Talk:Pico Iyer

School team
I'm sorry that my addition about the school chess team was deleted. I thought it was sufficiently interesting. Maybe it is not strictly verifiable; I could verify it, but it would be a lot of bother, and anyway I do not think it contravenes the spirit of the verifiability guidelines. Viewfinder 03:52, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
 * diff for reference. --Quiddity 17:35, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Autobiographical writing
I find the tone of the writing in this article to be a little autobiographical (and not particularly WP:NPOV). I applaud Mr. Iyer for noting that he made changes to the article himself, but the official Wikipedia policy toward autobiographical changes to articles requires that the subject of the article request these changes through the article's talk page. See Autobiography. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.108.108.193 (talk • contribs).


 * In theory, you are right, but in practice, I do not think any breach of the spirit of Wikipedia's guidelines has occurred. I do not think the edits by Mr Iyer have made the article into any more of a eulogy than it already was. If editors who are merely improving the accuracy of articles about themselves are expected to use the above mentioned talk page procedure, it will discourage them from making such improvements, and that would not be good. Viewfinder 08:14, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

I removed the NPOV tag, this article is perfectly fine Appalachiangirl 00:54, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

The Recovery of Innocence
I've just readded a mention of PI's first book, The Recovery of Innocence (subtitled on its cover, but not on its title page, Literary Glimpses of the American Dream). Readded, because the man himself (or somebody credibly claiming to be him) removed it within this extensive edit. Because of this earlier removal, because although the first place of publication is London even Copac doesn't list it, and because later books I've seen by him don't mention it, some readers might reasonably conclude that it's a hoax. But it isn't: the Library of Congress has a copy, and [cough] I have one too. It's a slightly too elegant paperback, printed in dark blue on cream paper; its prose is a bit purplish but entirely forgivable for such a young writer. And yes, it's about American literature. I hope that its author is not ashamed of it; he does not need to be. -- Hoary 11:05, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Somebody dislikes this book. It has just been removed for at least a second time. So I replaced it. -- Hoary 23:24, 18 March 2007 (UTC)


 * And yet again. This is very strange. -- Hoary 04:03, 30 May 2007 (UTC)


 * And yet again. Stranger and stranger. -- Hoary 04:37, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Thoroughly surreal! --Quiddity 05:00, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps there's still a lingering notion that the book doesn't exist. If a Library of Congress entry isn't sufficient evidence, consider these:


 * Amazon.com page for the book
 * Amazon.com image of the front cover
 * NYRB contributions list and profile, listing the book
 * Alibris page listing copies of the book
 * book listed by ISBN among other books from the same publisher

-- Hoary 04:54, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

And yet again. What is it about this book? Hello, editors: Pico Iyer wrote and had published a book titled The Recovery of Innocence. Live with it. -- Hoary 05:17, 22 July 2007 (UTC)


 * And yet again. This time, with the edit summary Only tiny changes for accuracy. I'd be most interested in reading an explanation here of how the removal of mention of this book constitutes a tiny change for accuracy. -- Hoary (talk) 00:53, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
 * And again. I've left another note at the IP address' talkpage. Maybe one day we'll get a reply :) -- Quiddity (talk) 00:27, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

"It is requested. . . ."
This unknown person's quest to remove all mention of The Recovery of Innocence is most bizarre. Perhaps, despite all the evidence, he still doesn't believe that it exists.

Quiddity wrote that It is requested that a picture or pictures of this person be included in this article to improve its quality. And the article says ''No free image. Do you own one? If so, please click here. Now, I don't know what we'd learn about Iyer from a photo of him. (I mean, he's not an actor but a writer.'' Who cares if a writer has a big nose or a little one, is bald or longhaired?) And he might prize his anonymity and resent instant identification via Wikipedia mugshot. By contrast, there seems to be considerable interest in his book The Recovery of Innocence. Shall I scan the cover and post that?

I am of course also able to scan the inside of the cover to show the handwritten recommendation by his father. This would help to show that this book is by this Pico Iyer rather than some unrelated Pico Iyer (though I don't think that the combination of "Pico" and "Iyer" comes along more than once per millennium). Indeed, it would also help identfy Iyer's father, an identification that seems to trouble our IP. But I take the elder Iyer's recommendation as intended personally for the recipient of the book (not myself), not for the wider world, and think it improper to broadcast this. -- Hoary (talk) 01:03, 27 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm fairly certain his photograph is in the back of some of his books (mine are all on loan currently, so I can't confirm). However, half the interviews we link to include photographs, and one points to a yoga magazine cover photo, so I guess he isn't shy! Not Pynchon shy, anyway.
 * I don't know if a book cover scan would be allowed on any page except a page about the book itself (fair use restrictions are something I haven't learned solidly yet). But its not required; at this point, it's up to the anon-IP to provide evidence that we (and our sources) have made some sort of mistake. -- Quiddity (talk) 05:44, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

Parents
A recent version of this article tells us: Iyer was born in Oxford England to Indian parents, Nandini Iyer and Raghavan N Iyer. (The current version doesn't name either.) Offhand I don't know about the former name but I believe that the latter is correct. I wonder why this information was removed. -- Hoary 11:13, 15 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Removed again, with the explanation Only tiny changes for accuracy. Most mysterious. -- Hoary (talk) 00:56, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

The Recovery of Innocence, yet again
See this edit. I wonder why it is that so many IP numbers are so keen to make this or that little change elsewhere, to remove any mention of The Recovery of Innocence and to misinform readers that Video Night was Iyer's first book. If anyone is interested, here is Amazon's (uninformative) page on it. No, I don't say that a retailer is a reliable source: we have other reliable sources, and the Amazon page is of interest as it shows the cover. -- Hoary (talk) 02:10, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Intro too short
At the moment the introduction is simply "Pico Iyer (born 1957) is a British-born essayist and novelist." I'm adding a line or two like what the reader might see inside the back cover of one of his books.PrBeacon (talk) 23:12, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

Odd edit
Here's a very strange edit.

Here's one part of it. From:


 * Iyer was born in Oxford, England, the son of the Tamil-speaking Brahmin Raghavan N. Iyer, an Oxford philosopher and theosophist,

(with two sources) to:


 * Iyer was born in Oxford, England, the son of {Raghavan Iyer did not speak Tamil} Raghavan N. Iyer, an Oxford philosopher and Theosophist,

(with the sources unaltered). Neither source includes the string "tamil" or "brahmin", so this seems an obvious improvement (as well as being closer to the truth, for all I know).

There's also the change from:


 * words for accompaniment by a chamber orchestra.

to:


 * words for accompaniment by a chamber orchestra.Auckland Chamber Orchestra, performed before the prime minister and an Auckland audience, May 2007)

[to which I've added a "{"]. No evidence, but it's some detail to go on.

And there's more besides. Including yet another unexplained deletion of any mention of The Recovery of Innocence, a copy of which lies on my table next to my computer as I type this.

I wish this person who is so keen to erase any mention of The Recovery of Innocence would participate in this talk page. -- Hoary (talk) 11:17, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

It's 2014, so another deletion of The Recovery of Innocence
This time, some Turkish IP deleted any mention of The Recovery of Innocence.

The book exists. Here's its front cover. -- Hoary (talk) 14:16, 7 November 2014 (UTC)


 * Amazing: yet again, this time deleted by a Moroccan IP.


 * Alibris currently offers three copies of the book. -- Hoary (talk) 13:47, 8 November 2014 (UTC)

Is the Tamil version of the subject's name really necessary in the English article?
I see the subject's name in Tamil script (சித்தார்த் பைக்கோ ராகவன் ஐயர்) in the article. It is unknown if the subject can read/write/speak Tamil. And further unknown whether he could write his name in Tamil. His connection to the Tamil language is tenuous, at best. I do not see a reason to have the subject's name in Tamil script in this article in English wikipedia except for the subject's ancestry.

Thoughts on removing or keeping it? Thaths (talk) 05:28, 6 November 2018 (UTC)