{"id":609,"date":"2015-11-15T03:21:48","date_gmt":"2015-11-15T03:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/repeatright.com\/engine\/?p=609"},"modified":"2018-10-06T18:49:12","modified_gmt":"2018-10-06T18:49:12","slug":"amis-martin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.repeatright.com\/engine\/amis-martin\/","title":{"rendered":"AMIS, Martin"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453315804311{margin-top: -40px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531588223-e020d87d-f7dd094f-cf6365a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cB<\/strong>efore we face experience, that miserable enemy, let us have some more innocence, just for a while.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Martin Amis<\/strong>, Welsh author<\/p>\n

Experience<\/em> (2000) New York, NY: Miramax Books, p. 36<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531588755-96303790-852e094f-cf6365a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]<\/span>Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: [Memoir]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis happenstance has shown me, through long retrospect, that even fiction is uncontrollable. You may think you control it. You may feel you control it. You don\u2019t. But before we face experience, that miserable enemy, let us have some more innocence, just for a while.\u201d (p. 36)[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source Link” tab_id=”1449531589797-29580b31-8c50094f-cf6365a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Source link<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library \u2013 Experience<\/em> (2000) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-7868-6652-7[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315829087-ce67c619-0fbc65a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cB<\/strong>eing inoffensive, and being offended, are now the twin addictions of the culture.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Martin Amis<\/strong>, Welsh author<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst Lady on Trial\u201d (17 March 1996) Review of Hillary Clinton\u2019s It Takes a\u00a0<\/em>Village<\/em>, in <\/span>The Sunday Times<\/em>, London, England; text reprint online via Martin Amis Web, ed. Gavin\u00a0<\/span>Keulks, www.martinamisweb.com<\/a><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315829475-7c82a017-1e6265a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]<\/span>Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: [Book review]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big job, because being inoffensive, and being offended, are now the twin addictions of the culture.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source Link” tab_id=”1453315829682-63e8fade-cf4c65a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

 <\/p>\n

Source link<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: [Accessed August 2015] \u201cFirst Lady on Trial\u201d (17 Mar. 1996) Reprint via Martin Amis Web: http:\/\/www.martinamisweb.com\/commentary_files\/ma_takesavillage.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1e65a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been said that happiness writes white. It doesn\u2019t show up on the page. When you\u2019re on holiday and writing a letter home to a friend, no one wants a letter that says the food is good and the weather is charming and the accommodations comfortable. You want to hear about lost passports and rat-filled shacks.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Martin Amis<\/strong>, Welsh author<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sadistic Muse\u201d (10 February 1998) Interview with Laura Miller,\u00a0Salon<\/em>, New York, NY: Salon Media Group; online via Salon, www.salon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315828385-86abfac4-79bf65a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]<\/span><\/p>\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: [Interview – Amis, discussing the narrator\u2019s general point-of-view in his novel <\/span>The Information<\/em>]:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is difficult is to write well about happiness. Not many people have done that. Perhaps Tolstoy, perhaps early D.H. Lawrence. That is clearly a greater challenge than writing dark. Writing light is very difficult. It\u2019s been said that happiness writes white. It doesn\u2019t show up on the page. When you\u2019re on holiday and writing a letter home to a friend, no one wants a letter that says the food is good and the weather is charming and the accommodations comfortable. You want to hear about lost passports and rat-filled shacks. If you are a comic writer, which I mainly am, you want things going wrong. That is what comedy is about.\u201d<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source Link” tab_id=”1453315828572-dac97b48-68e065a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

 <\/p>\n

Source link<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: [Accessed November 2015] \u201cThe Sadistic Muse\u201d (10 Feb. 1998) Salon: http:\/\/www.salon.com\/1998\/02\/10\/cov_si_10int\/<\/a><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf6365a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cL<\/strong>aughter always forgives.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Martin Amis<\/strong>, Welsh author<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitical Correctness: Robert Bly & Philip Larkin (29 January 1997) Lecture (with Saul Bellow), John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Boston, MA. (video – 1:25:15 minutes; cited excerpt can be heard approx. 9:54-10:04) Boston, MA: Harvard University; Video online via Harvard IP @ The Kennedy School, forum.iop.harvard.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf6365a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]<\/span>Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>:<\/em> [Lecture]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can imagine the first stanza being greeted with a kind of applause that sounds like the thunder of the herd, but for the second we imagine a more individual sound, laugher with its forgiveness, because laughter always forgives.\u201d<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source Link” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf6365a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

 <\/p>\n

Source link<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: [Accessed March 2015] \u201cPolitical Correctness: Robert Bly and Philip Larkin\u201d (29 Jan. 1997) Harvard IOP video: http:\/\/iop.harvard.edu\/forum\/political-correctness-robert-bly-and-philip-larkin<\/a><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1e65a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cMoney doesn\u2019t mind if we say it\u2019s evil, it goes from strength to strength. It\u2019s a fiction, and addiction, and a tacit conspiracy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Martin Amis<\/strong>, Welsh author<\/p>\n

Interview in Interview <\/em>magazine (1 January 1985) reprint in Novelists in Interview, <\/em>ed.\u00a0John Haffenden, London: Methuen & Co., pp. 13-14<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315828385-86abfac4-79bf65a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]<\/span><\/p>\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: [Interview]<\/span><\/p>\n[Question]: Do you recognize in yourself a puritanical streak? After all, you do believe in<\/p>\n

innocence \u2013 simple innocence and criminal innocence \u2013 and in corruption.<\/p>\n[Martin Amis]: \u201cI have strong moral<\/p>\n

views, and they are very much directed at things like money and acquisition. I think money is the central<\/p>\n

deformity in life, as Saul Bellow says, it\u2019s one of the evils that has cheerfully survived identification as an evil.<\/p>\n

Money doesn\u2019t mind if we say it\u2019s evil, it goes from strength to strength. It\u2019s a fiction, an addiction, and a tacit<\/p>\n

conspiracy that we have all agreed to go along with. My hatred for it does look as though I\u2019m underwriting a<\/p>\n

certain asceticism, but it isn\u2019t really that way: I don\u2019t offer alternatives to what I deplore.\u201d (pp. 13-14)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1453315828572-dac97b48-68e065a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library \u2013 Novelists in Interview<\/em> (1985) International Standard Book Number (ISBN): 9780416376005<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf6365a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cOn any longer view, man is only fitfully committed to the rational \u2013 to thinking, seeing, learning, knowledge. Believing is what he\u2019s really proud of.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Martin Amis<\/strong>, Welsh author<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Voice of the Lonely Crowd\u201d (31 May 2002) Essay in The Guardian\u00a0<\/em>newspaper, London, England: The Guardian; online via The Guardian (US Edition), www.theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf6365a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]<\/span><\/p>\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: [Refering to an excerpt of Lord Rochester\u2019s Satyr Against Mankind<\/em>]:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe age of reason, individuality and empiricism was on its way, and Rochester was suspicious of the new reality. His worries were needless. On any longer view, man is only fitfully committed to the rational \u2013 to thinking, seeing, learning, knowledge. Believing is what he\u2019s really proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source Link” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf6365a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

 <\/p>\n

Source link<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: \u201cThe voice of the lonely crowd\u201d (31 May 2002) The Guardian<\/em>: http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2002\/jun\/01\/philosophy.society<\/a><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1e65a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cT<\/strong>he arms race is between nuclear weapons and ourselves.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Martin Amis<\/strong>, Welsh author<\/p>\n

\u201cIntroduction: Thinkability\u201d (30 April 1987) Einstein\u2019s Monsters<\/em>, London, England: Jonathan Cape, 1987, p. 27<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315828385-86abfac4-79bf65a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]<\/span><\/p>\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: [Book introduction]\n

\u201cThe A-bomb is a Z-bomb, and the arms race is a race between nuclear weapons and ourselves. It is them or us.\u201d (p. 27)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1453315828572-dac97b48-68e065a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library \u2013 Einstein\u2019s Monsters<\/em> (1987) International Standard Book Number (ISBN): 0-224-02435-3<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf6365a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cWeapons are like money: no one knows the meaning of enough<\/em>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Martin Amis<\/strong>, Welsh author<\/p>\n

\u201cIntroduction: Thinkability\u201d (30 April 1987) Einstein\u2019s Monsters<\/em>, London, England: Jonathan Cape, 1987, p. 24<\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf6365a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]<\/span><\/p>\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>: [Book introduction – Italics original to quoted text.]\n

\u201cA new emphasis on defence combined with the status quo is just more of the same. It is just more weapons. Weapons are like money: no one knows the meaning of enough<\/em>.\u201d (p. 24)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ISBN” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf6365a3-113c”][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library \u2013 Einstein\u2019s Monsters<\/em> (1987) International Standard Book Number (ISBN): 0-224-02435-3<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column][\/vc_column][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

Resources<\/h4>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css_animation=”none” el_class=”Wrapper-Author-Resources”]Learn more about Martin Amis<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>| Here are a few good places to start –<\/p>\n