Friday, June 3, 2011

A Small Response to V. S. Naipaul

First, read this article.

Now, read this:

V. S. Naipaul's novel A House for Mr. Biswas has always been important to me. At times in my life I have admired it extravagantly . . . despite the fact that, from the first few words, I could tell that it had been written by a non-Anglo-Saxon man raised in a hot-weather British colony.

I am determined to continue caring about A House for Mr. Biswas. After all, I am interested in characters and settings that require me to look outside myself. This is one of the gifts of literature. Or so I have always thought.

Being a writer and a reader who "is not a complete master of a house," I have endeavored to spend some time in those mysterious rooms and passageways beyond my ken: John Milton's, for instance. I find them instructive. I think Milton might have found my rooms and passageways instructive as well. Also surprising. Also alarming.

Sentimentality is a handy generalization, useful to call upon when one wants to label a woman as an inferior life form because (1) she finds it interesting to love babies, horses, handsome young men, her mother, an aging baldster, or anyone else she happens to care about in affectionate and tragicomic detail or (2) she finds it painful to lose that baby, horse, handsome young man, mother, or aging baldster, whether by death or indifference. Surprisingly enough, however, some people feel that close attention to such reactions and emotions is integral to the experience of being human.

If, in Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen could create a character as memorable as Mr. Collins, imagine what she could do with a character such as V. S. Naipaul.

Aphorisms: Paradise Lost was written down by women. Kitchen drawers hide sharp knives. Virginia Woolf's novels are better than V. S. Naipaul's. Scrub your own fucking floor, you asshole.

7 comments:

Maureen said...

This may be the best response I've seen to date to Naipaul's tripe. Love it!

Robert Whitehill said...

Wonderful!

B.E. said...

Thank you! I loved this.

Ang said...

As a friend of mine still mastering the English language would say..."that guy is brat spoiled!!!!"

Thanks, Dawn, for standing up for us!!!!

Jenne' R. Andrews said...

This is fabulous-- I especially love this:

"Surprisingly enough, however, some people feel that close attention to such reactions and emotions is integral to the experience of being human."

You nailed it. Was this idiot not born of a woman? How sentimentally must she have given him suck.

I like the fire in this, especially! xxj

Constance said...

Dawn.....spot on, dear. I'm sending you a big, literary and emotional hug!! I had posted, "talk to my butt," BUT your response is so much better.
Your fan,
Connie

charlotte gordon said...

This cheered me right up. Thank goodness you are out there --