TEV GIVEAWAY: THE WAR AGAINST CLICHE

OK, we've got a special one today.  Every now and then, we come across some copies of a title we especially like and - in a habit acquired from our pal Birnbaum - we buy up several to give to friends and interested parties.  We recently had the good fortune to happen onto a trove of hardcover copies of Martin Amis' excellent essay collection The War Against Cliche.

We've said too many times to count that we think Amis is a better essayist/critic than novelist* (recent political forays notwithstanding), and you'll find some of the best literary criticism of the last few decades in this edition.  Here's an excerpt, courtesy of Powells:

Literary criticism, now almost entirely confined to the universities, thus moves against talent by moving against the canon. Academic preferment will not come from a respectful study of Wordsworth's poetic; it will come from a challenging study of his politics — his attitude to the poor, say, or his unconscious 'valorization' of Napoleon; and it will come still faster if you ignore Wordsworth and elevate some (justly) neglected contemporary, by which process the canon may be quietly and steadily sapped. A brief consultation of the Internet will show that meanwhile, at the other end of the business, everyone has become a literary critic — or at least a book-reviewer. Democratization has made one inalienable gain: equality of the sentiments. I think Gore Vidal said this first, and he said it, not quite with mockery, but with lively scepticism. He said that, nowadays, nobody's feelings are more authentic, and thus more important, than anybody else's. This is the new credo, the new privilege. It is a privilege much exercised in the contemporary book-review, whether on the Web or in the literary pages. The reviewer calmly tolerates the arrival of the new novel or slim volume, defensively settles into it, and then sees which way it rubs him up. the right way or the wrong way. The results of this contact will form the data of the review, without any reference to the thing behind. And the thing behind, I am afraid, is talent, and the canon, and the body of knowledge we call literature.

We are delighted to offer a copy to the first email we receive (which we promise NOT to print here) with the subject line "YELLOW DOG IS FORGIVEN."  As always, please include your full mailing address; previous winners remain ineligible.  Regularly scheduled fun resumes Monday.

UPDATE: Congratulations to winner Theresa Norris of North Augusta, SC.

* Are we the only ones who noticed this in the recent Birnbaum/Amis interview?

RB: Your first go with a new publisher, Knopf—anything to report there?

MA: I didn’t feel issues or anything—I mean it’s still the same publisher in England—so I didn’t feel as if I was auditioning.

RB: I wasn’t thinking that, but rather some period of adjustment in dealing with new editors and pre-publication matters.

MA: Oh, right. No, it’s been a long time since I took editorial advice.

Which is probably part of the problem with his fiction.  Are we the only ones who think that even the big dogs like Amis would - at least occasionally - benefit more subjecting themselves to some judicious and wise editing?

Comments

[Mauro Javier Cardenas]

I'm going to guess he seeks input from his writer friends? From Saul Bellow when he was alive? From Barnes before he told Amis to eat paper?

[janitorman]

"We've said too many times to count that we think Amis is a better essayist/critic than novelist…"

Don't forget memoirist, as "Experience" was quite fine. And "Money" forgave "Yellow Dog" in advance. Everyone shanks one sooner or later. You'd think by now he'd be allowed to live down his compound forename, Martin-son-of-Kingsley, and just go by Martin Amis. Of course I don't know that many Americans will ever let him live down the title "The Moronic Inferno".

[TEV]

I completely agree with you, J-man. Experience got some critical knocks which I thought were unfair. I agree with you - it's among his best.

[ed]

I had hoped to get the next Bat Segundo podcast up this morning, but I woke up later than expected. (Of course, seeing as how I went to bed at 3 AM working on it, I can hardly be called a slacker. It should go up tonight or tomorrow.) Needless to say, Amis and I talked at length about how he deals with critics and personal rejection. And I think once you hear how he operates (and these unexpectedly candid words come near the end), you may understand why he would offer the above answer to Birnbaum.

[Joel]

"The Moronic Inferno" is a Bellow-ism, from Humbolt's Gift. I think he uses it when Charlie finds his beautiful Mercedes smashed to bits. Or it's from The Dean's December. At a certain point, the Bellows all flow together in the brain pan.

[janitorman]

Joel,

I know. I think it's "The Dean's December" because that's my favorite Bellow novel, but favorite or no, you're right about the entire Bellow catalog eventually sort of congealing somewhere in the head. Anyway, I meant that Amis used "The Moronic Inferno" as the title for a collection of his essays about the United States. Which of course you may already know. But I thought I'd clarify just in case. I thought it was funny, but I don't know about middle America. Of course how much of middle America reads Martin Amis? Reads Martin Amis *essay* collections? Hmm. We as a society probably aren't too offended, after all.

Martin Amis holds a special place in my heart because he was, or perhaps still is, just wild about video games, and so am I. So I've forever used him to rationalize my passion for what's often considered low-brow recreation, and that running in the same brain with some nebulous literary aspirations or at least the belief I have a literary mind-set.