especially his travel writing have been criticized for their allegedly unsympathetic portrayal of the Third World".
Source 1
Some of his work and statements are very controversial:
QUOTE 'History is built around achievement and creation; and nothing was created in the West Indies.'
QUOTE 'I knew Trinidad to be unimportant, uncreative, cynical"
QUOTE I asked for a cup of coffee . . . It was a tiny old man who served me. And I thought, not for the first time, that in colonial days the hotel boys had been chosen for their small size, and the ease with which they could be manhandled. That was no doubt why the region had provided so many slaves in the old days: slave peoples are physically wretched, half-men in everything except in their capacity to breed the next generation' (from A Bend in the River, 1979).
QUOTE In the New York Times (1980) he had said: 'I don't count the African readership and I don't think one should. Africa is a land of bush, again, not a very literary land.'
QUOTE 'There was such a crowd of immigrant type West Indians on the boat-train platform at Waterloo that I was glad I was travelling first class to the West Indies.'
And the most famous...
QUOTE In 1980 he was even more explicit with reference to the people of Trinidad. "I can't see a Monkey - you can use a capital M, that's an affectionate word for the generality reading my work... These people [Trinidadians] live purely physical lives, which I find contemptible... It makes them only interesting to chaps in universities who want to do compassionate studies about brutes."
https://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/...4275511,00.html
What are your thoughts about this author?
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Naipaul VS
I am surprised that he was awarded having said all these things. Interestingly enough... on the day he was honored he would not say anything but instead asked his wife to speak on his behalf. I wonder, maybe he would have said some of the above and sour the occassion?
VS Naipaul Caribbean / Tobago & Trinidad
Actually, UWI invited him and he did speak but for what I heard he did not look very happy about this celebration on his honor and would give one or two words answers only. When he speaks about Trinidadians he always speaks like if he is a foreigner, an outsider.
Naipaul VS
I think the occassion I am talking about was at President's house.
If he detests Trinidad so much then why come here to be 'honored'? Seems a bit hypocritical doesn't it?
I also wonder what happened to him his early years that caused so much bias? Ironically his attitude towards Trinidad lacks taste and makes him closer to the populace than he may like to believe.
Naipaul VS
| QUOTE (JB @ 19-Apr 07, 8:15 PM) |
| If he detests Trinidad so much then why come here to be 'honored'? Seems a bit hypocritical doesn't it? |
I really don't think he detests Trinidad. I think his writings are just controversial and a lot of times, it does describes the way things are here. He is what we call "brutally" honest and never gives answers just for the sake of political correctness.
He also said:
| QUOTE |
| He said that authors write things whose full significance even they might not be aware of, but which could be discerned by a good literary critic. "The questions are for the outsider to pronounce on." He admitted to having lost touch with the country saying he no longer knows Trinidad and Tobago. "I have given TT lots of thought, but I wanted to give to the world." |
VS Naipaul
Describes the way things are? That is largely debatable and largely his words are opinionated and racial to say the least. This has nothing of fact in it, but it is a position, a stance:
| QUOTE (LD_forever) |
| In the New York Times (1980) he had said: 'I don't count the African readership and I don't think one should. Africa is a land of bush, again, not a very literary land.' |
VS Naipaul Trinidad & Tobago / Caribbean
Lakshmi Girls gave him a run for his money. They asked him some direct questions and he tried to avoid them. When asked why he was avoiding their questions he said that their questions were awful and did nothing for him except to exhaust him.
TOPIC: VS Naipaul