Message About Naipaul
[copy of a message]
Hi XXXX,
The Magic Seeds is about a man from India who has been in Africa and England much of his life and goes back to India in the ''70s or ''80s (it is not exactly clear) to take part in some sort of rural revolt of the peasants against the landowners, etc. (you know, there was this phase of shooting traffic policeman, etc.). In some ways the book mirrors the travel book India: A Million Mutinies Now that Naipaul wrote 20 years ago or so. In that book he interviewed people who had been involved in that type of revolt ... Students going out into the country side, etc., and then had left it being disillusioned. I am being un-exact and I hope you will forgive me.
Now, as with most Naipaul books the attraction is not so much the action as the writing and the interior life of the main character. Naipaul is a very great writer indeed, but he seems not to be to everyone's taste. It seems to me that his writing nearly always includes comments/observations that would have made good essay points in a paper produced at Oxford. Naipaul was an exceptionally good student (won a scholarship to Oxford from Trinidad at age 18 or so by being the best student of his year).
The good thing about literature is that nothing good detracts from something else good, although that doesn't stop the people who write literature from being competitive and concerned with ranking and relative merit. But different styles and approaches, if they are good and true, tend to compliment each other, however much they may be in contrast. For example, Naipaul is what I might be tempted to call a "flat" writer. His prose is so clear and cold and perfect that you hardly see it at all. Martin Amis, who I also adore, is very much a "verdant" or "topographical" writer and his writing itself can be a thing of wonder. Two very different approaches, and I would be very much the poorer if either one had to be eliminated to make room for the other.
Yes, all my tawdry belongs are now here in Yellowknife, cluttering up my new apartment which had a certain clean and spartan appeal when it was just flat carpets and empty walls.
I haven't unpacked all my books yet. I am starting to make a pile by my bed of books I really must read rather than simply warehousing for year after year.
Went to the gym this morning at 6 am. 87.5 kilos according to the scale there, but it seems to fluctuate more than my weight I think.
Hi XXXX,
The Magic Seeds is about a man from India who has been in Africa and England much of his life and goes back to India in the ''70s or ''80s (it is not exactly clear) to take part in some sort of rural revolt of the peasants against the landowners, etc. (you know, there was this phase of shooting traffic policeman, etc.). In some ways the book mirrors the travel book India: A Million Mutinies Now that Naipaul wrote 20 years ago or so. In that book he interviewed people who had been involved in that type of revolt ... Students going out into the country side, etc., and then had left it being disillusioned. I am being un-exact and I hope you will forgive me.
Now, as with most Naipaul books the attraction is not so much the action as the writing and the interior life of the main character. Naipaul is a very great writer indeed, but he seems not to be to everyone's taste. It seems to me that his writing nearly always includes comments/observations that would have made good essay points in a paper produced at Oxford. Naipaul was an exceptionally good student (won a scholarship to Oxford from Trinidad at age 18 or so by being the best student of his year).
The good thing about literature is that nothing good detracts from something else good, although that doesn't stop the people who write literature from being competitive and concerned with ranking and relative merit. But different styles and approaches, if they are good and true, tend to compliment each other, however much they may be in contrast. For example, Naipaul is what I might be tempted to call a "flat" writer. His prose is so clear and cold and perfect that you hardly see it at all. Martin Amis, who I also adore, is very much a "verdant" or "topographical" writer and his writing itself can be a thing of wonder. Two very different approaches, and I would be very much the poorer if either one had to be eliminated to make room for the other.
Yes, all my tawdry belongs are now here in Yellowknife, cluttering up my new apartment which had a certain clean and spartan appeal when it was just flat carpets and empty walls.
I haven't unpacked all my books yet. I am starting to make a pile by my bed of books I really must read rather than simply warehousing for year after year.
Went to the gym this morning at 6 am. 87.5 kilos according to the scale there, but it seems to fluctuate more than my weight I think.
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