tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post8732767326255895862..comments2024-03-13T07:34:24.149+00:00Comments on The Age of Uncertainty: Martin AmisSteerforthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-51872527078519364742013-04-27T08:17:12.522+00:002013-04-27T08:17:12.522+00:00That's true, although Amis has also shot himse...That's true, although Amis has also shot himself in the foot during a number of radio and newspaper interviews. I was particularly dismayed by his pompous utterances about <i>horrorism</i>. <br /><br />The press have a curious relationship with him, oscillating between obsequiousness and ridicule. In that sense I feel sorry for Amis. They hail him as something he hasn't claimed to be, then tear his new works to pieces, with a barely-concealed glee.Steerforthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-37228233807172551742013-04-26T22:29:44.996+00:002013-04-26T22:29:44.996+00:00Bit of an old post now, but the general view of Am...Bit of an old post now, but the general view of Amis has hardly changed (it's probably worsened).<br /><br />I'm one of those who loved Amis in the early days and gradually grew less fond of him as a writer as time wore on. <br /><br />However, I realised that I was probably forming a second-hand opinion based upon other people's accumulated criticism. I say this because I happened to hear him on Desert Island Discs (during the period when Sue Lawley was hosting) and he didn't at all come across as a horrible, arrogant, misogynist and washed-up novelist (the BBC has a downloadable DID archive and it should be in there somewhere). <br /><br />The opinion pieces and soundbite culture has done a lot to deform how we form opinions of people.Roger v.d. Veldehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01171223872098970110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-32038676729482782572010-07-07T14:37:39.791+00:002010-07-07T14:37:39.791+00:00I found an old ex-library copy of Information in o...I found an old ex-library copy of Information in our basement recently among some of my wife's old things (Fully titled dust jacket edition, though). I'm actually thoroughly enjoying it (to the point of looking up all things Amis on the interweb, like so). I might read another oldie before trying his latest, though.<br /><br />Anyway, that quote from <em>Experience</em> is pretty near identical to one attributed to the protagonist in Information. Perhaps that's why Amis' memoir bombed? No new information for anyone who has read some or all of his novels.Daimohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18170918244935789795noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-46201154266330188072010-05-11T20:54:23.145+00:002010-05-11T20:54:23.145+00:00I shall.I shall.Steerforthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-31368661231298640092010-05-11T09:03:22.321+00:002010-05-11T09:03:22.321+00:00Read the recent non-fiction - War against cliche, ...Read the recent non-fiction - War against cliche, Experience, Koba the dread - the prose is magnificent. And funny, in spades.<br /><br />And re-read Money. I the current climate it seems to have been scarily prescient; A 1984's very own '1984'...<br /><br />xxx<br />A-L FAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-18898444785763514942010-03-28T12:16:33.609+00:002010-03-28T12:16:33.609+00:00I read Kill Your Darlings and, while I laughed a l...I read <em>Kill Your Darlings</em> and, while I laughed a lot at the scene where the Amis-fan narrator tries to find out from an ex-lover what Martin Amis is like in bed (whether he has the same preening, self-regarding qualities as his prose), it would be a stretch to say it exceeds any of Amis's own books. One measure of that is that <em>Kill Your Darlings</em> is out of print while all Amis's novels are still available.<br /><br />Amis gets a hard time for reasons I can't quite fathom. For sure, most of his new books aren't as good as the old ones, but you could say that about any 60+ writer (except maybe Roth or Auster). And he does have a delightful ability to say attention-grabbing things in interviews just when he has a new book out. Past master at self-publicity, is little Mart.<br /><br />Apropos the <em>Experience</em> quote, I also remember a nice self-deprecating line in a piece from <em>Visiting Mrs Nabokov</em>, where Amis describes an emergency landing in a small plane he was a passenger on (Amis is anyway a nervous flyer "but a confident drinker and Valium-swallower"). On seeing the news reports of the 'crash landing' later, he remarks ruefully that "there was no mention of the quiet stoicism with which I had borne the event."<br /><br />As for misogyny, do people really still think that? Because characters are misogynistic, the author must be? Then again, <a href="http://www.themidnightbell.com/tmb/?p=209" rel="nofollow">this</a> did make me laugh.John Selfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05761816149593541133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-90697271094385675272010-03-28T01:40:58.466+00:002010-03-28T01:40:58.466+00:00Funnily enough two friends of mine went to watch h...Funnily enough two friends of mine went to watch him talk at Oxford Literary Festival today.<br /><br />£15 per ticket and he apparently filled the Sheldonian so he's still doing ok compared to many authors.<br /><br />Wonder how long a writer can be regarded as an enfant terrible though! Personally the Rachel Papers turned me off him completely and I found I was never able to get through the whole of a Martin Amis novel again. Conversely Terence Blacker's 'Kill Your Darlings' about an author who was pathologically jealous of Martin Amis to th extend of setting out to kill him was utterly hilarious and a far better novel!The Poet Laura-eatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07779308486569849157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-819301539989373712010-03-26T03:41:48.698+00:002010-03-26T03:41:48.698+00:00Oh dear, I do find it so hard to get beyond his gh...Oh dear, I do find it so hard to get beyond his ghastliness and self satisfaction that it's rare that I can actually enjoy anything he writes. And even the lines that you quote do smack ever so slightly of false humility, but perhaps I'm being overly harsh. I just find it hard to get over the rampant misogyny..Motherhood The Final Frontierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00629636157294565660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-10532361147254234382010-03-26T01:11:25.472+00:002010-03-26T01:11:25.472+00:00I think we're being a little hard on Amis here...I think we're being a little hard on Amis here. Living in Morocco - which is very moderate all things considered - I thought his portrayal of the psychology of extremism in 'Horrorism' was pretty convincing - and it was very well researched. His take on the internal struggle between moderates and extremists in Islam is spot on for Morocco - very apparent in the university where my husband teaches, for example, and on the streets, where there is a cultural battle being fought (very visibly in the hijab/no hijab dilemma for women; Egypt btw has lost this one.) Then Amis' remarkable portrayal of the screwed up sexuality of Sayyid Qutb. There's an unpleasant sub-text to religious fervor, underpinned by a perverse cocktail of mysogynism and desire. It's there in Christian attitudes to sex too (I'm thinking of all those images of martyrdom and the homo-eroticism in paintings of the crucifixion). O.K Amis is arrogant and vain, sometimes shockingly cynical, and he likes to provoke, but I think we have to put his unfortunate personality flaws aside and acknowledge that he's pretty bloody insightful on occasions, and some of his writing is superb. Money was a good read, I thought.Clairehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15565718017535724394noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-64105397632589601542010-03-25T21:52:17.694+00:002010-03-25T21:52:17.694+00:00I thought the whole "Horrorism" thing wa...I thought the whole "Horrorism" thing was nonsense - Amis showed how little he understood about Islamism and contributed little of value to the debate.Steerforthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07627936539372313828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-52432990480646262622010-03-25T05:20:29.850+00:002010-03-25T05:20:29.850+00:00Well now I know what a skip is: a British dumpster...Well now I know what a skip is: a British dumpster.<br /><br />I read his dad's "Lucky Jim", but I have only read his essay on Islamism, "The Age of Horrorism", which was interesting but bilious, after the manner of Christopher Hitchens.<br /><br />I guess I've thought of him as akin to the Kennedy children, or Julian Lennon. Wouldn't he have been happier learning a trade?Bretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09389916070547430075noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-63769911791361823272010-03-25T05:19:24.308+00:002010-03-25T05:19:24.308+00:00This comment has been removed by the author.Bretthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09389916070547430075noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-65115224576306736922010-03-25T03:19:34.490+00:002010-03-25T03:19:34.490+00:00I like his essays. The only novel I've read is...I like his essays. The only novel I've read is Night Train, which wasn't so impressive, but interesting.Samhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00756643049753865150noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-87592348469754571212010-03-24T16:02:30.607+00:002010-03-24T16:02:30.607+00:00Oh dear, I have to confess I hated EXPERIENCE. It...Oh dear, I have to confess I hated EXPERIENCE. It was the first, and remains the only one of this books I've ever read. Moan, moan, moan, my teeth, moan moan moan, my father, moan!<br /><br />Sarah (www.booksof2010.blogspot.com)Sarah Normanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05145876806604726875noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32570460.post-52243729969465890042010-03-23T06:53:18.919+00:002010-03-23T06:53:18.919+00:00I'd never paid much attention to Amis until th...I'd never paid much attention to Amis until the teeth episode, the press reaction was so vitriolic to something so dreary that I twigged there must be a lot of people who really hate him out there.<br /><br />One of the main components of the design degree I run is book design, it's a really important part of the industry - and you will be pleased to know is thriving. I'm lucky enough to have a contact a Faber so we get a lot of industry input, it's a revelation to the students that commercial considerations play an important part in design - but the end results are worth it.<br /><br />One of my better students is basing her final year project on the future of book design in a new digital age and it's actually quite a healthy and exciting sector - although we have seen some shocking stuff recently ('augmented reality' reading!!!!), lets just say that you will be filling skips for many years to come.Grey Areahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18240869670530738753noreply@blogger.com