美国国家公共电台 NPR V.S. Naipaul, Controversial Author And Nobel Laureate, Dies At 85

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

V.S. Naipaul, winner of the Nobel Prize, has died. The 85-year-old author was at his home in London. Perhaps best known for his novel "A Bend In The River," Naipaul was a controversial figure in the literary world. NPR's Lynn Neary has this remembrance.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE¹: By all accounts, V.S. Naipaul was not an easy man. His biographer, Patrick French, says Naipaul set high standards for himself. And he expected as much from others. Be it a waiter in a restaurant, a fellow writer or an entire country, Naipaul did not hold back his criticism when he felt it was deserved.

PATRICK FRENCH: If you think of the first line of his book "A Bend In The River," it's the world is what it is. And his view was that you looked at things straight on. You looked at them dead on. And you told the truth as you saw it, as you perceived it. And if that was going to distress² and upset people, then so be it.

NEARY: Naipaul's relationship with his birthplace, Trinidad, was nothing if not complicated. His grandparents emigrated there from India as indentured³ servants. Naipaul has said he thought it was a mistake that he was born there. French believes he probably meant that as a joke. But here's how Naipaul described Trinidad in a 1994 NPR interview.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

V.S. NAIPAUL: After the destruction of the Aboriginal⁴ people, there was wilderness⁵. And then on that wilderness, late in the 18th century, there began to be created a plantation⁶. And I fear that is how we have to think of the place. It can't be a country in the way you would think of Persia being a country or Turkey being a country.

NEARY: Naipaul's early novels give a warm and humorous view of Trinidad. "A House For Mr. Biswas," which some consider his best book, was based on his father's life. But Naipaul didn't want to get trapped in Trinidad like his father. So he sought and won a scholarship to Oxford⁷. Biographer French says Naipaul's early years in Britain were difficult. He suffered from depression, poverty and loneliness.

FRENCH: To arrive in that setting with very little money, very little security, the racial prejudices of the 1950s, that was - it was quite tough for him. And probably the toughest time of all was after he left Oxford, and he really didn't know what to do. And he was so short of money that he was - you know, he was - he got ill. He didn't have enough to eat. He had nowhere to stay.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

NAIPAUL: It's such a difficult period. I don't want to be reminded of it. I prefer to deal with it in imagination.

NEARY: When a collection of his letters was published in 2000, Naipaul told NPR he did not believe in wallowing in the intense emotions of those early experiences. Instead, he used his writing to work through those feelings.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

NAIPAUL: What happens with pain is that, rarely, time does heal it. And one deals with - in the end, with an abstraction. To be reminded of the week-to-week difficulties of those times would be too much for me, actually.

NEARY: In his later years, Naipaul lived comfortably with his second wife in the English countryside. He was a highly respected writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature. Still, he always seemed to be a man caught between two worlds, the world of the colonizer⁸ and those who are colonized⁹. And his views on the formerly¹⁰ colonized could be harsh. But French says it is the tension between those two worlds that hone Naipaul's writing.

FRENCH: I think that if you've come out of something close to slavery, you've grown up in a colony. You are of Indian origin, but you come from the West Indies. And then you turn up in the 1950s in Oxford. And you make your home in England. You are from the most complex triangulated background possible. And out of that distinctive¹¹ experience, he created extraordinary works of fiction and nonfiction.

NEARY: Sometimes, it has seemed that Naipaul's caustic¹² pen and penchant¹³ for controversy¹⁴ would overshadow his accomplishments¹⁵ as a writer. But biographer Patrick French believes those moments are short-lived. In the long term, he says...

FRENCH: I have no doubt that people will be reading his books for decades and centuries to come.

NEARY: In the end, French thinks that Naipaul was satisfied with his life but never self-satisfied. For V.S. Naipaul, the world was a provocative¹⁶ place. There was always something else to be said, something else to be written. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF FEVERKIN'S "MARCH")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

3 indentured   

v.以契约束缚（学徒）( indenture的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The Africans became indentured servants, trading labor for shelter and eventual freedom. 非洲人成为契约上的仆人，以劳力交换庇护及最终的自由。 来自互联网
• They are descendants of indentured importees. 他们是契约外来工的后代。 来自互联网

4 aboriginal   

adj.（指动植物）土生的，原产地的，土著的

参考例句：

• They managed to wipe out the entire aboriginal population.他们终于把那些土著人全部消灭了。
• The lndians are the aboriginal Americans.印第安人是美国的土著人。

5 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

6 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

7 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

8 colonizer   

殖民者，殖民地开拓者，移民

参考例句：

• In the first few year, the colonizer find life difficult. 头几年里，殖民地开拓者觉得生活艰难。

9 colonized   

开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The area was colonized by the Vikings. 这一地区曾沦为维京人的殖民地。
• The British and French colonized the Americas. 英国人和法国人共同在美洲建立殖民地。

10 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

11 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

12 caustic   

adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的

参考例句：

• He opened his mouth to make a caustic retort.他张嘴开始进行刻薄的反击。
• He enjoys making caustic remarks about other people.他喜欢挖苦别人。

13 penchant   

n.爱好，嗜好；（强烈的）倾向

参考例句：

• She has a penchant for Indian food.她爱吃印度食物。
• He had a penchant for playing jokes on people.他喜欢拿人开玩笑。

14 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

15 accomplishments   

n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就

参考例句：

• It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
• Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

16 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。