Talk:R. K. Narayan/Archive 1

Swamy or Swami?
The entry previously gave Narayan's second name as Krishnaswamy. According to the Ram & Ram biography and the standard library record, the spelling is with a final i, so I changed it. rdh

Rest of the family
We should also include the rest of the brothers and sisters. They were all very talented in their own way.... sb WAZ A FAJJIT ..................ISNT THAT NARLY DUDES —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.125.100.27 (talk) 22:54, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

Birth
I remeber reading that RKN was born in Mysore and not Madras, not sure can anyone help, any idea??? --Sartaj beary 19:16, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
 * No he was definitely born in Madras. [See here] I remember something about his mother visiting his grandparents for his birth, in My Days probably..--Longhairandabeard 17:38, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

the Magnum Opus in the Infobox is ludicrous
I dont know which genius came up with the idea of including a Magnum Opus in an infobox but for a lot of writers, there is no one single, defining work or most famous work. Take Orwell -- both Animal Farm AND 1984. The same is true for Narayan.. Malgudi is famous for the entire range of books. --Peripatetic 00:14, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 19:22, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

--117.201.40.75 (talk) 07:37, 4 May 2009 (UTC)HJUYFJGFFPKJGV ;JG .,NLN;KH BNLKHN LBL;

Language for names
Since he was born in, mostly lived in and died in Tamil Nadu and the fact that he was a Tamilian (refs in article show that), I've reverted the addition of Kannada script. - SpacemanSpiff Calvin&#8225;Hobbes 04:57, 19 July 2009 (UTC)


 * A person's birth place, domicile and ethnic heritage are not determinative of which languages to include in the article lede. For example, Salman Rushdie was born in and spent his early years in Bombay, later life in UK, and is an Indian (Kasmiri ?) Muslim, but it would be mindless to include either the Marathi or Urdu spelling of his name in his wikipedia article. Instead the languages to consider are the ones, (1) which the subject regarded as his mother-tongue, or (2) primarily worked in.
 * I am guessing that R.K. Narayan's mother-tongue was Tamil, rather than Kannada, so if there is a good source (his memoir ?) to confirm that, we can include the Tamil spelling. Barring that it is fine to just spell out his name in English, since that is the language he chose. Abecedare (talk) 19:21, 19 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Just an add on point, I removed Tamil script initially, but added it back a few days ago after I noticed that he had some works in Tamil. - SpacemanSpiff Calvin&#8225;Hobbes 04:19, 26 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Interesting, I didn't know that. Were these books, short stories, or just essays/articles ? Abecedare (talk) 18:30, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * From the refs I've seen so far, one was the Tamil film Avvaiyar where he was one of a few writers, another was Moondru Pillaigal; he also wrote another script for Gemini Studios apparently, but that never went to production. From what I have seen so far, his Tamil writings (outside of the film scripts) don't go beyond the odd use of a Tamil word within his English novels and short stories, which isn't significant. - SpacemanSpiff Calvin&#8225;Hobbes 18:44, 27 July 2009 (UTC)
 * I didn't know about his film work. This interview with his brother R.K. Ramachandran discusses some of his work for Tamil films, although it's not clear if he actually wrote the dialogues, scripts etc for these films in Tamil. According to the last answer in the interview, Narayan never wrote in Tamil - although "wrote" is perhaps open to interpretation. I expect the sources you have consulted have more definite details; if so the film work can merit a sentence or two in the article. Nice work, so far! Abecedare (talk) 18:59, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

I found another curious ref in Gbooks while searching for the film script piece, this says he actually wrote a play called Avaiyar, I'm not too convinced of this, so unless I can get another ref, I'm not going to use it. However, in My dateless diary, (I think an earlier revision of My Days) Narayan talks about the script of the movie, unfortunately, I can't find my copy of My days, so until I can get that or check it up at a library, I won't be able to source and add this info.- SpacemanSpiff Calvin&#8225;Hobbes 20:04, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Getting to FA status
Can you highlight issues that need to be fixed to get the article to FA status? Please add to the "to-do" list. - SpacemanSpiff Calvin‡Hobbes 21:30, 8 September 2009 (UTC)


 * I think it needs a lot more work generally. I'm not sure it is near GA quality yet. Much more is needed on the work & critical reception for a start. Narayan sold well in the West - better than in India? - from early on, & this needs covering. Johnbod (talk) 22:07, 8 September 2009 (UTC)
 * Hmmm, I don't know about that, everything that I've been able to find so far indicates he was successful in the west and in India, but nothing to show that he was more successful in India or in the west, but I'll add in content on the actual success and beef up the literary review section. - SpacemanSpiff Calvin‡Hobbes 22:11, 8 September 2009 (UTC)


 * Just to add/expand to what's already mentioned on the to-do list: I think the content and coverage of the subject is actually pretty good, with minor additions like that mentioned by Johnbod above. The main need, in my opinion, is to tighten up the copy and narrative flow, which need some work. An overall copy edit is needed of course, but also there are some things that need explanation and clarification. There are several instances where attribution or more explanation would be helpful. For example, "his decision came to be respected." (by whom?). Priyanath talk 21:54, 13 September 2009 (UTC)

I've expanded the critical reception section. How does it look now? What else needs to be added to this section? - SpacemanSpiff Calvin‡Hobbes 17:43, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Other
I have some questions. Is this correct regarding the adaptation of Mr. Sampath: Miss Malini- 1947 was a Gemini film based on RK Narayan's famous novel Mr.Sampath... It was a story of a glib talker and a girl whom he lures into the filmworld. ? There is also a movie Mr. Sampat that some sources seem to link with the book and some don't. I can't quite discern whether it's related, but I don't think it is. Also, I find the film that was made in Hindi and another language confusing. It seems it was made in Hindi and then also performed (dubbed?) be another actress in another language? If you and Doc want to work on this without my interference no worries. Too many cooks and all... and I tend improvise. :) So, no worries if my input isn't appreciated. Just let me know! ChildofMidnight (talk) 18:55, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * One wasn't a dubbed version of the other. The Hindi version was made independently from the Tamil version. Unfortunately, all the reviews I find online are from non-RS sources, not surprising given that the movies were made over fifty years ago. The three main actors and the directors were different for both filsm; however, both were made by Gemini Studios and were hits. - Spaceman  Spiff  19:18, 20 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Here's a source . The character of Miss Malini seems to have a lasting influence based on its current use (unless there's another source for the name?) ChildofMidnight (talk) 19:30, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Belated comments
I had intended to review this article while the peer review was open, but kept getting waylaid by other on/off-wiki activities. That is unlikely to change anytime soon. So instead of postponing any further, I'll at least list my top points here for consideration.

Firstly, great job getting the article from this version to its current status. The GA status is well earned. Now. in order to get it to FA standards, some further refinements are required such as the ones listed at the peer review. To supplement those reviews, here are a few issues I see: In terms of importance, I think it would be best to deal with comprehensiveness concerns expressed at the PR first, and only then take a look at the comments listed above. A copyeditor, who is disinterested in the subject, should be able to help greatly with a points I have raised, and User:Fowler&fowler and User:Awadewit would be among the ones I'd recommend. An article dealing with English literature is typically held to stricter 1a standards than say an article on a science or sports topic, so it is advisable to get this article into prime shape before nominating it for FAC. All the best. Abecedare (talk) 02:43, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
 * 1) The language in the article, while grammatical, sometimes gets a bit informal or stilted. A few examples:
 * 2) * "getting publishers"
 * 3) * "highlight social context and provide a feel for his characters through everyday life"
 * 4) * "compress the narrative without losing out on elements of the story" (need an adjective before elements, because on compression you necessarily lose out on elements of a story)
 * 5) * "has also come in for criticism". Why not simply, "writings have also been criticized ..." ?
 * 6) * "did some of his studies at his" -> "studied at", "began his studies at" ... (the exact phrasing will depend upon the facts regarding when he was at that school)
 * 7) * "grammatical errors on the part of Narayan and his siblings" -> "ungrammatical speech" ?
 * 8) * "The book was reviewed as having a narrative ..."
 * 9) The prose and intra-section organization doesn't flow well in some places. For example, the last sentences in the first two paragraphs in the Early life section seem out-of-place since it is not clear to a reader why they are being told those facts about Narayan's life, and how they are connected with the rest of the paragraph (except chronologically). Similarly, both the 2nd and 3rd paragraph mention RKN being a avid reader, but the two mentions are not linked, and no justification given as to why this fact bears repeating. Now, I know it is very hard to communicate what is mean by flow, but this review by User:SlimVirgin does a good job of expressing the idea. Worth reading.
 * 10) Some of the reviews and praise for RKN needs better attribution and needs to be placed in context. For example:
 * 11) * The lede couples RKN with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao. I think this is based upon this Outlook article and possibly the book R.K. Narayan as a novelist, which I don't think are good enough sources to make this statement without attribution. If we are to make such a claim, it needs to be based upon one or more scholarly articles or books that review the whole area of writing in Indian English, and not individual author profiles. Finer point: while I agree that the three listed authors are the leading lights of early Indian fiction in English, if one talks about Indian literature in English (as the lede does), it is hard to exclude Nirad C. Chaudhuri (of course, you need to rely eventually on what the sources say).
 * 12) * Similarly the claim that "The Financial Expert, hailed as one of the most original works of 1951" needs to be sourced to a reference that reviews the literature of that year thoroughly, since it is a claim about comparative worth.
 * 13) * The comparison to Faulkner also needs a better source. The comparison to Maupassant is better sourced, although it would be good to check if this is a singular observation by Lahiri, in which case it should be attributed, or if it is more widely held.

Big house
I don't think the article should mention Narayans big house at least twice (including the year it was built) and his "new Mercedes Benz". It makes you wonder: which colour are his socks? How does his aftershave smell? ~Batty — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.77.199.21 (talk) 15:36, 2 August 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on R. K. Narayan. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20080225190921/http://www.hinduonnet.com:80/thehindu/fr/2003/03/14/stories/2003031400960300.htm to http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fr/2003/03/14/stories/2003031400960300.htm
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20120327085223/http://inhome.rediff.com/movies/2006/sep/25padmini1.htm to http://inhome.rediff.com/movies/2006/sep/25padmini1.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 23:39, 29 August 2015 (UTC)