V.S. Naipaul has died(nytimes.com) |
V.S. Naipaul has died(nytimes.com) |
[0] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/cruel-a...
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.
Interesting. Anyone got details (background and context) on this quote?
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.
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...