Nobel-winning writer V.S. Naipaul faced criticism Thursday for saying he does not regard any female authors as his equal, even famed novelist Jane Austen, because they are "sentimental."
The Trinidad-born Naipaul, who has been no stranger to controversy in the past, said the work of female writers was inferior partly because they are not the "complete master of a house."
"Women writers are different, they are quite different. I read a piece of writing and within a paragraph or two I know whether it is by a woman or not. I think [it is] unequal to me," he told the London Evening Standard newspaper.
The 78-year-old, who won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature for works such as his semi-autobiographical novel "A House for Mr. Biswas," said this was due to women's "sentimentality, their narrow view of the world".
"Inevitably for a woman, she is not a complete master of a house, so that comes over in her writing too,” he said.
"My publisher, who was so good as a taster and editor, when she became a writer, lo and behold, it was all this feminine tosh. I don't mean this in any unkind way," he said.
Asked if he considered any women writers his equal, he replied, "I don't think so."
Naipaul had especially harsh words for the 19th-century writer Austen, whose much-loved works include "Pride and Prejudice."
He said he "couldn't possibly share her sentimental ambitions, her sentimental sense of the world."
His remarks drew scorn from the former publisher he mentioned, award-winning British author Diana Athill, who said Naipaul appeared to be "losing his grip."
"He always tended toward irritability, and it seems he is losing his grip. It is ridiculous," she told the Evening Standard.
"Taking myself out of it, you only have to think of authors like George Eliot, or Jane Austen, you cannot take it seriously,” Athill said. "He has been asked what he genuinely feels and what he feels seems to me to be foolishness.”
British-based Naipaul has stirred controversy in the past, describing post-colonial countries as "half-made societies" and arguing that Islam both enslaved and attempted to wipe out other cultures.
Naipaul also famously fell out with United States travel writer Paul Theroux but the pair reportedly made up this week at the Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival in Wales.
Catitan Sut:
V.S Naipaul, penulis keturunan India dari Trinidad ini saya kenali kerana bukunya Amongs The Believers (rasanya gitulah tajuknya).
Sebelum ini saya menyangka dia adalah seorang penulis yang berfikiran 'contemporary', mengiktiraf persamaan lelaki dan perempuan sebagaimana dalam logic arus perdana sekarang. Rupanya dia masih berfikiran secara 'oriental' dan medieval.
Nampaknya kita tidak boleh memahami seseorang mengikut apa yang kita sangka berdasarkan kemunasabahan, sebagaimana saya agak terkejut mambaca antara vegetarian yang paling menonjol ialah Hitler. Terutama sebelum itu saya membaca sebuah buku tulisan seorang 'nun' (tok chi) buddha yang mempromosi sikap vegetarian, katanya gajah haiwan vegetarian yang bertubuh besar tetap berperangai sopan dan pengasih, tetapi kucing haiwan carnivorous yang bertubuh kecil tetapi ganas dan kasar.
Saya juga mengetahui yang ada sebahagian tuan-tuan guru kita dulunya tidak memberi pelajaran yang maksima mungkin kepada anak-anak perempuan, kerana sangka mereka dalam agama ,perempuan itu selayaknya hanya belajar mengurus rumah tangga (memasak dan menjahit), tetapi saya juga menjumpai catitan dan sebutan senarai nama ulama-ulama perempuan termasuk periwayat hadith dari seawal zaman sahabat lagi. Antaranya isteri kepada Imam Ibnu Hajar al-Asqalani, merupakan seorang alim yang dihormati keilmuannya oleh suaminya, sehingga apabila Imam Ibnu Hajar mengkahwini isteri keduanya (untuk mendapat zuriat) secara bersembunyi kerana hormatnya kepada isterinya yang amat alim itu. Si isteri yang bijaksana itu telah mempelak suaminya dengan mengadakan majlis keraian yang meriah, dan apabila ditanya suami tujuan keraian itu, dia menjawab sempena meraikan perkahwinan suaminya. Aduhai kalau sekarang ini anak muda mengungkapkannya sebagai 'kantoi".
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