Martin Amis - Crap / Not Crap

[Orang Utan]

Maybe foo's mum knows phil's dad
Maybe foo and phil are related

 

[phildwyer]

Have you read Experience? It's quite moving, especially the bits about his cousin, Lucy Partington.

Apparently her parents asked him to take stuff that out, and he refused.

 

[phildwyer]

Maybe foo and phil are related

Christ I hope not. I like her too much.

 

[Voley]

Some of the best bits in his books happen inside people's heads - John Self's internal monologues particularly. Difficult to put across in a film I guess.

 

[phildwyer]

Some of the best bits in his books happen inside people's heads - John Self's internal monologues particularly.

Yes. He pioneered the postmodern version of the interior monologue, only to see it nicked by people like Irvine Welsh--who covers his tracks by insisting that he despises Amis. But "Filth" owes an awful lot to "Money" if you ask me.

 

[goldenecitrone]

Apparently her parents asked him to take stuff that out, and he refused.

Why would he? I can understand her parents sensitivity but the details were already in the public domain. He just writes about his feelings regarding the whole thing.

 

[phildwyer]

Why would he?

A cynic would say "publicity."

 

[Fictionist]

Certainly not crap, as a writer he can really craft a line, but in recent years his craft has been undermined by the vacuousness of his ideas and his inability to engage with anything in a remotely interesting way. His views on Islam, as expressed thus far, have been utterly predictable and largely reactionary, symptomatic of a writer incapable of exploring the most important cultural theme of the present time.

In my humble opinion he has yet to write the novel which will fulfill, realise and encapsulate his potential.

 

[phildwyer]

His views on Islam, as expressed thus far, have been utterly predictable and largely reactionary, symptomatic of a writer incapable of exploring the most important cultural theme of the present time.

Agreed. Although in fairness he's not alone. His mates Hitchens and Rushdie have been even more cretinous and reactionary on the subject of Islam than he has. A curious blind spot seemingly shared by a whole generation of liberal intellectuals.