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Looking back
in wonder
Sir V. S. Naipaul seemed to be in mellow,
nostalgic mood at the launch of his latest novel Magic Seeds
at the Oxford Book Store gallery, Kolkata, on the evening
of 18 November. The book is a continuation of the saga of
Willie Chandran whom one first met in the earlier Half a Life,
where his character is moulded by experiences through living
in different continents. In Magic Seeds Chandran comes to
India to join an underground movement in south India.
Is it going to be last novel as has been circulating in the
grapevine? The Nobel Laureate was not so sure, but admitted
that he abandoned the idea of a fourth novel, continuing the
journey, because “I haven’t been keeping well and
you’ve to be physically fit to write, to move around
and meet people.” The image of a writer ensconced in
some secluded corner and producing scintillating prose is
just a romantic idea people indulge in, according to him.
Sir Vidia also did not mince his words as he regretted the
‘death of high culture’ that once encouraged the
mind to explore and think, particularly in Europe. “People
seem to gloat over (it). …I feel very depressed to find
literature is a dying idea today.” No less to blame is
the culture of prizes, he said, which is “destructive
of novels.” It is a good barometer to see how long the
prize-winning books are retained in public memory.
Adopting a fast pace for the book to narrate the events,
Naipaul said that it was done consciously which started 30
years ago. “I don’t believe in unnecessary details.”
He advised everybody to read Mahatma Gandhi’s My Experiment
with Truth to understand what he meant, a book gliding smoothly
from image to image without the core missing.
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