The Writer and the World: Essays

In these sarcastic and sometimes cynical texts, V.S. Naipaul brushes a bleak picture of the state of the world, based mostly on his travels in the Third World (India, Africa, South- and Central America). Written mostly in the 1970s, a big part of his analyses are still very actual today: deliberately blind or lying governments, plundering elites, the victimizing of women and children, would-be revolutionaries or people in power serving only their own agendas, fundamentalism beyond religion, population explosion, unemployment or destitution. His vision of civilization is more acute today than ever. India India struggles under the yoke of a caste system: `A Hindu doesn't have the Christian social sense; caste is not class. No one denies his caste or seeks to move out of it.' Its elite only thinks of plundering. But the overall astonishing attitude is one of lethargy. When a famine breaks out in Bihar, the reaction is: Is this news? Mauritius (The Overcrowded Barracoon) The government prefers to be blind for the link between population explosion, unemployment and destitution. Ivory Coast (The Crocodiles of Yamoussouko) The population continues to live with utmost fear under the spell of black magic, needing human (!) sacrifices (mostly children) to assuage it. The aim of the pharaonic project of Yamoussouko is to control this magic spell. Zaire (A new king for Congo) The kingdom of Mobutu became its own end, leaving its population alone to look for a survival strategy. Trinidad (Michael X and the Black Power killings in Trinidad) A sadistic, racist madman was supported by `people who substitute doctrine for knowledge and irritation for concern, but in the end do not more than celebrate their own security.' A terrible real horror story. Argentina V.S. Naipaul sees a country ruled by the idea of plunder and machismo with its victimization of women (The Brothels in the Graveyard). Uruguay In the state oil company there were more employees than chairs. U.S. The R. Reagan convention showed fundamentalism beyond religion. It simplified the world by rolling together different kind of anxieties: school, race, buggery, Russia, communism. V.S. Naipaul's vision His golden rule is the one of J.S. Mill: `Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.' `Philosophical diffidence meets philosophical hysteria; and the diffident man is, at the end, the more in control.' The aim of all civilizations should be the pursuit of happiness for its overall population. This book contains also a visit to Steinbeck's `Cannery Row' after all these years, comments on the Grenada coup, the works of J.L. Borges or the political campaign of N. Mailer. V.S. Naipaul is a very astute traveler with an eagle's eye for the essence, the real aims and issues and the real behavior behind the veil of palavers, palaces, powers and politics. Not to be missed.

Some countries are going places, some are not. Ever been someplace on the planet where not much of anything really works? Like lights, water, phones, transportation, agriculture, healthcare ... forget elevators. V.S. Naipaul nails the key attributes at an early age: tribalism, magic, double lives and my favorite, lack of maintenance. He looks for the best in every location but discovers what is behind the curtain. Not a politically correct book but a surprisingly accurate set of predictions and explanations. Enjoy the trip.

Naipaul's essays are an exercise in bluntness. Not for this man the frills, the wide eyed wonder through which some eyes view the world. Naipaul is the High Priest of dismantling national myths. Especially myths that glorify nation states at the expense of historial reality. Witness his essay on Argentina. Argentina is seen as a bastion of Old European culture, an island unto itself, unwilling to engage in dialogue with its neighbors. This essay will by no means be printed either in the New York Times, the L.A. Times or London's Guardian. His impression of Madagascar is disheartening. Elsewhere his disenchantment with his ancestral home, India, is brutal as well. The only nation that seems to escape censure is the United States. It is to him the symbol of hope and entrepreneurship. In contrast to V.S. Naipaul stands Jan Morris. I prefer her to Naipaul. Like Charles Lamb, she trudges the highways and byways of each place she visits. She is quick to loose herself with joyous abandon, slow to censure. Ultimately it is Miss Morris' writings that made me walk with a spring in my step. Naipaul is too angry. Our world is too much with him.

When one reads Naipaul's nonfictional essays, and compares them with his fictional works, one is most certainly not as impressed. In this prolific collection- 550+ pages, Naipaul documents his diverse essays, on diverse topics, from India to Anguilla, from New York, to Algeria. Let me begin with the first essay, which, not surprisingly, regards a visit to the city of Calcutta. There is a slight background material- about Trinidad, and then starts the prophet-of-doomsday attitude. One is almost irked when continually perusing through words like "decaying", "morbid", "ruin". If India would actually be a dying culture, it would have by now been history. But it still persists, flourishes, and exports it culture. Naipaul is relentlessly critical of Indians, deeming them "indifferent", "primitive", etc. He lashes out at Hinduism with a sudden passionate loathing- "The barbaric rituals of Hinduism are barbaric, the idea of the holy cow is absurd." All this gives an impression of a ceaslessly pessimistic man, who is born to extract only the most troubling aspects of Indians, ignoring the democracy, ignoring the culture, ignoring the slow progress, ignoring the values- in short, making a thorn of every petal. But, one must admit, Naipaul's opinions about India are true, and being an Indian myself, it is nothing extraordinary. But of cruelty, and malice, one does not approve- Naipaul's satire on the Indian accent: "Esomerset, Eshelly, Eshakespeare", is almost as if Naipaul is on some evil mission to forever degrade common people. If writing about such extraneous incidents is your idea of humor, Mr. Naipaul, certainly we do not approve it. This attitude of rooting out the utmost filth out of a poor country, reveals how depressed Naipaul is, and how audacious, let go haughty. But there is something almost magical about Naipaul's words, his interpretations are often profound, and his humor cultivated. The second essay, about the election in Ajmer, is captivating. At the end, you feel as if there lies a novel in the entire essay on the election, and a good revelation on the politics of India. Gradually, the essays become less profound, more documental, and more random. But one question still haunts- if Naipaul glorifies the West, and rubbishes the third world, how come most of his writings are on the third world, or non-western cultures? Why not write about Germany? The reason is that Naipaul finds material to criticize to be absent in the West- it merely serves as a model- a model of perfection, and a useful tool for deriding colonial peoples, though deriding impressively.