tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post5791179930202219101..comments2024-03-29T15:45:04.867+05:30Comments on Jabberwock: Notes on Paul Theroux's A Dead HandJabberwockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-83634237109605897962009-12-05T15:41:08.398+05:302009-12-05T15:41:08.398+05:30Haha! When did Jai Arjun convert from a Naipaul ba...Haha! When did Jai Arjun convert from a Naipaul baiter to an apologetic (I am of the latter variety) Still good to confirm you are the flexible, non-dogmatic reviewer I had always imagined ;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-73833964648031007302009-12-05T15:41:06.913+05:302009-12-05T15:41:06.913+05:30Haha! When did Jai Arjun convert from a Naipaul ba...Haha! When did Jai Arjun convert from a Naipaul baiter to an apologetic (I am of the latter variety) Still good to confirm you are the flexible, non-dogmatic reviewer I had always imagined ;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-30338974978514039582009-11-22T05:34:57.688+05:302009-11-22T05:34:57.688+05:30Jai
Theroux is in the running for the "2009 ...Jai<br /><br />Theroux is in the running for the "2009 Bad Sex <br />Writing" for a passage from this book...http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/19/bad-sex-factor-prize-shortlist . hehe..good company though..Roth is there tooAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-81725718586148255562009-11-17T04:00:00.951+05:302009-11-17T04:00:00.951+05:30Oh OK - clearly I needed some caffeine before post...Oh OK - clearly I needed some caffeine before posting!Anunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-47257170693650460242009-11-16T13:19:34.113+05:302009-11-16T13:19:34.113+05:30Anu: oh, when I said "this seems like we'...Anu: oh, when I said "this seems like we're coming uncomfortably close to the 'anything goes' stance", I was talking mainly about my own reply to your first comment - the "philosophical" blah-blah!Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-12817150023403541442009-11-16T12:48:39.631+05:302009-11-16T12:48:39.631+05:30Yes, I did notice that bit on the blurring between...Yes, I did notice that bit on the blurring between the fictional and "real" writer, it's an interesting point. I would guess that it's a bit of both i.e. fictional and views held by PT?<br /><br />I didn't quite mean it as an anything goes but will leave it at that. Posting responses is always slightly uncomfortable - generally an interesting post generates a few strands of thoughts but you are trying to be brief and not kind of go on a freewheeling and lengthy spiel of your own!!Anuhttp://subversive-lace.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-28769913327483210862009-11-16T11:33:33.151+05:302009-11-16T11:33:33.151+05:30Prashant: To be fair to Naipaul, he has been just ...Prashant: To be fair to Naipaul, he has been just as critical of America and England in several other writings.<br /><br />I'd anyday prefer <i>An Area of Darkness</i> over the cliched, uncritical observations of a Shashi Tharoor.<br /><br />Here's a <a href="http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/wl1990.htm" rel="nofollow">speech</a> by Naipaul that I love to revisit and recommend. Pretty much sums up his views on the "Third World".shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-12829389472704113842009-11-16T11:14:15.095+05:302009-11-16T11:14:15.095+05:30Anu: yes, this seems like we're coming uncomfo...Anu: yes, this seems like we're coming uncomfortably close to the "anything goes" stance, but that isn't quite the case. Obviously, the work of any writer is subject to analysis and criticism - whether it's Naipaul or Theroux or a blinkered hack who can't open himself to new experiences/cultures. And an engaged, honest review will in turn tell you about the critic's "biases". So it goes.<br /><br /><i>I suppose the effectiveness of a writer lies in immersing you in their world not necessarily in whether they "got it right"</i><br /><br />I'd also add that for "their world" to be genuinely interesting to a reader (speaking for myself, at least), one would have to get the impression that the writer has at least made an effort to understand the things around him and to engage with them, before forming a positive or negative impression. Though of course, one can indirectly learn things about the human condition even by reading the most mediocre, vapid and unperceptive writing!<br /><br />One interesting thing about <i>A Dead Hand</i>, as I've tried to indicate in the post, is that it's written in the first person by a fictional narrator who happens to be a travel writer but who also comes across as slightly more condescending towards India than Theroux is himself. This blurs the author/narrator line considerably at times, so that even when the voice is Jerry Delfont's, one occasionally wonders if Theroux himself holds some of these views.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-85765775487173041022009-11-16T10:10:15.842+05:302009-11-16T10:10:15.842+05:30Oh yes I quite agree re biases.
Part of the fun ...Oh yes I quite agree re biases. <br /><br />Part of the fun of reading is that for for a brief moment you look at the world through the writer's eyes, I suppose the effectiveness of a writer lies in immersing you in their world not necessarily in whether they "got it right". And there is often little need to get agitated the way we do in India about people not getting it right. <br /><br />I suppose it's that old Rashomon chestnut - that there are different perspectives regarding anything :-)Anuhttp://subversive-lace.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-4131393460322683982009-11-16T08:39:57.653+05:302009-11-16T08:39:57.653+05:30Anu: yes, but none of us is truly free of biases, ...Anu: yes, but none of us is truly free of biases, no? The idea that any writer can be reminds me of the commonly expressed notion in certain circles that a review should be "objective".<br /><br />I suppose, in a larger, philosophical sense, one shouldn't take any writing as truly representative of anything!Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-25416444166381622102009-11-16T04:53:56.145+05:302009-11-16T04:53:56.145+05:30I must admit I quite like Theroux's cynicism. ...I must admit I quite like Theroux's cynicism. But the Indian sections of The Great Railway Bazaar left me more perplexed than indignant, as it didn't ring true. So I approach all his other books with some scepticism. Perhaps its true of many travel writers though. I liked Pico Iyer's Falling off the Map but after living in Oz his section on the country in the book comes across as a bit of a howler. <br /><br />I guess with many writers writing about places you can enjoy the writing but you can't take the impressions they record as truly representative of the lands they pass through or free of biases.Anuhttp://subversive-lace.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-22343193182841477172009-11-15T18:14:08.873+05:302009-11-15T18:14:08.873+05:30Looking forward to reading your essay . and I must...Looking forward to reading your essay . and I must say here for the record that one book I like most and which don't do this stereotype is "Inspite of God" Which I bought after reading the review here .Prashant Singhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10079032946958487411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-64015956310458778612009-11-15T18:03:23.130+05:302009-11-15T18:03:23.130+05:30I'll also shortly put up a link to an essay I ...I'll also shortly put up a link to an essay I wrote for a magazine, which touched on this subject (the supposed stereotyping of India by Indian Anglophone writers). Never put it up on the blog for some reason.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-49932417815236680092009-11-15T17:56:39.591+05:302009-11-15T17:56:39.591+05:30Prashant: The sentence "Naipaul and his likes...Prashant: The sentence "Naipaul and his likes are Brown Mouthpiece of Whiteman" is much more of a simplistic generalisation/judgement than anything Naipaul and most of these so-called "mouthpieces" have written. There may be a lot of pessimism in Naipaul's work (and the man himself fairly insufferable in many ways), but there's also a huge amount that's deeply nuanced and perceptive. His reputation as one of the great English-language writers of the last century definitely hasn't been founded on his neat packaging of India for a hypothetical smug and insular Western reader.<br /><br />At any rate, this idea that the West is littered with Indian-origin writers who write mainly "to exoticise India as a land of snake-charmers for a Western readership" is itself a lazy and too-carelessly repeated one. Which is not to say that there's no truth in it at all. But the situation is definitely not that black and white.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-17273194810970419562009-11-15T17:28:44.581+05:302009-11-15T17:28:44.581+05:30I agree with Shrikanth about the portrayal of Indi...I agree with Shrikanth about the portrayal of Indian in these novels .But to some extent it is not beyond comprehension. These books are primarily written for a Western audience who live in a Time wrap and love to see India as a country of snake charmer or who want to indulge in pursuit of Kitsch by sympathizing with poor unsophisticated masses of Indians.<br /><br /><br />Naipaul and his likes are, as a critic put it , Brown Mouthpiece of Whiteman.Prashant Singhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10079032946958487411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-22271126932623542122009-11-13T22:42:02.896+05:302009-11-13T22:42:02.896+05:30Haven't read Theroux. But I gather from your p...Haven't read Theroux. But I gather from your post that his writings on India and Indians is influenced by the travelogues of Naipaul, his erstwhile mentor.<br /><br />The first two books in Naipaul's "Indian trilogy" - <i>An Area of Darkness</i> and <i>India - A Wounded Civilization</i> are deeply pessimistic and extremely critical of Indian habits littered with observations similar to the ones you cite here.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.com