When asked to explain the symbolism of the bindi (the colored dot worn on the forehead of Indian women), V.S. Naipaul said: "The dot means: my head is empty." (Pg. 387)
I got into a discussion last night of young female artists on the prowl for a man to take care of them.
"Isn’t it the same for male artists (freelance writers in particular, my group)?" I was asked.
Well, no. I know very few men, if any, who are looking for a woman to financially provide for them. Most men would feel emasculated by that. A woman doesn’t feel defeminized when she seeks out a man to provide for her.
A man’s manliness is largely determined by his work. A woman’s femininity is not determined by her work.
In the late 1970s, Naipaul became obsessed with Islamic fundamentalism. He said it was a growing threat to the world, that the Iranian Islamic radicals did not want a revolution so much as an opportunity to kill their opponents and start a theocratic state.
He was right.
Naipaul wrote the book, "Among the Believers." "His thesis…was [that Islam was] innately imperialist, requiring its followers to diminish their native culture."
Quentin writes: "I can’t find the quote online, but if I can trust my memory, it was from a V.S. Naipaul interview. The author was asked how he thought the situation in the Middle East would end, and he said that it would end with "victory for one side and defeat for the other". The interviewer thought this sounded a bit harsh, to which Naipaul replied that he was not condoning the situation, that was simply what he saw."
