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Naipaul on writing
by Rishi Mon Jan 14, 2013 12:04 am
INTERVIEWER
Do you think language should only convey and not, as with John Updike, dance and dazzle?
NAIPAUL
Well, people have to do what they want to do. I wish my prose to be transparent—I don’t want the reader to stumble over me; I want him to look through what I’m saying to what I’m describing. I don’t want him ever to say, Oh, goodness, how nicely written this is. That would be a failure.
INTERVIEWER
So even as the ideas are complex, the prose stays uncluttered.
NAIPAUL
Simple, yes. Also, I mustn’t use jargon. You are surrounded by jargon—in the newspapers, in friends’ conversations—and as a writer, you can become very lazy. You can start using words lazily. I don’t want that to happen. Words are valuable. I like to use them in a valuable way.
INTERVIEWER
Do you despair for English literature?
NAIPAUL
No, I don’t despair for it. It doesn’t exist now, partly because it is very hard to do again what has been done before. It is in a bad, bad way in England. It has ceased to exist—but so much has existed in the past, perhaps there is no cause for grief.
INTERVIEWER
What about writers emerging from India? Do you feel the same about them?
NAIPAUL
I haven’t examined that, but I think India will have a lot of writing. For many centuries India has had no intellectual life at all. It was a ritualized society, which didn’t require writing. But when such societies emerge from a purely ritualistic life and begin to expand industrially, economically, and in education, then people begin to need to understand what is happening. People turn to writers, who are there to guide them, to provoke them, to stimulate them. I think there will be a lot of writing in India now. The situation will draw it out.
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1069/the-art-of-fiction-no-154-v-s-naipaul
Do you think language should only convey and not, as with John Updike, dance and dazzle?
NAIPAUL
Well, people have to do what they want to do. I wish my prose to be transparent—I don’t want the reader to stumble over me; I want him to look through what I’m saying to what I’m describing. I don’t want him ever to say, Oh, goodness, how nicely written this is. That would be a failure.
INTERVIEWER
So even as the ideas are complex, the prose stays uncluttered.
NAIPAUL
Simple, yes. Also, I mustn’t use jargon. You are surrounded by jargon—in the newspapers, in friends’ conversations—and as a writer, you can become very lazy. You can start using words lazily. I don’t want that to happen. Words are valuable. I like to use them in a valuable way.
INTERVIEWER
Do you despair for English literature?
NAIPAUL
No, I don’t despair for it. It doesn’t exist now, partly because it is very hard to do again what has been done before. It is in a bad, bad way in England. It has ceased to exist—but so much has existed in the past, perhaps there is no cause for grief.
INTERVIEWER
What about writers emerging from India? Do you feel the same about them?
NAIPAUL
I haven’t examined that, but I think India will have a lot of writing. For many centuries India has had no intellectual life at all. It was a ritualized society, which didn’t require writing. But when such societies emerge from a purely ritualistic life and begin to expand industrially, economically, and in education, then people begin to need to understand what is happening. People turn to writers, who are there to guide them, to provoke them, to stimulate them. I think there will be a lot of writing in India now. The situation will draw it out.
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1069/the-art-of-fiction-no-154-v-s-naipaul
Rishi- Posts : 5129
Join date : 2011-09-02
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