Via the indispensable Arts & Letters Daily, an excellent article on and interview with Martin Amis, including a clip of him reading from his latest book, "The Second Plane," a collection of essays on the post-9/11 world.The interview makes clear, by the bye, the academic importance of my placing Amis in reference to radical Islam during seminar last week.
In his new book, The Second Plane, Amis writes that 11 September 2001 was "a day of de-Enlightenment," the beginning of a global "moral crash", one that is still thudding and smashing all around us. But his battalions of critics believe this is an unwitting description of the author himself, a portrait of the artist as an ageing man. As the twin towers burned and fell, they believe Amis became radically de-Enlightened, and embarked on a "moral crash" where he mooted the collective punishment of all Muslims.The article includes extended treatment of Canadian writer, Mark Steyn
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A great article, there. However, it makes me question the representation of Amis' novel as an exercise of moral disgust (or however that bit was worded..I believe a classfellow mentioned that a review on the back of an older cover of the novel says something along those lines). In the article, he certainly appears to be favouring an increase in the societal relevance of misogyny, while simultaneously claiming that feminism is merely in its "second trimester." How can we even begin to interpret Amis' thoughts when he himself fails to offer a unified vision of the world?
A confusing man, indeed. Perhaps he's just a wee bit senile in his old age. Or perhaps his bloated salary (£3,000/hour) is going to his head.
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