New Naipaul Book Chases Old Scapegoats

James Atlas reviews Naipaul's new book, Magic Seeds, in the New York Times. He writes at length about Naipaul's career before finally revealing a plot summary that resembles about a dozen of Naipaul's other books. For me, the key moment in the review is the paragraph where Atlas acknowledges that this novel is in fact not so different from many others Naipaul has written:

What is the significance of these corrupt revolutionaries in Naipaul's work? Why do they weigh so heavily on his mind? My own surmise is that they represent the reverse of his own response to statelessness. Not that Naipaul is a supplicant, eager to erase all traces of his origins and become a lord dozing in his armchair at the Athenaeum; he has maintained his independence with fierce pride. Rather, he deplores their nihilism; its futility humiliates and enrages him. ''Sometimes in a storm beautiful old trees are uprooted,'' says Willie's sister, Sarojini. For Naipaul, the answer to rootlessness is not to mindlessly uproot, but to nurture one's own identity -- to plant.

I don't buy it. I am more pro-Naipaul than many of my colleagues. I have written several papers on him; there is a section of my book on his changing relationship to secularism. But there is no excuse for writing the same book a dozen times. Also: How is the idea of middle-class Europeans (or westernized third world intellectuals) joining third-world revolutionary struggles relevant to our era? I can't see it. And who is this writer who favors the "nurturing of one's own identity"? It isn't Naipaul -- no way, no how.

Spoons Collective Shutting Down; Group blog idea

The Spoons Collective is shutting down. Spoons is a collection of academic "theory" listservs that has been running since the mid-1990s. Here is an excerpt from an email I received from Malgosa Askanas, the sole remaining founder of the Collective -- who is taking responsibility for the decision to shut it down:

Over the years, however, our relationship with our lists gradually changed, and we now find our collective endeavor basically reduced to an indifferent performance of a not-excessively-bothersome piece of labor. The reasons for this are undoubtedly complex - the first and simplest one, perhaps, being that the same group of people has been doing the same thing for 10 years. If our goal had been less the stability of existing lists and more the preservation of our own passion, we probably could have done better. In any case, we find ourselves a bunch of burnt out and apathetic bureaucrats.

I personally find thie prolongation of this situation no longer tolerable or sensical. As a result, I have (1) announced that I am quitting the Spoon Collective; (2) decided to close down a number of lists that I have been responsible for; and (3) declared the end of the Spoon Collective as a certain historic formation, and stipulated that the name no longer be used for whatever the present members may undertake in the future.

I have been a subsrcriber to the Spoons Postcolonial list off and on since probably about 1995 or 1996. Early on (I was just starting my Master's work at Tufts in the fall of 1995), I found the list exhilarating. It was also a little dangerous, as discussions with people from incredibly various backgrounds, many of whom were anonymous, often tended to get out of hand. I know of at least one case where someone's academic career was seriously threatened by a comment posted to the postcolonial list! The flame wars led me to unsubscribe from the list, I thought, for good, about three years ago.

But I relented and re-subscribed a year ago, only to find that the list had become boring and superfluous. At some point a couple of years ago, the decision was made to make the list a moderated one, which is an improvement in that it dramatically cut down on useless posts that cluttered my inbox, as well as the kind of ad-hominem attacks that made me want to mass-delete. But because the moderator generally takes a week to ten days to approve emails sent to the list, it often feels pointless to post anything. By the time an interesting nugget on something actually appears, it is quite possibly fully obsolete.

Why listservs are bad. Now the list is shutting down, and frankly I won't miss it. Listservs at their best are a little frustrating. Information and arguments come at you in bits and pieces; most of it gets read quickly, when it's not instantly delected in the interest of reducing Inbox spam and clutter. And at their worst listservs are the worst kind of "info-noise." Blogs and internet forums are much more useful, first because they are 'pull' resources -- that you only go to by choice. They are also fully public, searchable, and pretty user-friendly. In addition to providing the opportunity to connect with other scholars (professional internet sociality), they are permanent, public resources that potentially benefit all kinds of people. And blog/discussion board comments that can be organized by thread (thematically) are miles above the endless disorganized patter of emails that arrive one by one (chronologically).

Finally, listservs preserve a centralized and overly taxonomic model of academic conversation. They encourage segregation by period as well as discipline. Hyperlinked and search-engine friendly resources, by contrast, are potentially much better at enabling conversations to happen according to elective affinity. Subscribers to the postcolonial list, for instance, are divided between people who are associated (as scholars and activists) with the critique of globalization and "American Empire" on the one hand, and those who are interested in postcolonial literature purely as a professional and scholarly pursuit on the other. There is some overlap between the two, but in my own case I prefer to keep "politics" separate from "knowledge." I'm interested in what the folks whose primary motivation as academics and intellectuals is to fight globalization and "American Imperialism" have to say -- and at some moments I find myself agreeing with their arguments and supporting their causes. But it's not really what I'm interested in using electronic communication on the Internet for.

Rhizomes are better. I believe that Postcolonial Studies is too big. It needs to divide at least in half (politics on one side; historicist scholarship on the other), and probably more than that. At the same time, the ideas associated with it are deeply intertwined with any number of academic disciplines and sub-disciplines. Conversations could be at once less taxonomically determined and more complex and heterogeneous; they could be, in short, more rhizomatic.

Group Blog idea. As my final post to the postcolonial list, I suggested starting a group postcolonial studies blog, with a focus on news and current events of interest to postcolonial scholars. I have some ideas about how this might look, but for now I'm simply thinking of it as something that might evolve following the interests of participants. As a starting point, I went ahead and grabbed postcolonial.blogspot.com.

We'll see if anyone bites. Meanwhile, if anyone reading this is a scholar (at any point in your career) who might be interested in collaborating on something like this, please email me or drop a comment below.

Chokher Bali

In addition to hanging out with family and friends in Maryland, the highlight of the weekend so far has been watching Rituparno Ghosh's art-film Chokher Bali, which is based on a novel by Rabindranath Tagore. The key social issue at the core of it is the role of widows in Indian society. There's also lots of good anthropologically-minded details.

This review does justice to the rather intricate plot. The flaw of the film, if there is one, is that it is a little too novelistic; there's lots of dependence on exposition. Some events, also, aren't explained. But it definitely motivates me to go and read the book.

Race War! .... ?

I'm trying to decide whether this has any merit. Maybe the review doesn't do enough work to make the argument in question coherent?

Travelers

My friend Tim ("The Blunderer") has a great post on Gliwice, Poland. He's currently living there. Read it, you might learn a thing or two (I did). And amidst the observations on language, architecture, and everyday life in that part of Poland, he finds a way to compare Ice Cube to Noel Coward.

Also interesting is Kharin's extensive account of Prague ("Never was there a more narcissistic city").

A Few Blogs, mostly Desi

There is a phenomenon called "Bharateeya Blog Mela" (Indian Blog Fair), which has linked to me a couple of times (thanks). It is good because it widens the spectrum of the blogs I know about. Also good because there are lots of blogs being written in Hindi -- maybe bilingualism in the Indian print media isn't dead after all!

Jabberwock (Jai Arjun). New Delhi Journalist. Check out his response to Philip Roth's The Plot Against America.

Patix. A Bombayite architect in Atlanta.

Wanderlust (Neha B). An NRI grad student. Going on hiatus for a few weeks... oh well.

Verbal Chameleon. A liberal U.S. blog.

Kamat Indian Blog Portal. These are always great until they become too big. When there are 300 blogs on the list, portals are wonderful. When there are 30,000, though, they become more like search engines...

Poetry Break: e.e. cummings

There's a new biography of e.e. cummings.

I think people have known for a while that there's more to cummings than a cutesy poet who didn't use punctuation properly, and who insisted on having his name written in lower-case letters. We haven't really had a solid explanation for all the strange, mysterious creations he is responsible for (there are hundreds of poems in his collected works). As a result, we are mainly stuck with "Anyone lived in a pretty how town", and this tricky little anti-war, anti-patriotism poem.

I'll look forward to finding something stronger to grab onto.

Incidentally, there are links to many of cummings's poems here, here, here (includes audio samples of cummings reading), and here.

Meanwhile, Erin O'Connor has posted a cummings poem that has quite a bit of depth and complexity to it. It is, if you'll permit the intrusion of physics, a kind of poetic tesseract: four dimensions, the extension of space, the interpenetation of space and time.

I took a stab at an interpretation in the comments. Am I right?

The Storyteller "Satisfices"

An essay in the NYTimes about storytelling computer software.

The interesting part isn't what the computers are spitting out (though you should really take a look at it). What is important is the methodology -- the algorithms being used. In Daniel Akst's essay there is precious little attention to that, only the following enticing hint about the process of compromise that human writers inevitably use. Herbert Simon, one of the people involved in Brutus, uses the word "satisfice" to describe writerly choices conceived as "good enough" to work.

It was Simon's ideas - particularly his notion of "satisficing" - that first got me interested in fiction-writing machines. Though in theory a person shopping for new shoes could consider all the pairs on the planet, in fact, the cost is way too high - an entire life spent shoe-shopping. So in the real world we visit one or two stores, try on a few in our size and buy a pair.

Satisficing in this way - settling, or even sensing, what is good enough - is something novelists must do as well. We think of an idea and go with it because pausing to systematically consider every plot twist, character or phrase that might come next would lead nowhere.

Conference on Secularism at NYU

It just sounds terrible. I have great respect for the participants as individuals, but this conference sounds pretty painful. What is the point of sitting around and debating in public whether intelligent people are allowed to believe in God or not?

In my view, the debates on secularism that have been happening in places like India are actually much further along conceptually than the kind of post-election hand-wringing that has been occurring amongst Disappointed Dems. in the U.S. lately.

The Absent-Minded Imperialists?

Bernard Porter has a new book coming out, called The Absent-Minded Imperialists: Empire, Culture, and Society in Britain.

According to David Cannadine's review in the Timesonline, Porter's argument seems to be that ordinary Britons knew very little about the overseas Empire even during its heyday. Also, Porter claims that even when there was a fair amount of awareness, the fact of the Empire had little concrete effect on British politics. In some sense this is a polemical book against a certain kind of postcolonial scholarship, which argues that "Empire was so pervasive that the Victorians didn't need to talk about it; or "It's all the more pronounced because it's absent." Porter is right to be critical of those kinds of arguments (I am critical of them too).

Though my knowledge about 19th century England is somewhat limited, there may be some truth in what he's saying. The 1857 Mutiny, for instance, initially caused only a small ripple in England, considering how devastating it was in India. Parliament got around to responding to it, but not for a few months (though part of this delay is certainly due to the slow dissemination of information at the time). No governments fell, no heads rolled (a little like the non-impact of the Iraq debacle in US politics, actually). The real lasting effect of the event would be seen within the colonial government in India itself, where a series of new laws would be passed in the following decade that codified, for the first time in 'black letter' law, a penal code, marriage laws, and even laws about religious conversion. (Many of which are still in practice today, believe it or not... but that's a grumble for another day)

Still, I gather that Porter's point is that very few governments rose or fell on the question of Empire. One other small objection/question: what about Disraeli in 1870? Labour ran against him, charging that he was an "Imperialist"? Meanwhile, he proudly asserted his "imperial" credentials for the first time (earlier he had been tetchy on Empire), as part of an obviously opportunistic turn to populism.

Also interesting in this particular review is the litany of dates and events that Porter is apparently saying are unimportant.

And when Joseph Chamberlain sought to enlist the nation to join him in his great imperial crusade of Tariff Reform, the Conservative party was roundly defeated in the general election of 1906. For much of their lives, Chamberlain and his small group of co-imperial zealots — among them Lords Curzon and Milner, Rudyard Kipling and Leopold Amery — despaired of rousing the British to a full appreciation of their imperial reach and global responsibilities. Neither the Diamond Jubilee of 1897 nor the Imperial Exhibition at Wembley in 1924 made any lasting impact.

Porter apparently is in the awkward position of arguing that something obviously huge in the historical sense was actually unimportant to ordinary people. But why, ultimately is that important? And how can we be quite sure? And this is Cannadine's main objection to the book:

One of the hardest things for a historian to do is to try to demonstrate that something was not important. And unimportant compared to what? It may be true that most 19th- and 20th-century Britons did not know much about their empire; but it is not clear that they knew much about anything else. Where does that get us? Despite the book's subtitle, there is little discussion of Scotland or Ireland, and, as the author coyly admits, his conclusions might be very different if he had extended his discussion to encompass those two nations where empire did bulk larger in the popular consciousness. And even if his argument is correct, it might still be the case that there was more "imperial culture" in Britain than in, say, imperial France or Spain or Russia or Austria-Hungary.

The reviewer, David Cannadine, is himself by no means a raving leftist-postcolonialist. In 2002 he wrote a book called Ornamentalism: How the British Saw Their Empire, where he argued that the hierarchy of imperial authority had more to do with class than race. So this is not an ideological hit. His objections to Porter above seem quite reasonable.

Still, I plan to have a look-see at this book when it comes out next month.

The Cross-dressing Imam

There is a novel waiting to be written about this. Are you paying attention, Tahar Ben Jalloun?

World Cup Kabaddi

This sport is both very fun and very wild. And India has won the world cup! O frabjous day.

Kabaddi has some of the sadism of American Dodgeball, but without the irony or retro-connotations. It's a game that you don't need much stuff to play; kids, including very poor kids, play it on the streets all over India.

Evolving Hybridities: Further DJ Notes

As I've mentioned before, DJing Bhangra parties is fundamentally an exercise in hybridity. The music is almost always a mix of distinctly Indian melodies and chord structures, Hindi and Punjabi lyrics, and of course western dance beats. In contemporary Indian music, if the influence isn't hip hop, it's definitely house.

Some years ago it seemed like hybridity of this kind was a diasporic invention. DJs in England and North America were imposing their need for western dance beats upon their interest in Indian songs. Also, early practitioners in this genre were generally invisible in India. People like Bally Sagoo so dominated the “imported diaspora” market that he owned the brand: any Hindi song with a hip hop beat would be called a “Bally Sagoo type” song.

Now the Indian producers themselves are using hip hop and house beats in their original film songs. Audiences are becoming younger, and better sound-systems in cars and homes in India means a demand for higher production values in the music. (That's one possible explanation... there may be others.) In the case of movies like Dhoom and Musafir, the studios are releasing official remixes (Musafir apparently comes with two versions of each song, on two CDs).

This would seem to be paradise for a DJ. No more crude DSNY-type remixes – which often ruined great music in the interest of 'adapting' it. (I mean 'ruin' in a technical rather than a conservative ideological sense. Since remixers rarely have access to studio masters which would enable them to isolate the vocal tracks in the Hindi/Punjabi songs they remix, they have to achieve that isolation manually, using software like ProTools. Even if it's done well, the remixed vocals are usually a little thin or tinny. And they are lower in the mix – the beat dominates.)

But the embrace of western beats and western production styles has actually produced some new problems. For one thing, the old formula of the familiar Hindi song and the cool (but also familiar) hip hop beat doesn't work if the beat is new and the song is new. And a lot of people here in the U.S. -– especially people who are a little older, or not living in an area densely populated with South Asians -– generally don't keep up with the latest music as much as they might. Last night, for instance, I sensed that the crowd didn't recognize the latest rap/reggae songs (no response to N.O.R.E. and Nina Skye's “Oye Mi Canto”!) or the latest happening Hindi songs. Nothing much on Dhoom, Musafir, Naach, Yuva, Humraaz, etc. etc.

With such problems, the best thing to do is to take refuge in Bhangra, which very few people – even amongst Punjabi speakers -- 'know' in any conventional sense. The range of variation in the beat in Bhangra is fairly limited (or more cynically, the songs all sound a little bit the same). So people –- even folks who don't have any direct connection to India -- are likely to dance to Bhangra beats even if they don't recognize the song. Last night, my best bets (after the predictable success of “Koi Kahe Kehta Rahe” and “It's the Time to Disco”) were Punjabi songs. I've written a bit about the power of Punjabi music in a club before. Here I would only add: it's worth noting that Punjabi music is the only desi pop music that has its own recognizable -– and unique –- beat. Part of its power comes from its distinctive branding (sorry to use marketing speak), even when remixed or grafted onto hip hop. In contrast, Hindi film music sounds, musically, not so different from pop music anywhere in the world. One exception to this rule is A.R. Rahman, who is unique except perhaps when he copies himself. (Which, lately, he is prone to do.)

Below are some further notes on individual hits and misses from last night. It's ordered not by sequence but (loosely) by genre. I went back and forth between Hindi and Punjabi throughout the evening. And I had so many requests that the ordering of my songs was a bit random. Also: I had to repeat a few big tracks (when you're on for 3 hours or more, it's kind of inevitable).

Bally Sagoo, “Jugni” with the “Billie Jean” beat

Worked. This one always works, even though the remix is crude and Malkit Singh's voice is a little tinny (see above).

DJ Rani, Daler Mehndi, “Jalwa” with the “Everyone falls in love some time” beat

I often suffer with this one. Maybe “Jalwa” isn't as popular as I thought.

A.S. Kang “Aish Karo”

This Punjabi song is great. Can't go wrong. “Eat, drink, have fun, my friends...” Also a nice message. A.S. Kang, I think, has a great voice -- too bad he often gets stuck with second-rate producers.

Panjabi MC, “Dhol Jageero Da”

This is slower, traditional Bhangra from Panjabi MC. It's one of the best Bhangra tracks in years. Can't go wrong.

Tigerstyle, “Nachna Onda Nei”

This is a great song (“I don't know how to dance”), but the beat is sometimes a drawback. The extra-heavy bass sounds good on a nice stereo, but it wreaks havoc in a club. I had to turn the bass way down half-way through the song.

Essential Asian Flavas, DJ H & Punjabi Outlawz, “Yaar Dha” (track 3)
Tigerstyle, The Rising, “Put Jatt de Shakeen”

Great Punjabi tunes, and genius hip hop beats.

“Aaja ni Aaja (Tenu Nachna Sikadia)”

Another song about learning how to dance (“Come on, I'll teach you how to dance”). Seems to be a popular theme...

Stereo Nation “Apna Sangeet”

Fast Bhangra in the breakbeat style. This sounds great in the car or at home, but for some reason it didn't move the crowd as much as I'd hoped. Maybe a little too fast?

Hunterz, Phat Trax "Dil" (track 2)
Urban Bhangra Hype, Ama Ni Ama (track 6)
Hunterz, Phat Trax, Dil Karda eh (track 4)
DJ APS Return of the King, Punjabi Girl (track 3)
The Jump Off, “Nach Le” Daler Mehndi/A.R. Rahman remix

I was happy with all of these tracks, which came off of some new CDs I'd purchased in Queens. Especially good were the remix of “Nach Le” (from Lakeer) and the DJ APS track. Too bad I didn't think to play these until the evening was beginning to wind up. Next time they go in earlier.

Stereo Nation, Oh Laila, “Nachangeh Sari Raat” (track 3)

“We'll dance all night.” Playing this track was wishful thinking on my part! Ok, just kidding, actually it worked just fine.

Dhoom, “Dhoom Machale,” “Dhoom Dhoom,” “Shikdum (Bedroom Mix)”

Surprising – not as successful as I'd thought. This soundtrack has been in my head for the past two weeks. But maybe that's just me. If or when it catches on in the diaspora community, it might work better.

#1s Item Hitz! “Dekh Le” remix from Munabhai MBBS

Complete disaster. Had to abort after one minute. Why? Such a nice song, remixed from a popular movie. This sounded fine at home, but a little garbled coming through the sound system. Maybe I had the levels off? Or maybe I should listen again.

Baby Doll, Come Fall in Love! “Kabhi Aar Kabhi Paar” remix

This was a hit in India this past summer, with a nice funky swing to it, and sort of a naughty tone. Seemed to work here too, though it's a little on the slow side for my tastes.

Kal Ho Na Ho, “It's the Time to Disco” -- anthem
Dil Chahta Hai, “Koi Kahe Kehta Rahe” -- anthem
Panjabi MC, “Mundian to Bach Ke” -- anthem

These never get old... yet. I will mourn when I have to retire these.

Instant Karma, “Dum a dum Mast Kalandar”

Euphoric house music. More people should listen to Instant Karma; they are good.

Special Appointment Club Hits, “Inhi Logon Ne” remix

Seemed to work.

Asha Bhosle, “Sharara”

Funky, upbeat. Still works.

DJ Karma “Chaiya Chaiya” remix from Dil Se

This song is a bit of a quandary. The original is actually a little slow for my tastes, but it's still a huge anthem for people nonetheless. Perhaps it's the recognition factor? The memory of the film, where Shah Rukh Khan is dancing on a moving train? Sukhwinder Singh's voice? I don't know. Can someone tell me what is so great about "Chaiya Chaiya"?

Monsoon Wedding, "Kawa Kawa/Aaj mera jee karda"

Same question about this song. It's slow, but you have to play it.

It's the Time to Disco Dance Dhamaka, “Jaa re jaa staying alive mix” (track 8)

I got this CD in India. It's kind of a party compilation, but it's produced by Sony. Anyway, the song sounded great. They are reproducing in studio (not sampling) The Bee Gees' "Stayin Alive." I should have played this earlier in the evening.

DJ Kucha, “Rang Barse” Amitabh remix with Rob Base, “Its takes two”

This remix takes one of the best hip-hop songs ever, and mixes it with one of the best Hindi songs ever. And it kicks butt.

The Biggest Sports Rivalry You've Never Heard Of

Lehigh-Lafayette. It's even in the Times. Go figure.

Also, go Lehigh.

Reforming Islam from within and without: Irshan Manji

Irshad Manji, author of The Trouble With Islam, in an Op-Ed today's Times.

She highlights the difference in the experience of religious minorities in North America vs. in Europe. In North America, the idea of people of faith who are liberals or reformers is seen as acceptable. In Europe, however, it is seen as a contradiction in terms:

Because [North America] has long been a society of immigrants seeking religious tolerance, religion itself is not seen as irrational - even if what some people do with it might be, as in the case of terrorism. Which means Muslims in North America tend to be judged less by what we wear than by what we do - or don't do, like speaking out against Islamist violence.

But there's something else going on. The mass immigration of Muslims is bringing faith back into the public realm and creating a post-Enlightenment modernity for Western Europe. This return of religion threatens secular humanism, the orthodoxy that has prevailed since the French Revolution. Paradoxically, because many Western Europeans feel that they're losing Enlightenment values amid the flood of "people of faith," they wind up sympathizing with those in the Muslim world who resent imported values that challenge their own. Both groups are identity protectionists.

We see such protectionism playing out in the debate about whether Turkey may join the European Union. Reflecting a sizable segment of public opinion, European Union commissioners have argued that Turkey is too "oriental." And let us stay that way, proclaim some Muslim puritans who fear the promiscuity of pluralistic values. But is Turkey all that different from Europe?

It's a longtime member of NATO. Its so-called Islamist government has updated the country's human rights statutes to conform to the standards of the European Union. It's home to an astonishingly free press. Recently, a left-wing newspaper questioned the Koran's origins, a right-wing newspaper wrote about gays and lesbians lobbying for sexual orientation to be included in anti-discrimination laws, and a centrist newspaper editorialized that the education system should be reformed to promote diversity.

In an odd way, Europe's brand of secularism is more narrow and 'protectionist' than what one finds in the United States or Canada, where Bush-ian "Godliness" and multiculturalism have achieved an uneasy balance. The result, uneasiness aside, is a a somewhat healthier blend.