"Didn't know how to compose a paragraph"

During an interview with the London Literary Review, Sir V.S. Naipaul, the 2001 Nobel laureate for literature, described Ernest Hemingway as "so busy being an American" that he "didn't know how to compose a paragraph." Naipaul offered no further explanation of his remarks, but let's assume for the sake of argument, he was referring to the time Hemingway spent at war. Yes, Hemingway was very busy during this time. He was busy chronicling experiences, which would inspire some of the greatest literature ever written.

Hemingway admitted in a 1925 letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald that of all the subjects a writer could write about, war was one of the best, if not the best. A number of Hemingway's most famous books were directly influenced by wars. A Farewell to Arms is still considered by many critics the best novel ever written about World War I. The Spanish Civil War was the inspiration for Hemingway's 1940 novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Hemingway's interest in war was as a writer first, an American second.

I am having trouble imagining Hemingway "so busy being an American" even in a general context. Hemingway was a Paris expatriate, he travelled the world, he spent much of his adult years living in Cuba. When I think "American" and I think Hemingway, I think first and foremost, "American" literary icon.

Posted on May 14, 2006 | Two comments

Sir V.S. Naipaul should be stripped-off his Laureate and write some real good literature that will influence the world. I think the Nobel committee made a mistake about him. He's too busy being a Nobel awardee that he points his finger to those who have gone before him and yell, "American!" What so bad being an american anyway? Oh yeah, a lot! But inspite of all that, nobody half as good as Hemingway deserve to call anyone "too busy being American" It's simply idiotic to do so. One does not loose his nationality anyway. And about hemingway, a writer remains a writer regardless of what he does. When he writes he simply becomes himself.

— Jun Cristobal | May 24, 2006

V.S. Naipaul! Who the hell is that! Oh, right, he's the affirmative action recipient of the Nobel Prize. It's too bad nobody reads him or knows who he is. The Brits pass those knighthoods out like so much worthless currency. Talk about inflation.

— rot hamden | March 23, 2009