JOLLY DAYS

Naipaul

V.S. Naipaul has some interesting things to say:

We must stop fooling ourselves about what we are witnessing…People [in England] talk about those people who were picked up by the Americans as 'lads,' 'our lads,' as though they were people playing cricket or marbles…It's glib, nonsensical talk from people who don't understand that holy war for Muslims is a religious war, and a religious war is something you never stop fighting.

Naipaul isn't interested in dire predictions of an America in the throes of a coruscating devolution:

That's a romantic idea…A civilization which has taken over the world cannot be said to be dying… . It's a university idea. People cook it up at universities and do a lot of lectures about it. It has no substance…

Naipaul in his Nobel acceptance speech said “I have no system, literary or political, I have no guiding political idea.” That's because V.S. Naipaul is an artist.