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2001 Nobel Prize for Literature
Posted by Lale on 17/10/2001, 22:05:27
Sir V.S. Naipaul was announced the recepient of this year's Nobel Prize for literature:
"for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories"
V(idiadhar) S(urajprasad) Naipaul was born in Trinidad in 1932 and was of Indian descent. According to an article in Newsweek by Malcolm Jones, he is "truly at home nowhere", not in England either, where he has chosen to settle.
Maybe we should read one of his books in the upcoming months.
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Posted by Chris on 18/10/2001, 22:24:37, in reply to "2001 Nobel Prize for Literature"
Naipaul's award left me with mixed emotions. His novels capture the sense of placelessness and loss common in post-colonial societies, and are often beautiful reads. His travelogues are observant and insightful, but are all too often shallow and agenda-driven. His "Among the Believers" provides numerous anecdotes and funny stories about the lives of Muslims in non-Arab cultures, but so many of them seem to have been chosen to show that those people aren't "real" muslims - only on the surface.
There is one passage in 'Among the Believers' which I particularly like. In it he travels to an Islamic boarding school near the East Java town of Jombang. Although he never names the village or the school, after reading the passage and his description of a conversation with "Mr. Wahid" I realized that this school was Pondok Pesantren Tebuireng, where I lived and researched in 1997, and the Mr. Wahid was the same Abdurrahman Wahid who was Indonesia's president from 1999 until earlier this year.
I will give Naipaul credit for one very insightful observation - he noted that Islam among converted peoples is very similar to colonialism in that it often leads to an erasure of their cultural identity in favor of an "Islamic" one (whatever that is).
I loved several of his novels, including 'A Bend in the River,' 'In a Free State', and 'House for Mr. Biswas,' and I think it an excellend idea that we read one. His travel writing, for which he appearantly won the Nobel for, leaves me cold.
One last note: if you've read either "Among the Believers" (1978) then don't bother with "Beyond Belief" (199?), and visa versa. They are virtually identical books.
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Posted by Lale on 19/10/2001, 18:00:05
How amazing! Was his impression of the village and the school close to yours?
While reading if I come across places I have seen, I put in the book a photo of the place that I have taken. Sometimes with a note and always with a date. Sometimes I am in the picture too. I hope that people (to whom my grandchildren will sell my books to) will find them and talk about how I had been there.
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Posted by Lale on 8/11/2001, 20:41:28, in reply to "Re: Some thoughts on Naipaul"
I read about his first novel in seven years: Half a Life.
Maybe we can put it on the list of books to read.
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