VS Naipaul finds no woman writer his literary match – not even Jane Austen

on it, on the T-shirt, not in it

HerBex, I want a T-shirt with your last post in it, no sorry, a tattoo

who is he?

It would be interesting to see if his book sales do increase after this little stunt.

Don't rise to the bait - he's just seeking publicity. As Barbara Ellen puts it in the Observer:

The next time false provocateurs such as Naipaul let rip, we should collectively feign cultural deafness and refuse to react to their headline-hungry splutterings. How else are they going to learn?

www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/05/children-sexuality-naipaul-kate-moss

Meh, he writes quite well bit I doubt anyone will still be reading his work in a hundred years. His comments once again demonstrate that he's really quite stupid. His comments about JA simply demonstrate his entire lack of understanding about what she writes about. In fact, he's so wide of the mark, I wonder if he's actually read any.

I've just heard from my parents who are sailing in the Caribbean - they have just arrived in Chaguaramas in Trinidad, which is where he was born and made some kind of homecoming a few years ago, as I found out from Wikipedia earlier. I have asked them to find out the word on the street if they get a chance. Funny how worlds collide sometimes. Never read any of his books, mind, although I think my Dad has.

HerBeX - I like your post. Willy-waver is my favourite term to use in an argument with men like this. Or rather, "Put your cock away, it impresses no-one". I nearly got punched by an Italian guy who was trying to start a fight with my Dad last year because I crooked my little finger at him. Took the wind out of his sails. Almost literally, as it was a boat-related fight.

I read one of his novels - "A Bend in the River"

It was tedious in the extreme.

Nobel prizes for literature must be handed out on receipt of 5 cereal box coupons.

You would think wouldn't you, that if you were wandering around the earth with an automatic privilege simply because you had a penis and therefore all your endeavours were greeted with far more fanfare, praise and attention than if you were not in possession of that penis, you would thank your lucky stars that you had that privilege and that the ownership of your penis had blinded everyone to how very ordinary you are and you would STFU and continue to pretend that you were frightfully clever and important and not alert the world to the fact that actually, you're just another willy-waving wanker with a deep and reasonable suspicion that you actually are not as good as all those inferior women you despise so much.

I bet we're higher because of all the people who say they're too scared to post

the lurker ratio is the reason why I am always posting links to books even though the person I am arguing with usually finds it patronising and infuriating - it's not for their benefit, it's for people who are on this section because they actually want to find out about feminism.

He doesn't like women very much, does he?

From Wikipedia: "Naipaul was married to Englishwoman Patricia Hale for 41 years, until her death due to cancer in 1996. According to an authorized biography by Patrick French, the two shared a close relationship when it came to Naipaul's work?Pat was a sort of unofficial editor for Naipaul?but the marriage was not a happy one in other respects. Naipaul regularly visited prostitutes in London, and later had a long-term abusive affair with another married woman, Margaret Gooding, which his wife was aware of. Describing his physical treatment of Gooding, Naipaul told French, "I was very violent with her for two days. I was very violent with her for two days with my hand. My hand began to hurt." Of this side to their relationship, Gooding said, "Vidia says I didn?t mind the abuse. I certainly did mind." Prior to Hale's death, Naipaul proposed to Nadira Naipaul, a divorced Pakistani journalist, born Nadira Khannum Alvi. They were married two months after Hale's death, at which point Naipaul also abruptly ended his affair with Gooding. "

Pffah! (only response I can muster to VS - a perfectly decent writer IMHO - thinking he could ever get close to the brilliance of Jane Austen.)

Pfffah!

What toss.

Tosser - I am the 'original' Janeite (it used to be my name on here once upon a moon ago) and I am yet to encounter a male writer who can come close to her wit, style, dialogue and sheer ability to carry a plot without having to take refuge in violence or poncery.

I saw a programme about that once, and I seem to remember that it implied that you are right and that some of these writers therefore sought to overcompensate by acting more macho. They mentioned Hemingway and Mailer. I don't know enough about them, so I can't really say.

It's funny, really. You would expect male novelists to be quite a sensitive lot, more of what gets called 'feminine' than the average man. But the opposite is true if anything. There is such a parade of hypermacho cockwaving, especially in America. The image of the Great American Novelist is hypermale. I wonder how much of it has to do with the dynamics of marketing.

I've never read any of his books but now I know that they don't sound like they are worth the effort anyway.

Has he ever written a book that can compare with 'Wuthering Heights', 'Middlemarch' or 'Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus'? - I thought not. Could he ever match the wit of Dorothy Parker? - He knows he can't. Will he ever achieve the fame of Agatha Christie? - Never.

No wonder he is so bitter in his overestimation of his worth.