Good morning classmates,
Owing to work constraints, I was only able to attend the conference on Friday 30th October. I truly looked forward to attending as it was my first conference of this nature. Quite anticlimatically however, I noticed that the audio in the amphitheatre was truly going to upset my listening experience and possibly hamper my ability to produce any valuable commentary on the conference. Fortunately, just at the time when the main panels were about to present, and almost as if the audio system itself felt the value of what was going to be said, the problem was swiftly resolved and I was then able to hear clearly and take notes. Thankfully, it happened in this timely manner because I definitely enjoyed listening to the seasoned as well as the blossoming scholars and their analyses of the works of Naipaul.
One of the things that stood out to me was the dynamic and seemingly multifaceted personality of V.S Naipaul as was highlighted throughout, by the presenters and the members of the audience alike. Without any concrete prior evidence of who he was as a person, I had him simply reduced in my mind to an unlikeable cultural icon when it came down to personality. It was therefore quite interesting to learn things such as the fact that he did not initially appreciate or value the work of his father Seepersad Naipaul and stalled in publishing his book although eventually he admitted that it was his father who provided inspiration for his own works. I learned that his relationship with his own brother Shiva was also quite volatile with words such as love, anger, remorse, intolerance and hate being used to describe the feelings between them. Shiva complained that Naipaul never raised a hand to help him as an upcoming artist and in reference to Naipaul stated that: "No one lives up to the demands of an asshole." Nevertheless, it was mentioned that V.S Naipaul was severely affected by his brother Shiva's death. It was interesting to learn that Naipaul was more driven by artistic ambition rather than love and stated once: "I am the sum of my books."
What I learned about V.S Naipaul at Friday's conference, clarified my preconceived notions of him as a person and offered me concrete evidence to support those feelings. Needless to say, the value and superior quality of many of his works cannot be easily refuted or nullified.
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