On Aug 30, 4:43 pm, kenneth harrow <har...@msu.edu> wrote:
> i need to simplify in responding here, to both friends cornelius and ikhide:
> the problem is not that naipaul mounted
> criticisms of africa or africans. but that all he
> sees of africa and africans is evil. perhaps we
> can say that there were real flaws in black
> culture after the american civil war, and that
> depicting the legislatures in the south as
> dysfunctional was an accepted critique. but if
> all one sees are subhumans in those who represent
> the flaws, one is generating racist stereotypes,
> not simply critiquing. there has to be a
> difference between the two, between a critique
> generated from the perspective that those being
> critiqued are still human like all humans, and
> another that evokes their animality and evil
> natures as those of inferior beings, as meriting
> being spit upon, as those whose vaginas merit
> being spit upon....naipaul's scene, not mine, in bend in the river.
> if naipaul is not a racist, maybe griffith's
> birth of a nation isn't, and the greatest emblems
> of racism are merely humorous criticisms.
> maybe not.
> tell me how to read someone who consistently
> represents dark skinned people as inferior, if not as a racist.
> ken
>
> At 08:40 AM 8/30/2010, you wrote:
>
>
>
> >I have not yet read Naipaul's latest but from the comments on this
> >page and the Guardian's review, my expectations are great:
>
> >http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/29/vs-naipaul-masque-of-afri...
>
> > Jonathan Franzen may write with the principle in mind, that “The
> >reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator.†- and perhaps
> >this is also Naipual's operative approach, since we can tell by his
> >book sales that he does have a very large and appreciative readership.
> >Is it safe to conclude then that he panders to the appetite and
> >expectations of his faithful fans/readers who want some more of the
> >same or must we credit him with being absolutely faithful to his own
> >experience, his own perceptions, like the true literary artist and
> >essayist he is?
>
> >Or is there no such thing?
>
> >I remember in 2001, when it was announced that V.S. had been awarded
> >the Nobel Prize in Literature. I called up two friends, one a great
> >intellectual from Guadeloupe and the other from Jamaica, to
> >congratulate them They both said exactly the same thing, one
> >word:†Collie-man†, which is a Carribean's derogatory description of an
> >Indian. Naipaul had already pissed them off.
>
> >In as far as biographical heresy can be applied to throw light on Mr.
> >Naipaul's literary output, Paul Theroux's “Sir Vidia's Shadow†has
> >given the most unkindest cut of all.
>
> >Paul Theroux should know. Had Sir Vidia written his ( Theroux's) “
> >Fong and the Indians†someone would have seen racism in the depiction
> >of Africans in that novel and perhaps cried, where I laughed at what I
> >thought was funny
>
> >Whether it is with V.S.'s “An Area of Darkness†- written about his
> >visit to his ancestral India, or his post-Salman Rushdie “Among the
> >Believers†about Islam and Islamists or the much referred to and in my
> >opinion innocuous “ A Bend in The River†one of Naipaul's functions
> >then is to prick us to some critical self-examination as Lord Ikhide
> >has just done. And for that should Naipaul - or his brother Shiva
> >Naipaul ( North of South†) be blighted?
>
> >Professor Harrow sounds remarkably like my dear Dr. Valentine Ojo when
> >he says what he says about V..S: Naipaul.
>
> >Perhaps, if Naipual had been Black instead of Brown, African, instead
> >of an Indian British Lord examining other cultures from the
> >perspective of a higher (the standards of Western Civilisation), and
> >seeing Africa and India through the lens of his higher culture, we
> >would not be accusing him of racism.
>
> >What then would we be accusing him on the basis of his written woord?
> >Arrogance?
> >The sort of cynicism that Evelyn Waugh has been accused of?
> >What?
> >I pause for a reply.
>
> >On Aug 29, 10:07Â pm, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoch...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Naipaul is irredeemable, a lost cause. The man cannot even cultivate and
> > > sustain personal relationships with his
> > literary peers, crossing people left
> > > and right and telling them to "take it in the cheek like a man." He can't
> > > help himself in his role as a "Third World" advocate of Eucentric, racist
> > > universalism.
>
> > > The man deserves more pity than engagement.
>
> > > On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 12:10 PM, kenneth harrow <har...@msu.edu> wrote:
> > > > Â naipaul is one of the great racist writers of our time. a bend in the
> > > > river evokes every negative stereotype
> > about africans imaginable; his cover?
> > > > 1. he is "third world" 2.mobuto's reign, and before it, lumumba's, was
> > > > regarded by naipaul's kind of readers and editors as uncivilized.
> > > > uncivilized means non-british, non-european, savage etc etc
> > > > naipaul is the true exemplar of ox-cam british snobbism and racism toward
> > > > africa, and the rest of the third world. really
> > > > ken harrow
>
> > > > At 11:36 AM 8/29/2010, you wrote:
>
> > > > ----- Forwarded Message ----
> > > > *From:* Errol Harry <errolharr...@yahoo.com>
> > > > *Sent:* Sun, August 29, 2010 6:16:07 PM
> > > > *Subject:* Naipaul's latest book on Africa
>
> > > > *The Masque of Africa by V S Naipaul: review*
>
> > > > *Sameer Rahim is puzzled by the ageing
> > Nobel Prize winner’s punishing
> > > > quest to expose Africa̢۪s religious illusions *
> >*
>
> > > > By Sameer Rahim
> > > > Published: 5:19PM BST 27 Aug 2010
>
> > > > Â
> > Comments<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/7966020/The-Masque-of-Africa...>
> > > > [image: The Masque of Africa by V S Naipaul]
> > > > The Masque of Africa by V S Naipaul
>
> > > > V S Naipaul̢۪s father was once forced to
> > sacrificfice a goat to the Hindu
> > > > goddess Kali. In June 1933, when Vidia was
> > still a baby, Seepersad Naipaul
> > > > had written an article in the *Trinidad Guardian* criticising Hindu
> > > > farmers who ignored government regulations
> > and inoculated their cattle with
> > > > religious rites.
>
> > > > His angry opponents threatened him with a poisoning curse unless he
> > > > appeased the goddess. He refused at first but soon relented: wearing
> > > > trousers rather than the traditional loincloth (his small rebellion), he
> > > > offered up a severed goat̢۪s head on a brass platlate.
>
> > > > In that Sunday̢۪s paper he was all
> > bluster: Ã: “Mr Naipaul greets you! No
>
> > > > Poison last night†. But this “great
> > eat humiliation†, as his son wrote in
> > > > *Finding the Centre* (1984), destroyed his life. He lost his job and sunk
> > > > into depression. According to Naipaul̢۪s
> > mother, r, “He looked in the mirror
>
> > > > one day and couldn’t see himself. And he began tn to scream.â€
>
> > > > Over the course of his long writing career,
> > V S °S Naipaul’s view of
> >f
> > > > religion has moved much like this story
> > from om thethe potentially comic to
> > > > the outright sinister. His first published
> > novel, *The Mystic Masseur *(1957),
> > > > was a satire on a fake pundit. In his
> > masterpiece *A House for Mr Biswas*(1961) the
> > title character (based on Seepersad) is expelled from his
> > > > training as a Hindu priest when he pollutes some sacred flowers with his
> > > > excrement. His travel book on India, *An Area of Darkness* (1964), took a
> > > > harsher view of Hinduism and the caste
> > system and after 1970, when he first
> > > > learnt about his father̢۪s ritual
> > humiliation (th(the family had kept it an
> > > > absolute secret), his work took on an unforgiving tone.
>
> > > > *Among the Believers* (1981) and *Beyond Belief* (1998) blamed the
> > > > problems in Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia and Pakistan exclusively on Islam.
> > > > Third World peoples who refused to abandon
> > their ancestral illusions for the
> > > > civilised and secular values of the West
> > as Naipaul has so ccconspicuously
> > > > done are, he believes, condemned to backwardness.
>
> > > > Now he has travelled to six countries
> > Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria,, the Ivory
> > > > Coast, Gabon and South Africa to discover the â€â‚¬œœnature of African
> > > > belief†. *The Masque of Africa* starts in Kampala, the ccapital of
> > > > Uganda, where Naipaul immediately observes a conflict between the native
> > > > religion, offering “only the world of
> > the spirits a and the ancestors†,
> > > > and the foreign religions (Islam and Christianity) whose new places of
> > > > worship on the city̢۪s hills are like
> > ââ“an applied and contagious illness,
> > > > curing nothing, giving no final answers…
> > fighting wrong battless, narrowing
> > > > the mind†. He doess not visit these
> > mosques and churchess; a view from the
> > > > foothills is enough.
>
> > > > When Naipaul does visit somewhere his observations can be acute. At the
> > > > shrine of Mutesa I of Buganda, the
> > 19th-century ruler who had dealings with
> > > > John Speke and Henry Stanley, he feels a
> > “sense of f wonder†. But nearby
> > > > he notices a boy tormenting a small kitten; he protests but his guide
> > > > assures him the boy is just playing. “I
> > didnâ’t believe him,†Naipaul
> >aul
> > > > says. Back in the hotel, he discovers that
> > nine men were sacrificed at the
> > > > shrine during its construction.
>
> > > > For a brief moment he allowed himself to see through the eyes of the
> > > > faithful, before widening his vision to
> > examine what they chose not to see.
>
> > > > Naipaul has always been able to spot a
> > fraud, and the best writing in this
> > > > book deals with native healers and fortune-tellers. In Uganda he enters a
> > > > small office and spots a framed certificate on the wall: the witch doctor
> > > > has an official licence so that “no
> > believer need f feel
>
> ...
>
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>
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